MONROE — Gary Jelley is a modern-day resident of Monroe, but he knows how an early settler here could have built a home from scratch using only simple tools, natural resources, sweat and thought.
Jelley was one of a handful of Washington residents who completed a two-day Log Home Builders Association of America class Feb. 7 and 8. People from throughout the Northwest, and as far away as Ireland, made up the rest of his class, which was taught by association instructor Steve White.
"I feel that I could go out and build a log home based on the information I gained in the class," Jelley said. "The biggest lesson was what to look for and expect from a log home. I can say that I am a much more educated consumer."
That’s what the association advertises its class can do, and White said that promise and association founder Skip Ellsworth’s reputation for delivering keep the regular classes full.
"It’s a wide range of people who come: every stage of life and type of person," White said. "In general, it takes a certain personality who wants to live in a log home. Someone who wants a little more privacy, enjoys living in a rural area, having a little bit more freedom."
Although students represent myriad backgrounds, White said there are two groups who especially tend to find the idea of building their own log home from scratch appealing: retirees chasing a dream and young couples who can’t afford or don’t want a mortgage.
Jelley falls into the first group. He and his wife, who is still working, have lived for a year-and-a-half in a kit-built log home that they bought from someone else.
"We enjoy the warm feeling the wood gives off and find ourselves being very grounded living here," Jelley said.
The Jelleys and their two grown children had previously lived in a variety of stick-built houses in Snohomish County, and they stumbled upon the log house as an added benefit to the property it sits on.
Like many homeowners, the Jelleys have encountered things they would have done differently had they designed their home, and that has inspired them to consider building a from-scratch log house on another piece of property.
While the idea is still new and any ground-breaking is distant goal, Jelley said the class was valuable.
"Personally I wanted to learn how to make what I have better and to explore how to do it better the next time," he said.
Under the tutelage of Ellsworth, who is now living and teaching in Asia, White and two other instructors have learned to blend a variety of teaching methods into the 22-hour class. The course includes tips for finding affordable land and supplies and offers extensive instruction on how to use three different construction methods to build log homes: Scandinavian chink-less, saddle notch, and butt and pass.
Scandinavian chink-less requires the builder to shape each log so that, when pieced together, the logs fit so snugly they leave no gaps and no chink, or filler, is needed. White said it is the most time-consuming and expensive method, and requires the most skill.
The saddle notch method involves cutting notches at just the corner of the logs, much like the children’s toy "Lincoln Logs," and then using chinking material to fill in gaps between them. Both saddle notch and Scandinavian chink-less require seasoned logs.
"Butt and pass is the easiest, strongest and least expensive," White said. "It doesn’t require any notching or seasoning but does require chinking. This is what most of our students use, and it’s pretty close to the way American pioneers built."
Through lecturing, discussion, video and some hands-on demonstration, White reviews each of the three techniques. The association teaches a few closely guarded special skills that allow an individual to build a log home without any help if so desired, including a method for lifting and placing heavy materials safely.
"We’ve had many, many people come who have never picked up a hammer in their life, but go out and successfully build a log home on their own," White said. "One kid, I think he was 15, went home and built a log home on his parents’ property all by himself."
That kind of determination and energy drives many of the students, he added. Jelley agreed.
"I guess, as Americans, there is a little pioneering spirit in each of us, and the empowerment, the increase in self-reliance, the economic benefits, the (sense of) ‘I did it myself.’: It’s very appealing," Jelley said.
Kristin Fetters-Walp is a Lake Stevens freelance writer.
ELIZABETH ARMSTRONG
/ The Herald
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