A corner of this log cabin… before… and after, it is chinked. I like both images… but, it always fascinates me how a stack of individual logs is visually transformed into a solid wall, all because of the application of a little cement.

Originally posted 2015-05-02 14:18:20.

Here are a few close-up photos that illustrate our chinking prep work. We used old fenceboards for the window trim on this cabin (they were handy, free, and a perfect match to the logs) Take note of how much care and attention we gave to creating a perfect fit.

Window and door trim need to be installed before you chink. A person always chinks to the trim… not trims to the chink joint.

You will see fiberglass insulation behind the lathe wiring… this is an old photo… we now use spray-in foam.

On exterior chinking it is vital that the chinking be tucked back from the face of the log on top and flush with the log on the bottom… if you don’t do this you will allow water infiltration and rot out your logs.

Your goal is a perfectly smooth chink joint. You want your eye to go to the logs not your chinking. A sloppy chink job is not rustic… it is poor workmanship.

And don’t use plastic chinking… please.

Originally posted 2015-05-02 13:58:51.

Here are a few photos to look over…

The one above is of a greyed antique log that was nicely hewn with a broad axe more than a century ago.

The next photo is of a man today demonstrating how a hewn log was made with a broad axe. The major hunks have been removed by using a regular axe and then the broad axe is brought in to clean everything up nicely. Most men stand when using a broad axe.

The next photo shows an Eric Sloane drawing of the proper use of an adze which was to plane down, or make smooth, a timber that was previously hewn with an axe. It is very, very rare to find an old log cabin where someone has come in with an adze… that tool was generally saved for making the floor joists look refined. An adze is a hand plane on the end of long handle.

And the final photo, seen below, is of what you will find on many modern made cabins… where they took an adze, which is intended to make wood smooth, and instead used it to roughen the wood… creating lots of random scoop marks.

I can appreciate the desire to get rid of a rough sawn timber and to instill some handworkmanship onto the surface of a log… But I’ve found that the more people work with logs, the more they learn and practice log construction, the more they experience antique cabins… the more faux these adzed logs look…

It’s all in the details.

Remember those old commercials on tv where they had this device that would cut your hair after you hooked it up to your vacuum cleaner? A flowbee? It did the job, and to most folks it looked fine, but to those in the trade it irritated to no end… well, that’s what modern adzed logs are to old cabin guys.

Originally posted 2015-05-01 20:02:10.

When it came time to put a roof on the cabin I went to our local sawmill and bought some pine timbers to create five pairs of heavy duty roof trusses.

Locally harvested and sawn wood is environmentally friendly and low in cost. And besides, I love going to the sawmill, any opportunity that I get you will find me in my truck and on the way there. It’s almost as much fun as visiting Disney World, but without the mouse ears. 🙂

We bolted these trusses together and pegged over the bolts. We also beat the sawn timbers with an adze to rough them up. Yes, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of… I’ve made mistakes… but I’ve learned from them… I’ve gotten better… and part of my sharing here on line is to help you not make the same ones.

Do not buy, or use, an adze… there, I said it.

All in all though… the roof came out well… it looks good (other than those faux adze marks) and it is so much stronger than a modern truss roof.

Originally posted 2015-05-01 16:14:39.

It was almost a year later and the time had finally come for us to set this little cabin up and finish her.

(in the meantime we had built and finished another cabin… a large cabin… one that made the cover of Country Living magazine.. oh yeah… I had made the grade… lol)

I am proud of the stonework on this cabin… it came out very well. And, I was pleased with the way that our freshly-made notches had aged and turned grey.

Originally posted 2015-05-01 15:54:31.

So, let me continue with my story about this little cabin…

I bought me “a mess of logs” from an individual who salvaged old buildings and barns. This man wasn’t a builder, he was a salvager, and one of the best, if not THE best. He always had an amazing inventory of old structures, he always had spare pieces and extra inventory to replace missing pieces, and he was just a great guy to know. He retired a couple years ago… it was a sad day for me.

Anyway, I bought these extra logs that he had that were left over from a barn salvage operation.

They were fine logs… all oak… and fairly nice in size. On a scale of 1 to 10.. I say they were maybe 7’s… or, I might give them an 8 if I was feeling overly generous.

My ploy was to let it be known to the world that I was THE man to hire if someone wanted a log cabin.

My right-hand-man at the time and I spent the next week or so notching and setting this cabin up on my property. When done, I put a “For Sale” sign on it and hoped to recoup my costs and … most importantly… get a job putting this cabin up somewhere else and finishing it.

I have discovered over the years that most people have little appreciation of an old cabin or house when it is a dirty pile of wood laying on the ground. What’s up with that? lol

Folks need to see a cabin set up and they need to be able to walk into it, and touch it, in order to truly see it’s beauty and potential. So that is what we did. We created an old log cabin that had never existed before.

And then, people started to stop in to see what we were doing.

And then, someone bought it! And I was able to quickly repay my dad for the loan he gave me in order that I could buy these logs (that was a proud moment for me). I was proud that my dad had the faith in me to loan me that money, and I was so relieved when I repaid him… that I didn’t let him down. I would remind him many times over the years to come that his confidence, and his loan, played a major part in my success.

So, now I had a job to put up a small cabin. Big smile. Big, big, smile. Maybe, just maybe, I had a career ahead of me where I was going to love getting up in the morning and go build something exciting.

And then, something even more amazing happened. I got a call from that salvager… you know… the one I bought the logs off of… he had sold a large log cabin to a client that needed a builder to put it up. I most eagerly volunteered that I was the one to do it. It turned out that that lead was the big break I was looking for… maybe, it’s time to share that story… after I finish up the story of this little cabin, of course. 🙂

OK.. enough rambling… I’ll continue on another post…

Originally posted 2015-05-01 14:56:30.

If you are looking to build a log home for yourself, this little cabin is worthy of your consideration.

She is just big enough to make a fine little home. Yet small enough that two men can easily build it… (or quite possibly, it could be put together by one focused individual).

This precious cabin would make a fine second home, or a guest cottage, or maybe even a retreat for those seeking a simpler lifestyle.

Or, perhaps a cabin like this could serve as an addition to a framed home for anyone interested in a log bedroom or a den being added to the back of their house.

This cabin was a first “of sorts” for me. It was the first cabin that I designed and built on my own. For the record, I had restored and built many cabins for other people (through other construction firms) but never one on my own.

It was 1989 and it had been a year since I had started my own building firm… Blue Mountain Builders.

I’ve heard it said that 90% of all businesses fail the first year… so I was doing pretty well to have made it through that hurdle. But I was a bit sad, I had still not built a single log cabin. And, I was suffering from cabin fever.

When I started out on my own I had a vision of creating a company that would build new homes that were traditionally designed… and homes that would feature antique salvaged materials. I also hoped that I would perform restoration services on historic homes, but my heart was really drawn to saving old cabins and all other types of structures from being lost by building them new again… to give them a new life.

I was thankful for the work that came my way that first year… I built a tractor shed, I finished someone’s basement, and I did the trim-work in a huge, high-end, home. I managed to pay the bills thanks to those projects, but my dream vision seemed so far away.

So, I took a gamble, I borrowed 1,800 dollars from my dad in order to be able to buy a stack of old logs that someone had salvaged out of a neglected barn.

>>> I’ll continue this story in my next post…

Originally posted 2015-04-30 21:26:08.

Here’s the backside of the timber-frame addition that I added this farmhouse.

BUT… I’d like to turn your attention to the little log cabin seen off to the right this photo. That little cabin holds a special place in my heart.

I’m not certain if I’d call it my first log cabin, but it was certainly a pivotal project for me. Over the next day or two I’ll tell you all about it.

Originally posted 2015-04-30 15:07:01.

We would add a large vintage timber-framed addition to this house… a few years later… but that’s a story for another time…

Originally posted 2015-04-30 14:51:54.

We discovered that the first story and a half of this home was made of logs. But the remainder of the home’s second story was made of framed lumber, likely purchased from a sawmill in the early 1900’s.

There was a time when no one wanted to live in an old log cabin. And everyone wanted to live a modern farmhouse. (there goes that theme from the Walton’s playing in my head again)

I crawled up into the attic of the house. (no buzzards there… whew!) And I further discovered that the 1900 builders had reused the rafters from the original cabin. I could see the old notching in these rafters where the roof on the shorter cabin had had a 12/12 pitch and had now been changed to a shallower 8/12 pitch for this two-story farmhouse.

We debated what to do about this situation…

We could put the siding back up that we had removed. We could remove the siding that covered the logs all the way around the house (we thought that would look odd). Or, we could blow the entire top of this house off and either restore the original cabin to it’s original shorter form, or we could finish the cabin with old replacement logs creating a two-story cabin.

The owner decided to leave it like this for a few years so that she could enjoy looking at her logs, and then she would cover them back up.

What would you have done?

Originally posted 2015-04-30 14:27:31.