diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 943ede2..3836965 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,13 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Fixed
+
+- Fixed log initialization order so the log directory is created before the first log message is written.
+- Fixed first-run behavior for fresh repository clones by creating the `log/` directory before writing log output.
+
 ## 1.0.0 - 2026-07-05
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/tr2gf.sh b/tr2gf.sh
index 04de267..b3a8898 100755
--- a/tr2gf.sh
+++ b/tr2gf.sh
@@ -278,8 +278,11 @@ _vars_setup() {
   _set_var TR2GF_LOG_LEVEL     2
   _set_var TR2GF_BATCH         ""
 
+  _init_log
+
   if [ -f "$TR2GF/vars" ]; then
     _load_vars_file "$TR2GF/vars"
+    _init_log
     _notice "Note: using tr2gf configuration from: $TR2GF/vars"
     _log "Loaded configuration from: $TR2GF/vars" 2
   else