Log Cabin Terms

1. Single pen - A log dwelling consisting of one room.

2. Double pen - Any log house consisting of two log rooms.

3. Dog Trot House - A double pen log house separated by an open passage way covered by a single roof.

4. Saddlebag House - A central chimney double pen log house.

5. Hand Hewn Log - A log that has been flattened on the sides with an adze or broad axe.

6. Hand planed - The process by which lumber was smoothed before machinery.

7. Ceiling Joist - The beams which the upstairs floors are laid on.

8. Pit Sawn - The process of cutting lumber from trees with a two-man saw; one man on top of the log and one man underneath in a "pit" on the other end of the saw.

9. Chink - The space between the logs.

10. 1-1/2 Story - Typical term for an Appalachian style log cabin meaning that your upstairs log wall is only about waist high You get your usable height from a peaked ceiling.

11. Caplog - The top log on a log house which the rafters rest on; also, called plate log.

12. Pole Rafter - A rafter left in the round, unhewn.