Normal guy here living in the wilds of Northwestern Jersey in the foothills at edge of the great Pocono and Catskill mountains.
I live in a butt and pass log lodge built in 1895 as hunting lodge and later to become a gentleman's retreat, a speak easy during prohibition, and later a restaurant, tavern and then following WWII served as a brothel until the local village shut it down in the late 1960's.
The lodge, primarily vacant, quietly deteriorated through the 1970s. Eventually purchased in 1982 and used as a single family home yet little was done to the lodge other than a new roof.
Rotted logs were filled with newspaper covered in linoleum and the exterior was painted with a thick brown marine paint. The lodge continued to fall deeper into disrepair.
I purchased the lodge in the mid 1990's and began restoration.
I took Skips course to better understand the building methods used as as well as some common sense approaches as I went through the throws of the major restoration work.
Much of the efforts to save and bring this old lodge back to life are on the website
I am also working on the restoration of an 1820s farm out in PA