Tiny House Blog

Since the August update I have finished the roof, begun sealing up the cabin and hung the door and shutters. We’ve had several good soaking rains and a couple of strong windy thunderstorms since finishing up the roof and the cabin walls are dry! A cousin of mine has donated a kerosene heater to keep me nice and warm this fall as I finish sealing up the walls.

There is still plenty of work to do but the construction phase of the cabin is for the most part complete. As a result my journal entries will probably be considerably fewer from here on out.

Thanks again so much for sharing my project with your readers. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. On a final note I wanted to remind everyone that The Shed Blog is now accepting entries for the 2011 Shed of the Year Competition. Of course I’ve entered the House of Fallen Timbers. I encourage all your readers to take a look at the entries and leave comments for the makers of the sheds you would like the judges to reward. Continue Reading »

David Lottes from who is building the House of Fallen Timbers just sent me his August update. Here is what he has to say about it:

Since the last update I finished the walls and stacked the purlins, gables and ridgepole. I’ve had a couple of nice weekends weather wise and it’s a good thing. Stacking the purlins was a monumental job. I wanted to be sure and use good strong logs to support the roof but I don’t have the know how to contrive a device for lifing so it was all elbow grease.

Now to finish trimming up the gables and securing the salvaged sheet metal, then I can see if my found bags of concrete are still in usable condition for chinking.

A friend of mine loaned me a copy of The Foxfire Book with a chapter on building log cabins and it confirmed my theory that sealing up the gaps in the walls with small scrap logs is a traditional time tested method. It even shows an example of a cabin that used concrete for chinking so that made me feel much better about my plan. Hopefully the September update will show a sealed up cabin with a finished roof!

Lyle Congdon my friend from Jalopy Cabins sent me an update on their latest cabin which I had covered earlier this year.

Without all the snow and rain here in southwest Colorado, Lyle and Wolf at Jalopy Cabins have finally been able to complete their latest cabin, the “Ski Hut.”

If you missed the earlier post here is Jalopy Cabins mission: In keeping with our mission to use primarily reclaimed, salvaged, or some one else’s mistakes (ie the windows on this cabin) we were able to build this new cabin just the way we wanted.

The logs came off of the ski resort about 30 minutes from where we live and were from all the clean up they did for the slopes before the season began last year. The hand peeled round logs were more work but really worth it in the end. Continue Reading »

David Lottes sent me a progress report for The House of Fallen Timbers and I thought you would enjoy seeing his progress. Here is the previous post if you are seeing this for the first time.

The walls are half way up now! I’m still on target to get under roof by August but I’ve had some real weather issues. We had over 8 inches of rain in June and the heat has been stifling for the last three weeks. This combination has led to a huge explosion in the mosquito population. I hadn’t thought about weather conditions being such a challenge.

Rain makes the logs slippery and dangerous and on dry days the extreme heat makes working long hours in the sun just as dangerous as slippery logs. We have had several cases of West Nile virus here in Illinois over the past few summers so this heavy mosquito population is no small threat to those of us living in the woods. I watch the weather much more closely than usual hoping for a nice dry morning with a good breeze to carry the nippers away come Saturday morning.

Thanks again for sharing my journal and have a great day!

Tom Farrens of Pocatello, Idaho contacted me about re-built (in progress) dugout house at the Historic Chesterfield Townsite in Chesterfield Idaho and shared a bit about them and a couple of photographs.

The Townsite, located along the Oregon Trail was settled in late 1800′s is now a historic site and is listed on the Register of Historic Places. The Chesterfield Foundation has been rebuilding / restoring some of the building. Most of which are log cabins and small framed house and out buildings. The brick house in the background is one of the early 1900 brick buildings, and though located within the Townsite, it is privately owned.

Photo Credit: Tom Farrens

David Lottes contacted me recently about a tiny log cabin he is building and a blog called the House of Fallen Timbers that he is journaling his progress on. I’ll let David take over and tell us more about his project.

The property is located in Central Illinois near the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River. My girlfriend Anne and I have about three acres of woods most of which is at least 60 years old.

First Course of Logs

Over the last eight years many of the standing dead elm trees have fallen over and gotten hung-up in the surrounding trees. This makes walking in the woods kinda scary on a windy day. I got into the habit of waiting for them to come down and cutting them up but our wood pile is now larger than anything we could hope to burn before it rots. Continue Reading »