Five years later...

It has been a long time since I did any new posts. We had the logs moved to our site in October 2013, and have been working mostly on the exterior. We've now got the outside work largely done, although as they say up in this area, a cabin isn't finished until you list it for sale!

I'll post a few photos that show the completed exterior, as well as some photos showing our shoreline and dock. As always, click on a photo to see it larger.

Above is a photo showing the cabin from the driveway. This is looking pretty much south, towards Birch Lake. The two small triangles at the top of the end gable will eventually be small windows; right now they are covered with plywood, as we had bigger fish to fry as far as exterior work.

The photo at left was taken at the same time, and shows the front quarter of the cabin, with our new deck (which is, as you may notice, quite high off the ground... the front corner on the other side, that doesn't show in this photo, is 16 feet above the ground below). The deck and railings were put up in early May 2018... more photos below.

The next photo (at right) shows the new triangular windows we had installed on the front of the cabin in August 2018. You may notice some cords hanging over the glass. These are called Zen wind curtains (or Acopian bird savers). We built and installed them to prevent birds from crashing into the windows, something that is a constant problem up here and which causes many heartbreaking bird deaths. These are built with black parachute cord that is attached to a wooden strip at the top of each window. The cords are cut to length so the bottom ends, which are not attached to anything, will dangle and move around in the slightest breeze. This movement, combined with the 4-inch spacing, breaks up the reflection of the forest and prevents birds from flying into the glass. We also installed Zen curtains on the north-facing window (at left; this is the one seen in the top photo) and a lower-level window... both of these windows were getting hit a lot. I'm thrilled to report that since we put these up, we have not had a single bird strike on any of the windows that have the cords. I highly recommend these Zen curtains to anyone who has problems with bird strikes. We got used to them very quickly, and it is actually kind of relaxing to watch them move around in the breeze.


Now that we have the triangle windows in, we have started putting the tongue-and-groove ceiling inside. The flooring that butts up to the window is temporary; it's just there as a working platform that was used during the install of the windows and the ceiling. Once we have the interior trim on the triangle windows, we'll install a ceiling fan and then remove the temporary floor, so that the front half of the cabin will have an open cathedral ceiling (the back half will still have a floor; it is a half-loft). The view from the loft is outstanding, as you can see.

Our deck has become our primary living area--at least when the weather is good. The panorama above was taken from the doorway, looking out onto the lake. (The effect of the wide-angle lens makes the deck look angular. It isn't; it's a standard rectangle.)

 At the right is a photo showing a bit more of the deck construction detail. We used brown treated lumber for the deck, rails and posts; much, much cheaper than either cedar or composite lumber, and a whole lot better looking than green treated lumber.

We used "pig wire" (also called hog wire) for the area between the posts and rails. This is thick wire that is welded into a square grid and powder-coated; we chose black, and it really becomes nearly invisible to the eye (at least in summer... winter, it will be pretty visible). So it doesn't break up the view; it's almost like not having anything in there.

 

Above is a photo of a lovely double rainbow, taken from the deck on July 8, 2018. 

We had a nice dock installed in 2016. It's got a modular aluminum framework, and has decking panels topped with wooden boards. A local business, Almost Home, puts it in each year, and takes it out in fall, so we don't have to fiddle with it. Because it's modular, we can configure it differently each year if we like, and add to it if we want more space. At left is Bruce and our friend Bill in June of 2017.

The dock and shoreline offer endless opportunities for photography. Here are a few of my favorites.

OK, that's enough for now. I'll do another posting in the very near future, showing some of the beautiful birds and other critters I've been photographing. I'll also do a separate post to show some of the night sky photography I've recently gotten into. Stay tuned! Thanks for looking at my blog. And if you're new to it, please use the timeline menu at the right to check out the postings that show the cabin construction, starting in 2013... five years ago.