Log Set Part 1

Raising the logs is the one aspect of log house building that everyone wants to see and participate in. (After that they disappear.) So, here are some pictures of our log raising in October 2008. At that time I was too sick to do much more than watch, take a few pictures, and sleep. Much of what went on I missed or don’t remember.

The ten-inch wall logs came from standing dead timber in Idaho and the larger beams came from standing dead timber in Canada. At the arid Challis, Idaho log yard of Pedersen Logsmiths the logs dried further while other jobs were completed. Jeff Pedersen predicted that there would be little or no settling of the logs after the house was built. A year later, we’ve detected barely any settling. (This is not always the case.)

Our logs lie in Jeff Pederson's Challis, Idaho log yard.

When our turn came, Jeff and his crew hand-peeled the logs, notched them, and constructed the shell according to blueprints from Trent Roman of Northwest Planning and Design. Each log was numbered according to which wall it belonged to and its orientation.

I know from first-hand experience how much work is involving in peeling logs.

Challis, Idaho: Seven rounds of logs are built and you can tell where the windows and doors will be. This picture by Jeff Pedersen was our first view of our future home.

Then the whole thing was disassembled and loaded onto two flatbed trailers. The trucks headed out to Colorado, about a two-day trip. Jeff loaded his pickup with tools, following the trucks.

Meanwhile, John had rounded up friends and firefighter buddies to help at the logset. For me, he set up a cozy bed in a storage building near the action so I could retreat when I got tired but still be able to hear and watch what was going on. A local crane operator was hired and he brought his family of teenage boys. A house was rented for Jeff, who would spend nearly a week supervising and doing detailed fitting work. We were all ready and excited when the trucks pulled in with the logs.

It's a house! The first truckload of logs pulls onto our street.

Volunteer helpers took turns directing Jack Ferguson (operating the crane) and slinging logs in groups to be unloaded into piles.

Bill and Tom guide the crane and put slings under the logs.

Jack Ferguson at the crane controls. We were extremely fortunate to have a local crane available rather than hiring one from Pueblo, thirty miles away.

The gables arrived partially assembled.

Each wall of the house is tagged with a different color slip, numbered according to its place in the wall.

Logs everywhere. You could hardly move around.

Here comes the first log, the beginning of the wall between the main part of the house and the master bedroom "cabin addition". There is no doorway opening in this log. Until Jeff cuts it out later, when the wall is stabilized, everyone steps over it. That's paint, salvaged from a local paint store's mis-mixed stash, on the subfloor. It's intended to help protect the plywood from weather.

Jeff Pedersen brought this apparatus for lifting logs with the crane.

On to Log Set Part 2

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