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Below is Tom’s commentary on the pictures he sent to our publication –

I'm trying to remember what pix are on the disc, exactly. They are mostly floor and door/window work. Michael Svensson, the owner, is in the most pictures probably. Short skinny Swede. The big guy is Dan the floor guy. He does floor restorations for a living and agreed to come out and grind, sand and finish the floors in exchange for a welding job on his boat Michael is going to do.

You're correct about the logs. The walls are Sitka Spruce and the floors are Mountain Hemlock. The walls are 30'X30' so the logs are 50' long to provide a 10' deck all around. The roof has 13' overhangs!

Mike and I did most of the work over the years. Dan was the first paid help on the site. The floor on the main level is made of 2 1/4" hemlock planks that are drilled, screwed, and plugged. 5000 drill holes. We plugged them all with Honduran Mahogany plugs.

All the dementional lumber for the decks, floor and roof decking was done on sight using a chain saw mill Michael shipped over from Sweden when he came to the US. The roof decking alone consists of 3200 sq' of 2X6's. Mike uses the simplest of power tools. The door was made by Mike in one day using a planer, table saw, and chop saw, along with his ever present hammer and chisels. It's put together without the use of nails, of course. Most lumber was air dried for 3 years before using.

Mike did the pole "foundations" and walls entirely by himself, and mostly in the dark of winter. [Tom] came in to build the wood shed, floors, decks, and the rafters on up. The roof is capped with a standing seam metal roof, on top of 3 layers of tar paper. The metal roof has 80 sheets of metal, all 18" wide and 32' long. It's a story in itself how we got the 32' sheets from the barge in Pelican to the cabin site 6 miles away. We carried each one up the 90' cliff without bending even one! Then we just had to get them all up on the roof.

This year marks 10 years since we built the wood shed to store the tools and begin the cabin. This year its a wood stove and a metal chimney system. Maybe also a kitchen island. That's it for now.

Tom