We discuss in depth all the things we with we knew before we bought our log cabin, including some of our own personal hardships and what we did to overcome those challenges. Follow us on Instagram @bellwetherfields.

Top 5 Things we Wish We Knew Before Buying a Log Cabin

Log Cabins are EXPENSIVE. It is a specialized skill that not a lot of people have and because of it being a bit more rare, it is expensive. Now there are some things that a log cabin contractor really can help you out with, including the replacement of rotten sill logs and helping put back together an older foundation but be aware that the quote that they give you may not be accurate, our quote was very reasonable until it turned into 4X that amount and the time frame was 6 months to finish the entire job, which after 6 months and 4X the amount of money quoted the cabin was still basically a shell that we had to finish ourselves.

Log Cabins are nothing like a modern home. It never really occurred to us that walls made out of antique wood, built over 150 years ago would not be square, plumb, the walls wouldn’t even be flat, that there would be sharp object sticking out of the wood that would scratch you or tear your clothing as you walked by, that you could run your hand down the wall and walk away with several splinters. It makes sense now, but as novices there were things about a modern style house that we just took for granted and we wish we had realized some of those things before we purchased a log cabin, it would have saved us a bunch of heartache.

Confusing or few DIY resources. We were not afraid of DIY and for this project, we needed to Do-It-Ourselves because of the huge inflation of costs (see item 1), but there again we made the assumption that YouTube and the internet would have all the resources we needed to get this project done. Well they didn’t. Finding log cabin DIY resources is actually quite challenging and most of the information we found was in conflict with one another. Chinking was a perfect example of that. Some people only use the PermaChink, which we didn’t use but I believe is a man-made product that expands and contracts with the logs, it comes in a tube. Other people used plaster like we did, then others only used a cement mix, each of these resources would say that their way was the “right way” to do it. In the end, we realized, particularly with chinking that all ways might be the right way and you just have to go and pick something that works for you. Again, that would have been easier if we knew that before we spend an incredible amount of time researching and stressing out about it.

Everything in a log cabin takes 2-3 times longer than you think it will. Renovations take a long time, but when you are working them on weekends and holiday and you are working on a log cabin, expect that everything is going to take way longer than you think it will. We worked on restoring our windows and thought it would take a week, in reality it took a full month and that was working on them EVERY DAY. Things just take longer than you think.

Accepting things as they are. Finally, the most helpful thing we wish we knew is that at some point you are going to have to accept things as they are. An antique log cabin is going to have a lot of character and there might be some things you need to replace for structural or safety reasons. It is after those items are fixed that you run into issues if you aren’t careful. You could walk around and want to fix this or replace that but at the end of the day it might be better to accept those things the way they are and embrace that charm of your unique log home.

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