Log Home Update: Part 18More logs on the walls

This has been a very, very busy week.

Once again, I drove from NJ to the PA building site early Monday morning. We had left the site on Friday afternoon with four courses of logs and all the window and door bucks (rough openings) in place. When I arrived, I found only Adam and Don on site and already laying out the fifth course. (Jim had been called back to his regular, full time job and would not be with us for this week at all.) I jumped in and went to work. By the end of the day, we had three more courses of logs in place bringing the total to six.


Don has devised “clips” from scrap lumber (actually the stickers from the palettes) to hold plastic sheeting on the tops of the logs so dew, frost or rain won’t soak the logs overnight making us wait until they dry off.

Tuesday was such a busy day I never even took the camera out. We were able to get three courses of logs down because we had prepped for the first course Monday afternoon. As we finished up, a cool breeze blew some drizzle in from the north.

Over night that cold front dropped the temperature to the 20s and the drizzle froze forming a thin sheet of ice that covered sizable areas of the working deck. As you might imagine, this made working an adventure. You’d be walking along and forget about the ice and the next thing you knew—zip! Your feet would slip and slide and your right foot is going one way and your left another. Luckily, no one fell but there were a couple of close calls.


Even with the ice Wednesday morning, we were still able to get two more courses down before calling it a day. Adam and I did most of the raising of the logs in the afternoon while Don went to work on the Scapewell windows from the basement.

Two of these large window wells on the west side of the basement will bring some natural light to the rooms downstairs.


By the end of the work day, the sun had warmed and dried the site nicely. Only three rows of logs to go.

Thursday was another beautiful day. Don, Adam and I wrestled the logs up to the 12th and 13th rows. Everything had to be done from the ladders. (Although, Adam did find those gymnastics lessons coming in handy!)


I forgot to mention the fourth member of our work crew—Simon. Simon, Don’s Springer Spaniel, lazed in the shade or on the front seat of the truck until someone (phone, electric or sewer) appeared. Then he would bark to attract our attention. He did a fine job and was regularly rewarded at lunch time.

Simon peers out the window at the end of Thursday. Thirteen of fourteen courses are completed.

Yet another cloudless sky on Friday as we put the final row of logs up. By now, my back was killing me and Don and Adam did most of the heavy lifting.

Don and Adam pose before the final log wall gets lagged down.

I left the site at this time to drive back to NJ but these two guys continued working. They were going to bolt this log down and then work on the second Scapewell window beofre calling it a week.