The popularity of our luxury log cabins has been steadily increasing over the last few years, Covid lockdowns excluded. So at the end of 2021, we decided to build a new one. The original planning application for log cabins at Alpine Grove was for five, but only four were built by the previous owners.
In November 2021 we started clearing the proposed area of rhododendron so that we could see the area we had available, then began to consider ideas for the size, shape and style of the new cabin. We spoke to numerous suppliers of log cabin type structures, including getting a quote from the supplier who installed two of the other cabins. However, rather than buying an ‘off-the-shelf’ structure, we decided that we build our own wooden framed log cabin, aiming to make it as sustainable as possible and minimizing its carbon footprint.
With the help of a local wood miller / carpenter, we settled on a design and started costing out and planning the build. Where possible, we will use materials from within a 12 mile radius of the site and local trades people to carry out any work that we are unable to do ourselves.
We are fortunate to have lots of beautiful oak trees on site and while we do what we can to look after them, dry summers over the last few years have taken their toll and there were a few that needed to be felled as they were dying or diseased. As sad as this might seem, it also presented an opportunity for these magnificent trees to continue their work on site, albeit in a very different way.
At the end of March, five oak trees were topped then the trunks felled and cut into lengths just over four metres long. The cut lengths were then moved across the site where they were milled into beams for use as the base of the new cabin.
At the start of June a local landscaper arrived on site to dig and lay out the foundations and lay the concrete blocks that the cabin would sit on. By the end of June work had begun to install the oak beams using traditional carpentry techniques.
In the mean time, the main frame of the building, including all the roof and floor rafters, was being milled, cut to length and dry assembled at a site a few miles away and will be delivered to Alpine Grove in due course.
Time lapse video, part 1:
to be continued….
