Couple logs many hours restoring cabins

The Home Place: Pair finds rebuilding the structures rewarding
By BECKY SISCO
TH Staff writer

Elizabeth, Ill. - "You could say we're in the recycling business," said Carolyn Fisher.

Fisher and her husband, Terry, also are in the construction, restoration and guest-accommodation businesses. The Menominee couple has dismantled 13 log cabins and rebuilt eight of them. The Fishers have two on their property in rural Elizabeth, which they rent to overnight guests under the moniker The Home Place.

They plan to restore the other five and add them to The Home Place.

Spread out on their land are the logs from a 150-year-old cabin they took apart at Balltown, Iowa. Each log is laid out in order and labeled with a small, neat rectangle of tin. One log bears the label BW2A. The B stands for the first letter of the name of the family from whom the Fishers obtained the log cabin. The other characters indicate that the log came from the west wall of the cabin, was in the second row from the bottom and was the left-most log in that row.

Dismantling a log cabin is no easy task. A log can weigh several hundred pounds.

Putting it back together also is not easy. Often, Terry hires people to help.

Usually, some of the logs are rotted and need to be replaced. When that is the case, Terry must find new logs. He measures off the correct thickness with chalk lines, cuts notches into the logs to the chalk lines and then chops off the wood between the notches, so that the log matches the others.

The marking and chopping results in long pieces of wood that are 6 or 7 inches thick, flat on two sides and uneven on the other two sides, following the contours of the log.

Next comes the hard part - figuring out how all the uneven logs will come together. "You're not working with 2-by-4s, where one piece of lumber looks the same as another," Terry said. "There aren't any common measurements, so you have to keep track of a lot of things."

Terry must notch the ends and stack the logs so that they add up to the same height in each corner and remain level.

He also must drill holes in some of the logs to allow for electrical conduits, cables and pipes.
Once the logs are stacked, Terry and Carolyn fill the spaces between the logs with chunks of wood. This gives the walls stability. Then they cover the spaces with mortar. Finally, they do the plumbing and wiring.

The result is a snug cabin that provides a homey atmosphere with modern conveniences. Each contains a kitchen area, a sitting and sleeping area and a bath. One even contains a hot tub.
The Fishers have given each cabin a crowning touch - a standing-seam tin roof, which can last up to 100 years.

In several cases, the owners of the log cabins were about to burn them down, when they heard about the Fishers' interest in restoration. Several have given their cabins to the Fishers free for hauling them away. Besides recycling the logs, the Fishers use as much wood from inside the cabins as possible.

One would be surprised by the number of log cabins around the area, Carolyn said.
"I know of nine between here and Elizabeth," she said.

People can live inside a log cabin but not realize it because the outside has been sided, the inside plastered over and the structure expanded.

The Fishers, who own a general construction business called diamond Construction, became involved in log-cabin restoration in 1992. While doing work for the previous owner of the log-cabin guesthouses on Chetlain Lane near Galena, Terry was asked if he would rebuild another log cabin on the property.

"I said, 'I don't see why not.' But I was nervous about getting it back together," Terry said. "I took my time and did sketches and videos and labeled everything."

Once Terry completed his first cabin, he was hooked.

"It makes you think about the old guys and why they did things they way they did," he said. "The work is very rewarding."

Carolyn said: "Each cabin has a wonderful history and a story."

But the Fishers will not be physically capable of doing such tough restoration work forever, Terry said. With Carolyn at age 57 and Terry at age 52, they see the bed-and-breakfast business as a way of easing into another form of employment. And they enjoy seeing their customers use and enjoy the cabins.

They also mentor others.

"Maybe we will teach," Carolyn said. "I want to help anyone who makes an effort to do preservation."

Drawn to the unusual
Galena Gazette, May 12, 1994

The oldest record we have
Galena Gazette, May 1, 1996

The Home Place
344 E. Menzemer Road
Elizabeth, IL 61028
(815) 845-9050
Toll Free: (888) 233-6850
innkeeper@homeplacegalena.com