A Tiny Log Cabin Home | The Final Installment of the Log Home Diary |
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"Be Our Guest: The Log Home Diary Cabin"
A Tiny Log Cabin Guesthouse | August 2008 | Log Home Design
With the end in sight, Kent and Midge Merrill add the finishing touches to their Tennessee backyard guesthouse.
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Be Our Guest: As construction wound down, Midge and I started to think about how were going to turn this empty cabin into a cozy guesthouse for our visitors to enjoy. Just like we wanted Hearthstone to create the exterior to look like it had been built a hundred years ago, we wanted our interior decor and finishing materials to have that same authentic Appalachian feel. While the crew was finishing up construction, I took on the task of designing, making and installing all of the doors and doorjambs, as well as the cabinets in the bathroom and kitchenette. I also cut and installed all of the downstairs flooring myself, sawing the 2-inch-thick timbers down to 1-inch boards and planing them to a finished thickness of just shy of an inch. Then I cut them into random widths and lengths and nailed them onto an Advantec subfloor. To make them look as authentic as possible, I used old-fashioned cut nails, made by machines that are more than 100 years old.
During this time, Midge and I made our annual trek to an elegant, rustic resort called The Swag in Waynesville, North Carolina. That facility was built entirely from reclaimed logs and had lots of great ideas to steal. In fact, I designed our cabin’s door latches, pulls and hinges based on our experience at The Swag. We were fortunate to find a local master blacksmith named Jamie Tyree, who did an excellent job of crafting them for us.
When it was time to start decorating, Midge, who has an eye for interior design, really took the reins. For the most part, we avoided the cute cabin novelties. I recall many occasions when we’d come across an item and Midge would say, “That’s not what they would have had in their house,” referring to the 19th century mountain folks who first populated this area. It really set the standard for the items we chose for the cabin.
One thing that we really wanted to include was all of our antiques. Midge put my mother’s heirloom cedar chest in the bedroom and covered it with a handmade pad so it could be used as a bench. She also sewed curtains from a 1927 quilt for the bedroom and a bathroom window treatment came from an old flour sack. A marble-top table that was a wedding present for my great grandmother has found a home in our sitting area in the loft we even fit an old blue Hoosier cabinet along the same wall in the kitchenette.
Midge made sure everything was just right, all the way down to the tiniest details. For example, we’d talked about how plastic light-switch plates just weren’t going to look right in the rustic setting. Although I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, I added making wooden plates to my “honey–do” list. Well, you can imagine my surprise when Midge came home one day with a bag full of unfinished wooden socket and switch plate covers. She stained each one of them to match the wood where the switch was located. It was the perfect solution.
We finally “moved in” to the cabin on May 1, 2007, and celebrated with a champagne toast and by spending the night in the guest bedroom. We also held an open house for all of our friends and neighbors. But, when it’s just us, we spend quite a bit of time over there sitting on the front porch with a good book.
We hope to live the rest of our lives right here looking out at Cataloochee Cabin, named after our valley locale in the great Smokey Mountains. We hope it will stay in our family for generations, so my grandkids, who love to play on the porch and hike in the woods during their visits will live to see their grandkids enjoying the same. After all, everyone loves a log cabin … it is, indeed, something special.
Cabin Details:
Square footage: 805
Log producer: Hearthstone Inc.
Be Our Guest: Tiny Cabin Plans
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By Robert Healy on May 22, 2008
Now that is a log cabin! No need for all that fancy stuff, the bare nessesities are all you need. hard to find a builder that will see it that way. they all are HUGE and a lot of un-nessesary space.
By Janice M. Bergman on May 23, 2008
We love the cabin 800 square feet. My husband and I would like to build the same cabin. How can we get the builders information, how to purchase a copy of the plans and the owers information. My contact cellphone number is 828-400-3545.
Thank you,
Janice M. Bergman
By sharonstory on Jun 01, 2008
Love your tiny cabin-has same floor plain as ours would like a basement and 300 more sqft Thanks.
By Mike McCarthy on Jun 10, 2008
You can find the information you are seeking on our site at the following location...
http://www.loghome.com/hearthstone_inc/companies/62
By sherry taylor on Jun 15, 2008
Have been researching log cabin floor plans for a year. Your tiny cabin is perfect. We plan to build some time this summer or early fall. How long did it take to actually erect cabin? We are going to hire someone to do it but need a time frame.
By Ed Harris on Jun 18, 2008
Iam planning to build next year when I retire and I think I have found the one I want to build. This is the perfect log cabin. Great job.
By sherry taylor on Jun 22, 2008
How do I go about getting floor plans to build this log cabin?
sharolynt@aol.com
By Becky W on Sep 14, 2008
We got the land now. We are looking to a log home. We want a tiny cabin that is us. The tiny cabin is my dream home. How do we go about getting plans and a cost of the cabin? We have 10 years to build. This will be our retirement home. Email me please bw5721@yahoo.com
By billy baker on Sep 25, 2008
when installing switches & outlets do I use conduit and mount exterior or do I flush mount.