This Log House - Entry 1

Green buildings come in many forms. This is ours.

A bit of background: We purchased the get-away land we love in Upper Tulpehocken Township, up against Blue Mountain, to enjoy and preserve the woodland and with the intention of restoring the original 1850s log house on the property. After twenty years of weekend visits and good intentions, we had finally started to bring the house into the 20th century (you know, adding plumbing and electricity and removing the live-in varmints), when it unaccountably burned down. We soon decided to build green on the same site.

After a lot of study, inspired by the ideas in Sarah Susanka’s “Not So Big House” books -- and with valuable suggestions from Bill Vitale at DesignWorks and Neal Hess, designer at George Longenecker & Sons, a nearby construction firm -- Barry and I designed a pretty neat (if I do say so myself), modern passive solar house. But then a not-to-be-missed opportunity to buy adjacent mountain land for preservation came up, reducing the building budget. The same week, we heard that a sound, 24x28 foot, 2-story log house of almost exactly the same vintage as our original, and just five miles away, was scheduled for immediate demolition if a new site could not be found. Sold! The house was disassembled a few days later and, after sitting in pieces on our lawn this summer, is rising again – in modern “green” form.

Next: working with the site – and decisions made 160 years ago