This is an example of ecstasy to a salvager. A cabin this nice doesn’t come around often enough.
I’m not certain of the story of this cabin, I just dropped in when I saw the work going on during one my drives around.
I wish it had been mine to work with. She was a honey.
Originally posted 2015-05-23 14:06:20.
Originally posted 2015-05-22 15:05:33.
Perfection.
It is possible to build a home that improves the landscape, imagine that. In a world where man seems to create one eyesore after another, he once improved the world with his efforts.
There is a log home buried underneath this siding.
Originally posted 2015-05-21 14:02:10.
When you work with old materials such as antique logs, it’s inevitable that you start to acquire piles, and piles, of misc materials.
Whenever a pile would reach a stage where I could build something out of it I’d put the crew on a mission to do just that.
I’d generally pick the newest crewmen… the ones with the least experience and the lowest level of confidence. I’ve always found that the best teacher in this trade is found in the act of “doing”.
I guess that’s true of most things.
I’d often sell these “odds and ends” structures at, or below, cost. I long ago lost track of the number of these that were built. But, here is one, under construction, to share with you today.
Originally posted 2015-05-20 13:31:57.
This cabin had only one very small window.
I’ve heard that a glass window was the single most expensive part of an early-American home.
Originally posted 2015-05-19 21:31:08.
There was a treasure hidden behind the siding of this house. Without a doubt some of the most beautiful logs I had ever seen.
On a scale of one to ten… these logs are tens.
I have always emphasized that when the time comes to build your dream cabin to get the very best logs that you can, after all it is the essence of the entire home, and there are so many other things ahead in the building process to spend money on… you don’t want to find yourself having spent more on your heating/air system than you did on your logs… oh, the tragedy of having a mediocre cabin while having bragging rights on a Trane heat pump unit.
Anyway, at the time that I encountered this cabin, I had been routinely acquiring salvage rights for a few thousand dollars. The owner of this cabin wanted fifty thousand dollars. I was in shock at not only the beauty of this cabin, but at the price tag.
Today that kind of price, on an exceptional cabin, is nearly commonplace.
So, do I regret missing out on this cabin?
yes, I do.
I have missed out on so many opportunities due to LWS (lean wallet syndrome).
Originally posted 2015-05-17 17:16:53.
A rustic little cabin… sweet and charming… but the logs did not meet my standard for reuse in building a new home.
How about that chimney?
Originally posted 2015-05-17 14:46:27.
Like a little puppy this little cabin just wanted to go home with me… but it didn’t work out.
Originally posted 2015-05-17 14:29:43.
Sometimes I see features on log cabins that just totally baffle me… this chimney for instance…
Originally posted 2015-05-16 12:11:16.
And here are the final two pages of the Country Living article which focus on the bedrooms.
But in reality, as seen throughout the photos in this magazine article, the focus is not on the log home, nor is the focus on the individual rooms… it’s on the “stuff” in the rooms.
The log home itself, is just background for interesting collectables.
If Country Living had removed from each of these photographs all the wonderful pieces of furniture and decorations they wouldn’t have sold a single copy of their magazine.
Builders are often confused by the importance of “added ornamentation”… you know the fluff that has nothing to do with their work.
We’ve all seen poorly built homes that are staged with elaborate furnishings which sell quickly, while a well built home left empty and ready for new home owners to decorate languishes on the market.
A builder sweats and toils for many months to build a house, but it’s two ladies with a clipboard in an afternoon that get all the compliments.
The owner of this log cabin, and a few others that I have built homes for, have had wonderful tastes in furnishings, each has had their own unique style, and the magazines and book companies have published those homes repeatedly.
But I have also built some wonderful homes where the new owners have shown poor tastes in decorating, and I have had some clients that just never get around to properly outfitting their home, and thus these homes are shunned by the publications.
I love them all, each and every one, even the ones with plastic Walmart chairs on the front porch.
Especially those. My neglected babies.
Take a look at the covers of Country Living magazine covers that we see today. Here’s a link to them…
https://www.google.com/search?q=country+living+magazine+covers&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=A0BTVcrTGonksATI8YHoCw&ved=0CC8Q7Ak&biw=1366&bih=628
Notice how houses have all but disappeared from the magazine, no longer even needed as background material, and the focus now is entirely about “things”.
So, what’s my point?
We all know that houses are built much poorer than they once were. And, we know that they are much less attractive today. But why is that? Maybe, it’s because we’ve become so distracted by all the things inside?
Originally posted 2015-05-13 12:35:19.
