This is one of the people that heard my interview on the radio and heard that I would split wood for free and gave me a call. I usually don’t like to go as far as Stamford but I didn’t have anything closer once I finished that nice little house in New Rochelle on Forest Avenue. It looked like it would not be enough wood for a house, but once I heard that there was a child, enough room to build a house and interest in having one,I reconsidered and thought I would try to build a small one. Here is the  first couple of days work:

Here are the logs  left to split.  It  looks like it will be probably enough for a small house . I don’t know whether we will be able to put any rooms in it. I doubt it.

The roof is now completely tied on. Here are couple of views,

This is a view of the side of the house where the entrance is.. Notice that instead of tying the grommets of the tarp through the logs as I did around the rest of the house, I have suspended small logs from the  grommets at the end of the long slope down of the roof, to maintain tension to try to keep the tarp rigid so it won’t collect pools of water during a rain.

Here is a view from the entrance up along the slope of the roof. I hope it is sloped enough so that the water runs off it.

Final picture of the front of the house. You can see a couple of logs hanging off the grommets to maintain tension on the tarp. You can also see a couple of the decorative “feet” in front of the entrance door, similar to the statues in front of ancient  temple doorways.

Okay, this is the last weekend. I just have a little bit to add. I have made the entrance passageways two one half turns, with  right turn in the middle of the third one. with a little entrance way which I haven’t completed yet.

Just about finished now. We put on the tarp roof, because I got it from Northern Tools where I ordered it from. It is  16 x 20′ ,just big enough to cover the house. (And my favorite camo design. Notice how it blends in with the background, virtually concealing the wood pile.) The house isn’t quite finished yet, but I wanted to fit it on. We tied it down on one side where the house is finished, on the right, but not yet on the left, because I’m still

 adding to that part.

Getting close to the end here, the log pile is diminishing. Amost time to put on the roof,but I have about a cord and a half left and I am determined to add it to the house by continuing the winding entrance. However, since  little boys might have to get out of the house in a hurry, for example if their  mom calls, I made an emergency exit out the back by pulling down a few logs from one of the walls and having the boys build up the stairway inside (I couldn’t get inside myself to build up the stairway.)

Notice how the passageways leading into the front are winding around. It first  goes to the left then it goes to the right before reaching the front door. I’m trying to make each wall a little lower, so that the tarp on the roof will slope down and the rain will run off and not pool on the tarp, even though that means crouching down a little lower as they enter, but they all are pretty small anyway.

This is the inside of the first passageway. The front door is just to the right.

Just added some work on the passageway, turned the corner and started going down parallel to the first passageway.

Not sure whether it is apparent, but I am trying to make the wall at the end of the passageways (parallel to the end peaked wall of the house) slope down slightly and the walls of the passageway (which are parallel to the side wall of the house) slightly lower than the wall of the house,all with the objective of providing a slight slope for the roof tarp, starting at the peak of the house and sloping down to the furthest outside passageway, which I still don’t know where it will be, since I don’t know exactly how much more there will be to split.

As you can see here the passageway comes down from the front door and then makes a U-turn and will start going back up again. I don’t know how far.

Here is a view of the logs remain to split. I think it will take me about three more days because it looks like one and a  half cords. That means finishing the wall that I have started on of the second passageway and probably making one more turn

.

The house is just about finished at this point but not the log pile. So, I am continuing to split, since I will finish off the log pile,but I will build passageways in to the front door of the log house for as long as the logs last. I was thinking about whether I would cover the passageways or just  cover the  log house with the tarp, and I decided to try to cover the passageways.

The problem is, one cannot stretch a tarp out flat because rain and snow will pool on it and eventually break through. So I am going to have to make the passageways lower and lower to create a “pitch” from the top of the house down to the outside wall of the furthest passageway so there will be a slope for the rain or snow to slide off.I measured the house and it is 14 feet deep by about 11 feet wide. However I’m going to get a longer tarp to cover the passageways one that is 16′ x 20′, camo, of course.(I ran this by the lady of the house, since my wife doesn’t like camo tarps, thinks they look too military.)I should get the tarp later on this week and then we will put it on next weekend. The kids will be excited.

I also decided that, since these passageways leading to the front entrance are going to be long and involved, there should be a back door out of  the house. It’s a little late now to decide on that, since the house is already built. What I will do, however is, in the little room the furthest away from the front door I will take down a foot or so of the wall and throw a bunch of pieces of split firewood inside for the kids to build a ramp part way up the wall so they can climb up and creep out. Then, at that point, the back exit point, I will not fasten down the tarp. Everywhere else it  is tied down by the grommets on the tarp. This has to be or the wind will blow it away.  Where the tarp flaps over the back door, however, I will not tie it, but hold it down by tying it small log on a rope  attached to one of the  grommets on the tarp,so it will hang down, but can be lifted up.

above you can see that the house is completed but there is a passageway leading along the left-hand wall of the house to the front door.

This is a little closer view of the passageway. On the left hand side of the picture you can see a block at the end of the passageway where it will make a right angle turn.

this is the end of the first passageway and I am building  another wall out from the wall of the house to make a right angle turn to start the second passageway.

this is looking down the passageway from where  door to the house, on the right,to the end of the passageway.

This brings us up the present time. I am entering this post on March 5,2012, and the eighth day was yesterday Sunday, March 4th. From now on I will try to enter the posts  in real-time as I complete the progress and take the pictures.I would guess, judging by the number of log left, that it will be about two weekends or two cords.

As you see, that house proper is finished. I have now started to construct a   passageway down one side of the house. Judging from the number of logs that I have left  to split, that passageway will go quite a way.

Close up,below, of the front door, looking through the front door.

Close up of the middle wall and the two doorways into the rooms on the other side of the house

Below is inside the house, just inside the front door looking to the left towards the other end  and looking through the doorway leading to the two rooms at the other end.

And, believe it or not, I squeezed my vast bulk through that very doorway and then turned and  took a picture looking the other way towards the outside doorway.

above is a final picture for the day showing the beginnings of the passageway that would lead to the front door.

Quite a bit more progress .

You can now see that both bracing walls have become solid walls (interrupted only by the doorways into the two little rooms ) which reach from one end of the house to the other, forming a more or less level support for the tarp that will form the roof.   It really only now remains to finish the wall which leads to the left-hand side of the doorway and finish the peaked wall at the end. That wall  will end in a block beyond the outside wall of the house because there will be a passageway down the outside wall of the house. Below is a  different view of the progress so far.

The picture below was taken from the right-hand side of the house looking down into the right-hand little room at the doorway to that room.

The picture below is a couple of the future residents of the house, a nine-year-old on the left and a five-year-old on the right.

Same children; same house;same time.

This is halfway through the seventh day and I decided to do something a little different from what I have done before with wood houses. I found a couple of old boards lying around and I put them between the two bracing walls and I’m going to pile firewood on top of that until I make a level wall running down the middle of the house. That way we won’t have to put a pole or a couple of two by fours across the middle to stretch the tarp over.

another view of the same thing.

This is something new to me and I am curious to see how it turns out.