Part of my job this past week has been to get our log walls back into shape before staining and top coat.

I’ve chosen a pickled white, or white wash look for the interior look of our home. As a family we chose a stain called Sandalwood for the exterior.

Both are light stains, but the Sandalwood is a warmer hue that brings out the veins of color in the wood while overall giving the exterior walls a warm and gentle tone.

As you may have read in an earlier post of mine, the logs are stained by the floor joists above them and/or the decking screws, as well as our hands and boots while we worked on building the home.

So I’ve been bleaching them to bring them back to their original beauty.

Some are as bad as the photos I shot for you today - below.

One pass over the logs with 1/3 bleach solution (no scrubbing yet) brings the logs back this much (below). The top log hasn’t been touched by bleach yet. Another scrub and perhaps a sand is required to bring them back fully to their original beauty.

Today, with the help of master carpenter George Tenthorey our roof was finally, fully framed. Now is the time to sheet and shingle.

Eric must have drawn this out, tried to explain it, and even made little roof shapes with his massive hands, 15 times or more over the last month for me. I still couldn’t see it.

Today the roof shows its shape. The ‘bones’ are done.

When you look at the photo below you’ll see why this roof drove us to distraction, a few harsh words between us, and at least a month to complete!

There were just too many angles on this busy roof and somehow they all had to come together to hold up to our harsh weather conditions.

Friends who helped all said the roof style and structure is cumbersome and difficult to build, but will be worth it. During the last month I wasn’t so sure it would ever be finished, much less worth the work and headaches.

But as you stand in the center hall and glance upwards you get a feel for the room and roof and I know it will be, already is in fact, beautiful.

Here’s our friend George - most of the way through the day, climbing up and down the ladder like he’s 20 years old again! I won’t tell you precisely how old George is, but he is over 70. He is a busy and active man, long since retired, but on the go every day nonetheless.

This was my first opportunity, since I’ve known George, to work near him. Eric says he’s one of the finest, easiest, and hardest working men he’s ever worked with.

It was an honor to have George spend the day with us and lend his workmanship to our needs. George, of course, will say the honor was all his - he’s just that kind of man!

Here’s a ‘joy’ I never need to experience again…cleaning the logs with bleach.

When you’re building a log home, the logs arrive pristine and white. They’ve just been through the mill and are barely kissed by the sun before they are wrapped up, tied up, and shipped to the log home builder.

As you set to work however, your hands get dirty, your jeans leave a mark when you move them, you have to climb the new log walls to get to the second floor, and perhaps the elements get to them as well if you don’t get your roof on fast enough.

By the time you’re ready to start staining and sealing the interior and exterior of your log home, your once glowing logs are a mess.

Streaked, stained, and dirtied.

The sun has beaten down on them and brought out the natural golden-orange tones of the wood and the rain has passed over the joist hangers and decking screws and left long gray streaks on your new log walls.

I’m going to propose to you that although building a basic log home (no crazy roof design) can be faster, the process of making that house a showpiece home will slow you down considerably when it comes time to prepare the log walls for inhabitation.

Oh yes, there’s one more piece that sullies the logs - the ’stickers’ (chunks of lumber) that are placed below each skid of logs - they’ve been soaked in oil that deters rot but blackens them. Those stickers also make one hell of a mess and transfer ugly black stains onto any log that touches them.

The solution isn’t the same for everyone…

Perma-Chink makes a product called Log Wash (which is a little out of my price range right now) which is supposed to do wonders.

Or you can have your logs media blasted - I don’t know the cost of this but it sounds more of a process and expense than I’m interested in right now.

Most people, however, use bleach to bring the wood back to pristine white, remove the sticker stains and joist hanger streaks.

• 1/3 bleach and water solution.
• Be sure to rinse well after bleaching. Bleach will eat through and shorten the fibers of your logs if not well rinsed.
• Use a stiff, but natural bristle scrubbing brush - or risk chewing through the log you so carefully placed while building your home.
• By all means wear gloves and be sure the area you’re working on is well ventilated.

My tips to share so far are:

1. 1/3 bleach doesn’t always cut the mustard. Sometimes you have to straight bleach or sand the mess off.
2. Go to a country supply store and get calfing gloves for full arm coverage. I wore long rubber gloves for a day’s work and am now sporting chemical burns where the gloves ended and my skin touched the bleach.
3. Re-think your notions of white-wash log stain. If your logs are too stained, no amount of pickled white log home stain will cover the mess underneath.

If you are a log home builder or own a log home yourself and have valuable tips to share with others, please leave them in a comment below.

As for me, it’s back to the building site and buckets of bleach!

The logs arrived and 10 days later Eric and I had the walls built.

We thought rather highly of ourselves.

We thought we were the best team to ever work side by side together.

We thought we’d be moved in to our new log home in just a few more weeks.

That was two months ago!

The framing and the roof structure has slowed us down to be sure, but today with Richard and Dagny by our sides, the final gable end was built and positioned.

I actually have a video of Eric and Richard placing this gable end on the log home sill, which will be available soon on YouTube. (I can’t upload it from here as I’m at the lake and on dial-up.) It is actually kinda cool to see it being built and lifted into place.

Not shown in this photo is the 20′ ridge beam holding this final piece of the puzzle roof in place. All that is left to do now, before sheeting and shingling, is to hang rafters from the center-front ridge to the side rafters.

The roof line is starting to make sense to all of us who just don’t see in three dimensions by looking at architectural plans of front, side and slices.