10th Round completed October 2, 2009

I have the 10th round of logs on the walls. I now have full logs above all windows and doors. This really made the short walls solid. I was able to remove all interior braces from the short walls. I am now going to put a temporary roof on the house and head home for the winter. I will also saw cut all doors and windows to their final dimensions, and frame them in with 2X8's, then sheet them over with plywood for the winter.

Most of the exterior log walls have been stained. Weather permitting, we will finish staining the rest of the logs on the outside of the house, the rest of the deck support poles, the window and door frames, and the outer deck rim board in the next week or so. I would also like to get the interior walls stained before winter. We can always get a heater inside the house after the temporary roof is installed to get it warm enough to stain the interior.

We were going to seal between all log seams before winter set in with Log Jam, but when I add a log to the wall, there is some compression, which affects the appearance of the Log Jam seam. We will do all Log Jam installation after the final roof system is completed next year.

Fist snow September 30, 2009

We received the first snow on September 30th. In this picture, taken on October 1st, most of the snow has melted. Fleecer mountain is in the background. It dropped about 6 inches on Fleecer. The weather is not looking good for the next 10 days.

10th Round half completed September 29, 2009

On the 29th, I began installing the 10th round of logs as you can see on this picture and the one below. These go much faster that the split logs, except for the peeling!

On the 30th, I was snowed out. Tony couldn't stain yesterday because of the impending weather, so he started sealing between the logs with Log Jam. I will complete the 10th round tomorrow and begin peeling logs for round 11. 

I am facing some very bad weather in the next week and I have been told that by the end of October, it could turn bad for the season. I am making plans to dry the hose in temporarily for this year and head home for the winter. I have everything set up in the basement to protect it over the winter. My plan is to have Tony stain and seal everything I have built before I leave. With the snow and rain we received today, and the rain they are predicting over the weekend, the driveway should have plenty of moisture to settle all the dust, and pack the soil. My cousin Jim and I will work at getting the driveway graveled next week.

Staining logs September 28, 2009

Over the weekend, I finished installing the second rim board on the outside of the deck, which will now get stained. I also finished installing the temporary deck sheets of OSB. In this picture they are the light colored areas placed 8 inches from the log walls. I added extra sections at every corner for added safety. 

We started staining the log walls today. Tomorrow we may be able to do more staining; Wednesday it will be too cold. We need at least 45 degrees, they are predicting 35!

I measured, marked and sorted the load of logs delivered last week. I started peeling round 10 today.