August, 
19 2 3 
69 
BACK TO LOG CABINS 
In This Second Article the Architect Tells How to Build Fireplaces, 
Porches and Construct the JValls 
D ear Mac:— 
Your cheery, “All set—let’s go!” 
comes to hand. It’s a great little spirit 
in which to start building anything. 
Hang onto it even when you find out that 
it takes twice as long to put up your cabin 
as you had planned. As soon as I had 
read as far as the “three 
rooms with central fire¬ 
place,” I ran through my 
kodak prints of “Seven 
Glens”—the three room 
cabin we put up last year. 
“We” means two strap¬ 
ping big woodsmen with 
iron muscles and a knack 
at twirling logs as if they 
were fence rails. My job 
was heavy bossing and 
putting up the fireplace, 
with a lift now and then 
on the one or two-hun¬ 
dred pound rocks. The 
prints tell the story of our 
long but joyous job—from 
the time the cabin lay in 
a boom in the harbor. It’s 
easy—if you know how. 
First of all, clear your 
site of all your big trees, 
utilizing what you can— 
and of the small growing 
things transplanting as 
many as you think will 
grow well. Don’t let your 
crew begin with ruthless 
upheaval. Strike the key 
note at once, or they will 
probably have the place 
looking as if an earth¬ 
quake had brought up 
your cabin from the depths 
of destruction instead of 
giving it the appearance of 
having grown up amid 
surroundings of untouched 
beauty. 
Don’t think that be¬ 
cause a man lives in the 
woods all of his life he is 
a lover of wood things— 
the very familiarity with 
them often makes him con¬ 
temptuous. The abomina¬ 
tion of desolation ' about 
the first cabin I built—de¬ 
spite all I could do—still 
makes me sick in retro¬ 
spect. In “Seven Glens”— 
a construction of 32' x 40' 
over all—even the trees 
which touched the sides of 
the building when it was 
DARRAGH ALDRICH 
completed were unharmed—and the moss 
still clings to the nearl:)y rocks. I got an 
entirely new conception from my crew of 
what the term “gentlemen” originally 
meant. 
After we had staked out the building, 
we dug away from the ground within the 
lines all that might be a firehazard or carry 
smouldering running flame, and piled up 
the rocks about the site marked for the 
fireplace. Then the logs, peeled and dried, 
were brought up. 
Ready now for the underpinning or sup¬ 
ports for your sill logs. Probably you will 
find plenty of rock for 
that—but you can utilize 
cement piers if you prefer 
them. We used rocks 
throughout—and managed 
to level up pretty well. 
Your sill logs you lead 
from your longest and 
strongest suit in this game, 
and bridge across your 
supports, leveling up with 
more care than you ever 
put into anything else. In 
plane with the sill logs are 
adequate supports through 
the center of the building, 
likewise resting on rock 
underpinning. Upon these 
are laid your floor joists, 
spiked down into place. 
Then the first logs of all 
walls are laid all around— 
this means the partitions as 
well as the outer walls. 
'I’hen comes the rough 
flooring fitted to the first 
log and nailed to the joists. 
During this time carry the 
fireplace masonry up to 
this level—where, unless it 
is in the outside wall, it can 
await the pleasure of the 
mason for a time. 
In starting your wall 
logs, cut a saddle in the 
lower log at the corners of 
your building and a notch 
in the upper log to fit it, 
spiking well with nine or 
ten-inch spikes into place. 
Set your door frames and 
cut your logs accordingly, 
spiking well into the door 
frames. 
Carry the wall up thus 
to height of window sills 
and set the window frames, 
building the wall logs to 
them and spiking through 
the frames into the log- 
ends. 
We have found it, by the 
way, a great saving in time 
and material to set the 
frames and build to them 
instead of constructing as 
Looking into an un-roofed scale model of “Seven Glens”, 
the point of view is from the rear, looking toward the front 
door. Everything is made at a scale of half an inch to a foot 
In this way vision is granted to the prospective cabin 
builder. A gable-end view of the model shows the structur¬ 
al facts of the cabin. Darragh Aldrich, architect and artificer 
