This Log House - Entry 5

I know it’s silly, but I find myself vaguely irritated when we have to use new materials in building this house.

Restore/reuse/repurpose has been our guiding principle. Old barn siding has been re-milled to become floorboards and paneling; barn floorboards have been incorporated as stair treads and the floor of the screened porch. Old barn timbers (mostly hand-hewn oak, with some chestnut) have become support posts for the house’s “summer beams” and porch, as well as newel posts for the stairway. Appropriate mid-1800s interior doors have been found at the Centre Park Artifacts Bank in Reading and through private owners along the mountain to supplement the four-panel doors salvaged from the house before it was taken down, and the house’s original beaded board is again being used on the walls of this resurrected house.

Massive flagstones from a demolished mansion in Pottsville are waiting to help divert storm water away from the building – and generally enrich the landscape. Foundation stones from the original house (see Entry 1) will grace the retaining wall on the west and become an outdoor seating area.

Even the old hand pump, the only thing that survived the fire besides the stone, will be put back to work atop a new concrete slab over the original shallow well.

So while, yes, we’re using some new components like 2x4s and drywall for interior rooms, a lot of the fun and satisfaction – for no extra money – has been in giving extended or reshaped life to old, useful, and often beautiful materials.