J & J Log Home

We have lovely friends who have decided to build a home in our logs. Carpenter Bee's are burrowing holes into the wood and they seem to digging in the highest places... In order to prevent the bee's from nesting into the wood, you have to plug the hole they are creating with Aluminum foil then caulk it. This is Jeff climbing to the top of the ridge pole in order to fill a hole ~3/8". The top of the ladder was just resting on the ridge pole, as he was climbing you could see the ladder flexing.

The yard was turning into a jungle with all the rain we've had so far. Jessica's parents let us use their old riding lawnmower, so I tuned it up & it did it's job very well tonight. (sorry for the fuzzy pic) Here's a friend I "mowed over", lucky he was burrowed deep in the grass, so I turned him around towards the safe part of the yard. He was about 6" across his shell....I wanted to bring him home, but we can guess how well that went over hah.

Jessica & I needed to figure out what stain to use to protect the logs. We ordered samples from 3 different companies (listed below). Here's our logs (red pine), cleaned but no stain as a reference: Heres the stain list that corresponds to the sample #'s on the logs: Sikkens Natural Oak Sikkens Natural Sikkens Natural Light Sikkens Butternut Sikkens Cedar Sikkens Teak Woodguard Honey 2000 NF Woodguard Honey Base NF Woodguard Warm Pecan NF Woodguard Tawny Cypress NF Woodguard Dark Walnut NF High Sierra Applewood High Sierra Tan Pine High Sierra Bronze Sycamore We narrowed it down to 12 + 14, so we coated 1/2 a log in each of the remaining samples, and the applewood color (12) really looks to be the best for us.

Love being here at Jeff & Jessica's, and doing what we can to help on their fabulous log house! We'll be back for the House Warming Party!! Love you guys!

Jeff's parents come down for a visit this week to help with the house. There is so much work to be done and their help is greatly appreciated. This is Jeff & his dad laying down the flooring for the loft. They were able to get it finished and will hopefully be able to get the framing complete before they leave. Here Bob and I are cleaning the tops of the logs. We managed to get 2 sides and 1/2 of the 3rd side done. It was a little scary being that high on the ladder. Here, Jeff's Mom and I are cleaning the logs. We were using a very strong bleach/cleaner solution, so goggles and rain suites were needed. Here Jeff is cutting off the last corner of overdangles. It looks so much better. All and all, today was a very productive day!

Today was fun....digging a hole. At least we don't have rocky soil so it only took an hour or so to dig the hole deep enough for the hydrant & to get to the water meter connection. My lovely wife Jessica assisting with the yard hydrant :) Here you can see the rock in the bottom for the drainage when it's shut off, & the 3/4" supply line to the water meter. Finished! No leaks, now we have water so we can get the logs cleaned before staining & chinking.

Finally got back down to the house today (did I mention night work stinks??) & finished off the other 1/2 of the loft floor joists. Ready for some OSB decking on-top. The bottom will be covered with drywall & the top will likely stay unfinished.