Monday, September 24, 2007

Logs, Lots of logs!!


Dad and myself continue to pile up the logs. There is an end in sight. At least I think there is an end in sight. For now at least, we have decided to start doing a little framing to get everything tied together. The exterior walls are all but complete and need to be tied together o keep them in place if a nasty little wind decides to come through and blow things around. I sure would hate to see all those logs laying back on the ground in a heap. I believe that they would officially become firewood at that point.


Here we are laying up the cap log on one of the gable ends of the cabin. The framing for the second floor will start on top of this log.

So, we start a little framing on the two main level bed rooms. Nothing fancy or tricky here. Just your typical run of the mill framing will do.

That all went pretty well. We now have what appears to be the makings of two bed rooms.

Here we are doing the framing for the front bed room. The center dividing wall is framed from 2x6's. The floor beams for the master bed room will rest on the center wall and need all the support they can get.









And now for the second bed room framing. You can see from this pic that the log walls are not completely finished. We are moving towards that goal as much as we can at the moment. Once the framing is complete, then we can finishde the log stacking and get it all braced and tied together.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I'll let the pictures do the talking....













































































































































And The Beat Goes On

Work continues on the cabin project. The log exterior walls are nearing completion. The weather has been perfect for frying eggs and baking biscuits. Hot, hot hot! Our little corner of the planet is almost 16 inches behind the norm for rain fall this year. The ground is parched and crops are suffering. At least it has given me plenty of time to get along on the cabin accomplish things that rain would bring to a halt.

Kim is if official photographer for the cabin project. She has become the one in charge of documenting each phase and milestone along the way. Example.......while I am lifting, dragging and setting logs on the walls........she takes the photos. All in a days work I suppose. The smile on her face gets bigger each day as the walls begin to take shape.

My dad has been there without fail. He has more or less taken charge, as much as I will allow anyway. He has his ideas and I have mine. That is always the case I think. But in the end, there are no compromises. We usually come to some sort of agreement on things and keep moving ahead. Kim's dad has came down a few times and pitched in. Every little bit helps as the saying goes. Truth is, I couldn't imagine having 6-8 people there to do this kind of work. There is barely enough room to move around with just Kim, dad and myself there.

In spite of a record dry season, yesterday was a slight exception. It did rain for about an hour or so. Just enough to soak everything and put the breaks on any log stacking efforts that would otherwise occur. A day of rest however is certainly not a bad thing.

Kim and I went to an estate auction last weekend in hopes of finding a nice antique piece of furniture to put in the cabin. It wasn't to be. There was only one china hutch there that would be considered antique. It had a few problems. One of the doors was cracked, cracked glass, and it wasn't as wide as I would like to have a hutch to be. It sold for $160. Worth it perhaps, but not exactly what I was looking for. So we passed it by. We did manage to be the winning bidders on Craftsman generator. After a little tlc, she's running like a champ. Now if the electricity goes out for some reason, we are prepared. It can also run all my power tools for the cabin project. No need to have a temporary service to get electricity on site. I also was high bidder on a box full of Coleman lanterns. Since we have an outdoorsy personality, these lanterns can shed a little light on a dark camping trip. I think I have about five of those lanterns now. What? You can never have to many lanterns! Oh, we also got a box lot of boating supplies. Like we need boating supplies. I wanted the paddles to carve on and maybe hang up in the cabin at some point. It's better not to ask questions, so please......it will become clear when the cabin is finished.

I will post some current pics of the progress in a day or so. Maybe tonight if I get a chance to fire up the puter.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Time to get caught up.......finally

I suppose that I should be honest with those who are reading this little blog of ours. See.......the cabin project is.......well...............is much farther along than this blog reflects. Most, I mean all of my time is spent cutting, measuring, drilling, pounding, caulking, fastening and lifting logs. That leaves exactly zero minutes to get the blog caught with reality. that is......until now.

As I attempt to get the blog in order...please under stand that there is a high probability that will forget something or at the very least get things out of the order in which they happened. So, I humbly beg your forgiveness as I recall as best I can the events of the past few days (weeks).

Once the floor trusses were finished, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty of what it means to be building a log cabin. The key word here is "Log".

They arrived on the 23rd of August just as promised. I was there waiting as the truck came up the hill to deliver them to there final resting place. Well, as close t final as I could get for the time being.
Here is a pic of the log packs just as the driver pulled in before unloading.

Believe it or not, our cabin is on this truck, nicely packed and neatly wrapped.


It's sort of like Christmas if you think about it. Just replace the reindeer with a big red truck and replace Santa with a good ole' boy from Morganton North Carolina and there you have it.
CHRISTMAS.....in August.......it's 98 degrees!!









So when it was all said and done, all the log packs were sitting on the sub floor with the exception of one pack left sitting on the ground.

This is a really good way of saving yourself a little on medical bills. If the logs are placed on the floor then one doesn't have to lift then onto the foundation which in my case is just over six feet high at the front of the cabin.

Yes....I know you can rent things to do the heavy work.....but as I discovered, Dang..those things are expensive!

I truly expected to be doing most if not all of the work myself.....si at this point I have started planning to build a boom pole to attach to my tractor to help me sit logs in place on the walls. Isn't it funny how everyone wants to help you but when it's time to put up or shut up, there is scarce a warm body to be found. Fair weather friends I believe is the term for that.

You never know how things are going to turn out. I must give my Dad lots of deserved credit. Just when I thought and was preparing to go it alone.....Dad comes down and jumps right in. I must say......we are both learning the ropes on this one. Between the two of us.....we have exactly no experience in log construction. All of that was about to change.....quickly.

We spent the first two days arguing about what to do and how to do it. We spent the next few days testing out theory.
Here is the gratuitous self indulgent pic of me and the lone pack pf logs that had to be placed on the ground.

Not to worry my friends......this is only a temporary resting place. You will soon be standing proudly on the wall of our little cabin.







So after the first two days of what shall call "intense discussion", me and dad get down to the business of trying to figure this stuff out. I went through all of the log packs to find the "starter logs", and wouldn't you know it..........they were in the last pack I opened. I shoud have started there first!
Building a log cabin is a game of firsts'. First measurement, first cut, first one thing then another. You get the idea.

Here me and dad (or is it dad and I?) preparing for the first cut of the starter log.

It was fairly unspectacular.....just a little four foot long piece to get started around the future fireplace.




And here it is! The moment I have waited for all my life (I'm not kidding about that)...placing the first log for our cabin!

We had so much fun at this.....we decided to put it on and take it off three times before we decided to move and and do something else.

It seems that we were right the first time.

The theory was, since we have such a long wa y to go with putting up logs.....we thought we would get a little practice in before we went to the next one.

As the first logs are placed, you are forced to think ahead. Now is when you drill all the holes for the electrical stuff. That wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I'm getting better at it, I think.

After two rounds of logs the electrical holes must be in place and then a new challenge......where oh where to put the windows?

This is me in my thinking pose. You can always count on Kim to take pictures of some very strange moments.

This was one of those moments.

There will be plenty more to follow.






So..............shew wee!...................After all that thinking, measuring, cutting, caulking, drilling, screwing and unscrewing, lifting up and taking down.........the walls beging to take shape.
Free Guestmap from Bravenet.com Free Guestmap from Bravenet.com