Last week saw a lot of progress. All of the new Andersen windows went into the full log portion of the cabin and the remaining areas of the porch were trimmed out.
New windows were put in in the kitchen area to round out all new windows all the way around.
The garage also was completed with LP Smartside lap siding and shake being installed over the existing plywood siding to give the garage a better look. All of the LP siding will get some coordinating paint colors.
New LP Smartside, trim, windows, and a fresh concrete apron for the garage.
We also saw the new entryway overhang take shape with the new log columns going in as well. This is a new element that the old design did not have. Since that entryway will now come into a mud/laundry room when we use the garage, we wanted something to protect it from the weather and give us more of a true entryway to come in. The most exciting part of this is that we will have found a Jeff Ayers hand carved door to install here. Jeff is known around the area as a top craftsman with his unique doors and we are excited to have found one that a homeowner was selling to use in our cabin!
A new entryway overhang with log columns (and yet to be installed log going across as well) is taking shape and will get Trex decking and a Jeff Ayers carved door.
New concrete aprons were poured as well for the front door to the cabin as well as the garage. The old concrete was not pitched properly and was cracked, so it was time to replace it and pitch it properly. We also pre-buried PVC piping underneath it for future downspouts to go into. With a ton of water coming off the roof, we wanted to get the water away from the wood with gutters and downspouts draining into piping versus just into the ground below.
New concrete apron poured in with the proper pitch, a bit higher than the old concrete and with PVC piping underneath (see the stub to the left) for downspouts. The stone wall will be rebuilt by Willie Otterpohl after the logs are stained and sealed.
This week we get the gable end vents (six in total) that have been color matched to the Andersen windows and will be installing them all around and finishing up trimming them out and the remaining cedar siding around them.
We will also be testing some of the Sascho stain colors, getting the Duragroove paneling in (try #2, no thanks to US Special Delivery in Iron Mountain who completely botched the first delivery), and beginning to get some interior walls insulated and paneled.
As we looked to restore the cabin, we had quite a few needs for different species, finishes, and types of wood. The exterior siding on the cabin was a mix of different log siding with different profiles and different colors. Some repaired areas didn’t match up at all and some areas had different size logs.
The interior was tongue and groove pine paneling. A lot of it was water damaged or had “issues.” No drywall was going to be making its way into the cabin, so we had our work cut out for us to find some good wood.
Cedar Log Exterior For the exterior, we chose white cedar “half log” siding with the same profile as the full logs as the old cabin. We looked at the fake log products (concrete-type logs) but didn’t like the color profiles and the expense put them at 2-3x the cost of real wood. Yes, they would be maintenance free, but yes, they also looked like fake logs.
White cedar was chosen for its overall look, stainability, and rot resistance. We sourced this from Northern Log Supply in Michigan who provided us with the half logs for the exterior, 4×4 square trim for the windows, and pine log siding for the exterior walls in the interior. Northern Log Supply came through with four huge pallets of timber in under two weeks which we then let rest and acclimate in the garage until it was ready for install.
Pine Tongue and Groove Interior The interior walls needed to be pine tongue and groove paneling, to match what was done in other parts of the cabin. With over 1200 square feet of interior wall and ceiling space to cover in wood, we needed to have a plan of sorts. Buying T&G from the local supply yard would have been fine, but then we would have spent weeks on staining and clear coating a ton of wood at the job site before we installed it.
After looking around at the various vendors for pre-finished T&G paneling, we settled on Duragroove. We were looking for a few basics with the T&G paneling:
A color profile that would match close to other areas of the cabin (Chestnut)
Low or no VOCs in the finish as we would be surrounding ourselves in wood in our bedrooms and didn’t need to be breathing in crap for the next year as other finishes off-gassed.
High quality finishing with tight tolerances for the tongues and grooves
The ability to get to product within 2-3 weeks of ordering
After we received samples of the Duragroove paneling, it was easy to see that they hit all of the items above. A great finish that they say is UV cured after 20, yes, 20 different sanding steps. The tongues and grooves clicked together like Lego block due to their machining process. And after ordering, our 3000 pounds of pine paneling were shipped within 4 days. So, we are anxious to get the paneling up as soon as it arrives to continue the build out process.
What a week it has been up here at the cabin. As I hunkered down to “work from cabin”, the crew has been super busy and things are really beginning to take shape in a visible way. Here are some highlights:
Completed the shingles on the majority of the roof. Just waiting on the new entryway to be completed to wrap up the remainder.
Shingles on porch side of the cabin all completed after the overhead electrical service was buried and overhead feeder pole was removed from the roof.
WE Energies worked on removing the overhead electrical service and burying it underground. Was a bit disconcerting to see a guy with a chainsaw beginning to drop the power pole about 25 feet from where I was sitting and watching. I was hopeful this wasn’t his first rodeo and the pole would fall where he wanted it to go (it did).
A bit of a tip. WE Energies likes it when you bury the feeder line as that means (in theory), less outages, less trees to trim, etc. If your run is 100 feet or less from the main line to your house, you are gold and there isn’t a charge. There is a charge per foot after the 100 feet. But, the charge is less if you tell them you want to “upgrade” your service to the next amperage level. Only downside is that your new pedestal (which you have to buy) is more expensive. But, that cost is offset by the savings. Had we kept the 200A service, our price to bury would have been around $2300. By moving to 320A service, our price to bury was less than $1500 and should we need more power for the future sawmill, heated swimming pool, and indoor, air conditioned tennis courts, we will have it available to us.
WE Energies chopping down the power pole which was used for the overhead power coming into the cabin.
Completed shingles on the garage roof and trimmed out the remainder of the windows (on the log sided part of the cabin)
Began applying the white cedar half log siding from Northern Log Supply (highly recommend them…”For all your log and timber needs, call Daryl at Northern Log Supply”). The crew also began building the new covered entryway.
White Cedar half logs going on. White cedar is great for taking stain better than red cedar and has better rot resistance. These will be pressure washed to remove the mill glaze, dried, and then will get two coats of Sashco stain and Sashco semi-gloss clear coat.
Logs going onto the back side of the cabin along with the beginnings of the new covered entryway. That will receive some full log columns and cross bar and some Trex decking. Footings were poured for the columns when the stone wall footings were poured.
Nate Demers (Weatherwize), our “log guy” will be onsite with his crew beginning July 27, for three weeks to begin the log blasting, cleaning, staining, sealing, and chinking process. He dropped off the “blast” trailer which is what they will use when they media blast the existing full logs to remove all of the old stain and get them down to bare wood to begin their process.
The Blast Trailer now onsite to begin blasting the logs to remove the finish in a few weeks.
And our cool finds of the week were from a group of avid can and bottle collectors who were onsite to check out the landscape for old cans and bottles. Being a resort from the 1920s, they found some cool cans and bottles such as a 1930 Miller High Life “Girl in the Moon” can and a 1930s PBR can as well. The coolest find was buried in the hill behind the garage which were the remnants of the old wooden row boats that the resort made available to its guests. To my surprise, the side of the boat was reasonably intact and still had a DNR registration sticker (expiring in 1972) with Bernard Otterpohl’s name on it. He was the father of Willie, Sam, and the other 8 kids who lived in this very cabin while running the Otterpohl Resort.
Remnants of the wooden boats that were made available to resort guests. The registration numbers are somewhat visible.
Original DNR Registration Certificate from the wooden boat. Typo in the last name as should have been Otterpohl.
On tap for next week:
Finish the entryway over the side entrance area
Finish the roofing on the new entryway
Keep on siding
Await the arrival of our cool and new Duragroove interior pine T&G paneling. More on why we chose this and where it will be installed in a future post.
Get everything prepped and ready for the log crew to be onsite soon!
