Part One - The meet up

“Doing something in the backyard” had been the start and end of many vague conversations over the past few years between me and R. In 2017, a year that took so much out of us both professionally and personally, we would escape for a few minutes at the end of the day, talking about crazy plans for the backyard. Moving a train caboose came up more than once but we just didn’t have enough space. At some point the idea of moving or building a log cabin seeped into the conversation. The house I grew up in had a log cabin at its center, carefully moved by my father from one part of the property, to create his dream house. R and I liked the idea of breathing new life into something but the trick was to find something that would work in our space.

A little research and we discovered that cabins are out there, in various states of (dis)repair. Most were hundreds of miles away with lean details, requiring multiple visits and a steep learning curve on our part to know if they would work. We weren’t quite ready to commit but kept looking.

A casual conversation one fall weekend with some friends who have been in the architectural salvage business for over 30 years changed our timeline into a real project within a week. They happened to be taking down a small cabin on the other end of the county and suggested that we take a look. The dimensions sounded like it may work and it was just a 15 minute drive from our house.

I’ve loved houses and architecture for as long as I can remember, dreaming of all the different types of houses I wanted to live in. A sweet little cabin in the backyard was on the list and we couldn’t wait to check out the cabin.

When we arrived, it took us about two minutes to say yes. What we saw was a glorious early 19th century two story cabin that needed a bit of TLC and a new place to call home. She needed a bit of work - new roof, doors, windows, floors - but otherwise she was perfect.

Next week…assembling the dream team