From Paul Cutting:
I’m 28 years old, and for the past six years I have been disassembling and reconstructing Norwegian built log houses around the Decorah, Iowa area. I’ve disassembled ten of these buildings and have reconstructed four of them, including additional buildings I restored for the US Forest Service in Colorado over two years. The other six buildings are stashed away in a barn for future use. This is mostly a hobby, and I’ve yet to figure out how to make a living doing this type of work.
My corner of Northeast Iowa was settled almost exclusively by Norwegians, who brought with them a very long tradition of building with logs. Nearly every house in my area built from about 1845 to 1880 was log, and several still stand. I approach owners and ask if I can take them away (usually for free) and reconstruct them on new sites. My projects are built almost exclusively with salvaged materials and have been done very cheaply, and the end result is highly original and sympathetic. This house cost me something like $20,000 to build, if you exclude the roughly two years of labor it took to build. Things are cheap if you don’t count your labor!
See more of Paul’s homes.
