Men are interesting creatures.

When it comes time to lift a heavy log up onto a log cabin, and set the log into place, my crewmen all complain and moan. They ask me “where’s the crane?” and then they accuse me of being cheap.

Well, I admit I am frugal, but that’s not the point. I have found from experience that men bond when they share a strong physical challenge, that they take greater pride in what they are doing when it doesn’t come easy, and, they create memories that they will look back on fondly for the rest of their lives.

“No crane needed, thank you”.

Originally posted 2015-02-09 14:11:01.

So, what do you do when you are building a log home and you have some logs left over in the end? Well, you make something cute out of them!

Originally posted 2015-02-08 23:22:09.

Originally posted 2015-02-08 23:15:03.

This is an old postcard that someone gave me once, likely from the 1960’s. I think the tone of the card was humorous, implying that to have a place like this was as bad as it gets. I must just be odd, because I would LOVE to have a place like this. I could fix this place up to be a dream home. Am I crazy?

Originally posted 2015-02-07 15:50:11.

Ask yourself how stressed to do feel after looking at this photo for a few moments? It’s much more evident when you are in this room. All is well, when you are in a cabin.

Originally posted 2015-02-06 19:51:27.

Here’s a “before” photo of the cabin I posted earlier today… I think I improved upon it.

This seasoned cabin was in the middle of a large field in the southern part of the state with cattle walking around, and inside, the house. After taking the cabin down and moving it we ended up totally re-notching the corners and we added in other antique logs to make up for bad ones and in order to increase the ceiling heights. (People were shorter back in those days.)

Originally posted 2015-02-06 16:40:15.

Whether you like this cabin, or not, I would ask that you look at it’s details and discover what it is that makes it special (or not) for you. If you make a practice out of this, whenever you pass a home or flip through a magazine, you will eventually become an expert in what pleases you and then you will be able to design a home for yourself that fulfills your dreams more than any architect ever could.

This is a sweet log cabin that I built years ago. I promise to bore all you good friends with it’s construction details over the next week or so (sorry about that). But it’s for your own good. 😉

I’ll start out with this outside photo taken of the back of the house… Yes, I like all sides to look good… and I admit I am a “back of the house” kind of guy.

This side of the house faces “the view” which is a breathtaking panorama. When I designed the home on paper it had just a single story porch and no dormers on this side, but as the cabin went up and everyone began to appreciate the views from a higher perspective a double porch came into play, and the attic was finished with dormers installed to take in the highest view.

So here we have created my second and third “rules of building a great home” (the first being that all sides should be attractive) and now… 2) you need to know what features in a home appeal to you before you design 3) when you build a home it needs to be an ongoing design process and changes will likely be made as the house is built.

One last thing… while we are looking at this image notice the angled base of the stone chimney… a very nice, pleasing-to-the-eye, historically-found feature on quality built homes of an earlier era.

Originally posted 2015-02-06 15:53:09.