Building the Second Floor of A Log Home

Our log home is growing, even if it was at a slower pace than I had hoped, it was still moving skyward and the building progress continues.

You can now see our home, initially tucked away from the world down a long driveway, from the road. Above the treetops the structure emerges.

Remember that the basement, our shining white Logix base, will soon be back-filled - bringing the turf just 2 feet from the bottom of the log floor. On top of 12 rows of 6×10 tongue-and-groove stacked logs you can see the first framed wall in the photo below.

The second wall we built was a headache.

If I thought lifting and securing the first wall was a headache, then this new wall was worthy of so much more pain! The calculations of the angles, leaving adequate space for the ridge beam, framing out windows, and ensuring the roof pitch on either side accommodated our architectural plans caused us to create, tear down, and re-create this wall a few times over.

Even though we rebuilt this wall a few times, we were only certain of it once before placing it on the log sill.

It was so late in the day however, that when we finished the building task, we hoisted and supported the 14′ monster in the dark and by the light of our cell phones!

Richard and Dagny Musclow helped hoist, secure, and light the path. Once lifted, the wall had to be shifted 5″ along the log wall sill, to meet up with the corner of the first wall, before being secured.

This next photo shows the windows, the supports, and the awkward angles of each side of the roof. On the right in the photo, the angle is less sharp to allow for the shed dormer and full ceiling height in the second floor living space.

A closer look at windows in a framed wall of our soon-to-be completed log home.