It is important in any home to be able to create a special place for when you want solitude.

Sometimes you just need a place to kick back and read in a place where you can get away from it all.

Here it is all about simplicity. A comfortable wingback chair, a comfortable throw in warm sunlight offers a soothing and peaceful retreat.

For years it had sat in boxes and crates in the recesses of a storage area in the barn back in Illinois. As a kid I remember many times having to move it here or there with instructions to keep the boxes together when ever that part of the barn was ‘reorganized’.

Each box had a few pieces of this and that and a drawer front or two. Here and there a stile was mixed in with a piece of molding or a shelf. Larger pieces had been neatly stacked atop or along side the boxes in no particular order. Some boxes held doors, handles and hinges and a small drawer or two and always provided perfect shelter for spiders and mice among the captured debris.

The cabinet itself had been reduced to a stack of slats and boards tucked away in the corner loosely tied together with baling twine.

Read more about the kitchen hutch

I needed a pot rack here at the lodge. I couldn’t have one hanging overhead with cathedral ceilings in the kitchen and even if I could I didn’t want to interrupt the space.

I use my copper pots and pans. What is the point of having them if you don’t use them?

I have seen iron pot racks, wood pot racks, stainless steel pot racks and an assortment of others but I didn’t care for the designs nor the cost. I wanted a simple pot rack that I could mount on the sidewall. The pot rack needed to be simple, about 5 to 6 feet long and tight to the wall.

Read more about making a copper pot rack

I have not been a big fan of track lighting but it does have its place and time. In an effort to provide more light in the kitchen here at the lodge, the previous owners had installed track lights on the log trusses overhead. As if Ethel Merman stepped in to sing Ave Maria the two were not a good mix.

The white plastic tracks and large white canister lights screamed out in their stark contrast to everything and immediately drew your attention upwards, not to the cathedral ceilings but to the lights and tracks themselves. It was one of the first thing noticed in the kitchen.

read more about camouflaging track lights

Mark just sent me an email asking about chinking, insulation, boric acid and preservatives for a log barn project he is working on.

Mark writes:

i have an old log open barn the logs are from 1-5 inches apart it is 18 by 20 by 10 feet high i would like your chinking recipe and your insulation idea and the purpose of using boric acid also what is a good sealer to use on the chink and logs to seal it after you are done

Hello Mark and thanks for the question!

I’m going to stick my neck out and assume that the logs on the barn are hand hewn. With that in mind you may want to check out the section on Hand Hewn Chinking for starters.

More chinking info for Mark

Colbie Caillat has released her new music video for Realize which was partly shot here at Bearfort Lodge.

I will be uploading a small gallery of the day’s events soon.

Congratulations Colbie!

Things have been a bit crazy as of late. Every so often one needs to stop and watch the clouds pass.

I’ve been gone for quite some time and have been working with a few people as to incorporating video into the website to provide how-to videos of some of the projects that are happening around here.

In an effort to provide better information as to the restoration progress around Bearfort Lodge and improved instructions and demonstrations of some of the projects this first video is simply an introduction.

Bearfort Lodge welcomes Colbie Caillat. Colbie is shooting part of her new music video here at the lodge for her hit Realize. Here is Colbie and Jason Reeves singing Realize at the Roxy in Hollywood, California.You can find more information on

One of the many tasks on the list here at the lodge is to replace a railing that had been removed yearsago on the second floor deck.

The 16′x16′ deck also serves as the roof for the master bedroom below.

The previous owners had removed the railing most likely at a time when they resurfaced the roof with a rubber membrane probably in an effort to waterproof.

The rubber roofing had eventually deteriorated, cracked and failed and I resurfaced it but this time with an asphalt material.

Read more about the log home railing