The Columbia River Gorge House was started in the mid 80′s. From the beginning I had arrived at an unique approach to construction,which involved the setting of a guyed-off center column, off of which I could rig a boom, which would enable me, by the use of an industrial gauge hand wench, to move heavy timbers into location, working solo. I initially hired a crane to set up the five center post logs, the four upright corner logs, and the four roof logs. This was accomplished in one day, with the entire construct, loosley held in place by the guy cables.I was able to move around the structure, like a spider, connected with a climbing harness to the cables. In the initial stages, I moved to various work locations, all at least 40 ft. off the ground, in order to further brace up the main log skeleton. After rigging a boom that rotated around the center column, I was able to lift the first floor beam framing into place, which effectively locked the skeleton into its final location. I was living in Idaho during construction, and I travelled to the Gorge during the summer season to work on the structure. At the end of summer, I would secure the site, waterproofing with tarps over the existing structure, and return to Idaho for the winter. This went on for about seven years, as the house gradually grew. Largely because of the massive nature of the logs and beams, this is possibly my favorite of all the houses I built.
