For the interior walls, I decided to go with horizontal wood planks instead of drywall or plaster. I prefer the natural qualities of wood instead of drywall or plaster. Properly painted drywall against timbers can look fantastic, but drywall seems somehow out-of-place and synthetic for a little primitive cabin like this. I've seen some pictures of nice timber homes which used painted horizontal wood planks for the interior, and it can often look great. So, I decided to go that route.

Originally, I wanted to go with 1x10 or 1x12 cedar ship-lap siding planks, but I could not find any place in town that sells ship-lap wood siding anymore! I could custom order it online, but it would not be cost effective to ship it for a tiny cabin like this.

I decided on 1x10 #3 pine planks. I bought a hand router and a single rabbit bit. After some training from my friend Joe, I was making my own ship-lap pine siding in my shop in no time. Since this is the interior wall, I don't need to worry about exposure of the pine to the elements (untreated pine siding wouldn't last long around here).



The idea is to enclose the cabin with the pine planking and then cover it with home wrap. That should hold up to the elements throughout the winter and spring and keep things nice and dry. I'll come back in the late spring when things dry out a bit and build-out the walls and windows and exterior siding, etc.


I sanded the interior face of the planks before bringing them to the site. They are quite whitish compared to the frame in front of them. Ultimately, I'd like to apply paint or a whitewash stain to the interior walls to increase that contrast.



I've got the cabin 75% sided now. I also (finally) cut a loft joist and placed it in the frame between the 2nd and 3rd tie beams as shown below. Only 4 more to go! :-)




If I can finish the interior walls and wrap the cabin, things should winter well. Its already mid-October.

The clock is ticking before the snow settles in...