I always enjoy seeing the creativity that goes into making a scaffolding for the masons to work off of.
Here they are making the final touches to the top of the chimney.
This chimney would provide flues for two fireplaces, one in the first floor cabin and one in the second story master bedroom… also there was flue for a woodstove in the main family room.
Originally posted 2015-03-26 21:29:10.
Pop Quiz today!
Can you spot the twelve mistakes that the builder of this log cabin made?
Here are images of two log cabins, the one above was built by someone unknown to me, the other, seen below for comparison, is a cabin that I built.
I’m not pointing out these flaws to insult the other builder, nor to make myself look better. I’m just trying to share what I’ve learned over the years while trying to build at the highest level of aesthetics, authenticity, and quality that I could achieve.
All of these changes that I would have made, when combined, would have likely only cost the cabin’s owner a few hundred dollars more and in my opinion would have made the cabin so much better. One these errors that the builder made will eventually prove very costly for the cabin’s owner and could easily shorten the cabin’s life.
First let me point out what is right about this cabin. The first impression is it’s “nice”, and that’s important. The fact that it is a restored old cabin is tremendous. The roof pitches are perfect. It has a standing seam metal roof, a porch on the front and an appropriate sized addition of the back. With that said, let me tell you what I would have done differently…
Let’s start with the porch. I notice that the porch piers which support the porch are made using cinderblocks and that one of them doesn’t line up with the porch post above it. A few easy-to-build stone piers would have been so much better.
I can’t really tell what the porch floor is made of… but it looks like it’s pressure treated. Not a very appropriate material for a cabin… oak from a sawmill would have been cheaper, more attractive, and would hold up longer.
A porch floor should not run the full length of the cabin. I always hold it back a foot or more from each end, that way when it comes time to build the larger porch roof that roof won’t oddly stick out pass the log cabin as seen here.
And what’s up with those massive Parthenon columns on the porch? Are they ten by ten inches? Wow. They are larger than the logs of this cabin. Way overkill and visually very distracting.
And then there is something really odd about the rafter ends on the cabin and porch roofs.
The cabin’s rafters seem to shine as if there is a piece of metal on each one to protect them from rotting, whereas the porch roof rafter tails are nearly invisible giving that roof the appearance of a razor’s edge. I would have put trim boards up on these areas.
It appears that the gable ends, and the addition off the back, are sided using board-and-batten. I have seen hundreds of old cabins over my years of exploring and have never seen a vintage cabin with original board-and-batten siding. B-and-B was used on outbuildings here in Virginia… not on houses. Lap siding would have been a much better choice.
The chimney.
A lot of people look at this structure and they see a stone chimney. I see a cinderblock chimney with stone veneer attached… because… that is what it is.
The masons of old would lay one stone flat one upon the other, they would never lay a stone on edge, and certainly never one on-end as some of these stones clearly are. Our ancestors simply couldn’t build a chimney like this; they didn’t have the glue (cement) that we do today.
The old way takes more time, more skill, and more stone, and the finished look is more subtle and not often appreciated by many, but I find that once a person develops an eye for solid stone masonry, that they will never be satisfied with veneer work again. One quick way to discover the quality of stone work on a chimney is to look at its corners… if the stones are much taller than they are wide, it gets a failing grade.
Next up is the shoulder of the chimney. Why so low? A chimney always shoulders where the logs end and the gable begins. Pay attention to old houses, 99% of them will shoulder at this point. This chimney reminds me of those soda bottles that people used to win at the State Fair that were heated and stretched.
And what’s up the chimney cap? Generally a cap means that there is a gas fireplace in the cabin…
Say it ain’t so Joe.
Of course I would have preferred a solid stone foundation under the house, but I’ll give the builder a pass here. There are old cabins out there, built on piers… complete with cold floors, and grumpy wives with cold feet.
The final issue that I see is the chinking… it’s a bit hard to see in this image, but it appears to have been installed improperly which will eventually lead to the loss of the logs due to rain getting in behind the chink joints and creating rot. I get calls on this issue all the time to come replace and repair situations like this… five or ten years after a cabin is built. It’s not a pleasant, nor inexpensive thing to redo. Sometimes, at that point, the best solution is to side-over the logs.
Ok… there you have it… all that I see on the outside at least. Please don’t send me an inside photo of this cabin. 🙂
Originally posted 2015-03-26 16:16:56.
The Madison House looked huge from this perspective… at least to this old country boy, who had once lived in a tent for eight months, when he first got married… and in a travel trailer for five years, during his youth.
But 2,600 square feet for a family of five was just right… maybe even, a bit small.
There are a few things I’d like to point out here in this photo…
Notice that we have finished up the stone foundation. I added rock piers and old barn timbers to support the porch above the walk-out basement. This area down below became a very pleasant area.
Also, on the side of the house, is a large bow window, salvaged from an old country store, that I found covered in dust and bird poop in the back of a barn. I bought the window for $50 years earlier and now I finally had a place to put it. Measuring five feet tall by twelve feet long it would allow for tremendous views to be seen while “doing the dishes”.
Originally posted 2015-03-26 15:40:11.
And then… BAM!!!
The peaceful tranquility of building the first floor deck by myself was gone.
The construction process goes fast during this period. New walls go up all the time. Windows are being installed.
I can’t help but notice the mess… the chaos… of all the equipment and materials that are everywhere. Level areas are at a premium when you build on a sloped site and so any unused spot is quickly filled.
Once the rough carpentry was finished and the tradesmen began their work (plumbers, electricians, and such) my focus drifted to the log cabin work.
Originally posted 2015-03-26 15:19:04.
Here’s a photo of the first floor deck of the Madison House. I had finished installing the floor joists and am now putting down the plywood decking. My young family would often bring dad lunch and to see how their new home was coming along. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
I’ve said it before… I love this stage of construction. What was envisioned in the mind, and then put on paper, is now appearing as masonry and wood. A dream becomes realty.
There on the deck you may notice my Makita saw. When it comes to saws, without a doubt, Makita is my favorite. They are a pure pleasure to hold and to work with.
When it came time for me to buy a saw I made the mistake of looking at the price tags. I bought another brand of saw, because it was a few dollars cheaper. I was so thankful a couple years later when that saw died, so that I could at last buy the saw I originally wanted.
I think of that lesson every time I look at my blue saw… what a pleasure it is to have what you want. It is always worth paying more to get what you want, rather than living in misery with something inferior, longing for the day of acquiring your dream.
Originally posted 2015-03-26 14:55:29.
Here’s a “before and after” set of photos showing a corner of the basement foundation… one taken while being built, the other a couple of years later.
This Madison House is fully supported by the poured concrete foundation and the extended floor system that we built upon it. But this ten inch stone foundation that we then added on is stronger than most foundations built today, And so the house now has a double foundation.
A house, built upon a rock should stand forever.
Originally posted 2015-03-25 16:46:41.
It was time to lay stone.
I love stone. I can’t get enough of it. Every time I build, I try to incorporate it. And every time, it blows my budget. But, it’s worth it.
For the Madison House I bought salvage rights to an old bank-barn’s foundation. The barn that had sat upon that foundation had been removed years before by someone else. The farmers were glad to get the remaining unsightly danger removed. And I was excited to get such fine stone for my home. West Virginia sandstone, oh yeah!
It took twelve dump truck loads to deliver it to the site… that’s 240 tons of stone… and I used every stone to build the foundation, chimney, and two massive retaining walls.
Folks are always asking me how would it cost for you to build that house for me? This is just one of many, many reasons I can never answer the question. If I had to buy this rock at the local retail rock center it would likely cost $70,000. On the other hand, I might be able to find an old foundation that a farmer might sell to me at a price much less… but how much will he want for it? and how much will it cost to get it delivered?
Originally posted 2015-03-25 16:14:23.
One of the many benefits of adding on that little log cabin was how it “aged” the entire home.
I found that even as I was building the home that visitors would often tell me how great of a job I was doing in “restoring that old home”. People who lived in the area would come up the driveway and would comment about how they “never knew there was an old house up here”. And delivery drivers would often ask “How old of a house is it?”
This photo was taken a year or so after completion. I would find that ten years later, after the plantings were matured that there were some people that I could not convince that the home was nearly new.
For me, those were all the greatest compliments I could get.
Mission accomplished.
Originally posted 2015-03-25 15:47:46.
The plans for the Madison House were now drawn… it would be a T-shaped farmhouse.
The new year had arrived and I now had the wonderful opportunity to put my tool belt on and to build my own home. Yes! hands-on construction! I had done this twice before in the past, but I had learned a lot in the years that had gone by. This home was the best I could do in 1992, on a very limited budget.
The site was cleared. It was now time to pour the concrete foundation which would carry the weight of most of the house and serve as a guide for us to lay the stone foundation.
While laying out the foundation I realized that there was room on the end of the home for that little three-sided cabin that I had back home. It would be a tight fit, for sure. I would have to build a tall stone retaining wall to make it happen.
But after all … I was “the log cabin man”. I couldn’t live in a home that didn’t have log cabin incorporated into it. Could I? I had a reputation to keep. lol
My wife was most understanding, she has tolerated me these many years. I got a kick out of it when she visited the site and walked the newly poured foundation visualizing each room… and then pausing trying to figure out which room this new addition was.
She knew me well. And she knew that it would be best if the man of the house had his cave to retreat to.
This cabin, with it’s wonderful stone fireplace would serve us very briefly as a den… but would quickly be converted into my home office, and then, once we bought this new device called a computer, and hooked it up to this thing called the internet, the room became a draw to all family members.
Here’s a few photos showing just how little room I had on this steeply slopped piece of land to place this cabin, and how I solved it with a stone retaining wall.
Originally posted 2015-03-25 15:26:51.
Now, as fate would have it, a few months before I began building the Madison House an unusual log cabin came into my life.
I received an unexpected knock on my door one evening. It was one of my salvage material suppliers. He had on the back of his huge truck an old log cabin that he wanted to sell me… one that he needed to sell… right then. The logs were beautiful, the price was right, but there were problems with cabin.
In my line of work it seems that there are always problems, and that if I think long enough on a problem, I find there is a solution.
This little cabin originally stood in the Scottsville area and rumor had it that at one time it was home to a couple who had twelve children. I have no idea how 14 people could have fit into this little place. I’m thankful that I wasn’t one of them.
As I said the logs were beautiful… very wide, nicely hewn… all oak. Some of the logs had rotted away so replacements logs would be needed, but these logs were much thinner than any I have ever seen… four inches thick, rather than the normal six to eight that is the norm. I knew that I would never be able to find replacements.
The fellow that took the cabin down didn’t bother to photograph it, nor number the logs, as “the notches were all bad and the cabin was a mess, completely covered in vines”. What a shame.
I bought that little cabin that night. It had quickly grabbed my heart.
I put her up on my lot as a three sided cabin… it was the only option I could think of. I thought it would make a great addition to someone’s home one day.
I didn’t know that someone would soon be me.
Originally posted 2015-03-24 19:20:59.
