Howdy, Log Cabin Fans! We made a trip to the Reserve yesterday to check on the progress of the Solitude cabin and were delighted to find that it’s really beginning to look like a cabin now. The two ends of the cabins even have the beginnings of a roof!

Why is the center section roofing not also done? Because the hubby and I need to make some lighting decisions! Yes, lighting decisions.

The center cabin section contains two 8″ square beamed trusses, vaulted ceilings, and purlins. Thus, any ceiling-mounted lighting here is now an urgent decision. In some cases we need to make final decisions about exactly what lighting fixture(s) will occupy certain areas.

The center area of the house contains the carport, the dining area, the kitchen, the great room and the back porch, so there is a lot to consider. There will be ceiling fans with light kits in two of these areas and some track lighting to help light this rather massive area.

The kitchen features an equally massive kitchen bar which will be the primary seating for indoor dining. We have learned that we are a “casual bunch” and like to congregate in the kitchen area, so we’d prefer just to have bar stools and a place for a lot of people at those bar stools.

Of course, that bar is going to need some overhead lighting. Since the kitchen is at the front of the house and near the entrance, we felt we needed some “statement lighting” over that bar.

Enter pulley lights. What the heck is a pulley light? Click here to see what we’re putting in. Two of these will be installed. There is also a two-light and one-light version.

We will have two of these over our bar and the fun part? You can adjust the height of each light individually and have all kinds of staggered effects for them. The one-light version will be the chandelier for the small dining area. It’s a small space, so we are concerned that a standard chandelier will be too low for one bedroom doorway. The pulley light allows us to raise the light out of the way and ties it in with the bar lighting adjacent to the dining room.

They now make vintage “Edison” bulbs in LED lighting. This makes for efficient, cool (as in not hot!), bright, yet rustic-looking lights for these lights.

We’re still deciding about fans. The fan we love doesn’t come with a light kit, so it will probably go in the Serenity cabin instead. (It’s also crazy expensive.) One thing to consider for outdoor porch lighting–fans and lighting kits need to be designed for outdoor use to endure rainstorms. They are often referred to as “damp-rated” or better.

We may stain the outside of the cabin before window installation, so that we don’t have to do a lot of masking. I hope we have “all hands” on deck for that, but these “owner labor” things seem to crop up with no warning and so, it may be just the hubby and I doing all the exterior staining.

I’d like to say I’m looking forward to that, but staining in 90+ degree heat is not my idea of fun. I have a sneaky suspicion we will be staining in the early AM and returning in the evening.

Can you tell we’re getting to the part of the cabin-building process that I love best? I’m drooling over here and trying to rein myself in so that the hubby doesn’t have a coronary with all of my crazy ideas. I think the daughter is also salivating to get at this portion of things. There may be a lot of visits to antique stores, flea markets, Magnolia Market (It’s only a 90 minute journey from my home!), Canton First Mondays, and garage sales in our futures.

Friday’s Post: Maizie’s Favorite Surface (Not a Microsoft product!)…

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