The outside has about a foot to go before I switch to brick. The stone is from a quarry in Moncure, NC and is mostly blue and green. It's a 90 mile roundtrip to get about 1 ton at a time.
The end of the year is looming!
The septic system is in and inspected. The connection to the septic system from the cabin bath is in and inspected. The porch pier foundation footings are dug and inspected. It's been an inspecting kind of month. Now I'm laying stone again in the unusually warm weather. Four piers will carry the front porch. The picture shows the first pier. It's hard to see since it's set against the backdrop of the stone foundation. Gotta go, December 06 is not that far away!
All of the hurricanes made me cover up the window openings - especially with the oak sills in place. The bathroom slab is poured with tubing for the hot water floor heat. The bathroom is divided into a big "L" with tub, shower stall and cabinets and a smaller rectangle for the vanity and toilet. Almost half of the chinking is done. I need to buy a bunch of windows $$$.
Seven posts down and one to go. I need to hew a log for the last one, next to the chimney, but I have two logs that I can use. The bathroom below-grade work is done and inspected. I hired a plumber for that part. Short days, work, holidays, knee injury, not much to show.
Not much happening. Too much work and the re-modeling of the attic have kept me away. Last Saturday I put this post in the front door. It's the only piece on the front of the cabin that hasn't been silvered by the sun yet. It fit with just a shaving of one mortise edge and a few whacks with a 35lb dumbbell. It's a little bit wide, front and back, so I can shave it flush with the logs above and below. That will take some of the wane (the white you see in the picture) out of both sides.
Three posts down and five to go.
First two exterior posts are in - for the back door. Each is open-mortised into the sill and the first spanner. I've dug out the plumbing rough-in that was done before the foundation pour. A friend is going to help me figure out what plumbing I need to do before I fill the bath room foundation with solid fill.
Bathroom foundation is done except for a little bit of backfilling under the first course of logs on the ends. The second picture above shows chinking - barely. The first log was chinked to the intersection of the main cabin wall to the bathroom wall. I put quartz in the chinking, but only here and at the same point on the other three sides. The other chinking will be mortar on lathe with no stone.
The next step is to put in the verticals for the bathroom door. I'll do all of the verticals before I build the bath with stick framing. I want to be sure everything is square and plumb on the cabin before I attach anything to it.
The main roof is slated all the way to the ridgeline. A few slates were left off until the chimney is built. Now it's on to the rest of the foundation for the bath and the installation of the verticals in the main cabin, for windows and doors.
The slate is half finished now. I've used more than half of the slates I bought. I didn't realize how high the waste count would be. Cutting around the dormers, and the fact that the slates are recycled leads to a lot of losses. Oh well. The guys that sold them to me still have lots. Jay showed up yesterday and cut some slates and helped with some of the up and down too.
The slate hooks worked great. They went in the first hole of each roof brace and hooked the slate from below. Some slates took some tapping to go all the way up. I cracked one up the middle, but it's got 2 good nails, it's not split all the way and I put a piece of copper under the crack. That was the only booboo. I may use all thin slates (12" cut down to 10") to minimize the stress. Each hook had to be straightened and re-hammered to be long enough to match the other slates. Now, if you know where to look you can see them. They're tiny.
The slate is started. It's easy to put up. But it's slow too (of course) because I'm using salvaged slates and they often have to be trimmed or re-punched for nails. They are beautiful. I love slate. The other picture shows a post that I put in recently. A second, slightly smaller one sits on top of it and goes all the way to the ridge beam. I got a little nervous about the weight of the slate and decided to do this. Paul and Marion gave me the trees, two cedars that their goats had killed by eating the bark. I cut the first in a near-tornado, torrential rains and lightning. The second fell that night. I'm glad it didn't fall on me that day! Cedar is a lot easier to work than oak, but the knots are a pain. The bigger post has a bullet in it, but it's too small to be old. Both posts and the area around the cabin smell wonderful. After vacation next week I hope to find time from work to really get on the slate. It's warm enough to lay stone again, so I can do the little bit of that that remains for the foundation and frame in the bath.
Happy Valentine's birthday girl. The slate is here. Too busy to put it up, but wait until I get a moment.
The gable ends are both built except for access to the bathroom roof. I'll wait until I'm sure of that roofline.
The roof is almost decked. I'll wait to put tarpaper on it until the decking has dried somewhat. It's roughsawn poplar, planed down to 17/16ths of an inch. It was just sawn the week before Christmas. It's so wet now that water squirts out of it when I nail it. Being on the roof it has good ventilation, so this shouldn't take too long. Next up, the gable ends and then the slate.
What a storm!
The cabin and the house sailed through the ice just fine. The shed was pancaked by an oak and a pine, trapping the lawn tractor. It's a total loss, but that's not saying much. I will miss the dry roof it provided until I can replace it (not with logs).
Anyway, the roof is almost done. Jay helped me frame the dormers. Boy did that speed things up! He's a great framer. We would have finished before he left if not for the weather. I'm close now though. I have to put a few small pieces on one dormer and frame the chimney opening. The poplar decking should be here in the next week or two. While I wait for it, I'll frame the gable ends.
Happy Thanksgiving!.
Almost all of the rafters are up. On the south side of the cabin, the foundation for the bathroom is nearly complete. A little more stone work and the bathroom gets framed. If it's too cold for that, I'll frame the dormers on the big roof.
We have a winner! Ken Cox of Inverness Scotland correctly predicted 10:14 AM, 09/14/02 moments before the final plate was set. Congratulations Ken and thanks to all who entered.
Win the golden tree strap! Predict the time that the last top plate goes up and you win an autographed tree strap. You must be present to win. The official guess is 09/12/02. So hurry on down!
One more to go. Then it's time for the roof. The extra length is for carrying the end rafters. This piece was the bigger of the two top plates and the front is higher than the back, so the last piece should be easier.
First end log above the floor system. I had to buy two more scaffold bucks to put it up. That's it for scaffolding - I have enough now to get to the top. The long piece I had planned to use on the back turned out to be too far gone. What a let down. It was one of the big pieces I got from Barry. I used a piece of poplar that had been intended to be a top plate before I got the bigger oak trees. I still have enough logs. The question is whether I put up one more course above the floor - easy access to logs will determine that. This has been a good week to work on the log cabin in terms of minimal work responsibilities so of course it's raining hard for the first time in months. Oh well, the rain is so badly needed that I can't complain.
The log cabin is getting taller again. This piece had to be notched for each floor joist. That took awhile, but then it went up without a hitch. I had to saw a kerf three times on the last joist cut-out and that was it. Now it's on to the piece for the back. Five logs left to go until the roof - all of them onsite.
I'm getting the last of the logs from Barry's house. The biggest one, shown here, came home last night. I'll pick up the last 18 footer this afternoon and that will be it for the big pieces. This one is 27 feet long, by about 28 inches wide at the butt. It will be the top plate on the front of the cabin. It wiggled the van all over the road. I couldn't go faster than 30MPH without feeling like I was going to get whipped off the road.
The ceiling/floor joists are all in. Now I have to work out the bow in the two logs front and back and then spike them all in. The post closest to the camera is temporary. The fireplace will carry this end of the summer beam. The rear post is a temporary one too, but it will be replaced by a permanent one.
There are still 6 timbers left to notch and raise. All are cross cut. All but one are hewn. All but three are onsite. Work demands have really slowed me down.
It's finished! (just kidding)
Not much to show on the house since last time. The summer beam (it spans the room lengthwise and carries the second floor) is up along with one ceiling/floor joist.
It's been awhile. I've been busy, plus I went back into the woods to get some more timbers. The hickories that I collected were all a waste. Every one of them showed enough rot that I rejected them. When I think back to the days...
Nevermind. Anyway, a colleague of Karen's has land north of Durham with big trees. So big, and so many, that I've decided not to use a piece of poplar that I have. Along the riverbank the oaks that stood there got washed out by the hurricane. I've cut 3 with 2 more to go. Barry, the owner, has a big tractor so getting them out should be easier than what I've been through in the past. For the time being, I'm working on the floor joists. They have to be finished before the next pair of logs go up. Below are the three logs.
This is the "little" one. It will sit on the floor joists at the back of the house.
This will be the last log on the front of the house except for the top plate. By a quick count of the rings, I think this tree was 150 years old when it fell.
This tree will be the top plate at the front of the house. I already have an oak piece that was the old front plate to be. It was demoted by the size of this one. Note the black void where a main branch had split out part of the trunk when the tree fell. I was barely able to get a 9" timber out of it. It's 26 feet long.
That's me over the chimney/fireplace.
The first spanners, front and back, are now up. The front one went up second. It was so close, I trimmed it in place.
The picture doesn't show it, but the log went all the way up and it fit like a glove - without trimming. I may bring the ends in a little bit to allow for the bow that I couldn't get rid of completely. I wanted to take a picture to show how the logs go up. This is the first full length piece and it was not too bad.
Happy New Year!
Snow has stopped all of the work in its tracks. In the snow below the cabin you can see the outline of the next timber - 23 feet long by 15 to 18 inches wide. I need to cut the front pins before I cut dovetails on this log. The pins on the back are done, but when I got the log ready it was bowed an inch and three quarters in 23 feet so I put some heavy logs on it and let it sit awhile. It's already within 1/4 inch.
The snow between the logs gives you some idea of what the chinking will look like, except the chinking will fill the space completely and it won't be so white. It will contrast with the logs.
See the kiddie photos for more info on the snow.
Merry Christmas!
No more short pieces. Everything else is full length. This is the slow part. Ha Ha Ha! It's all been so slow. I had no idea.
The job goes on day and night. I decided to put scaffolds on either side of the wall and lift with a come-along. I finally had the piece, an 11 footer, ready late in the afternoon. It gets dark so early now. I didn't want to stop so I put up a light. One thing I learned was that I need more scaffold. I almost didn't have the height I needed to set the log in place. I spent a lot of time laying out the dovetail to avoid having to take the log down and rework it. It's close enough that I can close it up in place. I would hate to pull it down. This is the only long piece in the current course. The other three are 3 footers so they will go faster.
By the way, I'm only doing corners now. The pieces that go between a window and a window or a door will come after the rest of the cabin is up. I'll have to find some wide pieces to match what I've got, but they will be between 3 feet and 16 inches.
I've been too busy to update the photos. Here's the current status: one log to go on the fifth course of the front/back.
Below are two more shots taken a few weeks back. The first is of Paul and Logan. It was taken at the end of September. The second is of the logs. It was taken the first week in November. I stopped notching for a few weeks to go back into the woods and get some big trees that I skipped over originally. They were thick, but not straight, or they were the remains of trees I had already cut. By the time the cabin was 5 feet tall, I had used all of my widest pieces. The corner-to-window lengths are all 3 or 4 feet with the exception of the south wall, which has an 11 footer. I got logs from 14 to 21 inches wide this time around. That's big to me and much wider than the 8 to 10 inch stuff I was looking at if I didn't get some wider logs. Now, I have all of the logs that I need to reach the point where the 18 and 22 foot pieces go up. They are all relatively wide. Lying on the ground for 5 years all of the sapwood was paper. But the heartwood looks like the tree fell yesterday. This wood is so wet that it's very heavy. One piece that I hewed develped a crack as I hewed it. The strain of opening two faces to dry air was nearly too much. Fortunately, the checking up stopped before the log split itself in two.
I may get one more 22 footer from a neighbor. At this point, I'm only taking white oak and only if it's wide. The pieces that I just cut were full of foxfire. I didn't realize this until I walked out after dark to the shed one evening and saw what looked like a radioactive pile. I had never seen it before. Paul and the girls got a kick out of it too. I think the dry weather quickly made the fungus that causes the glow go dark.
What a sad day yesterday was. God bless America.
More logs. The second course is halfway finished. Chess is peaking through the chinking gap with Elise and Paul. Today was his birthday.
The first course is finished. I bought two scaffold bucks in anticipation of going higher. I may try to build a crane with a cable backstay. It's not that high yet, but it's coming along.
Rain last week and over the weekend was so heavy I could not work at times. Good weather today though. Another log. It ends at the backdoor.
notching up!
I use the slick in Paul's hands and the drawknife in front of him to clean up each log before notching. Saw marks are removed along with punky sapwood. This reduces log width, but it's worth it to have only the heartwood left. It's much more rot resistant.
Front and back sills are complete. Next comes the floor and then it's time for some notching up!
The back sill is finished. The bigger part of the front sill is finished. I hope that the notching up goes faster than the sills, at least until height becomes an issue. With the sill in, I can put the floor system in at any time. I'll probably do it soon. More pictures than usual to show the different angles. Monroe kept me company while I worked under the moon on Friday night to move the front sill into position. It was nice until she yelled out in excitement when she saw a toad while I was moving the sill log. I didn't quite hear what she was saying and I jerked my head to look at her. Combined with the load I was under, the sudden movement caused me to strain a muscle in my neck. I'll get over it. I asked Monroe to contain her excitement next time she saw that I was lifting something heavy.
Godzilla helps give you something to compare the size of the timbers to.
Look carefully in the back and you can see Michael. He tries to avoid all cameras. I don't know if it's a legal thing or what.
Paul was very angry when I took Godzilla's and then his picture. He was shouting, screaming mad and I couldn't comfort him despite telling him several times that I didn't care.
This joint took forever to cut because the center of the timber contained so many knots. When I first started to chisel it out after cross-cutting it, I knew it would be trouble when the chisel just bounced off of the log in several places. It was slow going, and probably goofing off, but I cut it flat very carefully to give myself a day of rest. The surface is flat with no tearouts. This degree of precision is a waste of time. The joint will never be seen again.
A very quick update. Michael and I set the firt sill log today. Finally, I can say I have a log cabin. Not a logs cabin, but at least a log cabin.
The building inspector signed off on the larger rectangle of the foundation today. I don't have to call him back until I get a roof on! That seems so far away. I bought a roll of copper last week. It will go under the logs as an insect barrier. I still need to move some of the dirt, just to get it out of the way. But, stay tuned, logs will be going up very soon.
The tarp in the picture kept the rain and sun off me and the mortar. It was a great help as we've had a wet spring. I hope to continue to use it to keep the sun off of me as I notch up the logs. Monroe is standing on the center pier for the floor system.
Bright, beautiful, cool and dry. Getting very close on the big rectangle of the foundation. The smaller one will be stepped only as far as needed. I'm running low on good, big rocks. Tomorrow I continue cutting up a 22 footer at a neighbor's house. Pics to follow. Paul and I shaved our heads for Mayday. You can barely see him in the picture, between his sisters.
Cold, wet, muddy, slow. The front and back foundation walls are level to one another. Paul and I made another rock run last week to get more small rocks. They go fast when I'm trying to fill in around the big ones.
Not much happening with the rock. January and December were unusually cold. I did a little bit of stone laying when the opportunity arose. All four corners of the bigger rectangle are now covered. I'll start notching up the logs after it's finished, without completing the bathroom foundation. I want to set logs and get them dried-in. Speaking of logs, I went back into the woods to get some of the bigger short pieces. I've hewed two and have two more that should all yield 18" plus timbers. I'm always on the lookout for wider stuff that I can use to replace smaller pieces. Hewing is a good cold weather activity.
Still laying stone. Front wall of the foundation is done. The cold weather is getting in the way. I can't lay stone when it's going to freeze in the next 48 hours or so. Maybe this weekend. Lots of rock collecting going on.
Still laying stone. The front wall of the foundation is nearly done. This is the tallest part of the wall - nearly 4 feet. Hopefully the shorter sections will go faster.
I'm laying stone. The front section of the foundation with the crawl space opening is nearly complete. Part of the north wall with the chimney is underway too. This rock makes for slow work. Plus, watching Paul and working nearly full-time doesn't make it go any faster.
Elise stands on top of the first anchor bolt - indicating final wall height. The yellow string is 5 inches above final wall height.
Mcraven's log building school was fantastic. Mac (as he's called) was knowledgeable, friendly and had a great sense of humor. The other students were great people too. One of them has an 18x22 cabin in Washington, near the Canadian border. Mac has an 18x22 as part of his house. It was neat to see the size room I'm building. I'm putting up quite a few pictures so that my classmates can grab the ones that they want.
Bert and Mac Mcraven. Mac knew some old jokes that weren't that funny. So I told him lots of new ones that were hilarious. At the end of the class, Mac told me I was the first student he had ever taught who knew as many jokes as he did. He didn't mention any exceptional ability in log cabin construction though.
Mac had us put up a 16x20 2 story addition on the back of his house. Pretty good work, having people pay you to build your house! Here's the site before we got started.
Here's Martha hewing the top or bottom of a log. She's the one with the 18x22 cabin.
Laying out and cutting half dovetails was what I really wanted to learn. Mac showed us how to do it with chainsaws and handtools. I definitely like doing it with handtools better. Mistakes happen more slowly and overall accuracy of the notches was better. Here I'm using a foot adze to clean out a dovetail notch.
The first log that spanned the entire length of the addition goes up. Nobody got crushed. We were working with white pine logs that weren't too heavy.
This is how far we got in a week. We moved the cabin from where a previous class had started it. We reassembled it and continued notching up logs. We got spanners on all four sides and put up one ceiling joist. We teased Mac that he would have next year's class move it somewhere else and reassemble it.
Here's the whole gang. From left to right, Glenn, Mac, Doug (Richard), Bert, Ricky, Doug (Dougald), Mark and Martha. I hope someone took a better picture than this.
Here's Mark. He locates and sells cabins nationwide from his home in Missouri. He and Martha met when he located the cabin that she bought and moved to Washington.
This is Ricky. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina where he hopes to find some land and build a cabin of his own. All of the other students have or plan to buy existing cabins. Mac probably does more moving and restoration work than new construction with new logs. Ricky has a lot of hewing ahead.
Footing inspection complete, waiting for concrete.
logs waiting patiently...
The logs in the foreground probably won't be used. This picture also shows one of the two axles used to pull logs out of the woods. A pulley is used to double the force of the tractor. Where that's not enough (traction, not horsepower is the problem), a come-along is used to roll the log quarter inch by quarter inch. So far I've used up about 10 come-alongs. A nylon strap protects any living trees that the pulley is attached to.
