The Beginning

Creekside Cabin

Entry posted by Peggi July 7, 2006

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Shortly after I purchased the Lily, DH and I made a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby for supplies and as we walked down the mini aisle he saw a log cabin on the shelf and said that would be our next house to do. So after looking at several, I order the Creekside Cabin. I (or we) have had the kit waiting patiently in the box for over a year and this past weekend, no Gk's to babysit, the real house was fairly clean so I thought I start it.

I tried while building the Coventry a method of taking all the wood sheets out of the box and sanding the large sheets with a hand held sander. This seem to cut down on the amount of sanding that had to be done, cause it sanded the larger pieces, leaving only the sides to be done. Plus it gave me a chance to really see how the pieces were placed on the boards. The next step I took the schematics and using masking tape labeled each piece and then using the instructions took the pieces that were used together and placed in a bag by the order they would be used. The bags I used originally held curtains/drapes and have a great little pocket in front to label what it contains. So I could easily pull a bag according to whether it was step A or G and have the pieces ready.

I don't know if this saves me any time, but it makes me feel more organized. Since I bought a mini table saw and a mini table sander I can take the trim pieces and in a matter of minutes have a whole step sanded and ready to glue/or interlock. Now on something other than a rugged log cabin more hand sanding may be needed to really get a good finish. But for a rugged cabin it doesn't need any further sanding.

The wood seems a tad bit thicker on this kit than what I've worked with on the Lily and the Coventry which is nice. The wood seems to be of real good quality, the only problem I had was with the drastic change in color for the walls. This was only a concern because my first thought was to just stain but after attempts with several different stains on scrap pieces, I could not get any to match, part of which is probably my fault because I only had 5 different stains to try out.

While pondering what to do about the color, I started the build, and after reading the instructions several times and realizing that I wouldn't have window "panes" I followed the instructions and placed my window trim in. and the floor base while I had it on its front. Then I flipped it over and did the outside trim Next I interlocked the walls Don't you just love clamps. No matter how many I have or what size I have I seem to always need more or a different size :lol: .

Next I glued in the floors I was trying very hard to keep things squared up. Next was the fireplace and the mantle These will need more work, I hope to be able to do a "stone" look to them. I've stained the floors and will post pictures later.

I finally had to tackle my outside wall color--since the stains wasn't going to do it, I started mixing paint--I honestly don't know what all colors I've got mixed--I know there is some white, 3 different browns, gray and black. Then I took a very fine brush and using an eggshell white painted "at" the grooves. I say "at" cause as you can see, I missed the groove very often.