Log Cabin Love

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Our joy, a home away from home.

On seventy two acres in Floyd County, Virginia.

Elevation 2800 feet above sea level.

We fell in love with the land about three years ago. It has in the middle of it a 100 years old two story house. The windows are long gone, but the thick tin roof is in fair condition. That is a good thing, because it has preserved the random width American chestnut flooring downstairs, and the wide heart pine floors in the secondary bedrooms upstairs. The wall and ceiling paneling is also chestnut, although thinner than the flooring. The fireplace mantles and stair banisters are long gone, stolen perhaps.

Check out the old house.

Wall paneling removed, the floor was next

The paneling upstairs was papered with the local newspaper.  This shows the date of March 19, 1929.

We had the new cabin built as close to the one acre pond as possible, and stocked the pond with bluegills and crappies. The deck is close enough to fish from it.

Early morning, time to pray

The chestnut wood, salvaged from the old house, was used to benefit and also save a ton of money, with the new cabin. I reused the flooring and the wall paneling to make our kitchen cabinets. I also made nightstands, end tables and a four by eight foot dining table. (now famous because of a previous post "Termites in new furniture").

The large chestnut table that harbored a few termites, now gone. To where I do not know.

The above projects are more from the quarry of chestnut. 

Chestnut kitchen cabinets, worm holes and all. Pretty? you make the call.

Sample of random width chestnut (on top), and pine floor. both from the old house.

One hundred years ago, the worm holes in the wormy chestnut was not desirable. As I found out by dismantling the chestnut paneling, the wormy boards were used on the wall upstairs; the children's rooms, I suppose. The worm free boards proudly covered the walls in the parlor, dining room and main hallway.

This was the front parlor before I removed every board of it. The vertical design is alternating chestnut and walnut.
The walnut has evolved into napkin trays and tissue boxes. Much darker wood than one sees today.

The rock chimneys were stacked with lime and clay mud. Amazing they still are in tact. A root cellar, enclosed also with mud stacked flat rocks was on the lower corner of the house. The wide board shelves are still down there. I may use the nonsupporting flat rock to build a retaining wall one day, when I have nothing else to do and the Lord keeps me going.

Looking down into the root cellar, only accessible from the outside.

Much more paneling, some fluted, could be removed. One room with wide clear chestnut walls has been covered with sheetrock. The exterior poplar clapboard siding is in fair shape.