THE TINY CABIN

I Love This!!!

A tourist from New York City was hiking through the mountains of North Georgia when he came upon the tiniest cabin he had ever seen in his life. Intrigued, he went up and knocked on the door."Anybody home?" he asked."Yep," came a kid's voice through the door."Is your father there?" asked the tourist. "Pa? Nope, he left afore Ma came in," said the kid."Well, is your mother there?" persisted the tourist."Ma? Nope, she left just afore I got here," said the kid."But," protested the city slicker, "are you never together as a family?""Sure, but not here," said the kid through the door. "This is the outhouse!"

THE FOYER IS DONE

The foyer is finally finished. I've "tweeked" it some since these pictures were taken, but you can see the end results with the horizontal beadboard. The color in these pictures are "off"some, but not too bad. It gave me the look and feel that I was looking for.

THE ADDITION

The Addition was added in 1994

I'm not going to go into so much detail as I have on the cabin. It was exciting to see the addition being built, but not nearly as much as when we built the log cabin. Larry did most of the work on the addition but we did hire some things done. We built the garage first so we'd have a storage place for all our belongings that we brought with us. We had lots of great help building the garage from our friends and family. It was built in about 10 days. Si Baldwin and Kirk Dietzman, Rick Melton, John Henderson, Don Carter and Dick Shipway were some that came from the Endwell area to help. Our kids were also very involved as they were with the log cabin.

This first picture is the finished addition.

Checking the plans. Here's my friend Anita. Dick and her had come

for a visit and to add their help and expertise.

As I mentioned our kids were here to help...well some of them anyway (hehehe) What are you doing Steve and Sue? I know, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

Of course Scott as usual sticks right to the job. Guess which one is Scott.

Before the siding and porch. That's Dick and Anita Shipway's car

Note the porch on the side of the addition has been started

Here's Sue, Lisa, Stephanie and Sharah

Third Floor Loft

Note the faces looking through the heart shapes, including the cat.

This is the 3rd floor loft that Stephanie mentions in "This Old Cabin". It's above the 2nd floor loft, in the very peak of the cabin. (taken before the ceiling was finished) The grandkids loved to play, hide, and sleep up there. They would look down through the heart shape openings and "spy" on the adults and often floated notes down to the first floor.

Abby, Megan and Darcy

Cabin in the Woods

The back and side view of the almost finished cabin. You can see the pond out in front of the cabin. The window holes are there, but the windows themselves aren't in yet. Larry made each of the windows by himself. Later on they were all replaced by Anderson windows when we moved in permanently.

Note there are still logs on the ground that weren't used.

Bleaching the logs

Unfortunately the logs got very dirty from the pine pollen that always falls during the months of May and June. We had to clean them up with bleach.

Insulating between the logs

Here's Steve and Scott putting insulation between the logs. Note Scott's hanging there by a rope. (By the seat of his pants) It was quite an itchy project, each strip had to be cut first to fit between the logs. These guys hung in there every day, we couldn't have done it with out them.

Remember this??? Grampa Cramer

Grampa Cramer goofing off. He was the one that had the heart attack, but I was the one feeling like I was going to have one if he didn't come down off that roof.

The Cabin and Porch Roofs

The rafters are ready for the roof(s) You can see the camper that we stayed in while we were building the cabin.

(Scott and Steve)

Loft logs are in

I can't believe how skinny I was. Scott and I in the front doorway which has been framed in.

Raising a log up with Ropes

All the logs were lifted into place by Grandpa's forklift/tractor except this one, which was done with block and tackle or ropes.

Notching for the loft

Larry/Dad

Window Holes

Sue helping Dad/Larry with the window openings

A Good Start

5 logs high! You can see the doors and windows starting to appear. It's starting to look like a real log cabin The cabin was originally built with a single sliding glass door where Larry is standing. In later pictures you'll see where that was expanded to a 12' wide door! The log protruding out in front is for the porch.

Notching the sill logs

Larry notching a log for the floor joists to fit into it.

Scott finished them by chiseling them all by hand.

That first log...again

That first log for the sill slipped so Larry had to put chains on it and try again

Placing the first log

Larry riding on that first log as Grampa Cramer drives his tractor and moves the log with the forklift. This log was used as a sill and placed on the footers.

Burning branches and bark

Steve and Sue

Some times the fire was humongous. One day a state trooper stopped by to see what was going on. He said the smoke was so bad on the highway that one couldn't see the car ahead of you. He just told us to keep it down a bit.

Peeling the logs

Scott and Shari peeling a log

That's me above and Larry and I below

After each log was peeled we would drag the bark to the fireplace and burn the bark and branches, otherwise the woods would be a mess and much harder to clean up later. Note Sue's comment under " The Log Cabin Begins"

Scott giving a push so the tree will fall over

Steve and Scott

THE LOG CABIN BEGINS

TIMBER !!!!!

One of the first trees to come down and the largest

I thought it quite scarey to hear the chainsaw buzzing, then a cracking noise as the trunk gave way , someone yelling "timber" and then the tree fell to the ground with a thud. I was sure that Larry knew what he was doing but it was still frightening to have your husband and kids undertake such a huge job of cutting down the trees. Grandpa, who was the expert logger and had cut logs for years, was around a good bit of the time, giving lots of advice.

Cabin Scrapbook

I took pictures but unfortunately we didn't have digital camera's back then, so I didn't take too many pictures. This is the first page of the scrapbook that I compiled

Larry's Dad "Perry" was recovering from a heart attack so was very limited in how much he could get involved in building. He was a logger by trade so he was right in his element and he became "overseer". He owned a tractor with a forklift which we used to lift most of the logs.

The main contributors helping us to building the cabin were our children: Steve, Shari, Scott and Sue. There were others that dropped by occassionally and would lend a hand. Note the list.