Cabin Part 1 * Back to Bio * Back to Paintings * e-mail
Cabin Fever
Part 2 - Demolition - Reconstruction
A small shed purchased from a defunct nudist camp was moved on a truck to the site. Here the artist lived while working on the cabin. Food had to be stored in the car after the shed was raided by hungry bears who tore off the back window and crawled inside. Luckily, when this happened the artist was on the roof. The bear eventually ran away when the artist confronted it with a noisy chainsaw, but the food was all eaten.
Thereafter, cooking was simple to avoid attracting the bears. Food boiled in a pot over a propane torch, or cooked wrapped in foil in the campfire coals.
(Reenactment)
Early in the demolition, the artist fell through a collapsing rotted floor. Landing on a beam, two ribs were broken and the demolition work was delayed for three 1/2 weeks.
The cabin was not demolished all at once, but taken apart and replace piece by piece. Here early in the reconstruction, 1/3 of the cabin is repaired. This west end of the house was rebuilt first, with trees used as poles to support the roof. Part of the west and south walls above were the only original parts of the cabin reused.
Here the eastern 1/3 of the cabin is demolished. The car at right is a 20 year old 1978 Pontiac station wagon that the artist used to bring materials to the site. Debris was burned or removed in a rented moving van. During the first winter, heat was provided by burning the remains of the old cabin in the woodstove.
The foundation was reused, some of it had collapsed and had to be restacked. Cement was packed in by hand to hold the rocks together. Rough sawn local lumber was used to rebuild the cabin.
The restored structure with an extra room added to the upstairs in the center.