Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
unless you're a hermit,
or plan to become
one, scrap the plan for just the basic settler's one-room
cabin. I don't care if you think you travel light, or if you
want the house only for vacations or weekend stays,
or for extremely intimate gatherings. One room just
isn't enough, especially given the limits that log length
and weight impose on the structure. Even a theoreti-
cal 40-footer, although possible, would shake every
time a door slammed. It's just too far from bracing cor-
ner to corner.
So let's stick to the old basic 16- or 20-foot log pen,
whether as a single or half a dogtrot or saddlebag, and
add onto it. First off, I rarely build a log house with-
out a porch — although the really early cabins didn't
have them — and I usually build a lean-to. I will admit
to a certain laxity in insisting on a loft, always to my
regret. Everyone gets cramped for space eventually,
and these additions provide the simplest, cheapest
way to expand, just as they did historically.
But these days a lot of people want to leave the ceil-
ing out so they can have a high, open space to the roof.
Half the folks we build or restore for have this idea.
Most of them change their minds after all the heat goes
up there in winter, while their feet freeze down below.
We compromised in our house, leaving eight feet
open to the roof over our 16-by-20, one-and-a-half-
story kitchen addition, which is stone. My wife, Linda,
has her office up there, with a railing at the edge. A big
window washes light down from the gable into the
kitchen. Dormers let light into the office, keeping it
cheerful. And she can keep an eye on whatever is being
plotted by the kids in the kitchen. A ceiling fan helps
keep the air and heat where we want them.
Bill Cameron in a rare relaxed moment on the porch of our Missouri
cabin. Bill helped with many of our building projects in the 1970s.
Additions in general are historically appropriate
and logical. My favorite term for added-onto houses is
the eastern Maryland and Virginia “little-house-big-
house colonnade-and-kitchen.”
