~The Cabinets & Front Porch~

Well it doesn't feel like a cabin anymore.  It feels a little more like a mansion in the woods.  It is so cozy and nice now.  Our kitchen comes together as Aaron puts the cabinets and cupboards in.  We now have stairs to get into the cabin, rather than having to climb up onto the front porch, and the railing is done outside on the porch and on the loft deck.  We sealed the entire cabin so now it is well protected from the elements!  Lastly, our floor is silky smooth now that we sanded it down a couple times and applied a clear coat! We are ready for another winter! 

July 3-5th, 2005

Kodi sleeping in the loft, mosquito netting for temporary screen door.

Disaster cabin. In the process of building cabinets. 

Lots of planning for Aaron with these cabinets, and he made quite a disaster in the progress. We plan to build the upper cupboards outside to minimize the mess we make.

My project, to build a screen door for the loft. Did it all without help from Aaron. 

Painting the screen door.

Cabinets coming along.  Everything isn't perfectly straight, but we are starting to see storage space. 

The loft door, with a little peep hole to look out. The white on in between some of the loft logs is caulking, that will, when dry, be clear.

Clear coating the loft logs and the stair rails.

One side of the window trim painted green to protect the wood. This side of the cabin gets pummeled by the elements; a little paint will help preserve the wood.

Looking a little more cozy inside. The bottom cabinets are nearly done. The plan for the counter top is to use river rock and mortar/grout.  

July 10-11th, 2005 

Placed the rocks for the counter in the mortar. The rocks we picked out from Flood Creek, and hiked them all in on our back. We are using the same types of rocks, just bigger ones, for a walkway outside.

Aaron working on the upper cupboards. Once he had the whole thing done outside, I pointed out to him that he had built it backwards, since he was building it up-side-down. Luckily the fix was easier than we thought. Those were heavy cupboards to try and lift inside and then up to the joists of the loft. 

Painting the cupboards to match the lower cabinets.

Everyday it looks better and better. Not feeling like it is such a rough old cabin now. Sanded down the chairs and the table again with fine sand paper and put another coat of Bombay mahogany on. 

July 26-27th 

Notice our very fancy wine glass holders. Also, you can't see them from these pictures, but up under the cupboards, there are small lights that make the logs glow, and lights up the rock counter top. The sink in the counter has a hole drilled through the floor with a length of PVC pipe that goes out. We just need to get out water tank upstairs so we have water flow. 

Chiseling the corner posts for the outside stairs.  

Scribed the porch posts to slide over the bottom deck log, and then drilled holes into the loft porch logs and chiseled the top of these posts for a perfect fit. 

Aaron drilling holes for the lag bolts.

Scrubbing the mildew off the logs. The worst job ever.

Aaron and Kodi taking a break. Kodi starts pouting after awhile if we don't pay enough attention to him.

At last we have stairs and some railing for our deck.

We just need to finish the loft railing and the stair railing. We ran out of logs, so we had to cut a couple more trees and peel them.  

August 9-11th 2005 

Woodguard for the exterior of the cabin. Our walls breathed a sigh of relief with this log treatment. The front logs were getting weathered from the constant weather. Now the water just beads up.

Sanded half the floor and sealed it

Aaron and Kodi taking a morning coffee break on the front decks. Kodi figured out how to climb the ladder after some convincing. 

Notice the change in color of the walls after the coat of Woodguard was applied. The logs don't look aged anymore.

One of the few blue sky weekends we saw this year. This may have been the highest precipitation we've seen yet. The little water hole on our property never evaporated this year, in fact it was very full.

Reflection of mountains.

Kodi pouting. He knows he will get some attention if he buries his nose in his side and looks at us with those big eyes. He's a spoiled dog.

Second coat to the front half of the floor. You should have seen the mess we made sanding the floor. We used hand sanders...took forever and there was dust everywhere. What a difference it makes though! 

Looking good.

August Mom & Dad Visit

Typical load for our pack into the cabin. We love our Cabela's pack frames, and thank goodness for plastic totes. 

My mom & dad, Aaron, and I above the cabin. 

Kitchen in use. Cutting board set in rocks over sink. 

View from inside outhouse.

View from outside of outhouse.

Our neighbors cabin. They had a problem with a griz a few years ago...can you tell? This is serious cabin protection! You could be in a world of hurt if you trip accidentally!