Today we finished capping the loft logs. These are the most difficult logs on the garage. One side has 8 notches, the other side has 9. They fit very well with very little fitting with a sawzall. We also installed the two logs over the loft log caps. These two logs are grooved to accept the ends of the loft floor 2 X 6's, which is shown in the third picture below.
Once these two logs were installed, we installed a 3.5" thick header for the stairway. The header was milled from a very large lodge pole pine.
Here you can see the groove that was cut to support the ends of the loft floor 2 X 6's. We ran a straightedge across the flat tops of the loft logs at each side to mark the bottom of the groove, then we measured 1.5" up from that mark and used a chalk line to outline the groove. We cut along the lines with a chainsaw, then removed the center section with a chisel.
I'll stain the 4 logs we installed, as well as the stairway header, then I will install the loft floor. There are 6 more wall logs to install, then we start building the roof system, which will be post and pole, the same as the house.
