Jim & Barb Collette of Duluth, Minnesota are master glass fusers.  They wanted to build a cordwood sauna, but decided to make a 3D model mock-up for their first grandchild.  When I first saw the results, I said, my daughter would love that!

dollhouse-8Here are Jim’s words on the subject. “The reason I built this house is because in your book you say to build a smaller project first before moving on to building a house. Well I wanted to build a small shed or maybe a sauna in the yard so I thought I would start small. Also we have a grandchild coming soon and I thought it would be nice to build something he/she can play with. I framed it up on a piece of plywood. I then put in the floor which is 3/4” oak flooring cut down to size.

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The walls are only 1 1/4″ thick, if I were to make another of this size I would go with 2″ long “logs” instead to make it stronger. I think the wood was dry enough but I experienced some shrinkage possibly because it was mostly hard wood. The mortar I used was one part sawdust to one part regular bagged mortar mix. The sawdust was maybe too fine and I would use a coarser product next time. The door is made from a piece of 3/4″ flooring and there is a fused glass window in it and a glass beer for a door knob.

dollhouse-4dollhouse-5dollhouse-6 The other windows in the house are all fused glass windows. My wife made the windows for the house. After completing the house I masked everything off and put 4 coats of shellac on it all inside and out. The floor inside has 5 coats of poly on it. Looking forward to constructing a larger project outside, maybe a sauna.”
Jim and Barb Collette

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Should you wish to learn how to build a cordwood cottage, cabin or home, please visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org   While you are there, click on the pictures, read the brief articles, check out the latest workshops and newsletter and if you are interested click on the Online Bookstore to see all the cordwood literature available in print and ebook format.Cordwood Construction Best Practices Front_Cover_-_CC_Best_Practices small pixelsIf you have questions that aren’t answered on the website you can email me at richardflatau@gmail.com  

Readers have requested a brief bio, so here goes:

Richard & Becky Flatau built their mortgage-free cordwood home in 1979 in Merrill, Wisconsin. Since then, they have written books, conducted workshops, facilitated the 2005,  2011 and 2015 Cordwood Conferences and provided consultation for cordwood builders.  Cordwood Construction: Best Practices DVD,  Cordwood Construction Best Practices (print) and Cordwood Conference Papers 2015 are the newest publications available from their online cordwood bookstore.   www.cordwoodconstruction.org

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Here is a picture of the print version and the DVD label in one composite.

For more information on Cordwood Construciton, click on the picture or visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org