Old Appalachian log home

[BelloBudo007]

Sorry for the ignorant question - Isn't there a horse breed named Appalachian?

Lovely workmanship on those cabins too. Interesting to see how they did it. What would they have used for filler to insulate? Some of the old British places seemed to be a sloppy mix of birch & plaster for the interiors. This was applied and dried to make a nice draft free wall.

The ceilings seemed surprisingly high which makes me wonder if the loft area was used for sleeping. Heat rising and all that kind of thing.

[Kleewyck2]

Why did they build a newer home around the cabin? What was the purpose or advantage of doing that? Thanks for your time.

[lcfgroup]

@Kleewyck2 Good Question - Actually this is very common here in Appalachia. First of all siding was added to protect the logs & make the home more wind & water proof. Then to have more room it was easy to just add more rooms or additions - in the early days this was made from logs - in later years when saw lumber could be cut or purchased the additions were made with regular stud walls as we know them today. Many of these old log cabins were added onto 3 or 4 times in 100 years.

[lcfgroup]

@Kleewyck2 You need to know it was a lot of work to make a log cabin all by hand including cutting all the logs. It was just too much work to take down a cabin & build a bigger one --- Also what would they live in when the small cabin was taken down? of course you could live in the existing cabin while you added onto it - no motels in the area. Many older farm homes here where we live today have a cabin hidden within the home and it only shows up when you take the home down.

[lcfgroup]

@Kleewyck2 The cabin you see in this video was on one of my farms and it was restored by the folks who were removing the old house that was beyond repair. I had given away two of these nice very old (150 years +) log cabins. About 5 years ago I discovered an old log home inside the old house and I decided to save this one for myself. It was taken down & all the logs are stored in one of my barns and I hope to restore it on my Chantilly Festival Farm here in Floyd Virginia - Dave

[lcfgroup]

We are in the Appalachian Music community of Floyd Virginia - I am also making a small museum display of some of my computers available to the public in the Village Green. We are on the "Blue Ridge Parkway" & " The Crooked Road - Virginia's Heritage Music Trail" . A lot of good things here - drop in and see us sometime. Also if you are biker this is a big stop over for riders on the Blue Ridge Parkway - Dave

[suuzzee5]

Beautifully done! Thank you for preserving our heritage, one bit at a time.

[lcfgroup]

Magee - Thanks for the comment. We still have a number of old log cabins hidden here and their. It is nice to save them but not always possible. Some folks in our area have done a really good job of restoring them.

[MageesterMixit]

A few years ago, Indiana, near Butlerville, found a cabin hidden behind white clapboard, two stories.

Someone built onto the back of it, made a kitchen area. Two rooms downstairs, might of been an outside step leading upstairs, not sure.

Logs were 24 inches or so. Yep, I wanted it, anyway, has been many a year ago, 1985 or so.