About to start Rollin'...

Yes, it has been a long time since we last posted. But I am happy to say we are back, and about to start rollin' on this dream cabin adventure. Stewart went to Kansas for 3 weeks for training with his company in the new jet (pretty sweet). Then, we took a little trip to California for a week and had a little honeymoon while we were out there. (Yes, it's been 7 1/2 years, but we like to take honeymoons.)


This past week has been the first time in a while that we have really gotten some full days of work on the cabin. It felt great!! We really started rolling, and the weather couldn't have been better! Wish it felt like this all the time in Bama!

Even though we have been away from the cabin, we have been thinking alot about stain colors and have done alot of stain samples. That part can be difficult! But, we have decided on our stain colors for the logs exterior & interior, & the floor joists. Yeah!!! So glad to have that figured out. You would think that you would use the same thing for the exterior & interior stain for the logs, but it doesn't work that way. They are totally different formulas, and come in different colors, but we got it figured out. Thanks Sashco!

In the meantime, here is an update on the progress we've made:

Stewart got the front gable framing finished, and started on the back gable. We have ordered some special trapezoid windows for the back gable & are just waiting on the rough window estimate before Stewart finishes the framing for that back gable.








(Back gable started w/ a view from the kitchen window. My, what nice girder you have...)












We also got all of the floor joists set up and washed, so they are ready to stain. We washed them with the biowash product we used on the logs, only because some of them had started to gray from the sun.









We then began notching out for the floor joists. Yay!! The floor joists are what the second floor sits on. This was a little tedious & kind of slow going, but we got it all finished. It was actually pretty fun. I'm putting alot of pictures of Rachel notching, because she notched them all out. It really feels neat to have a chisel in 1 hand, a sledge hammer in the other, and to know you notched every single one by hand in your log cabin. Very rewarding. I can only imagine what it will feel like when we are living inside of this beautiful creation we have dreamt up.... I'm not gonna lie, my back is sore & my hand is bruised from where I missed the chisel & hit my hand, a few times.

(How do you like them notches?)












(Notching out the front wall)














(Rachel, chisel & sledge hammer in hand)












(Girder log sliced like bread for the floor joists)
In case you are wondering what Stewart was doing the whole time Rachel was
"chiseling away," Stewart was very busy being the brains of this relationship. He had the fun task of making sure every single notch was perfectly level on a very round & curvy log. Once everything was level, he marked each place for Rachel to notch, then he would slice it like bread to get it started.





















(Rachel in what appears to be a senior moment: "Where's my ear phones????"
Stewart: "They're on your head, Rachel...")

Once all of the notching was completed, Rachel began prepping the logs for the staining by blowing off all of the loose sawdust & wiping down the logs with a damp cloth. Stewart went up on the roof to cut out the holes for the recessed lights in the ceiling.

(Stewart & John Simpson , a fellow LHBA member cutting the holes for the recessed lights)











(One side down, looks good!)













(Just had to throw in 1 more picture with the Ridge pole & RPSL log)










Stay tuned!! It's about to get really exciting. Next up, staining the logs & finishing the roof. After Thanksgiving ofcourse...