Backyard Cordwood Cabin in Duluth, MN with sauna

James Collette started out by building a cordwood dollhouse for his grandaughter and then progressed to a backyard cordwood cabin/sauna.   You will note this is in a residential neighborhood.  Some of the narrative will be from James’s notes concerning his gorgeous cordwood creation. 

Check out the stained glass and the shelves near the peak.  The rug is pretty awesome as well.  A  log end rug! 

• The blue line shows where the infrared sauna will be placed. The bottle ends are bottles cut with half clear and half colored bottles, so they end up 8” long.  I will be adding other colors by using just clear-cut bottles and a piece of stained glass in the middle. I use aluminum tape to tape them together. Very strong and reflective. 

• The infrared sauna was installed just and fits the room like a glove. 
• Barb Collette designs and builds the beautiful stained glass!
•  Take NOTE:  I thought I had enough wood but quickly ran out. Found a company that does white cedar shingles and had a lot of surplus cedar that was not suitable for shingles. Very old and dry. 

Love the diamond glass blocks, the bottle bricks and the shelves.  Make sure to put a couple of shelves in your building.

• Jim is considering a tile floor 

• Started out with a 15’X10’ slab about 6” thick with number 5 rebar tied at 16” square
• Then the 8” post and beam for the frame-up.
• I ordered the timber frame from a guy who cut and fitted it then took it apart and dried it in his shop over the winter. He delivered and we assisted in putting it up in the spring. Took about three hours. 
• The roof went on next. Steel roof with a 12-12 pitch and an 18” overhang. There is a loft in half of it and vaulted ceiling on the other half. Then the work began. 
• The cedar was cut, split and sized a year earlier as was the Norway pine. 
• The walls are 8” thick. 
•  Windows are framed in with 8” X 10” cedar
•  The wiring is concealed in the cordwood wire stapled to the post framework. 
• My mortar mix: (by volume)
• 1 Type S lime   1 portland  3 sand   3 softwood sawdust. 
• I get all the sawdust I need from a sawmill near me. Very reasonable.