Richard Musclow (of Musclow Heating, geo thermal specialists in Bancroft, Ontario) stopped in to lend a hand hoisting the tie in beam, (front of house to back of house), building a small, cosmetic wall (hiding the ugliness of a fridge side), and installing my century old, hand hewn log as my center post.

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.

Curtis Foster came by and checked on us - and helped heave a few logs around - but the best part of Curtis’ visit happened after he got home! His nephew Bradley was there, along with one of his city friends, and Curtis told Bradley that Eric needed to speak with him…

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.

If you’ve had a chance to look at our plans, you’ve already seen that we have many large windows in the log home, four double doors (front entrance and all patio and deck exits) - in total 17 windows and 8 doors. We’re not even counting interior doors yet!

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.

Since we didn’t quite finish the top rows on Saturday, some of our friends came back on Sunday to lend their hands to our log home building project again.

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…