diff --git a/csst_dfs_commons/logging/setup.py b/csst_dfs_commons/logging/setup.py
index fd0f57c09c2357e1afb69a2c1bd7b262a086641b..bc7fb68559471e645ae3f5d175ab9cfbfeb5bfaa 100644
--- a/csst_dfs_commons/logging/setup.py
+++ b/csst_dfs_commons/logging/setup.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ def setup_logging():
     ch.setFormatter(cfmt)
 
     # File handler
-    fh = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('csst.log',
+    fh = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('logs/csst.log',
         maxBytes=10*1024*1024, backupCount=10)
     fh.setLevel(logging.INFO)
     fh.setFormatter(ffmt)
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ def setup_test_logging():
     ch.setFormatter(cfmt)
 
     # Outputs DEBUG level logging to file
-    fh = logging.FileHandler('csst-test.log')
+    fh = logging.FileHandler('logs/csst-test.log')
     fh.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
     fh.setFormatter(ffmt)
 
diff --git a/csst_dfs_commons/models/common.py b/csst_dfs_commons/models/common.py
index ed51da91fd10bb516e528bb89e5e9d4b75c7be6d..36176014bde43963d3307ab07e5c14d3b6c48390 100644
--- a/csst_dfs_commons/models/common.py
+++ b/csst_dfs_commons/models/common.py
@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ class BaseModel:
             return None
         for k in self.__dataclass_fields__.keys():
             if k == 'header':
-                self.__setattr__(k, json.loads(record.__getattribute__(k)))
+                if record.__getattribute__(k):
+                    self.__setattr__(k, json.loads(record.__getattribute__(k)))
             else:
                 self.__setattr__(k, record.__getattribute__(k))
         return self