Does anyone live in a restored log cabin? I've always liked those espically the ones that are in a dog trot pattern..two cabins connected under one roof to allow cool breezes to waft between the buildings. There's one company near here that specializes in buying old log cabins then restoring them then selling them with bonuses such as full built cabins...however I'm talking about buying a cabin on it's original property and restoring it there...

Ted

-- Ted Hart (tedhart71@hotmail.com), January 23, 2001

Answers

Ted,we have redone our smoke house which is log and also have an ice house that we took down and moved here{it is not put yet}. Our house is log in the front and frame in the rear. What type of info. do you need? ask away...

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 23, 2001.

Charles McRaven wrote an excellent book called Building and Restoring the Hewn Log House. Try abebooks.com, bibliofind.com, or half.com for a used copy. He also wrote a good one on stone work.

-- Sam in W.Va. (turnip55a@yahoo.com), January 23, 2001.

Ted, we live in an old 1863 log cabin that was built on the original 1811 land grant. The corners were dovetailed; these logs were squared off. The only part of the house that is logs is only 16'x16' w/a 2nd floor. The rest of the house had been added on gradually with the last addition being done in 1953.

The biggest problem was when tearing off the siding to expose the old logs is it also exposed old window openings that we didn't know were there. So that had to be dealt with. The other problem was the chinking space was sometimes wider than the logs! No regrets. But mucho work and lots of surprises: some pleasant, some not so pleasant!!

-- JimR (jroberts1@cas.org), January 24, 2001.

Just wanted to know who lived in log cabins or had experiences with them that's all. :)

Ted

-- Ted Hart (tedhart71@hotmail.com), January 24, 2001.

Our house is 24 x 24 log two story with an addition, 24x11, in the back. The roof slopes long in the back so that the ceiling of the addition on the second floor is sloped.

The county says our home is about 150 yrs old but we think it is older. The beams in the attic are hand hewn and the roof has no ridgepole and the rafter are connected with pegs. We have a corrugated tin roof.

The house is covered with siding but the logs are exposed on one living room wall inside the house and on one bathroom wall (what would have orig. been the outside of the house before the addition.

We have considered removing the siding but are not sure we are ready to deal with the headaches. One side of the house has an ominous bulge but has not moved, to our knowledge, in the 5 years we've lived here. The problem appears to be on one corner where the addition is. It looks like we also need to do some work in the basement under that same corner. One friend of our, who was a licensed real estate inspector says the house is fine. Another friend thinks it is about to fall down around us.

My f-i-l put some plywood down in the attic for us and in the process was trying to cut some little grooves in the logs to lay some wiring and he said sparks were flying from the wood. The wood is supposed to be American Chestnut which is not available anymore because of the blight years ago.

We have considered the possibility of dismantling the house and selling the logs to a restorer or something.

Would appreciate reading about anyones experiences with their cabins or any input on what I mentioned.

-- Heather, Cackleberry Acres, MD (heathergorden@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001.

I know of an log cabin restorer in Fredericksburg, Texas. He comes all over the US to get log cabins. I'll dig up his email and website then post it here. Really informative stuff on his website!

Ted

-- Ted Hart (tedhart71@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001.