Part Two - Breaking Ground

When we first saw the cabin in late September of 2017 it was in the process of being carefully disassembled. The second storey had been taken down and the timber frame structure she had been attached to was already gone. While we had said yes, it was time to find a team of log structure experts who could help us breath new life into this 180 year old and help move her to her new place 13 miles to the east.

Historic buildings are part of the fabric of the Shenandoah Valley. Our town and all the surrounding towns have historic districts, many with log structures. We needed to find an architect who could help us reimagine this little cabin. Enter another family friend with an extensive background and knowledge of local architectural history. He recommended a local architect, whose firm was in our town, who specialized in historic log structures. Within a week we met him at the cabin and looked around, talking about possibilities and pitfalls. Our after conversation was quick, confirming what we had discovered during our search over the past few months. This was a local cabin in good shape that fit our needs and our space. If this was truly a project we wanted to do, this cabin would work.

Within a few weeks, the architect had measured drawings based on what was left of the cabin (the final push to take the rest of the cabin down would happen by the end of the year). In an area with so many historic structures, there has been a concerted effort to document them, especially when a demolition permit has been issued. We are fortunate to have a local architectural historian who had documented this cabin and attached structure before it was taken down. Those few images, which we didn’t see until we were a few months into the project gave us hint of what the finished cabin could look like. Sometimes it felt like putting together a puzzle where you don’t have access to all the pieces at once.

We didn’t see these two photos until we were a few months into the reconstruction. On the left is the cabin just as it was beginning to come down. It originally had blue wood siding and small porch. This porch was not historically accurate and wouldn’t be reassembled. The cabin, as seen on the right, was attached to a timber frame structure. In conversations with the architect and our builder. we discovered that this cabin had probably been moved once before - so she is well traveled but hopefully in her permanent home now.

Above is a photo of the staircase and entrance into the timber frame structure. On the right is the same view during deconstruction. The second floor had an entrance into the other structure as well. That doorway is now a window and the entrance on the first floor now steps down into a screen porch we added. In order to reuse this wonderful staircase, we secured special permission from the building department as its dimensions are unique to the cabin. Keeping as many of the original pieces together was a priority for us.

By early January of 2018, the cabin was in a pile of neat pieces across three storage areas in town. We wanted to salvage as much of the cabin as we could. We purchased the cabin logs, original staircase, second floor flooring (the first floor floorboards were too far gone to reuse), paneling, the original front door, pine ceiling logs and a small load of bricks salvaged from the chimney. Since the log cabin was going to be insulated, heated and cooled, we opted to install new windows and doors. The windows would be replaced with energy efficient reproductions of the originals. Our goal was to reuse/repurpose as much as we could.

These are views of the stacked logs, carefully marked with metal tags (I think they were beer/soda cans cut with tin snips and then lettered & numbered with a stylus). The dogs and I would occasionally go and visit the log stacks, especially when we had some delays in the beginning.

With plans in hand and logs safely stored by March 2018, our next task was to find someone to reconstruct this little cabin. Building log structures is more of an art rather than a science. We wanted to honor the history of this building and find someone who was as excited about this project as much as we were. This process involved fits and starts, delays and some epic disappointments.

In spring of 2018 we experienced some big set backs and thought our project would only live in a set of plans and pile of logs. Our architect mentioned a name that I never thought we could entice to our project. He and his team are locally based with a national reputation for stellar work with historic structures. Fairy tales tell us unicorns are mythical creatures who live in our dreams. Don’t believe everything you read. Unicorns do exist. Our plans were sent to him to review and see if there was any interest.

We held our breath and soon a meeting was arranged. By a stroke of luck, he had a cancellation in his schedule and he picked up our project in late summer. Alan and his unicorn posse arrived in October 2018 to break ground. His depth and breadth of knowledge transformed our plans, introducing us to time honored techniques and details that would make this little cabin sing and be ready for another few generations to enjoy. We were smitten and couldn’t wait to get started.

Next…Breaking ground