The log cabin fever that’s been sweeping Greene County since the early 1970s has finally found its worldwide audience. When Barnwood Builders of DIY Network stopped by in July 2020 to film an episode of their show, they came to claim a beautifully built two-story cabin near Jollytown, purchased from Zack Six. Six had contacted the program because he had no use for the old house he grew up in, but recognized its historic value once the siding had been removed. Its fine workmanship was evident – Josh Rice built it in 1890 and the clapboard siding and tight stone foundation had protected every log and beam. As anyone who watches this show can tell you, its mission to preserve our pioneer past for future use is also a step by step master class on how to do it safely and with the cheerful energy of those who know how to work as a team. What Mark Bowe and his crew of West Virginia-based craftsmen and production people also found once they got here, was rolling forested hills and sweet country roads studded with beautifully restored log homes, lived in by folks who were savvy enough to save them.
Barnwood Builders got their cabin and enough gorgeous footage of those other historic cabin rescues to do not just one show, but two. The episodes ran this year on March 7 and March 21 and are available for viewing on Hulu and other online sites, including YouTube.
While the shooting was going on, Deanne Cole posted iPhone shots online of the camera crew and series stars being wowed by the fine double cabin she and husband Shane live in on Hoovers Run. It was her father-in-law Terry Cole’s first log cabin project, finished in time for the 1976 American Bicentennial.
When the shows were finally scheduled for viewing, Cornerstone Genealogical Society announced that its restored log cabin courthouse would be featured on the March 7 show. Zach Six linked it to his Facebook page and added his own take, complete with emojis: “My television debut! Where’s the watch party! We don’t get DIY!” And later – “It was good. I was nervous trust me there was a lot more footage that didn’t make the cut thank goodness.”
What did make the cut was Zach, “farmer strong!” in bibs and a hard hat, swinging a hammer and loosening joists, working alongside the builders as the takedown got rolling, as the hours of hard work were documented and the dust flew and each massive oak log was cherry picked free without breaking the hand-cut notches then laid down by Barnwood Builder Johnny Jett and his crane.
Terry Cole’s years of expertise came into focus when he stopped by with some of the old tools of the trade for cutting sandstone blocks from stone ledges and making them square for the perfect fit so evident in the Six cabin’s foundation and hearth. There were things for Bowe’s crew to learn from Terry about shifting the weight to keep from cracking the big lintel stone by cutting a curve in the wooden beam wedged in above it, of using a “witches claw” made out of nails to tap the sandstone faces smooth. In the finished production Terry got his own well-deserved title – Restoration Expert – when he made the final cut.
The reconstruction of the courthouse fireplace that wowed Mike Bowie when he visited owes its authenticity to Terry’s eye for detail – he knew from what remained embedded in the floor how to recreate the turkey breast hearth that once divided the downstairs into two rooms – the front for the day to day business of paying taxes and settling claims, the back most likely the place where the traveling judge slept when he was in town to hear court cases upstairs in the lofty, nine foot ceilinged court room.
“It was fun!” Terry tells me as we sit at the table at his home on Hoover Run, filling in the details of family ties to these old cabins. We’re just down the road from that first cabin project he and wife Jane lived in for years. Now son Shane and wife Deanna call it home.
The Barnwood Builders came at a good time – the place was ship shape because daughter Alexis and Gregory Tassos just had their wedding there, Shane tells me with a grin. When the film crew showed up and pitched their tent and started working, “We showed them the house then disappeared.”
“I’ve known Terry for forever – he was my wrestling coach and we live relatively close,” Scott Adamson tells me when I called to hear how it went when Barnwood Builders came to his family farm on Oak Forest Road. It is a beautifully redesigned, unofficially totally “green”- at least 80 percent recycled – log cabin home. “When I was looking for a cabin I reached out to Terry.”
Scott’s state of the art old and new log cabin home, a saltbox design, is up the road from parents Ralph and Carol Adamson, who still raise sheep as the family has for generations. When Scott and Jennifer Adamson decided to bridge the gap between centuries in 2006 by using history to build a modern home from salvaged materials, “lo and behold! Terry had a house he had purchased from the coal company on Foley Ridge Road.” Scott would learn from Terry that some logs in it were timbered on land from “the Mooney side of my family.” It was the perfect historical fit.
Scott tells me Jennifer designed the structure and interior and worked with local builders who were ready to put their craftsmanship skills to the test to create something historical and one-of-a- kind.
That first year “Terry sat us down and told us it would be a long process.” And it was. “It took seven years before it was ready to move in and so many people were involved. But there wasn’t a day that I didn’t look forward to doing something to it.”
Working friendships grew in over the years, as the foundation and fireplace stones were delivered and work began in the spring. Logs were set in 2008, along with the infrastructure – beams and 60 foot rafters salvaged from the Redstone High School in German Township, Fayette County that were light but strong Douglas fir, ready to bear the weight of another generation.
Scott was a pharmacist at McCracken Pharmacy, in Waynesburg and Bob and Ed Patterson had their own day jobs but they joined him after work and on weekends to make a crew. By 2010 the heat was on and after a year of fine-tuning, the job was completed in 2013.
Scott and 16-year-old son Ian found themselves in the basement when Barnwood Builders showed up to film. They were behind the scenes, watching the moves of the cameramen, seeing where the microphones were set up to get the perfect sound bite. There were drones overhead and Franklin the family dog was sequestered to eliminate the unintended bark as filming commenced.
“Ian loved it! He’s very interested in that kind of production. Everyone was very kind and answered our questions. I really liked the producer – he saw my guitar and we got to talking about music. They appreciated Jennifer’s creative design because most of their salvaged cabins are repurposed as modern homes. I think we gave them some new ideas.”