Turning old into new
- Sr Perspective
- Jul 31
- 4 min read
Alex man enjoys creating beautiful things with old or discarded materials
By Julie Parent
Steve Hubbard of Alexandria is imaginative. He enjoys acquiring old things and turning them into something useful.
When he was about 60 years old, Steve was intrigued by a 17 x 22 square foot cabin he saw listed for sale online. The owner planned to tear the small cabin down if nobody bought it, because he didn’t want it on the land he was preparing to put up for sale. Steve decided to buy it and use the logs to build a unique 22 x 40 square foot shop and a small shed on his own land.
One of his two adult children, a son, recommended he sell the lumber instead. However, once Steve gets an idea in his mind, he feels he must create it, just like he did when he was a child playing with popular clamp building blocks and erector sets. When he excitedly started the process in February of 2020, there was snow on the ground. He completed the project approximately nine months later in November of that year.
The cabin, which was located on a farm site about a mile away from his house, had 138 logs. Steve mapped every log so he could identify how the logs had originally been assembled. The logs were held together by large wooden pegs. Each 22-foot log was made of white oak. Steve estimates the logs that weren’t rotten are 150 years old and will probably last for another 100 years. Steve was determined to take the log cabin apart and move it by himself. He used a skid steer loader to move each heavy log, which wasn’t easy. Even more challenging was building the high heavy roof rafters.
As Steve dissected the cabin, he marveled at its craftsmanship. Without the modern tools of today, immigrants cut the trees down, had animals haul them, and removed the bark by hand. Every piece was hand-hewed with an axe. The boards were all the same width, and the chiseled floor was level. Amazingly, the complex dovetail corners precisely fit together. The original cabin had a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms upstairs. At that time, outhouses were used instead of indoor bathrooms.
To fill the open space between the logs, the builder used newspapers for insulation. Instead of newsprint made with wood pulp, the papers were printed on paper like United States currency. It is possible the paper used at that time was a strong rag linen paper primarily made with cotton and linen fibers. Rag linen paper does not yellow like newsprint does. The newspapers that were written in Norwegian were printed in 1879. Some of the newspaper ads placed by the White Star Line, who owned and operated the Titanic ship, advertised the price of traveling from Europe to America. Steve kept and framed some of the tattered newspapers.
This was not Steve’s first experience building a structure. Since being a handyman, plumbing, and woodworking came easily to him, he worked in the construction industry. Steve has also built two of his own homes almost entirely by himself. When he took a year off to build the house he lives in now, he described it as the best year he ever spent. Special touches inside his current home include an old barn door, a decorative hay trolley hanging from his living room ceiling, and a fireplace mantel weighing approximately 200 pounds that he installed himself. Steve is not lazy. When he does decide to sit down to take a break, he likes to watch interesting television programs about topics like the lost art of building long-lasting log cabins.
Gifted mechanically, Steve uses the shop he built for his other passion, fixing up collector cars. He takes the vehicles he flips to car shows. It’s just, “So much fun,” he said when, “People are pointing at you,” in an antique car they like.
Although he didn’t know him well, Steve thinks he got his love for cars from one of his grandfathers who was also a car enthusiast. Before he had his driver’s license, Steve was already working on an old car. Putting something together that works gives Steve a lot of satisfaction. If something’s not running, “I’m going to figure it out,” he said.
Frequently, Steve finds himself thinking about how to solve a problem when he should be sleeping.
Steve proudly served as a volunteer fireman for 24 years in the community of Clarkfield, Minn. He lived in Clarkfield for most of his life. He graduated from high school there and described himself as a good student, but he didn’t want to be sitting in a classroom. Steve preferred working with his hands.
When visually scanning the contents in Steve’s car-filled shop, a lot of his woodworking projects can be seen. For example, Steve figured out how to make a lighted infinity box, and a cabinet out of a trunk. Searching for items online spurs his creative juices. Steve prefers old instead of new products. He said, there is, “Absolutely no doubt in my mind,” that the quality is better and the products will last longer. He has a chainsaw that is older than him, and a car with body damage that was repaired with melted metal instead of body putty or plastic.
Even though he’s retired, Steve still works and plays hard.
“I just gotta stay busy,” he said. Throughout his lifetime, Steve has helped build grain bins, collected pelts to sell to fur buyers, kept the equipment working at a golf course, mowed lawns, remodeled resort cabins and made sure the pipes in them didn’t freeze in the winter. Other hobbies include traveling, hunting, fishing, golfing, and collecting guns.
He is active with his supportive family members and enjoys getting to know other people’s families and pet dogs. In particular, he likes talking to people who are older than him because they have a wealth of knowledge to pass on. Like most of us, the friends he has made tend to share common interests. Steve seems to be happiest when he can invent things without a deadline and do the other activities he enjoys. He believes having time to yourself to do what you want is, “precious.”