We have constructed a brick and block pier either side of the entrance door to the log house, and now we have time to get round to making the deck that will go here. Some treated 8 x 2 timbers are used to make a base frame. These sit on a plastic waterproof membrane to avoid dampness from the brickwork feeding into the timbers.

We then fit the deck planks, remembering to create a removable cut out round the base of the big post, as this has an adjuster at the bottom that will need access from time to time as the house settles.

 To protect the decking material we put some plywood over it until all the work is finished.

 While the lightening Conductors have been fitted to the roof and the copper conductor put in place down the side of the house, they have not been connected to any earth rods. How many rods you need depends on the resitivity of the ground, which depends on whether it is sandy, clay or whatever. Our friendly Lightening Conductor designer suggested for our soil type we should have 3 earth rods on each side, 2 metres deep and connected across the top with a strip to which the copper conductor is connected with a soldered tag. Fortunately this summer has been miserable and incapable of getting things hot enough to create any thunder and lightening.

 The rods are reasonably easy to knock into the ground as around the house much of it has been disturbed to do the foundations so has not fully compacted yet since the backfill.

On the south side of the house we had put teram and pea shingle down where the decking will go so the conductor assembly will sit nicely under the deck

Prior to the internal architrave being fixed to the window linings, we will need to fill any gaps with can foam to complete the insulation and avoid any air gaps etc.

 After allowing the foam a day to expand, any excess is cut off and then the architrave can be fitted. With Architraves, you either use the same material as the logs, or something that is noticeably different so that it does not look like a poor attempt at a match. We have settled on American Oak to go round the windows and doors as it will take the knocks better than Western Red Cedar.

 Some of the internal walls in the house will be plasterboard, and some will be log siding, which is like a slice of wood that has been machined to look like the inside face of logs used for the house external wall. We have pre-painted lots of it with a wood treatment and now that the underfloor heating is on, we can bring it over prior to using it on the walls at the left back part of this view.

By bringing it into the house a week or so before, it has a chance to settle down and dry out a bit more before fixing, reduing the potential for settlement after fixing.

 With most of the plasterboarding done we can now put the stairs in. These have been ready at the joinery suppliers for some weeks now. So soon, no more ladders up and down but stairs!

 A few sunny days so time to finish the outside protection of the logs. The log suppliers from North America sent waterbase undercoat and top coat. Where the undercoat had been applied but the top coat had not been applied, strange “streaks” or “runs” at the bottom of logs appeared. Sanding out was not an option as it not only would leave lighter spots but also would not get the staining out of the grain without severe sanding.

However using a used household scourer and some water does the trick a treat and is very quick too! 

 Some of the stud walls in the house will be covered with conventional plasterboard, but some will be covered with log “siding”. This is 2″ thick Western Red Cedar that is profiled on one side to look like the inside face of the main outer wall logs. This is fixed to the stud work and then will look as if solid log extends into the house.

At just £10 per foot it is cheaper than using solid log!

We sand the planed factory finish with 80 - 120 grade paper with a hand sander and then apply the internal finish, sand again with 220 grade and then give a second coat to finish.

 There are several systems for fitting underfloor heating. With our wooden joist system we are going for a pug screed. “Trays” made by plywood (from the temporary floor we have used to date) will be supported on battens shown here. Then 50mm Cellotex is dropped in, the underfloor heating pipe clipped in place and then a cement sand screed applied. So ahead of doing the stud walls the battens are put in from the underside of each floor.

 We’ve had a weeks holiday, hence all the pictures of the sedum while we were away! Meanwhile the carpenters have finished fitting all the windows and doors (except the three we are having carved in Spain which should come end of July).

The interior of the house is pretty conventional in the walling system, apart from some of the walls being covered with 2″ thick cedar “log siding” to make some of them look as if they are made of solid log but for a fraction of the cost and with the advantages of fitting the services (electrical wiring etc) to the stud wall. The other good thing about using  siding rather the more conventional plasterboard that we will use elsewhere is that siding is very easy to fix picture hooks into!

 As the scaffold is taken down the down pipe for the gutter needs to be installed while we can stand on the lower level and the upper level scaffold has been removed. It takes about a full day for all the scaffold to be taken down. We bought this gutter system in Germany a few Christmases ago - like a lot of self builders we have been accumulating things that we saw that we liked before the building started, along with tearing out pages from magazines that had things we thought would suit the house.