Coming up this week… how I “upgraded” this home.  The photo above was taken near completion… the photo below was taken on Day One.

Originally posted 2015-06-07 19:59:58.

After five years the cabin had aged well. The siding was well on it’s way to turning grey. The copper roof was now a chocolate brown… the “new penny look” of fresh copper was gone.

That’s one of the great things about building a home with a traditional design and in using antique materials… the home improves with age… every year that goes by your home gets better.

Wouldn’t it be great if everything worked that way?

You can see the cabin’s addition rising on the far side. I’ll share some photo’s and stories of that addition with you over the coming days.

As always, thanks for letting me ramble on!

Originally posted 2015-05-27 13:18:30.

So, we finished up this little cabin.

We packed up our tools and went on to build many other structures, some that I’ve already shared here with you.

On occasion over the coming years I’d run into the cabin’s owners at the local deli and they would share how much the cabin meant to them… how it had created so many precious memories for them. It always warms my heart to hear such things.

I had left this side of the cabin rather plain, but prepared for an addition that would one day occur which would convert this weekend cabin into a full-time residence. I wondered if I would be the one that they would call. I wondered if I would still be building twenty years later.

But that call came only five years later.

The pull of rural life grew stronger for these folks. Each weekend stay at the cabin had grown harder and harder to leave for their return to the urban lifestyle. They had figured out a way to make the transition sooner.

Originally posted 2015-05-27 12:55:35.

There is nothing finer than enjoying friends on a front porch of a little cabin. Once the cabin was decorated the owners had the whole crew over to celebrate their new retreat.

Originally posted 2015-05-27 12:09:38.

Originally posted 2015-05-26 19:01:23.

Here’s a photo of me.

ok.. I admit it, it’s a younger me. 🙂

In this photo I’m demonstrating to my client how to apply the wire mesh lathing that will soon hold the chinking that fills the gaps between the logs.

This client, and his family, pitched in and helped a great deal during the construction of their little cabin. We call that kind of effort “sweat equity”.

Sweat equity does more than save money for the client (as if that wasn’t enough). It also helps them bound with their home, and it gives them a greater understanding of the amount of work that goes into building a home like this.

I want to encourage all of you… every single one of you… that you too can build your dream cabin. All it takes is two things… the proper knowledge and skill set… and that future cabin (or other dream home) needs to become your top priority… your main focus… your obsession.

Originally posted 2015-05-26 14:10:39.

Notice the careful attention to detail found in just this process of assembling four porch posts and the supporting top plate on which the porch rafters will be set into place….

Mortise and tenon joints have been created to connect everything together… decorative chamfered cuts have been made on the ends on the top plate… and carefully cut-out pockets are now ready for the porch rafters to be pegged into place.

Many builders believe that “rustic” is achieved through sloppiness and so they end up with a mess in the end.

Rustic beauty comes through careful material selection, traditional design, attention to detail, talent, and an abundance of time and patience.

Originally posted 2015-05-26 13:15:43.

This log home is an example of the largest cabin that two men can build together. There is not a single log seen here that couldn’t somehow, with patience and strain, be moved into place by a strong man and a good neighbor.

Fortunately we had a crew of four young men which made things considerably easier. And so, the neighbors to this cabin, much to their relief, could continue watching re-runs and munching popcorn. Whew.

On this job we had access to a couple of long, stout, timbers which we used to create a slide to help raise all those floor joists and the remaining top logs. It worked well.

Many historic cabins reveal to us that men would often stop placing logs after gaining about two feet of height above the second floor… I guess the men at that time had had enough. Winter was coming on and they were tired of lifting.

Today we always push-on higher, seeking a minimum of a four foot height of logs on this second floor. As a result we end up with a much more enjoyable bedroom… with four walls in which furniture can be set in place. Momma then has a place for all her furniture. And, you know what they say… “if momma is happy, everyone is happy”. 🙂

Another benefit to building a taller cabin is that we achieve a much more attractive home from the outside… a general rule of thumb applies to log structures… the taller they are, the more visually striking they appear.

Originally posted 2015-05-26 12:50:35.

Caught in the act!

For some reason folks always give us a hard time when they see us working with a chainsaw. Somehow there is an expectation that since we work on old structures we must perform our craft as purists… using only hand tools of the period.

Certainly we have all the standard tools of that period and to be honest quite often they are the best tool for a particular job even to this day. But when it comes to cutting a log to length or quickly removing wood you just can’t beat a Stihl 026.

I did once have a fine young man join the crew who had been working as a housesmith at Colonial Williamsburg. I was so excited at the potential of what he could bring to the crew. But, he quit after the first day, much against my encouragement for him to not give up. He said that the pace of work was much more than he could endure, that he had grown used to swinging an axe and then pausing to explain the process to the tourists, and then onto swing the axe yet again, before pausing once more.

Originally posted 2015-05-25 18:41:33.

In the background the mason chips away on the next stone that he will use to build the foundation.

And, in the foreground, one of the carpenters also chips away, but he works on a log, refining it to fit just perfectly.

I had four carpenters working on this project, from the beginning with the barn salvage operation where we harvested the logs, to the installation of the last piece of trim on the final day.

It took us eight long, wonderful, months to complete this cabin.

In addition to the carpenters I also had a stone mason and his helper there most of that time building the foundation, the chimney, the fireplace, and, the stone exterior steps.

I’m not certain why, but masons make more money than carpenters… it’s the way it has always been. The men that “work the wood” are the lowest paid men on a construction site. The world is not fair.

And, let’s not forget that there was me and all my efforts… designing the home, supervising the jobsite, finding and acquiring all the materials needed, etc. The crew would always give me a hard time… they viewed me as the most expendable member of the team… but without me, none of this would have happened… I’m the guy with “the vision” and “the herder of cats”. And, they knew that… at least… I think they did.

So, in total there were seven men, each working very hard for eight months… that’s better than four-and-a-half man years for someone thinking of attempting something like this on their own. And that’s not counting the roofers, the electricians, the plumbers, the excavators, the well drillers, the painters, and the heating/air technicians.

Clearly a lot goes into building one of these cabins.

All the men who have ever worked for me have wanted to be paid more. All the subcontractors also have wanted to make as much as they could. And, of course, all the government agencies and insurance companies have demanded their cut as well.

On the other end of the equation was the client, the home owner, you know, the person who pays everyone. They want things as low cost as possible. Who can blame them?

It’s a constant balancing act trying to please everyone… in the end it is a rare event when anyone has been happy about the amount of money that was exchanged… those working feel somewhat slighted… and those paying the bills wonder if they paid too much… and the builder, who just wants to build, is stressed out, from hearing from all sides of their displeasure.

But in the end, and there always is an end, what really matters is the home that was built. Over time the money issues are forgotten and what stands for all to see is the work.

My friends, build as well as you can, and in the end there will be nothing but praise and thankfulness for what was created, for decades to come, perhaps centuries to come, by those who admire our work long after we are gone.

Originally posted 2015-05-25 16:01:12.