J & J Log Home

We finally got a week of no rain so things started to dry out. Our dirt guys got out to our place & completed most of the septic system. All the fingers are in, as well as the 1500 gallon tank. Just waiting for the inspection which should happen tomorrow, then they can backfill everything & landscape around the yard. Here' the tank: Here's a picture from the second floor, this is the distribution tank (I think that's what it's called?) & the fingers going out to the drain field. Here's about half of the fingers: Jessica & I finished framing in the loft area now that the furnace & duct work is mostly done up there.

It was a bit of a learning curve getting our doors installed. They're kind of like windows, but bigger, heavier, & a pain to get lined up properly. They do work perfectly though so we're happy. Here's the side door that will go out to the porch someday. Here is our front entry door with the hardware installed too. We're planning to put some nice wide trim around the door & window bucks in the future.

We started on the chinking this weekend to give us a change from stuffing insulation. It doesn't go quite as quickly as insulating & nailing. We are using the mortar recipe recommended on the log forum, we were able to get ~ 1 -1 1/2 rows completed per mixture. LHBA member JAK (Joe) came down with his family from Illinois to help for all of Saturday & a few hours on Sunday (Thanks!!!! Help is greatly appreciated & was good meeting you guys). With their help & Tim's we were able to get the first 5 row completed on each side. How's this for a chinking assembly line? Here's Tim working on the corner He did such a good job that we gave him that job for the weekend! This was another visitor on Sunday morning.

Tim & Shawn came out to help us today, more insulating & chinking nails. We couldn't get down to the house Saturday because of flooding all throughout mid Indiana. We were lucky to be on higher ground, our crawlspace was full of water, but no damage to anything. Here's Tim working on the backside of the house....only 4 more rows to go! Here's a video using the Paslode framing nailer with the extension tip that Rod welded up for us.

Since the stain is done on the outside of the logs, we are able to finally start sealing the gaps between the logs. Many people use the new synthetic chinking, but it's way too pricey & it doesn't breath as well as Portland cement/lime mix. Since we are not using synthetic stuff, the mortar needs something to hold it between the logs. That means we are putting in a nail every 2 - 3" between every row of logs, inside & out. We figure it will be around 17,000 nails. Doing these by hand would take until 2012, so we had a LHBA forum member Rod weld an extension tip onto the framing nailer. This lets the nailer run at full air pressure, but it leave the nails sticking out about 1-7/16", so we'll end up with an approximate 2" chink line. This is the original Paslode tip: Here's the new tip with a 2" piece of gas pipe welded on (Thanks Rod!!) & the final result, a whole lotta nails! It went very quickly, about 5 minutes to stuff the insulatio

After a fun week or two of spraying, scrubbing, cleaning, & rinsing the logs, we were finally ready to get them stained. We ordered a stain called High Sierra (color applewood) made by Sashco. Product went on very well, so we'll see how long it lasts against the weather. We hired a friend of a friend to come out & do the staining, Don did a good job & very quick too. Here's a before of the front: & here's after 2 coats of stain: We used the same stain to protect the overhangs & all the fascia. Hopefully this will discourage the carpenter bees a bit too.