Two log cabins on a bench above the North Fork valley, mountains behind

Project

Polebridge Cabin

North Fork of the Flathead — 2026

A twenty-year-old shell, finished properly

The cabin had stood unfinished for twenty years. We redesigned the layout, opened it up with new windows and took it through to high-end finishes. We also built a new two-bay garage alongside it, and did the ground work for both.

Polebridge is a long way off the grid. The roads are rough and at times impassable, and it can be very hard to get contractors willing to drive up there even for double the money. We like working in rough mountain country. It gets extremely cold in winter.

Type
Log cabin remodel
Completed
2026
Location
North Fork, Flathead County
Size
1,280 sq ft
Log species
Lodgepole pine
System
Chinked log — inside and out
Roof
Metal roofing
Site work
Excavation, pad and stonework by Worthnest
Aerial of the cabin, deck, hot tub and sauna on a cleared bench in the forest
The whole site — deck, hot tub and sauna, cut into the slope

Outside

Built to face the range

Cabin from the front with deck, stairs and flag
Front elevation and deck
Cabin elevation in evening light with the fire pit in front
Evening, from the fire pit
Log gable end and upper deck against a blue sky
Gable end and upper deck
Covered deck with seating looking out to the mountains
Covered deck, looking south

The craft

Where the work shows

Chinked inside and out, hand-cut corners, and log posts carrying squared beams. This is the part a photograph either proves or doesn’t.

Chinked log wall with a hand-cut corner notch
Corner notch and chinking
Log post meeting a squared beam beneath a porch roof
Post to beam
Exposed log ridge beam and pendant lights against a boarded ceiling
Ridge beam and ceiling

Inside

Log walls, and a valley out every window

Living room with log walls and windows framing the mountains
Living room, looking out to the range
Kitchen and dining under log walls and beams
Kitchen and dining
Log stair and structural post rising through the living space
Stair and structural post

Structure you can see

Nothing is boxed in. The posts that carry the building are the posts you walk past, and the beams overhead are the ones doing the work. That is the whole argument for building this way.

A remodel taken to a standard most new builds don’t reach.

Next door

The garage on the same site

A new two-bay timber shop built on the same property — cleared, graded, poured and framed by the same crew, in the same season.

See the garage build
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