My Grandmother Stopped Me Before I started decorating my log cabin

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by Leslie Wurdack

So you are going to be deorating your log cabin. I have some ideas.

Do you have to do everything I say. Well if I say no would that make you feel better? I mean it's not that I want you to feel better anything but the answer to your question is no.

After conferring with an historical architect I was given some words of wisdom. This is going to be either a first home or a getaway. It is important to feel comfortable.

While it great if you can have your log cabin as close to the original as possible, you are going to want a kitchen instead of cooking over the fire in the fireplace and I am sure you don't want to go outside to use the restroom, especially in the middle of the night.

You will probably also want hot and cold running water and electrity and there is heat and most probably air conditioning.

While many of these things can, through a little creativity be put in your log cabin. I was told that fifty years ago, the bath tub was put upstairs in one of the bedrooms and pans of hot water had to be brought up. That was their answer to indoor plumbing at the time.


Also, the stairs going upstairs had to be redone. They were still not done to my comfortable (they are too steep) the only way to correct that is through some structural work. Since the house was going way over budget, I decided to put that off.

The more obvious modern comforts are in your house, the less likely you are to get a grant to help pay for some of the work. There are some federal and state grants but many of them are only available to maintain the "historical integrity". I failed that test (what else is new).

I also found that if you turn your log cabin into a place of business you are eligible for even more grants. Keep in mind that many of these grants are only available if they are applied for before you start the work.

While the government likes to switch things around (to see if we are paying attention) you need to check on things on both the state federal level to see what the requirements.

I know by now I have impressed you with my log cabin knowledge but there are certain things you should double check on, and this is one of them.

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