by Kirsten Dirksen
Log cabin simplicity: recrafting pioneer tiny homes in Iowa
4 Replies
Luvsteun House
I located this place back in 2007. The house sat on a 220 acre farm enrolled in CRP, a government sponsored set-aside program that pays farmers not to plow marginal and environmentally sensitive lands and instead plant them with native prairie grasses. With the contract up in 2008, the owner decided to not renew and bulldozed the farmstead and plowed up the native prairie for corn. The before and after photos were taken from the same perspective.
Farmstead as it appeared in 2007.
yikes!
Two light windows with pediment hoods above. Very nice detail.
segmental arch window hood!!!
metal chimney
Rear framed addition
Glenwood Lutheran Church, built of limestone in 1871. Photo taken from second floor dormer window.
shoes!
Second floor domer detail
Luvsteun family stone. This original family stone was replaced in about 1910 and brought back to the farmstead and put in a shed.
granary
Farmstead as it appeared in 2008.
Impeccable dovetail notching
Interview
I was recently interviewed by New York photographer Angela Cappetta. See the interview and check out her amazing work at http://angelacappetta.blogspot.com/. Thanks, Angela!
Howes House
The Howes house was built by an English family sometime in the 1870s or 1880s using logs salvaged from existing buildings. The area in which the house sat, French Creek Township, Allamakee County, was settled beginning in the late 1840s. Twenty or thirty years later existing structures were already being taken down and repurposed into new houses . What I do isn’t particularly new or unique.
I disassembled the house in 2008 and it was rebuilt as an addition onto an existing house. See portfolio page for the end results. I really, really appreciated this sweet little house and was sad to take it apart. The family who owned it had had it since the 1960s and did not know the core of it was log. I found it and immediately called the owner and asked whether I could have the thing. ”What log house?” they asked.
The logs both inside and outside were covered from the day it was built. The corner notching was an impeccable full dovetail, but the spacing between the logs was ridiculously large. Keep in mind they simply meant the logs to serve as framing much like 2″x4″s do in a conventional house. The species is all oak. In disassembling it and putting it back together I conjectured there were at least logs from two, possibly three houses. The timbers had existing V-notches, dovetail notches, notching for doors and windows, and odd weathering patterns where they shouldn’t have been.
Enjoy!
House as it appeared 2008. It was abandoned sometime during the 1960s.
A symmetrical facade! Very tidy and uniform. Notice the four light windows and pediment hoods.
West and south facades
Bay window
Very pronounced full dovetail corner notching unlike anything I’ve seen before. The full dovetail is usually executed pretty shallow on both the top and bottom, unlike the steeply cut undersides shown here.
The farmstead sits in stunning French Creek Township in Allamakee County, Iowa
German built one room house, outside Hesper, Iowa
This place is pretty special. I visited it when I was about five years old with our family friend Leila Matter. Perhaps my earliest memory, it no doubt had great effect! Born in 1910, Leila grew up in this house and lived there till she met her husband Stanley. Leila died in 2009 at the age of 99. The house dates to about 1875 and was built by a German immigrant, a relative of Leila’s, though I’m not sure of the exact connection.
The house remained occupied till about 1940 and by some stroke of luck still stands. The roof has failed and the logs are pretty weathered. The original one room house measures 16′ x 18′, the logs are cottonwood (I think!), and the corners are all square notched. Notice the sweet tongue and groove wainscot used throughout the inside.
Notice the vertical board and batten siding and the now gone front porch.
vertical board and batten siding, cellar access. The sills are oak but the rest of the house either white pine or cottonwood. They were very smart about not putting cottonwood on the ground!
Inside attached summer kitchen. Notice shelf (missing actual shelving boards) in red at left. Wood storage box sits between shelf unit and window. Wood was loaded into the box from the outside.
attached single story addition
Cottonwood logs square notched. Definitely not full dovetail!
Staircase with underside closet area. Closet is covered in old newspapers dating to the 1940s. The house never had plumbing or electricity.
Doorway into single story addition, staircase enclosure, right. No, barrel is not stave but metal.
Inside single story addition, looking into main log room
Big feisty raccoons live up here. The logs were limewashed and later painted a lovely light blue. Unfortunately the roof has failed and the upper courses are rotten.
Single walled chimney pipe fits through this interesting circular piece. Notice the floor joist sandwiched between the floor boards and the ceiling boards below. The joists are hand planed white pine with chamfered edges.
Yikes! Z shape treads and risers. Easy to climb, nearly impossible to descent. The treads have 3″ exposure.
wainscot ceiling
somewhat attached summer kitchen
attached summer kitchen, left, main log core, right
Hesper House, Winneshiek County
West and south elevations
The log core as it existed when it was originally constructed. Two rooms, the plan is unusual, perhaps alluding to a Yankee or German builder.
House as it exists today: Log core bottom, later additions top
East elevation: original two room log core measuring 16′ x 28′ is right, later framed additions are left
West and north elevations
South and east elevations
Coursed platville with its characteristic blue hue, located on addition
The log core measures 16′x28′ and was built of mostly white pine with a few oak logs mixed in for fun. I wasn’t able to see the corner notching, but likely full dovetail.
North and west elevations
South elevation
The foundation of both the original log building and the subsequent additions were made with platville limestone, a variety about 5″ thick and very rot resistant.
porch detail
Beautiful, beautiful 2/2 double hung sashes. Nice paint job…
Fish scaling found on every gable
putt, putt
Exposed and hand planed joists and floor boards
shelf
Exposed and painted joists and floor boards
Inside addition: Notice orignal diagonal beadboard wall treatment, now mostly removed
yikes! unlike oak, white pine can’t stand water
Banister, inside addition
Again, looking south.
Looking south through original primary entrance to log house. The left doorway was carved out of an orignal window and is a later addition.
Staircase, inside addition
Hand carved flower rosette. Ignore the three diagonal cuts.
Most of the interior treatment has been removed, but a few pieces remain. Shown here is a doorway plinth.
Glenwood Township House
Located in Norwegian settled Glenwood Township in eastern Winneshiek County, this little 14′ x 16′ house is almost totally intact. It was replaced by a new house in about 1900 and converted into a shed. The primary facade (with door and most likely side window) was chopped out and two swinging doors installed in their place. The steeply pitched 12/12 roof is not original either, and replaces a much shallower 4/12 or 6/12 roof. The standing seam metal is perhaps a hundred years old and still functions like it is new. The logs are all oak and the corners are joined in a very shallow dovetail notch.
West and South elevations: The front door (south or long side of the building) was removed and two swinging doors installed in its place. The steeply pitched roof is not original and likely replaces a much shallower 4/12 or 6/12 roof.
- Still functional standing seam metal roof, likely 100+ years old
- oak logs, notice location of original roof rafters
- swinging door hardware
- above window, north elevation
- East-north corner. Despite looking crummy from decades of exposure to the weather, oak logs are incredibly rot resistant. Not a single log on this wall is structurally compromised. Notice the fieldstone foundation mortared together with pure lime mortar.
- east elevation
- Southeast corner. Unfortunately a big chunk of the south wall was removed when it was made into a shed. Notice shallow dovetail notching.
- second floor, looking west
- second floor, looking west
- NEHI bottling of Decorah
