Friday morning we began putting together all the pieces we made for our log building. Everything except one piece (which had to be remade completely) was test fit, and ready to go. We used the crane to stack the first set of infill logs because, the logs are so heavy, lifting the top courses is pretty difficult. Then we placed the top plates (gable and sidewall) with almost no effort. The corner looked nice, and took us about 35 minutes to erect.

This is what a modular log building corner looks like. It’s interesting to me that it took us four weeks to build all the components for this building, and that the corners (which seem like such a small portion of the structure) took all four weeks to make. We started on week one, day one, and finished only the day before assembly. It’s only fourteen logs, but they are a ton of work to get perfect.

Before we could stack the next infill wall, James decided he better sharpen the tongs on the log carrier for the crane, before a log slipped out, and someone got hurt. We carried on as far as we could without the crane, then after two whole minutes of waiting, we decided we could muscle the logs up there if we set up some saw horses with planking, and had four guys per log when lifting.

We managed to get the next corner, the infill wall, and the following corner assembled before James got finished grinding the tongs. Luckily he finished just as we were starting to try and figure out how to lift the gable and sidewall plates by hand, so we didn’t have to. He lifted the plates, and once they were in place, we left for an hour lunch.

We got back from lunch, and James was busy with some engineer or something. Since none of us are ticketed crane operators, we decided again, after about two minutes, to carry on without it. We moved our saw horses, and started stacking logs again. We got all the rest of the building assembled before James returned, and  then we got him to lift the last top plates into place.

This back half-lap joint was the only joint to give us any issue as far as fitting went. It was just a matter of wiggling things around to get the right amount of play, where we needed it. Once we got it in the right position, it finally just slipped into place nicely.

The last piece was ready to go on shortly after 3:00. We had been moving so fast that we almost forgot the final piece to every frame we build – the fir branch. We always nail a  branch of fir to the end of the ridge beam, to thank nature for the wood we built it with. Vince went and found one quick (there is no shortage of them) and I hammered it on. James hoisted it up, and with a few whacks of the beatle from Zack, it dropped right onto the king post tenons.

Here’s the finished product, and all the builders involved. I dig this design, regardless of it’s size. Since it’s made the way it is, it can be literally spread apart in just about any direction and added to. I could literally build this place myself in two months – possibly even shorter if I have a jig like the one James is designing.

I’ve posted all kinds of photos on my Flickr feed (finally using it after having it for 6 months!), and I intend to post more later. I also took a few videos, but I’m not sure if I will get to posting them.