Stone piers on a log cabin
Noah Bradley2019-06-29T10:11:16+00:00
Only those who visit the outhouse ever get around to seeing this perspective of the mountainside cabin.
And, that’s a shame.
Those visitors who fail to partake in the “Rural Ritual” just don’t know what they are missing.
Originally, the only window visible from this side of the cabin would have been the one centered in the end log wall, all the others were added during the restoration process.
Without the light that came from the cabin’s single fireplace this would have been one very dark home. It was a different world back in those days. A home was a shelter from the outside world when needed. Life then, was lived outdoors.
I like this profile of the cabin, maybe not as much as the other side, but still.. it’s nice. She appears much taller and more imposing when viewed from” the downside”. The height of a structure really alters our opinion of it, doesn’t it? Short is cute, tall is imposing. Which description do you want for your cabin?
Talk about being tall… the first course of logs on this side is a good four to five feet off of the ground versus that very same course of logs nearly touching mother earth on the opposite end.
As you can see this log cabin is perched on rock piers… irregular columns of stone placed in each corner. Each was crudely built, likely by the home-owner, using no mortar and many rough, jagged, pieces of granite which are commonly found laying on the ground here east of the Appalachian Mountains.
Every indication is that there was no footer installed under any of the piers. Likely, the first step in building this cabin was that a large stone was dropped on the ground and from there the cabin was built.
I like that visualization… Dad announces… “Here’s a good spot… I like it… Let’s build a house!”.
But… But… What about getting government permission, permits and such? What about hiring an architect? Is this land zoned for a cabin? lol None of that… pure freedom.
Most builders simply gasp when they view this primitive foundation. No way would it ever pass code today, maybe even for an barn, not to mention a house. I’ve heard of people abandoning their homes because of a crack in their foundation… heck, this support system is nothing but a crack, and yet it has stood for more than a century. Man up, people!
I built a house for myself many years ago using a stone pier system on it. It was an easy method of quickly moving forward in the building of the home. But in the long run, it was a mistake, and not just because of the fact that mice never give up on trying to get into a home built using this technique. It was the fact that no matter what I did afterwards I could never get the floors warm in the winter.
It’s a fact… if your floors are cold, you are cold. And, if you are cold, that means your wife is cold. And that my friends, is too much misery for any man to bear.
So… the lesson of the day… when the time comes to build your own cabin, make sure and put a solid stone foundation under her. You can use stone piers for your porch floor… they look good there and it gives the dog a cool place to go during the hotter months.
With the solid foundation everyone lives happily ever after, in the cabin with warm floors, and the happy wife.
The End.
Thank you, each and every one of you, for following along.
Noah
Originally posted 2015-03-06 17:08:24.
