To close in the storage area under the stairs, I returned to the original log house site and salvaged trim and V-board from an addition to the log building that was still standing. Luckily, the antique dealer who stripped my building of its contents had not scavenged the addition. For my cunning, I was rewarded with two magical doors that accompanied the original
V-groove board. I simply washed them, applied a quick coat of shellac and hung them, warts and all, under the stairs.

In delicate balance, the second-floor railing needed to look like it had been there for a century and also meet with building code. In addition, it had to be removable so that I could move large objects up and down the stairs. Buying old newel posts from an antique dealer got me halfway there, and finding balusters via eBay completed my search for parts. I made the handrail myself, and used bed bolts and steel plates mounted to the newel posts to make it possible for the railing to appear and disappear at will. The railing was finished to match the antiqued window trim.

The log workshop.

Am I done, you wonder? I wonder too. There are still more finishing touches to be completed on the workshop and I still have a dismantled 20' x 30' log barn calling to me from its resting place in the long grass behind the shop. With only three complete walls, I must dip into my spare log supply and cut replacement dovetails to make a complete fourth wall for the barn. My contractor friend, Jim Borne, died last year, so I no longer have access to the old boom truck, his scaffolding and his sage advice, but I'll figure something out. I tell myself that raising the barn won't be a big job. That's what I tell my dad, too.

Karen McBride