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Anyone live in a log cabin? My Dad got remarried and he is now retired and moved to Canon City with his new wife. He loves it there because he has a great view of the mountains and all kinds of wildlife in his yard. I can post a pic of a bear sleeping in his tree later. lol
My dad has a regular house but he said he has a brand new log cabin with 35 acres. I saw pictures and it really doesn't look like a house I would want to live in longer than a week. Just curious what it's like actually living in a log cabin.
For short periods of time, I lived in log cabins that I built with my own hands. They were very basic structures, with no electricity or running water. The land was owned by friends. My labor was my rent payment, and the cabin reverted to the owners of the land when I left. It was a win win situation for my friends and I. I did it mostly for the experience of building a log cabin and living in it briefly. I was in my 20s at the time. It was a great experience, but I had no intention of making it a permaneent lifestyle. It was more of Thoreau-esque adventure for me.
One cabin was situated on a mountain top in a Redwood forest in Mendocino county - California. My other cabin was located in on the edge of a Lodgepole pine forest and the mature Cedar-Fir-Tamarck forest on a mountainside overlooking the West arm of Kootenay Lake near Nelson-BC in Canada. In Nelson, I also helped my friends in the building of their cabins. Building a log cabin is hard work, but incredibly satisfying.
Additionally, I spent one summer in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies at Patricia Lake Resort (http://www.patricialakebungalows.com/about.html - broken link). I tore off the old asphalt shingles, one bungalow at a time and repalced them with new shingles. I loaded the old shingles into the owners pick up and drove them to the dump ( In Jasper National Park, even going to the dump was pleasure ). I lived in each of the bungalows for a day or two while I was working on it. The bungalows were more rustic in '76 than they appear to be in the photos, but they did have electricity and running water, including hot showers. This was one of the best jobs I ever had in my youthful years, but it was just for a few months. IMO, Jasper National Park is the most fantastic place in North America.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 08-10-2009 at 10:16 AM..
I should ask him if it even have power or water! I bet it doesn't. He knew I was looking for land to raise some Shepherds, he means well but it looked pretty remote.
I am told it's a cedar home. looked like a log cabin to me. lol At any rate, doesn't seem very homey.
I lived up Boulder canyon in an "almost winterized" line shack one-room cabin for a year back in the 1960's. The rent was less than half of what a room cost me in a house on 10th Street on the hill, and my privacy and freedom from obnoxious house-mates was wonderful ....
With an outhouse close by, and a large supply of firewood for the cookstove, it almost had all the comforts of home. I got a quick introduction from McGuckin's about Aladdin Lamps for lighting, and a very large bucket for heating the water from the hand-pump well at the sink. Furniture was an old bunk bed, a chair, and a pine table, bookshelves were cinder blocks and wood planks. There were a couple of coat hooks for hanging clothes, and my Dad's old Army footlocker for storage. The place was shelter and a kitchen area, not much more in a 15' x 12' space.
As an impoverished CU student, it was an "adventure" not to be missed ... but not to be repeated except for back-country camping since then. There's a lot to be said for coming home to a place where the thermostat regulates the heat and the lights turn on at the flip of a switch so you can use a bathroom with comfortably warm facilities and a real shower. I "visited" a lot of friends in the dorms who were kind enough to let me use their showers down the hall ....
sunsprit...when you live like we did our bodies are the only thermostats, but they don't regulate anything. All those most basic thermostats do is to let you know that it's too damn cold or too damn hot, eh? We had to do all of the regulating with a bit of labor intensive intervention.
It depends on the log cabin. My uncle... er cousin... has a little cabin in the mtns. west of Pueblo that was build and lived in by his parents or grandparents back in the 30's. Now it's just used for family getaways. We used to go visit as kids, but only in the summer because it would have been very cold in the winter, especially when it's time to visit the outhouse. But in recent decades they made some changes... added an insulated bathroom with flush toilets and a bonafide kitchen with gas appliances, so it's really pretty suitable year round, but still very rustic. As long as you have a fire going, it's plenty warm inside the main living area.
I recently vacationed in a log cabin @ Arrowhead located at an elevation of 10,000+ ft off of US 50 between Montrose and Gunnison. But the term log cabin is stretching it a bit IMO. This logcabin belongs to a friend of ours who is a doctor. As you might imagine, a doctors log cabin is different than a log cabin that most of us envision when we hear the term log cabin. This log cabin had all the comforts ( and a few extras ) of home. In the good doctors defense, this cabin was tastefully done, and contained less than 2000 sf. It was by no means a McMansion.
They have log cabins in places such as Aspen, CO which are made entirely of logs, often large beautiful logs, but otherwise the term 'mansion' would better apply. All the comforts of any home, and more. On the flip side most of the original log cabins in Colorado and throughout the West where rude, primitive affairs, necessarily small, maybe a small window and doorway low enough to stoop through. The floor often packed dirt. Plumbing was the outhouse out back.
Places I've lived in for any length of time somewhere in between, generally modest places that had been remodeled over time to incorporate modern amenities such as electricity and indoor plumbing. They can be perfectly comfortable, if not entirely practical as logs and the chinking in between do not offer the highest R values in insulation. But in compensation there is a certain ambience that other structures cannot duplicate. If somewhat modern such a dwelling can be an enchanting place to live.
Those thinking of living off the land or otherwise interested in how such a possibly modest dwelling is built might refer to the PBS video of Alaska pioneer Dick Proenneke. Decades ago, when it was still legally possible, he forsook the better part of civilization to journey into the Alaska bush, build a log cabin there and live within it for decades. The video I am referring to he filmed himself, being quite adept at most any manual task, which documents the construction phase and first year of his tenure there. Very informative, and done by someone who definitely knew what he was doing.
Lived in a home built log house in Raton that started out as a cabin.
Kept the warm air in in the winter, cool air in in the summer. Also
you never felt the wind, even if it was blowing 80mph in the dead
of January out there. Not hard to find a stud if you want to hang
something.
Downside is the climate was so dry the log house took tons of treatments
(we used penafin) to keep the logs from drying out. We had what I
believe are 'C' logs - the rounded big logs were inside the house as well as outside..these logs got dusty. Try having to dust your walls all the time,
and ceiling! Not very fun! For a dry climate log houses are very high
maintenance.
Those thinking of living off the land or otherwise interested in how such a possibly modest dwelling is built might refer to the PBS video of Alaska pioneer Dick Proenneke. Decades ago, when it was still legally possible, he forsook the better part of civilization to journey into the Alaska bush, build a log cabin there and live within it for decades. The video I am referring to he filmed himself, being quite adept at most any manual task, which documents the construction phase and first year of his tenure there. Very informative, and done by someone who definitely knew what he was doing.
What's the name of that video? Is it available on Netflix? Not that I'm preparing to follow suit, but stories like that are always fascinating to me.
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I bet it doesn't. He knew I was looking for land to raise some Shepherds, he means well but it looked pretty remote.
A certain possible charm
