I received the call that I had hoped that I would never get. The owner of this roadside cabin had decided that this piece of local history had to go. He had his reasons, and all of them, were very logical.

There was no chance that I would ever get him to change his mind.

I was placed in a situation of either salvaging this cabin, as best as I could, or living with the fact that it would be destroyed if I did nothing about it.

If this cabin had been anywhere else in the world other than in my neighborhood, considering the poor condition that she was in, I would have let her go.

I have witnessed so many old places vanish over the years. It’s been heart wrenching, but after all, I am just one person, with a limited budget.

I know what I would do if I won the lottery… I’d have a house museum… but, I guess I need to play the lottery if I ever stand any chance of winning. Go figure.

In a way I understand what veterinarians must feel like when they have to put a family pet down. You just can’t save them all.

S we gently pulled off the siding to expose the logs on this cabin. In her day, and as seen from a distance on that day, she was a real beauty. Why, she had more charm and presence than anything being built in my area this year. For sure.

But, an up close inspection revealed my most feared suspicions. She was in too poor of a condition to reuse for anyone’s new home. She was an insect-infested, severely-decayed, pine log cabin.

Now if her builder of so many years ago had only used a different species of wood… oak, or chestnut, or poplar, the story would have ended differently.

But he didn’t.

I knew that if I took this cabin and stacked it somewhere while trying to figure out some unimaginable creative option that likely she would become a pile of mulch in just a matter of months. Time, for this cabin, was a luxury that it no longer had.

So, I took her to my place and put her up as an outbuilding, an outbuilding that I had no need for, but at least there she has lived on, and every day I was still able to pass by her on my way to work, and for that I was thankful.

Originally posted 2015-03-31 20:21:48.

There once was an old log cabin that sat close to the road on which lived on. I would drive by that cabin daily on my way to work.

I always enjoyed seeing it there, it made me feel good that there was an original, mid-1800’s log home so close to me (the log cabin man 🙂

I would stop in on occasion and give the old gal a quick inspection. I was greeted more often by the wildlife that lived in her (and under her) than by the cabin’s human owner (who lived in a nice farmhouse nearby).

Originally posted 2015-03-31 16:22:37.

Pop Quiz today!

Can you spot the twelve mistakes that the builder of this log cabin made?

Here are images of two log cabins, the one above was built by someone unknown to me, the other, seen below for comparison, is a cabin that I built.

I’m not pointing out these flaws to insult the other builder, nor to make myself look better. I’m just trying to share what I’ve learned over the years while trying to build at the highest level of aesthetics, authenticity, and quality that I could achieve.

All of these changes that I would have made, when combined, would have likely only cost the cabin’s owner a few hundred dollars more and in my opinion would have made the cabin so much better. One these errors that the builder made will eventually prove very costly for the cabin’s owner and could easily shorten the cabin’s life.

First let me point out what is right about this cabin. The first impression is it’s “nice”, and that’s important. The fact that it is a restored old cabin is tremendous. The roof pitches are perfect. It has a standing seam metal roof, a porch on the front and an appropriate sized addition of the back. With that said, let me tell you what I would have done differently…

Let’s start with the porch. I notice that the porch piers which support the porch are made using cinderblocks and that one of them doesn’t line up with the porch post above it. A few easy-to-build stone piers would have been so much better.

I can’t really tell what the porch floor is made of… but it looks like it’s pressure treated. Not a very appropriate material for a cabin… oak from a sawmill would have been cheaper, more attractive, and would hold up longer.

A porch floor should not run the full length of the cabin. I always hold it back a foot or more from each end, that way when it comes time to build the larger porch roof that roof won’t oddly stick out pass the log cabin as seen here.

And what’s up with those massive Parthenon columns on the porch? Are they ten by ten inches? Wow. They are larger than the logs of this cabin. Way overkill and visually very distracting.

And then there is something really odd about the rafter ends on the cabin and porch roofs.
The cabin’s rafters seem to shine as if there is a piece of metal on each one to protect them from rotting, whereas the porch roof rafter tails are nearly invisible giving that roof the appearance of a razor’s edge. I would have put trim boards up on these areas.

It appears that the gable ends, and the addition off the back, are sided using board-and-batten. I have seen hundreds of old cabins over my years of exploring and have never seen a vintage cabin with original board-and-batten siding. B-and-B was used on outbuildings here in Virginia… not on houses. Lap siding would have been a much better choice.

The chimney.

A lot of people look at this structure and they see a stone chimney. I see a cinderblock chimney with stone veneer attached… because… that is what it is.

The masons of old would lay one stone flat one upon the other, they would never lay a stone on edge, and certainly never one on-end as some of these stones clearly are. Our ancestors simply couldn’t build a chimney like this; they didn’t have the glue (cement) that we do today.

The old way takes more time, more skill, and more stone, and the finished look is more subtle and not often appreciated by many, but I find that once a person develops an eye for solid stone masonry, that they will never be satisfied with veneer work again. One quick way to discover the quality of stone work on a chimney is to look at its corners… if the stones are much taller than they are wide, it gets a failing grade.

Next up is the shoulder of the chimney. Why so low? A chimney always shoulders where the logs end and the gable begins. Pay attention to old houses, 99% of them will shoulder at this point. This chimney reminds me of those soda bottles that people used to win at the State Fair that were heated and stretched.

And what’s up the chimney cap? Generally a cap means that there is a gas fireplace in the cabin…

Say it ain’t so Joe.

Of course I would have preferred a solid stone foundation under the house, but I’ll give the builder a pass here. There are old cabins out there, built on piers… complete with cold floors, and grumpy wives with cold feet.

The final issue that I see is the chinking… it’s a bit hard to see in this image, but it appears to have been installed improperly which will eventually lead to the loss of the logs due to rain getting in behind the chink joints and creating rot. I get calls on this issue all the time to come replace and repair situations like this… five or ten years after a cabin is built. It’s not a pleasant, nor inexpensive thing to redo. Sometimes, at that point, the best solution is to side-over the logs.

Ok… there you have it… all that I see on the outside at least. Please don’t send me an inside photo of this cabin. 🙂

Originally posted 2015-03-26 16:16:56.

Here I reveal one of my secret weapons in the quest for a perfect log notch. No it is not a machine. This is Scott, demonstrating his enthusiastic method of wrestling a log into submission.

I have been highly praised throughout my career for the homes that I have designed and built. But I deserve little, if any, of it.

I simply reproduce the beautiful structures from our past. I use the best materials that I are available. And, I hire the best craftsmen that I can find.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of talented young men and women (and yes, a few old ones too… lol)

I have found that if I hire the best, and I encourage them to do their best, that both I and my clients will be well pleased.

Originally posted 2015-03-21 13:52:14.

Originally posted 2015-03-21 13:31:21.

She was a small cabin… measuring eighteen feet by twenty feet.

The first floor of this cabin would soon serve as a family room, complete with a stone fireplace, and at the top of the stairs visitors will find a spacious rustic bedroom.

I was concerned about the cabin being visually lost in competition with the upcoming beauty of the stone addition and the large screened porch so I built the cabin tall, and I used massive oak logs.

Originally posted 2015-03-21 13:15:20.

Once I had the plans drawn for this home I spread the word out among the many salvagers that I know that I was looking for some sensational logs.

I always… always…buy the absolute best logs that I can find.

I was pleased to find a great selection of large logs that came out of an old barn.

I do like barn logs… a lot. They tend to be more massive in size. They are also longer because barns do not have all the window openings in them that a house does. The hewing on barn logs is also often more striking and pronounced (rougher)… after all, the man of the house did not need to impress the cows as much as he did the lady of the house with his workmanship.

Here in this photo you see my crew well underway in using these logs to build this fine little home. The first floor is now up, and the ceiling joists are being set.

Originally posted 2015-03-21 12:50:45.

Here’s a photo of the little kitchen taken from inside the stone dining room.

The floors are all vintage heart pine and we used that same material to make the cabinetry.

The countertop is soapstone.

We created an arched opening into the kitchen to mimic the arched windows found in the dining room.

Originally posted 2015-03-20 21:34:16.

Almost half of the square footage of this home is the screen porch.

How many homes can make that claim?

These clients… live… literally live… on their screen porch.

Originally posted 2015-03-20 16:21:53.

Stepping around the back of the house we catch a view of the entrance to the screen porch. The little red addition that is now front and center is the kitchen (I’ll show you some interior photos of it soon… you’ll be pleased… it’s bigger on the inside

Originally posted 2015-03-20 15:54:37.