Newfield, a mostly quiet, formerly farming community, is undergoing some changes as demographics shift and new residents move in. In some cases they bring new ideas and innovations, including in home construction.  Here’s one example.

Challenging old stereotypes, the owner clearly questioned the rationale for having a horizontal floor.  The steep slope of the property begs for a reinterpretation of floor orientation.  There are, of course, some challenges.

The cabin rests on the sloped ground with no foundation beneath. Since the cabin was wrestled from the road up into the woods, it’s slid down a bit, probably during some of the torrential rains we’ve had recently.  You can see the divot in the front of the roof when the cabin slid down in contact with a large tree in front of the door. New problems provoke clever solutions.

Heavy duty straps are looped around the protruding log wall ends and anchored around up-slope trees–that should keep the house in place.  Surely the tension on the straps won’t compromise the integrity of the logs they’re wrapped around. Genius.

You would think this kind of creative thinking and reinterpretation of tired old building conventions would be celebrated.  Sadly, this effort has been rewarded with a stop-work injunction fastened to a window on the cabin.  Who knows what the local building code authority objected to; it was likely the missing light fixture next to the front door or something similarly benign.

We salute you, home builder. You think outside the (downhill-sliding) box.