Backface for stove rocked with fake stone. I designed it like this so when you're sitting around the stove, you're looking outside at all the eagles flying by and snow falling instead of an inside wall.

Here's a quick overview of the history of this house for those of you new to the site. I had spent 4.5 years building a cypress log, French style ( vertical logs) house which burned down about month after moving in. The one thing I didn't do caused it to burn down, so  I was soon off to the speedy legal system for a couple of years to recover damages. Finally getting a settlement out of court, I started in on this new house again with the help of a couple of fine guys to get it framed and dried in. That process took about 3 months and then I took over and started building it by myself. I've done all the wiring, plumbing, flooring, tiling, rock work, concrete work and endless other jobs, but when it's done, I'll know how to fix the stuff that breaks!

Back to Dan's tips.

The kitchen is in the finishing stages here. I tiled all around the cabinets, sink and entry doors to prevent any water damage. I still have to put an upper cabinet above the fridge and do trim work. Notice bare light bulb fixtures indicating the lack of funds to buy something classy, but I don't really care as long as I can look out at the river!

I've got all the tongue and groove ceiling boards up, the cypress wall boards up and was ready to start laying the laminate flooring at this point.

I've got all the ceiling beams up at this point and have started on the cypress wall boards on left. This is the wall of the great room facing the river. I've got the area in the center of the windows all rocked now (see below) and will install a wood burnig stove as backup in case the electricity goes out. The floor is tiled there also to safeguard against heat.

I've already started in building it myself from this point. This is the great room and I've got all the big posts up and the first ceiling beam up. I worked off of the scaffolding and I only dropped one roof beam in the entire job of putting them all up by myself. Of course I had to fix the hole in the floor by myself too!

Here's the house with walls up and trusses placed. We started decking the roof soon after this picture and then got the steel roofing put on to stop the rain from getting in!

More house pictures.