Building a Log Home

We were ready when the logs were delivered. We had our subfloor up and were excited to start on the logs. But, friends quickly learned this was hard work. W and I found ourselves alone more and more. The logs could be from 8 foot long to 15 foot long. Some weighed upwards of 300 pounds. All were suppose to be exactly 6 inches thick and could be between 8 inches wide to over 12 inches wide, with a few even wider. Whenever possible, we put a narrow log on top of a wide log. I could see little shelves scattered on my walls. Little roads for TK to run matchbox cars on. Higher up, little surprises sitting on a small scattered shelf. Even great places to hide Easter Eggs! At first it was easy to move my end of the logs in place. I was able to set the strips of water proof material that went between logs, one on each edge. We kept track of when a hole had to be drilled for electrical wiring. Those logs more or less had to be placed twice. Once to place it and cut the connecting V to the adjoining log, then it was lifted on one end so I could put blue chalk dust on the hole. Then W dropped the new log over the dust, then had to take it down to drill the hole. If we missed one hole, there would be no outlet at that location. This would prove especially important upstairs. Then when the log was positioned, W drove the 9 inch spikes that held the wall. Our plan called for only the outside walls to go up first. Inside walls would be added after the roof was on. Doors and windows were roughed in and cut later with a chainsaw. We also had one large opening in the east wall that would be the fireplace. The area over that living room would be open two stories high. This also became the only way we could bring the logs in as the wall got higher. They had to be carried from the drive on the west side, up the hill and through that hole. Across the opening we had a bridge of 2" by 12" boards to cross the hole that dropped to the basement.

The higher the walls got, the more trouble I was having. And the slower our work progressed. We also discovered our logs had not all been milled to the 6 inch thickness promised. We would haul a log up and get it set only to find it didn't match the thickness of the log we put it beside. Those gaps were not acceptable. You can't lay a log on top of two logs of different thicknesses. So we would have to take the log off and find another that was right. We had to start measuring each log before moving it. It was frustrating and we were worried that at that rate we wouldn't have enough logs.

After talking to the log company, we were forced to go to a lawyer and start a lawsuit to have the bad logs replaced. All of these delays meant that when winter arrived that fall of 1977, we weren't near as far along as we'd expected. We were barley to the second floor level. And the bank was pressuring us to show faster progress. Just business, they didn't care what the problem was. When the weather turned bad, I had an idea. But, no one seemed to think it was a good one and I couldn't get any support. I'd seen something on T.V. about a bug exterminating business that encased houses in a huge inflateable baloon to fumigate them. Why couldn't one of those baloon things be inflated over a work site, so work could continue all winter? No rain, no snow to wet things and if the air that inflated it was warmed, wouldn't it be possible to work no matter what the temp outside got to. W thought it would cost more than being idle all winter....and that was that. It probably wouldn't work for a single dwelling, but a construction company might find it a good idea. Probably not, it's been almost 30 years, and to my knowledge, no one else has thought of it.