Originally posted 2015-04-18 12:59:46.

So, here is the log cabin that we moved and rebuilt as an addition to the little house in Albemarle.

The first thing that really jumps out at me when I look at the photos of this cabin is how brown she was. The cabin’s logs are all heart-pine and when the cabin was built she was sided over quickly so the logs had never been exposed to the greying effects of the rain and the sun.

Originally posted 2015-04-17 14:10:54.

Twenty-five years ago today I helped a precious family create a lasting legacy.

On that day, April 14,1990 each member of this family placed the palms of their hands into a fresh cement chink joint of the log cabin that I was then re-erecting for them.

Those hand-prints are still there today as perfect as they were the day they were made, and as they will likely be in the decades, and perhaps centuries, to come.

And, those hand-prints have been published in multiple magazines and books along with the rest of this beautiful log home. In fact this famous chink joint made the cover of one of those books… Hands-on Log Cabins by Cindy Thiede.

I remember that day clearly, it was a Saturday and I drove over to the cabin to accomplish this one mission. We had picked one of the widest chink joints in the home to ensure room for everyone’s hand.

Now the thing about chink joints is that the wider they are, the heavier they are, and the heavier they are, the more likely they are to fall off of the wall while still wet.

I have lost a few fresh chink joints over the years just by someone slamming a door shortly after the cement had been applied. 🙁

I carefully applied this wide chink joint while the family of five watched on. We all know how much more challenging it is to do something when each move we make is under observation don’t we? 😉

The family was clearly excited, I was inwardly stressed. After all, I didn’t know if this could be done.

The chinking went up perfectly.

I was very proud, and relieved.

I’m not certain which hand it was that brought that cement chinking crashing to the floor.

As I had feared, the act of pressing a hand into vertical cement was not perhaps the best thing to do, and the act of pulling the hand back out proved to be destructive.

I don’t remember how many times I applied that one chink joint that day… three or four times is my best guess. Maybe, it was more.

But it was SO worth it.

That moment was frozen in time not only that family but for me. Who else can claim that they remember what they were doing twenty-five years ago today?

And that chink joint… well… it still lives on today, and it still touches everyone’s heart that sees it.

Originally posted 2015-04-14 13:53:29.

I have received hundreds of phone calls over the years asking me to come repair a “log cabin kit home”. And, I have witnessed some real disasters with these structures just a year or two after they were built.

I have turned them all down.

But, I am embarrassed to admit, that I once built a log cabin kit home, just once. I so regret it. I would never do it again.

Originally posted 2015-04-01 16:27:01.

And there she is today.

Originally posted 2015-03-31 21:02:54.

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.