That old cedar log post won’t stay as is - I’ll be sanding, bleaching, and finishing the old log beam - but it will stay where it is. I’m truly excited to have a remant of the old farm incorporated into the new log home.

Once Eric and Richard have the beam and post installed they attempt to stabilize it all by adding a temporary 2 x 6 board from the interior wall to the spot where the beam meets the cedar log post.

You have to know Curtis to know that he was completely pulling Brad’s leg, and you have to know me that any young and able-bodied man that sets foot on our property gets put right to work!

So Bradley and Darren (?) stopped in, and I put them right to work, bringing 10 300+ pound logs down our makeshift ramp and piling them on the stack over 15 feet away!

Thanks guys! We’ve just nominated you out of the ‘wimpy-city-boy’ status and into the ‘rough-tough-rugged country man’ category you deserve to be in!

With the logs all together in one pile, we hope that Freymond Lumber will be able to pick up, use and credit us for the excess.

Remember that this is a relatively small log home, but we still needed to shop around for the best price as money is always an issue.

On Friday, August 1st, we picked up our windows and doors from Dan’s Discount Windows and Doors in Kitchener, Ontario. Their website is here, but you’re better off calling or visiting them in person to see their huge supply and get their best rates. The website doesn’t do the company any justice whatsoever!

When you visit and start pricing out windows and doors for your log home (or framed, brick, cottage, whatever) you’ll see why we took a 4 hour drive just to buy windows and doors! Their price/quote was $2,000 less than any other company we spoke to, they will custom order any product you desire as well as having a massive wander-through factory where you can get all types of deals on overstocks.

As an example, I picked up a double-door, 1/2 glass per door with 9 light mutton bars, steel (primed and ready to paint), and framed for just over $500! Beat that Home Depot! The glass panels are interchangeable so if I decide later to place some custom glasswork or factory design it isn’t an issue. One hour of exchange and I can have a whole new look to the front of my log home!

At any rate, as Eric and I moved the new windows and doors into the basement of our log home for safe keeping, my sandal spun around on my foot (the grass was wet and made everything extra slippery). Angered, I kicked the offensive sandal off and continued moving the windows and doors in my bare feet - this is my modus operandus after all.

Today wasn’t my lucky day! As Eric pushed the door through the frame, my hand slid and I didn’t navigate the door correctly - the aluminum plate at the bottom sliced through the side of my foot - nicking the bone and creating a big red puddle within seconds.

Eric suggested propping the door up while I tend to my cut - not knowing how bad it was - but I demanded that we finish the task of getting the door in and worry about the foot later.

As it turns out, I needed stitches and we needed help once again! Friends and family, Jennifer Foster, Christine Ives and (gosh I’ve forgotten his name, but I know and love him like family!) came to finish moving the doors and windows while I sat with my foot propped up on a chair.

A few hours later we headed to the hospital for stitches and a tetanus shot - and I skulked home like a shameful pup.

It was a short day, placing the final courses on the interior log wall, but again, heavier than I could manage.

The few photos below are of Charles (Chuck), Brian, Eric and Jake finishing up.

We only left a small space for the door way as we build. Eric will later arch this doorway with a chainsaw and I’ll sand the edges, but for now, it fits our small but mighty friend Chuck perfectly!

Inside and out, we finally reach full height. You can see the exterior and interior walls in this photo are all over 8′ high.

Here’s a quick video of our progress…

Here was something I just could not do, no matter how much I desired it. Humility has a way of teaching us a lesson more extreme than we’d hoped, and it wasn’t long before I had to admit my short-comings to friends - and ask for help.

To the rescue came two friends from Bancroft - Chuck Bailey and his soon-to-be-bride Summer - and two friends from Kitchener - Brian Wannamaker and Danielle Greaves (originally from Boulter and Paudash, respectively.

Danielle is one of the finest, sweetest women you’d ever want to be in the presence of. She’s beautiful, poised, intelligent and ready to roll up her sleeves. I shot this photo of her in a contemplative moment, but Danielle wasn’t sitting still for long, she chiseled out the remaining corners of the tongue-and-groove logs for the top two rows.

Summer Plaxton had her wedding day coming up in just two weeks. We were all worried she’d fall down the ramp and break a leg, cut herself and need stitches on the steel that bound the logs, etc. She escaped the log home building project without a scrape - resigning herself to helping me collect and truck 4 loads of garbage to the dump while the men did the heavy lifting.

Brian, Chuck and Eric worked diligently measuring, cutting, and laying the top rows of logs up. The very top row has to be flat (no tongue and groove) and the skill saw took most of the tongues off, with Brian cleaning up any excess.

Taking A Break

After a few hours of everyone working in the hot sun, we all took a break and enjoyed a home made pizza from the Carriere’s Old Homestead in Boulter. Renata made us two large pizzas to die for and between the six of us we devoured every bite.

Here’s Eric perched in a window and enjoying every bite. It never ceases to amaze me how a 6′5″ man can fold up so small nor eat so much in such a short period of time!

Brian bit into a hot pepper here (sitting next to Charles) I think…

Log homes are not like traditional framed houses in that there is little room for adding outlets, wires and switches (running inside the walls) once the house is built. You can’t just knock out a square of drywall and run wires down 2×4s when your walls are 6 inches of wood.

In the photo below, Eric is using my router (that I used to use in preparation of custom country signs) without the safety guard to create perfectly measured, rectangular cut-outs for the outlets.

At half the depth, here is the first pass of the clothes dryer outlet. Eric will need to make one more pass to make this outlet deep enough to hold the junction box in our main floor laundry room.

Once the hole has been completed, we must also make space for the electrical wire to pass through the log wall and into the basement (where the breaker box will be installed).

The log containing the outlet for our dryer will be on the second log, so we must also measure and drill into the first log laid to ensure the electrical wiring passes through the logs smoothly. I think one of the nicest parts of this entire procedure is that the chance of a fire in our log home as a result of mice running through the walls and chewing on wire are slim to none!

Thankfully the few areas we had to work on were not utilizing full 16 foot long logs (weighing over 300 pounds).

Most of the work in building our log home over the next few days involved shorter, pre-measured lengths leaving adequate room for the large windows that would later be installed. For this reason we continued building around the home and waited for stronger help to arrive (next weekend) to place the last two courses.

Even the shorter logs can be a challenge though! Measuring twice, cutting once is imperative and likely the reason we had over a full lift of 16 foot logs left over at the end of the build. If you are as cautious, anti-waste, and cost-aware as Eric is when he’s building any structure this may also be your experience. Check with your lumber yard, log home dealer or mill to see if they will credit you for returning the extras.

Freymond Lumber in Bancroft, Ontario, Canada was our supplier and provided delivery of milled logs to our building site. As long as the logs had not been uncovered (not exposed to rain and UV rays) and had remained on the lift (not sitting on the ground and potentially rotting) they were happy to credit our account for a full lift of milled lumber. I cannot say enough positive about Freymond Lumber - they have helped, delivered, provided quotes and estimates, always exercised care and caution when on site, forever friendly, and provided excellent product at an excellent price.

As you know we are not experienced builders of log homes, but Freymond’s treated us with respect and shared many valuable building tips whenever we entered their offices.

Finally, here is a video showing you our progress to date (July 23rd) inside and outside of our custom log home.

Once we’d completed the exterior walls, and as we waited for strong friends to assist in getting the final courses of logs (top rows), Eric and I set to building the interior walls of our home.

Interesting to note that logs not yet exposed to the sun had the bleached pine look, while the other logs, only a week in the sun, were already taking on the orange hue of traditional log homes.

This wall that we’re building over the next few days separates the main floor bath, master bedroom, and linen closets from the dining, living, kitchen area of the home. There will be one standard sized doorway that Eric plans to roughly arch with a chainsaw (and which I will need to sand to beautify).

The first (lower) log laid for the interior wall had to be shaved, chiseled, cut to ensure it would align and be level with the existing exterior walls. Our logs, which rest on the foundation’s sill plate, were a smidge over an inch lower than the sub-floor - not much more than the tongues had to be removed from the bottom of the logs.

Well, 2/3 complete on the first floor at least.

Just:

• one week after the logs were delivered,
• with only one day of rest in between,
• working away at building this log home for 5-8 hours per day,
• just the two of us,

…and we have completed 2/3 of the first floor.

We were not completely alone and could not have managed what we did manage without a number of helpers. David and Lucille Burke (for giving us a nice home to return to interim), Lucille Kyle and Ildaco Koster (for feeding us lunch one day), Lindsay Childs (for shopping for us, cooking for us, and generally filling in whereever there was a need), and more that I’m sure I’m forgetting - due to exhaustion.

I will add some photos of our progress tomorrow.

Here’s one:

The next few days will entail a continuation of the building on the main floor, then building the sub-floor for the second floor loft and Veronica’s room.

As for what happens next, I’m not sure. You’ll have to stay posted for information, news, videos and photos on building a log home - right here!

If you don’t know us personally, it’s important to note that the logs only arrived 6 days ago and most of the work (regarding laying out the logs) has been done by the two of us. This is not said to ‘toot our own horn’ but to alert others that ‘where there is a will, there is a way’.

I am a 45 year old woman - part computer geek who is horribly out of shape. My husband is 36 and just one year ago amputated his left thumb with a chainsaw (it was sewn back on, but it not 100% functional). Believe me, if he and I can build a log home mostly by ourselves, so too should you be able to!

It’s also important to note that only 6 days before the shooting of this little video our logs arrived. Neither one of us is currently tied to a traditional job so we have been able to work a little every day at building this log home. We took one day off out of 6, and most days we only worked 4-6 hours due to heat stroke, exhaustion, social commitments, and rain. Imagine what you could do yourselves if you worked harder, and longer, days - or had more help? This is only 22 seconds long, so even if you’re on dial-up you should be able to watch it.

If you want to continue to observe our progress, be sure to subscribe to our log cabin home channel on YouTube or add this page to your favorites!

Thank you for visiting today!

They also are our supplier of logs for the ‘build a log home’ project here. It is my pleasure to showcase their product, blaze their logo, and recommend them to you for your own log home building project.

In fact, should you call them, let them know you heard about them from Laura Childs’ website (or email me directly by leaving a comment below) and I’ll do whatever I can to help you with your project. Or perhaps Dan or Lou Freymond themselves will show a special interest in your project (I don’t want to overstep my boundaries and speak for them directly, but they are very friendly and helpful people). I think you’ll find that Freymond Lumber does a little bit more for their customers - at better than average prices and they’re happy to answer questions, provide quotes, and offer suggestions along the way in a timely fashion - than most log and timber suppliers I’ve spoken to.

The Moment We Were Waiting For…

We were all so excited about our log order coming that Veronica video taped Gord Trolley coming down the driveway. If you’re interested, you can watch it below. Far more impressive I think is the fact that Gord backed the truck back out of the driveway once he delivered the logs. His truck was a tandem load (not sure if that’s the right term) and our driveway has a few good ruts in it but Gord backed out faster and safer than I can take my own little car out of my own driveway. At any rate, here’s the video of Gord coming in….

Once Gord arrived he took a quick survey of the property, our current build status and determined to place 1/2 the log order on the sub-floor for us - making it far easier to work on the walls of our new home.

While Gord surveyed the layout and assessed the situation, Veronica was busy peeking at the logs and took this shot for us.

Gord flings up a few chunks of lumber for the first lot to sit on.

The balance of the logs, those on the trailer of the truck, are placed to the side of our building site. Gord says if we give him a few days notice, he might be able to come back and hoist the remaining up for us.

I can’t tell you how much this helps when you’re building a log home. Since most of our order seems to be 16 foot logs - and since they are 6×10″, they weigh (round about) 300 pounds each. Imagine, if you will, trying to lug a 300 pound, 16 foot long, log up a 10 foot ramp - with or without a partner! You’d get pretty tired, pretty quick, I promise!

Tomorrow I’ll show you how much you can expect to raise in a day of building a log home - even if there’s only two of you building the home!

The first step was to cap off the ICF (styrofoam and concrete foundation blocks) with 2×12 pine boards creating a fully wooden ’sill’ of sorts for the first course of logs to rest upon. Next a vertical support system around the top of the block was installed (see photo below).

With this initial joist support system in place, and coupled with the steel support beam across the width of the log home, we were ready to begin laying 2×10 boards for floor joists. Rather than hoist each board from where they lay in a pile at ground level, Laura carried every board to approximate proximity of where it would be used, leaning against the foundation of the house. This way, as Eric prepared himself to use each board, they were at hand and ready.

Eric, of German descent and trained to build structures by a Dutch step-father, measured twice around the perimeter of the foundation and began laying the floor joists out (flat at first before nailing in place). Since our lumber provider (Freymond Lumber, Bancroft, Ontario) and our architect (Larry Haight, Bancroft, Ontario) are so good at what they do, no cutting of the boards was required.

The result, from the basement view (where I spent a few hours escaping the blazing hot sun) was reminiscent of a jail cell as the afternoon light filtered through.

On the south side of the house, the process continues and those joists meet the north-side joists at the steel beam. You can see the overlap below.

The final step in the process of laying our sub-floor (of the main floor, of the log home) is to place the plywood sheeting down. The plywood supplied from Freymond Lumber is tongue and groove, perfectly cut and level. To ensure the floor won’t shift, squeek or cause us any grief in the future, we glue the joist tops, lay the plywood square to the exterior frame and screw it down with special glue and flooring screws (check with Eric on the type/name here).

To ensure a tight fit, each plywood’s ‘tongue’ is pounded into the next sheet’s ‘groove’. Using our own body weight when required and waste 2×4 as a pounding buffer, then making sure that every sheet’s edge meets the middle of a joist.

Want to see who showed up to help?

Brian Wannamaker from Kitchener came to help and brought a round of freezies and chocolate milk.

Peter (from Belgian Nurseries in Kitchener) came and lent a hand (you’ll see him in one of the first pictures in this post), plus he brought his younger brother Nick.

Nick arrived just in time to help Laura move those darn floor joists around the foundation and he hoisted up many of the plywood sheets. Nick also was quite gracious in the fact that I called him “Hank” all day and he didn’t even give me a hard time about it! Ugh.

The End of The Log Home, First Floor, Sub-Floor, Project

Although it seems a minor and mindless task, laying the sub-floor is actually time consuming and
precise work. We see this as one of the important foundations of everything else that will be built upon this floor and sill. Uneven or non-square sub-floors will cause all kinds of trouble to log home builders and owners over time. Square it up, and keep everything you build around it square and you will have a strong and true log home that lasts longer and is more of a joy to live in.

The work was 3 days long from sill, to joists, to sub-floor, but they weren’t exactly full days and we did have help in our friends Brian, Peter and (ahem) “Hank”. But overall, at the end of the day (or end of the build), the brunt of the work and the responsibility for perfection rests on our shoulders and tires our backs.

Now, enough whining and onto the log raising!