day 10 & 11…bleaching the logs and adding the log siding on the second floor

Saturday morning Dave went down ahead of me so that he could be there when our stain was delivered.  We had initially planned to do the staining ourselves but when we saw first hand just how high the second story is on the back of the cabin where the double wall of windows will be, the more daunting it seemed.  We made the command decision the day before that we would have our Battle Creek crew go ahead and do it while they were here, given that they had all the necessary equipment and knew what they were doing.  However, this put us in a time crunch as the forecast for the next week was freezing temperatures and snow flurries.  Mr. Lipham said that if we could get the stain overnighted, they could start staining by Sunday and be finished before the icy temps set in.  After much back and forth, it was decided that the cheapest way to have it overnighted was to pay a driver to drive it down from Tennessee.  We also had to make a quick decision as to which color to choose. After attending the Permachink talk at the Chantilly Log and Timber show, we decided to go with their Lifeline Ultra-7 line as it had the best reviews and only requires one coat.  This left us with fewer choices, none that really jumped out at us.  In the end, after talking with Mr. Lipham about it and listening to his advice, we went with the Oak.

The stain arrived as scheduled and the crew went to town trying to get everything done on the outside in order to start staining on Sunday.

By Sunday, the log siding was ready to be placed.  The full timber logs make up the first floor walls as well as the double story wall around the windows in the great room, while the two second story side walls are framed, covered with OSB and then covered with the log siding.  Once it is finished and stained, they will look like logs as well.  Once the logs and siding are finished, caulking is placed, if desired, in areas where there are slight gaps.  While the crew was on lunch break, Dave decided he would pick up a caulking gun and start doing a little caulking himself.  Clearly none of the crew members know that Dave has done his share of caulking in the past. I heard a quiet muttering in Spanish behind me as one of the crew members tried to catch Miguel’s attention to let him know what was going on.  Next thing we knew, several heads appeared around the corner of the front porch as everyone came to see what was going on.  Miguel promptly came over and removed the caulking gun from Dave and proceeded to do it himself.  Lunch break over!

By the time the caulking had been finished, the wind had really picked up and the command decision was made to call it a day and wait till Monday morning to start staining.  Just as well since ideally the caulk needed to set for 24 hours before applying stain.