Log cabin restoration… part 12

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Here we have the best of both worlds, the old and the new.

Plywood is an amazing material, perhaps the only modern material that carpenters of old would have been impressed with and likely have used themselves if it had been available.

It’s such a great material that most builders today don’t use it… go figure.

Chip board is much cheaper… which are sheets of material the same size as plywood and are made from glue and wood pulp. If, or should I say when, this glue ever starts to fail, most houses built today will quickly turn into piles of bio-hazard mulch.

Originally posted 2015-06-11 16:48:58.

Log cabin restoration… part 122019-06-29T10:17:35+00:00

Log cabin restoration… part 11

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Around back our focus was building a stone foundation under the old log home where none ever existed… and in building a foundation for the future addition.

It’s a strange thing about masons and carpenters… Masons spend most of their life in contact with the Earth. And carpenters… well, they spend a great deal of their time on ladders, reaching for the heavens.

Having both trades work together on a house has always been a treat for me.

Originally posted 2015-06-11 13:55:58.

Log cabin restoration… part 112019-06-29T10:17:34+00:00

Log cabin restoration… part 10

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Our work now turns from removing the bad to the reconstruction of this log home. As you can see we have replaced a few of the rafters that had seen their better days and we are now focusing on prepping for the roof trim… the “soffit and fascia”.

Originally posted 2015-06-11 13:44:45.

Log cabin restoration… part 102019-06-29T10:17:33+00:00

Log cabin restoration… part 9

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The most important act a person can do in building a home is to hire the best people that they can find.

I’ve always had a crew full of young people who had a love of the craft in their heart, who were naturally hard working and motivated, with a head full of knowledge in various specialties, and each from diverse backgrounds.

I always made it a point to be there on-site every day to listen in on lunch time conversations and to witness the comradarie they all shared. I don’t know if they were aware or how treasured these moments were at the time… but I imagine as the years have gone by that each reflects back on this period with fondness.

I have always done my best to hire people that I would want as friends and to create a company that I would want to work for. I never aspired to be “the boss”. I’d rather have worked for someone else and let them handle the hassles of running a business and just let me “do the craft”. But, I never found a company like mine, so, I had to build one.

And, I did that by first hiring a few great guys.

Originally posted 2015-06-11 13:32:59.

Log cabin restoration… part 92019-06-29T10:17:32+00:00

Log cabin restoration… part 8

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The logs on this old house were filthy after spending decades behind the wood siding.

They would need a good bath with the help of a powerwasher.

The logs also showed a great deal of wear and aging from exposure to the weather over the course of many years. My best guess is that this cabin was originally built somewhere in the mid-1800’s her beautiful logs were seen by everyone that visited. Then, likely somewhere around the 1920’s, the back addition was added on and the entire house was covered with siding.

I would imagine that this house will now likely once again show off her logs to the world for a few decades and then, as she was before, be covered over with siding.

Originally posted 2015-06-10 14:21:59.

Log cabin restoration… part 82019-06-29T10:17:31+00:00

Log cabin restoration… part 7

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The back of the cabin was also in amazing condition.

I can say that I’ve rarely seen a cabin with less foundation underneath it. Luckily, there were plenty of native stone to be found in the surrounding area which we gathered and then put a full stone foundation underneath of her.

Notice the minimal framing found in the old addition off of the back as revealed in this photo. I’ve seen barns framed with more wood than this.. I would say that this was the poorest example of framing that I’ve ever seen in a home… They put up just enough wood to hold the siding into place, and no more.

Originally posted 2015-06-10 13:23:44.

Log cabin restoration… part 72019-06-29T10:17:30+00:00

Log cabin restoration… part 6

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We took the siding off the old gal and discovered that the logs were in very good condition…. but we also found a unique pattern of whitewash… one that I’ve never fully figured out… any ideas what is going on with these two sections of white logs?

Originally posted 2015-06-10 13:14:07.

Log cabin restoration… part 62019-06-29T10:17:29+00:00

Stone Chimneys… part 5

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Here’s a photo of the re-built chimney.

i was tickled with the result.

I think it was a good call to take that leaning chimney down and build her back once again, better than before.

We did our best to rebuild her visually to look the same as she had been and to ensure that she matched the chimney at the other end of the house. And while in the process of doing that, we made upgrades to this chimney which should allow her to stand proud for a very long time… perhaps, forever.

Originally posted 2015-06-09 13:37:08.

Stone Chimneys… part 52019-06-29T10:17:28+00:00

Stone Chimneys… part 4

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Here you can see the chimney rising again, this time sitting on a much better footer. We also added in flue tiles and a damper to comply with building codes and make the chimney much safer to operate.

The old chimney came down very easily. In less than a day, one man rode her down with a digging bar prying the loose rocks free, one at a time, until he reached the ground.

The rocks were then cleaned and reused for the construction of the new chimney. We laid them in the same way, laid flat one upon another in horizontal layers.

Originally posted 2015-06-09 13:23:55.

Stone Chimneys… part 42019-06-29T10:17:27+00:00

Stone Chimneys… part 3

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The lean on this chimney was even more pronounced after we removed the siding from the house and exposed the logs long hidden beneath.

I told the owner of the home that one day that chimney was going to fall, that I didn’t know when, but when it happened it would be quick and I hoped that no one was killed when it happened. He had a real tough time making the decision for us to take this chimney down and rebuild it… after all, he had seen it standing there on the side of this home all his life. But now he was going to live here in this home, and, raise his children here, the chimney had to come down… on our terms.

Originally posted 2015-06-09 13:03:29.

Stone Chimneys… part 32019-06-29T10:17:26+00:00
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