Saving Grandma's Cabin
Candy's hair-brained idea to keep her family history intact.
Categories: Westward Home
By: Candy Moulton 02/01/2008
Once we had it in place at the new site, nothing happened for almost a year. Ranch work is naturally cyclical, and Steve had no time for my cabin project in spring and summer, and during the winter in Wyoming, you can't work on such a job. But come September, when the haying is finished and the cattle are back on fall pasture, we have time to work on the cabin and we've done so every year.
We've cut and hauled logs to replace rotten ones. For replacements, we retrieved some of the old logs from the house built in 1914 that my Dad and I both grew up in, which was demolished not long after we moved the cabin. Steve and I argue at times. He prefers to remove old boards and logs, and replace them with new ones; I want to keep as much of the original in place as possible.
With Penny and Bill's help, we put the front walls back into position because we had chained them together and moved them separately from the main cabin (the dozer had effectively separated them from the main structure before we began our work).
Funding for this project has come in fits and starts, which affects how quickly we can complete the work. I sold some articles and we bought cement for the foundation pillars plus rough lumber for floor joists, and paid $20 for enough old plywood to cover the surface so we have a temporary floor. Last fall, with the walls back in place, we made the final big push. We got new logs for the roof purlins and to serve as rafters, purchased rough cut lumber for the roof decking and then covered it with rolled roofing and topped it all with cedar shake shingles (deciding not to restore it with a sod roof as it had originally). It is now boarded up for winter, but this year we will put in doors and windows (some of which were salvaged from the old Beaver Creek School).
Before long, Grandma's cabin will be fully restored. It cost just under $3,500 for all of the materials we have put into the cabin, plus many hours of our time. It's been a labor of love on my part, and a bit of coercion to involve all the family members who make it possible to save this piece of our heritage.
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