Chinking between the logs on the outside of the cabin was the next step.
After this job is complete, the main part of the cabin will be closed in!
The first part of this job was to cut metal lathe into strips and nail the strips in between the logs. This became my job. We found that I was better at cutting the lathe without tearing up my hands with the sharp metal edges and he was better (a lot faster than me) at spreading the chinking compound over the metal lathe.
My husband did a lot of research beforehand to come up with a recipe for the chinking compound. It is a mixture of red brick sand, lime, cement and water. The mixture was trial and error at times to get the right consistency for the chinking to stick and stay. It couldn't be too wet or too dry. We learned that it was best to slant the clinking at an angle between the logs so that the top part was indented some and the bottom part came right to the outer edge of the log. This allows the rain water to run down the logs over the chinking and not "puddle" on top of the logs anywhere.
Of course, our faithful helper, Madison, was always there to cheer us on.
This is the back wall of the cabin completed!!!
Only 3 more walls to finish...
2 walls done - 2 left
Almost done with the 3rd wall. Thankfully, my husband was very good at this and the process moved along rather quickly and smoothly. We did find that if it was really sunny out, it was better to cover the wet chinking with a plastic sheet to allow it to dry slowly, otherwise, it cracks while drying. We actually did this job in the evenings after work and it took 3 or 4 nights to complete, including the time to cut the lathe and nail it in.
YAY!!!! It really looks like a cabin now!
This was around the early summer of 2009. We started with a pile of logs in March of 2008.
If you would like to go back and follow along from that pile of logs click HERE.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you'll come by again next week - we added a back room onto the cabin next!
'til next time,
That looks like a lot of work! So very cool!
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