I haven't poked it just because I can not reach it. The area had water damage before we purchased the house. The roof had bad ice dams and this caused the water to back up and into the house. We have fixed this situation and redid the roof. I check for bugs whenever I go down into the basement. The basement is very dry (for an old house) and has a concrete floor. We only had water come in once, when a gutter plugged and that was 4 years ago, so I do not think there is a water issue. The wood looks intact, just lighter in color. I suppose it could be surface mold? Although it isn't really fuzzy, that I can tell. the wood is not cracked or anything either. It is a very large beam and just the lower quarter of it is white. It MAY have been a sill beam at one point because of an addition that was added on at some point, a little hard to explain. I was thinking that if it were a sill beam and in contact w/ the boulder foundation maybe this would cause the funny colors on the wood? It almost looks like efflorescence, but I have never heard of that on wood. I will continue to watch it. -renee

Cori Ann, I was able to root other roses, not florist roses. I only ever got one florist rose to root. And yes I understand there is something they treat the roses with that probably does inhibit the rooting process. But I know it can be done. There was a lady on the Forums several yrs ago who rooted lots of them. I haven't seen her on here in a long time. Ya know, last night I looked at that video you posted about growing roses from seed. It's funny, I kept watching all sorts of rose propagating videos on YouTube. Some are hilarious. And some are very informative. And some are interesting, but incomplete. They don't show the end results. Anyway, in one of the videos, I saw a rooting product that intrigued me, and I ordered some from Amazon last night. It's called "Clonex gel." It's a super-concentrated rooting hormone that seals the end of the cutting. The reviews sounded great. Most people got well over 90% success. That's of course many other types of plants, but some that were difficult to root otherwise. I can't wait to try it now!

Does it have a garage as well as a carport? A metal roof would be modern. If the brick is cracked, have a pro stonemason take a look at it. Have your inspection report ready for the stonemason to compare his findings with. The landscaping needs a professional plan. An arborist can walk the property with you for an hour to tell you about the trees' care and siting, including the best time of year to prune them. In the meantime, trim the shrubs to a foot or so below the height of the window sills and a foot away from the walls to let air circulate better.

You can always look for a real log cabin that can be moved- $$$, but super authentic! I live in an 1840’s log cabin- authenticity is about building processes as much as materials. The craftsmen skilled in the old ways are few and far between these days, but they can be found especially if you live in an area with older homes. Our home has a dry stack stone foundation and two dry stack beehive chimneys, exposed log with lime mortar inside and board and batton siding, medium to wide plank hardwood flooring (we were able to save much of the original floor, so it’s not tongue and groove), and our main floor ceiling has the second floor joists exposed. We just replaced a ~50 year old standing seam metal roof, black, with another but discovered that the first roof has been added directly on top of cedar shake. Its worth it to us, but for what it’s worth, it’s not an easy home to maintain. The lime mortar is hella dusty and has to be cared for and repointed, our board and batton is painted and must be redone every 10 years or so. The floors are nearly impossible to deep clean (steamer is my method of attack) because they are uneven and have gaps. So historical accuracy may not be the best choice for a vacation cabin ;)