A summer to complete the cabin  May - August 2012.  When we left Sterling last September the cabin was at the stage we called "dried in".  Which, to me, means no rain or snow will get inside but it's only a shell.  All the logs and other exterior walls were up with doors and windows in place and the roof was on.  That was the basic goal for last year (although I had unrealistically hoped for a lot more).  Well, I did get most of the electric completed and almost all of the water supply side of the plumbing done.  Now, for this year, the goal is to complete all of the plumbing and electric as well as to finish the inside and add two full length porches with roofs.

(June 2012) Now, after much hard work this this season, except for finish trim on the inside and carpet upstairs, everything inside is done starting with finished walls including the first coat of paint over textured sheet rock.  The kitchen:  can ceiling lights, cupboards, cabinets, counter tops and all appliances on a new vinyl floor.   Dining room:  lighting, laminate flooring, gas heating stove, table and chairs.  Living room:  laminate flooring ceiling lights, some furniture and TV with cable connected.  Downstairs bath;  vanity, lights, mirror, washer/dryer with outside vents all on a new vinyl floor.

    This shot of the kitchen is taken from the front door

Betty didn't waste any time moving in, including the Lupine on the table

I had to invent this pantry because I forgot to build one in

Lupine grows in abundance on our property

  You can see we like Lupine and we love the gas stove

In the following picture you can see how I built this inside wall shorter than the log beams to accommodate expected perimeter log wall shrinkage.  The downstairs ceiling (upstairs floor) will be about 1.5" or so lower after about 2 years and I didn't want a hump in the upstairs floor because of this wall.  The wide wood trim at the top of the wall isn't completed on the right and I have to add the door trim.  

The only inside wall downstairs...room for log shrinkage

 Ahhh...my leather recliner.  Many a good idea started there.

The center post that supports the main girder (and the upstairs floor) is on a screw pedestal so I can lower the girder as the outside log walls shrink and prevent the upstairs floor from crowning.  This, a lesson learned from our last cabin!!  I just lowered it 3/8 inch to catch up with wall shrinkage.

(late July) As far as the upstairs all the sheet rock and texture has been completed and three of the five doors have been installed.  The main bath has had much work and is completed except for the window sill finish board.  I'll get to that later.  Tub/shower is functional as is the double vanity with hot and cold water.  Amazing that so far there's no smoke coming from the walls or water running on the floor.  Who would have guessed I'd be that lucky?  Now we just wait on carpet that's been on order for about a month.  "It should be in any day" is what I hear daily for the past month.  I already paid for it so that may be a lesson for the learning.  Betty is painting interior doors upstairs now.  Where's my camera?

    I'm glad one of us is working because I'm on break

This is a walk-in closet door I hung yesterday

    A 350lb vanity that I couldn't get upstairs with help.  

Finally Betty got two young guys to do it.

Master bedroom dormer area (with cat)

  Two of my best QC inspectors checking out the quality

(July 2012)  This is what the porches and roofs pan out look to be.  I'm waiting on the steel roofing material and I'm sure it will come in when it starts raining again.  Please disregard the clutter...that's just part of the construction process. I was going to use log posts and beam but discovered that it would cost about $10/foot so I quickly decided to use milled lumber that comes in closer to about $2/foot or so.  Carpet, roof, paint, landscaping, lawn....ugh... why did I start this project?

Back porch waiting on steel roofing material

Oh yeah...I forgot to include a picture of the "guest bedroom"  Actually, this is a picture of the "alternate" guest bedroom depending on who is visiting.  Note the padlock on the OUTSIDE of the doors and the drift boat trailer with a roller and winch in case I decide to move the "bedroom" and it's occupant elsewhere.

                             Guest Room

(Late August 2012)  FINALLY....WE'RE VIRTUALLY DONE WITH BUILDING.  Virtually, of course, means "almost but not quite"....what's left is some finish work inside which I may not get to until another life phase.  Some base board molding, crown molding on downstairs ceiling, and downstairs window surrounds will completely finish the place inside.  We're now living in the cabin but haven't found places yet for all of our "stuff" so please disregard the "stuff" shown sitting around in the following pictures.

    Front porch.  Steel roofs are all completed - even 

    over the porches (and a really good infrared BBQ

                     on the porch)

back porch taken from beside the storage bldg.

There really is a door on the downstairs bathroom

(This is the rug that Betty bought in Texas - it really 

   pulls the room together as "the dude" would say)

Below is a picture of a small computer table that I built out of left over building scraps.  It's roughly 2' by 4' and fits nicely under the stairs.  Here's the recipe:  4X4 legs, 2X6 scraps scrolled for leg braces, a piece of left over laminate from the kitchen counter top and 5 minutes with a router to soften all the edges finished it off.   

I almost forgot that the temporary stairs shown here have to come out and be replaced with better looking log stairs which should be ready in a couple of weeks.  I'm having Larry Needs of Turned Logs of Alaska custom make them for us because I'm too old, tired, and unskilled to do it myself.

The following pictures are of the upstairs where, unlike the downstairs which are log walls and laminate flooring, we used textured sheet rock for walls and ceilings with carpet on the floors.  Since I don't have a wide angle lens for my camera its hard to show all of it.

Can lights and roof angle give some style in main bath

I Couldn't get a good picture of the rest of the bathroom

Second bedroom - what to do with all the pictures?

Master bedroom with dormer.  Still needs window treatment 

and the king size bed takes up much of the room

Master bedroom - walk in closets not shown

         View from 2nd bedroom to Master bedroom 

                 (bath on right - stairs on left)

These next two pictures are, of course, not part of the building project but I wanted to include them here anyway.  One day in July we took a break from working on the cabin because it was raining so hard.  Seemed like a good day to go fishing for Sockeye Salmon (called Reds here) in the Kenai River with some friends.  Betty braved the rain and caught several Reds that we vacuum sealed for this winter.   ....Yum, Reds are the very best tasting of the 5 species of Salmon that run in the Kenai River.  These are about average sized for the second of two runs.  The first run in June renders smaller Reds but just as tasty.  Betty is wearing sun glasses for eye protection around casting fisherman on this day not because of any sun.

 Betty with a nice Kenai River second-run Red

Most Reds spawn way upstream but these go into our freezer.