Darryl's log home

Day Three building the walls. The walls are going up! Our team are not only log-home builders, but trapeze artists as well. Timo is holding the electric cable, Steven is drilling the re-bar into the log every 50cm and Precious is holding onto Steven so he doesn't fall.   Day four Wayne and Darryl are discussing the move of the next log.  Holes are being drilled into the log for the re-bar to be hammered in. The re-bar goes through the top log and half way through the one underneath. The re-bar is now being hammered into the drilled holes  . Lobsen is cutting the re-bar into the required lengths with an angle grinder. Robin and Mischa were both helping out today.  Darryl's grand-kids were also there watching mom work. 14 logs by the end of the fourth day! Thanks everyone!

The Base Logs. Thursday 15th November. Darryl and his team managed to lower and position  TWO of the four BASE logs into place - in one morning! (We then had to leave for a long weekend away!) The log was lowered onto treated base plates that were resting on a  layer of DP plastic and bichumin to prevent it from touching the cement directly  and absorbing damp. Wayne planed away the 'bumps' and smoothed off the surface of the log. As you can see, Darryl had pre-drilled holes at exactly measured out points on the log - then the log was  lowered exactly onto galvanized 12mm steel re-bar rods that had been fixed into the cement. The log is now firmly fixed onto the cement structure. The steel re-bar was cut off using a grinder at the correct height and then hammered flat against the log to pin it in place. Base log number TWO. Using the pulleys, this log was lowered at 90 degrees to the first log. Als...

The lifting poles are in position.                                         A HUGE feat achieved within three days! Today, Darryl, Robin, Wayne and the team moved the WALL logs into the order that they will be placed. The logs are prepared to be let down to the 'floor'level and stacked one on top of the other.

Lifting poles: Day Two!  Today we're putting in the second  and third lifting logs. That means moving a log from the slab into a position at one of the four corners of the house. This takes a lot of engineering genius which my husband has a lot of! Wayne helped this morning. Wayne is from Canada and has a lot of experience in building log homes and working on oil rigs. Thanks Wayne!  Lifting pole number two is planted and now lifting pole number three is being moved into place.  Robin, Darryl daughter has been a 'regular' on the site. Today she helped to get lifting pole number three into position! Thanks Robin!

Lifting poles The aim here is to to get 4 lifting poles in to the 4 corners of the house. We use these poles to move the wall logs in to place with pulleys and block and tackle. (I say, WE... but I mean Darryl because he has the brains for this kind of engineering feat. I am, on the other hand, Technically Challenged!) I Darryl, Mischa, Lobsen and Timo trying to get the log plumb-lined and secure. The first lifting log is in place! Lobsen is holding Mischa while he leans forward to work on of the block and tackle. They are trying to move the second lifting log (in background) down off the slab and across the building to the far corner. And YES we will be buying harnesses TODAY!   Darryl's mother - Granny Thelma - came to see the exciting 'goings on'.

Trucking the logs to Glencairn. This is the truck that came to move our logs. We loaded  22 logs - including 4 lifting poles which will be used to lift the logs into their position on the wall using block and tackle, (No crane!) A video of the last log being loaded.   Each log is numbered because it has been allocated an exact position in the walls according to it's measurements. This guy nearly went flying! The photographer! ME.  On the road!  Finally off-loading onto our future garage floor in Glencairn,