J & J Log Home

Woke up this morning to the first snow of the season! Here is the shed we built a few months ago. It's a 8x12 with a shed-style roof that slopes to the back. Just enough room to hold a bunch of stuff, mower, & a season's worth of wood pellets :) We finished it board & batten, & stained the same as our gable ends. And here is a little video of our new puppy playing. Her name is Cadence & she's an almost 6 month old Great Dane....yep....going to be a BIG dog :) Marley doesn't like her too much, but eventually they'll warm up to each other.

It's been done a while, finally got a picture of it. Found a matching piece of granite for the countertop & installed it myself. We also built a shed, just have to finish putting the stain on it then will post it up as well.

After searching some shops around town, we couldn't find a decent kitchen island. They were either the wrong color, style, or way too pricey. We decided to build our own. Picked up some maple from Menards and used a "This old house" article to get started. Built 2 identical shelves: Here are the corners, Then we used some wood conditioner, followed by stain to match our kitchen cabinets: Finished the assembly today (sweet plywood top huh?), the granite top (to match our existing counters) should be ready next week:

Finished the mantel the other night. We had a couple poplar 4x10's left over from building, so I cut them down to 2.5" thick by about 8" deep & used them for the mantel around the pellet stove. Close up. We used a water based polyurethane & it really brings out the grain of the poplar. These will turn into many shades of brown after they age a while. Still a bit green since I just planed them down.

Here is the metal mesh/lathe that will help hold the mortar & stone to the wood frame. You can see I left a couple inches clearance around the vent pipe. The mesh overhangs the edge & the stone should butt up nicely around the edge for a clean finish. Next is the scratch coat of mortar (I think that's the term anyways)....the mesh holds in in place, and once it's cured the stone will have a good layer to adhere to. Here is the base, big 18" stones for the bottom & 1 thin layer of stone along the bottom/front. Here is a few rows of stone I finished today after work. It's a bit difficult to get the corners to fit against the logs, but a diamond grinder wheel helps the process. Few more rows up....getting closer. It would go alot quicker if I didn't have to cut each corner so it matches up to the logs. All the stone is done. Just have to finish the mantle on the top.

Picked up our new pellet stove on Saturday, we decided on a Maxfire Santa Fe. Should be around 86% efficient & help allot with the heating bills. We are building a hearth in the corner for it to sit on & protect the floors/walls. First we put down some tape to get the outline, then a layer of foam to protect the hardwood, incase it ever is removed. Then 2 layers of 3/4" OSB. By the time we add the wire mesh, mortar scratch coat & stone, the vent should line up where I want it to go through the wall. Marley is supervising.... Here is the basic layout. We are waiting on some cultured stone to finish it off. It is a 'dry stack' look so you won't see grout lines. Should be interesting. Will also use some spare 4x10 leftover from our 2nd floor beams to make a mantle along the top. First fire! The stone place is dragging their feet on our order, so we installed the stove. It's pretty toasty in the house today & the electric furnace hasn't ran at

Say hello to 2010! No new pics, but stay tuned...we are planning to install a pellet multi-fuel stove in the near future. Should be an interesting project. So far the last few weeks have been interesting, found some mice (took care of that issue!), had a bat in the attic, found a water leak, & most recently discovered our deep freezer was plugged into a GFI...& it tripped without us knowing. Luckily not much in the freezer, but we did lose 2 nice New york steaks that would have been tasty....grrr. Here's some pics: This is where the leak came from (& the nice hole I had to cut in the wall to access it haha): Not bad for the first time I had to patch drywall....You can also see the trim piece that hides the gap from the drywall to the log wall. We have almost every piece done, just a couple left. They take forever to get a good fit.