My Cabin

[digitS']

Forty years ago, I began building a cabin. Well, I started with the woodshed, progressed to a barn - where I spent that 1st winter. The logs for the cabin were cut the next year.

Yep, it was a log cabin. Do you know what the new owner did to it? Covered it with siding . . .

It is still there. I never went back because it would have been just to painful to see it. The barn went quickly. I suspect that it burned because it was gone within a few years of the property being sold. But, the cabin is still there, set back from the road with evergreens in between. It is still covered with siding and I kind of wonder if the poor old thing isn't in some kind of state of decay by now.

So, do you suppose I could buy it back from the guy who lives in it? Then, repair it like this? Cabin in Switzerland (link)

Take a moment to see, & imagine, how they did that ! I think it was So Lucky who was saying how creative some people are.

Steve

 

[journey11]

Why on earth would anyone put siding on a cabin!

Ha, funny how the concrete looks like logs from a distance. The whole thing falls rather short of warm and cozy though. Neat view of the rock cliff behind. It would probably make for a relaxing bath, but I don't think I could get comfortable doing anything else there.

 

[Smart Red]

Could it be that siding it once was easier than chinking it yearly? It must have been a great location, because I can't imagine purchasing the rustic simplicity of a log cabin just to be siding it.

You could possibly buy it back, but not to make it like the Alpine lodge. I doubt Dew would want to live in that concrete cage. I sure wouldn't!

 

[Nyboy]

You can buy it back. Everything is for sale at the right price.

 

[thistlebloom]

Sad about your log cabin...I have a genetic love for them . My mom was brought into this world in a log cabin, delivered by her grandmother, and lived there for her youngest years, and that same grandmother (my great ) later in her life lived in an old log cabin in town. Which was subsequently sided by the way. We kids used to walk there from her daughters' (my grandmas') house, and she always gave us old silver coins. I still have a 1890 silver dollar she gave me.

Have to agree with Journey on the interior of that Swiss one. Far too bleak and cold for me. But it's pretty cool how they used the old barn logs as a form.

 

[digitS']

Chinking it was a real chore. I had no idea!! I don't know how many days I spent on it initially - weeks, probably.

It wasn't very tight even after all that. I had worked building concrete foundations and put that in (& a concrete cellar ). I should have come up with an idea for laying those sill logs on the foundation but that floor was cold! If I spilled anything on it - it would freeze. There I am with my nice Ashley wood heater, an old cast iron range and a puddle of ice over in the corner of the kitchen floor .

No. I can't really imagine that the Swiss cabin is very warm like that. Still, basements are sometimes made warm & cozy with insulation board & paneling .

Now, they may have put paneling on the inside as well as siding outside. Why not??! I mean, I thought it was pretty silly that I had to dust the walls . . . Still, isn't it strange . . . :/

Steve
BTW, Hoodat has some pictures of his cabin in that Names & Faces thread at the top of the Me & My Garden forum. It looks like he did a real good job.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Ugh. I am just so not a fan of concrete or "modernist" design. I bet i would have loved your log cabin, digits! I wouldnt have put siding on either.

 

[Smart Red]

I should have come up with an idea for laying those sill logs on the foundation but that floor was cold! If I spilled anything on it - it would freeze.

We have the same problem with the wood shop. We have a corn burner that should easily heat a room larger than the shed and it is well insulated, but with a slab of concrete under foot, getting the air temperature above 'nearly comfortable' isn't going to happen until spring arrives.

 

[so lucky]

I kept looking at the rocks outside the bathroom window. From the outside, it doesn't look like there are any rocks that big out behind it. Maybe they just put those few rocks there..? Nice design, but I got a cold chill looking at it. Concrete is not my thang, either.

 

[digitS']

Oakum! That's what I should have put down on that concrete foundation . . . I guess. I'm still not too sure what "oakum" is. These days, they probably have a neoprene something.

No, it had a wood floor but I would have had to crawl under the cabin to get to the inside of the sill to seal it like the inside walls of the cabin. Never quite got around to it.

It wasn't sealed all that well upstairs either but I just closed that off during the winter. I don't know how that was dealt with. I wore a hat . . .

Steve