Moriah… part 21

Moriah, as she was built in the 1970’s had half of her second floor removed to “create a dramatic open feel”.

And, I bear witness to the fact that it was indeed, dramatic. No doubt about it.

But by doing this, by bringing in an area of drama, that any feeling of intimacy… or security was lost from this cabin.

I felt more “in awe” in this space, than I felt… “at home”.

It was sort of like the feeling that I get when I enter a large barn. Often I feel overwhelmed in those structures with all that is laid out before me.

Now both feelings are wonderful to have, and I build both kind of structures, so clearly I like them both… but which feeling did I want in this log room?

Maybe a better question to ask is… which feeling should a log cabin provide?

I prefer living in a blended house, one that features a variety of rooms, with at least one of those rooms providing me a place of serenity and security, and a log cabin does a great job at providing me with just that. I also like having another area of the house that will inspire awe, and there are many options that can create that type of emotion.

Over the years I believe that half of the clients who have sat down with me to imagine their dream log cabin have had in their minds some kind of loft envisioned in that future home.

To this day I have yet to build a log cabin with a loft… maybe one day I will… but, so far none. I think that my line of reasoning, about the “feel”, plays a part in clients not moving ahead with having a loft, but generally the deciding factor is the reality of the loss of all that usable square footage.

The second floor loft area in the old Moriah was pretty useless… folks would walk into the second floor loft area, look down, say “wow!” and then leave the room.

And then downstairs I observed that no one would ever stand around the fireplace… it felt awkward… like something was going to fall on one’s head from above. And, for some reason, the chimney didn’t draw very well, probably because of this open ceiling concept.

So, when I rebuilt Moriah I put an end to this cathedral space here in the log cabin. And by doing so, I created an intimate dining room (that I have already shared with you) and a completely new bedroom above…. a log cabin bedroom.

Can you imagine… that the first owners of Moriah gave up having a log cabin bedroom, just so that they could have a space where guests would say… “wow”.

We are all different aren’t we?

But for me, I’ll take the log bedroom thank you very much. I think having a log cabin bedroom ranks right up there in the top ten most wonderful things to have in this life.

Here are four photos of original loft area… coming up next will be photos of the log bedroom that was created.