This is very cool log cabin

[Rob Littleton]

So..........

there is a family in here in Prescott that (before the growth), owned 50 fifty acres around the area. He is a familiar doctor in town.

Anyways, since the pine beetle started to its work, he has been loosing trees at a fair rate and didnt know what to do with the trees that fell. He decided to build a log cabin. He has a holding area for his logs and a big bandsaw and he mills these logs across the field then hauls them up to have them installed. (He and a helper or two).

The guys that are building this place are using just big tools. The dovetails that you see (look closely at the door) are being made with a chainsaw.......incredible. The door has 2 weeks work in it and it is around 5 inches think. Look at the way the logs interlock at the corners. Get this.............this is the guest house. He is starting on another a little down the road.........wow.......

[Keith Christopher]

Looks like the good Dr read up on timber frame homes. VERY nice indeed !

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I saw one built similarly that was a historic fire lookout on the edge of an Idaho wilderness. Some friends and I were riding the "green" out of some stock before hunting season. I'd bought a new header for my carport but couldn't figure out a way of getting it in place safely. We came out of the wilderness on horseback at this historic lookout. It was a log cabin with a "stickbuilt" tower rising up out of the middle. A retired Forest Service employee was spending his summer as a volunteer replacing the ground rotted logs. He met us at the trailhead and told us what he was doing and how he was raising the whole cabin and tower to replace the rotted logs. I asked how he was doing it; he showed me. It was interesting how the logs are dovetailed and interlock at the corners so no log meeting at the corner can kick out. The dove tails are actually dovetailed in two directions. He was matching existing angles by using a digital level to read the exact angles of the existing log and cutting matching angles on ends of the new one using neander tools. The design and craftsmanship of the original builders and this "repairman" was truly amazing! He was raising the entire structure using blocks and opposing wedges. I came home, made a jig for my table saw and made 24 12" 2x4 wedges. I built a temporary 24' wall crossbraced and about 1" too short. I nailed one end of the wall to a stud in the wall of my house. I framed another crossbraced 6' wall and attached it to the the other end of the 24' wall adding lateral stability. I removed the pins from the existing header and under each gusset of the carport roof I drove a set opposing wedges on top of the 24' temporary wall . As I started through driving the wedges in a 2nd time, a friend took a sawsall and started cutting out the existing header between each rafter. In less than 4 hours we removed the old header and installed a 5"x12" glue-lam header, removed and dismantled the 2 temporary walls and stacked out the lumber. I hate to admit it...the simplest and oldest tool.....a ramp.....a wedge....neander....it worked SAFELY!

Some of the "old" techniques....the neander techniques....the neander tools..the neander engineered designs and methods are truly amazing....but I probably shouldn't admit this in this power tool crowd! :rolleyes:

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I have always wanted to live in a log cabin. That's a really neat one for sure.

[John Miliunas]

Great design and spectacular detail and workmanship! That is really awesome. Hmmmm...A Dr. not afraid of good old manual labor. That's refreshing in and of itself! :) :cool:

[Dan Gill]

Hmmmm...A Dr. not afraid of good old manual labor. :) :cool:

He's probably an orthopedist. Have you ever seen orthopedic surgery? It's HARD WORK! With power tools and hand tools.

[Mark Singer]

Wonderful....I love the look ,creativity and crafstmanship!

[Chris Padilla]

Very cool, very cool.

[Jamie Buxton]

Lord, but log-built modern homes seem like they're fighting too hard with Mom Nature. The logs shrink and swell, so everything in the house has to be able to move up and down. You need sliding joints between the walls and windows, and the walls and doors. The same goes for joining a chimney to the walls. However, the sliding joints all must be airtight if you want good energy efficiency. Vertical runs of plumbing must have slipjoints or bending play in them. Vertical runs of wiring must have service loops in them. On top of that, the walls are solid, so you can't conceal plumbing and wiring inside them, and you have to build chases for them. The chases generally involve studs running vertically, so there's more sliding joints. And then there's stairs, which have these diagonal stringers that need to be able to move when the walls get shorter -- but they darn well better be secure.

Log cabins may have made sense in 1804, before all these modern conveniences came along, but now they seem crazy.

[Chris Padilla]

Well, hello there Mr. Wet Blanket!! Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, Jamie? ;) :D

[Jerry Olexa]

I LOVE the craftmanship shown in building this cabin! When I built mine, I ended up w kiln dried big beams, big spans etc but conventional lumber. I was afraid of the shrinking, movement etc mentioned above. Chris, you're right (wet blanket comment) but I had to be practical and it is still standing overlooking a ravine and on piers 20 years later. Only I get older and show the age. Interesting look though and great job! Thanks for showing!:)

[thomas prevost]

Having built two log homes, I take offense at the comments above.:mad: I love the asethics log homes offer.:) Log homes require a lot of forethought to get deisgn such that mechanics are on interior walls. All my electrical is within the logs where necessary. Lots of fun drilling a 3/4" hole down 40" (really one log at at time as they are laid). I designed it so all plumbing was in interior walls thus no need for slip joints. Also much of my wiring is in internal walls. In both cases, I cut the logs a year in advance, spud barked and let them dry. The second home, I did have the logs milled as it was entirely a one man erection. Also, the second was much tigher. We see a lot of weather in the minus 35 and below.:( Mine were northern round log homes.

The craftmanship in the southern log home is subperb!!!! Just with I had those kind of skills. The Dr. has to be real proud this accomplishment!:) :)