Three elements that will impact your budget and ultimate satisfaction more than any other are land, labor and logs. Of these, none presents more variables for consideration than logs. You’ll notice I refer to a manufacturer. Unless your name is Daniel Boone or Davey Crockett it’s easy to forget that, even though logs are naturally occurring products, the logs you’ll use to build your home have been manufactured.

The degree of manufacturing ranges from simply removing the bark to shaping, cutting and drilling depending upon your preferences. Right now there are nearly five hundred log home companies to choose from and, since it isn’t practical to look at everybody, you need to establish some criteria to narrow the field. Vigi and I began with five and made our final decision between two of them. I’m sure we missed some good ones but I’m just as certain we missed some serious ‘clunkers’ too!

Location can be important from the standpoint of coordinating construction. Shipping need only be a consideration if you’re like the gentleman I spoke with who was building in the Golan Heights of Israel. He was looking at a supplier in Montana. Your distance will probably be shorter and, sometimes, shipping is even included as part of the quoted price. If you are building within a reasonable distance of your current residence, simply thinking in terms of a fairly local supplier is easy.

If not, your choice may depend upon how ‘hands-on’ you plan to be. If additional materials are needed quickly or a situation arises where the company must dispatch a technical person, you don’t want to be dealing with a manufacturer halfway across the country. No matter what they tell you during the sales pitch, once you buy your local representative becomes about as useful as a rubber crutch in an orthopedic ward! In any event, if you have to choose, go with a company located nearer the construction site rather than near your present location. You’ll be on site to check progress frequently anyway.

Reputation is a measure of how well that supplier has performed for other people, like you. Are most of their customers happy or have they learned some new, non-technical terms during the process? Building your own home can be every bit as stressful as it is joyous. Fred’s 5th Law of Log Home Acquisition states: Your degree of frustration will rise and fall in direct proportion to the responsiveness of your log supplier.

Talk with existing customers, don’t be afraid to ask pointed questions and be sure to visit homes furnished by the company you are considering. Older homes can be very telling. Do the logs have an inordinate amount of checking, do checks run with or across the grain, are knots leaking sap, is there any twisting or separation of logs, has there been any leakage of air or water and what is the general condition of the house? If the house is sap streaked, there are post-construction defects, leaks, cross-grain checks or checks you can drive a Mack Truck into, run for your life! A log home should last at least a hundred years, even if you won’t.

Verify the sales rep’s story and company claims. Is it hot air or do they actually do what they say? If home owners are enthusiastic [typically log home owners are] and speak well of the manufacturer, you’ve found a supplier worth further consideration.

Stability is important for your peace of mind, particularly if the company is offering long term guarantees. You not only want a vendor who will be there at the end of construction but down the road a few years in case something goes wrong. We had a support [lolly] column twist and split after four years. It was responsible for holding up around 13,800 pounds of our home. Needless to say, our pre-purchase investigations were validated when, without hesitation, our supplier said they would replace the column at their expense.

How long has the company been around, how many houses do they ship per year, what has been their growth rate and what does their financial picture look like?

Once they pass muster at this level, selection becomes a more mundane matter of verifying that the manufacturer can deliver the products and features you have decided upon. I’ll cover things like drying methods, ‘kit’ or ‘a-la-carte’, pre-cut vs. cutting on site and education, next.

I once saw a magician, The Amazing Rudolfo or something like that, make an entire house float on thin air! They cautioned viewers not to try this at home. That’s good advice, even if you’re considered amazing and have your own T.V. special. If the magic you want to perform is actually living in your new log home, I’d plan to put it on something more substantial like a foundation or a slab.

This is one of the most important construction elements you’ll consider since it’s the portion of your home that will interact directly with the ground, not only holding the building up but also anchoring it down! Foundation systems, when properly designed and constructed, allow you to erect a structure that can withstand the powerful forces of nature such as soil pressure, water, ice, expansion, contraction, wind, fungus, insects and even the effects of gravity. When a foundation is poorly designed or weak, very little else can sentence your home to an earlier grave.

In certain areas, people build on a treated wooden platform for economy. That may be acceptable for a small vacation cabin but not a permanent, year-’round dwelling. If economy must prevail or the terrain prevents basement excavation, a poured concrete slab is both strong and durable. This is basically a single layer of concrete that’s several inches thick. It is poured thicker at the edges to form an integral footing and then rods are placed to strengthen the edges. The slab is poured on a bed of crushed gravel to improve drainage and a wire mesh is placed into the concrete to reduce the chances of future cracking.

The ideal choice, for my money, is a full-fledged foundation which provides a roomy cellar and a solid base to support the massive weight presented by the logs. Of the various materials and systems available, here are three of the more common foundation types:

Cinder or Cement Block is the least expensive but often takes the most time to erect. Typically, cement footings are poured below the frost line, then the blocks are stacked and mortared together on top of the footings. Holes or channels are filled with cement and reinforced with steel rods (rebar). Cinder block, especially, is porous and tends to hold moisture which doesn’t hurt the block but tends to encourage a damp basement. Still, block is strong and offers many of the advantages of other foundation types for only slightly more cost than a slab.

Poured Concrete comes at a higher price but is seamless, doesn’t retain moisture like block and should give you a nice, dry area for storage or finishing. It tends to be more labor intensive, therefore takes longer to build, but its strength and durability are second to none. Footings are poured below the frost line, much like with block construction. Then aluminum or insulated wall forms are placed on top of the footings, into which concrete is poured and reinforced with rebar for added strength. After a week or so, the concrete has cured enough for the walls to stand on their own and the molds [unless insulated] are removed. When they discover the ruins of an old town and decide to restore the buildings, they often use the original foundations…which you can bet were made from either stone or poured concrete.

Pre-Cast is the way we decided to go when we built our home. Why? Speed, strength and drainage. The pre-cast systems appealed to us for a number of reasons. The walls are poured under controlled conditions in a factory using 5,000 pound per square inch (PSI) strength concrete instead of 2,500 to 3,000 PSI concrete like most walls poured on-site. The pre-cast walls are cured at the factory so they are guaranteed to achieve the intended design strength. Since they are manufactured square, if the site has been properly prepared the foundation will be plumb, level and square once it is assembled. Most pre-cast systems have an inch or more of foam insulation built into the walls. This minimizes cold conduction problems and provides a warmer basement in climates like the Northeast where we live. Should you decide to finish your basement, nailers are incorporated into the wall structure making it easier to add more insulation and construct your interior walls.

If you’re in a hurry, as we were, one of the biggest attractions of a pre-cast system is that it’s not weather dependent and can usually be erected in less than a day. The panels are bolted together and the seams waterproofed with special high performance urethane caulks. Building on an average 20% grade such as we did, an important feature was the unique ability for drainage offered by these systems. Because they are erected on gravel instead of a traditional footing, we were able to run several drains to empty a good distance from the house. Technically, a sheet of water coming down the hill would pass under the house and never rustle a pebble. So far…five years worth of bone dry basement. Oh, at first I wondered about the gravel footing instead of cement but, after being compacted, it’s hard as a rock!

It was not my intention to lean more heavily toward pre-cast than other foundations but, since that’s what Vigi and I chose for our own house, it only seemed fair to tell you why. Everyone has different needs, budgets and preferences. As with anything you do, it’s a matter of selecting the right tool for the job; for us, pre-cast turned out to be the right tool. Whatever you select as the foundation for your new home, just be sure to use something more earth-bound than the airy hocus pocus of The Amazing Rudolfo!

When planning your ideal log home or cabin, so much attention is often paid to the INside that many people are surprised by the number of decisions they must make about the OUTside. How do you want the rest of the world to view your creation…or, more importantly, how will you feel about what you’ve committed upon the welcoming face of your mountain or meadow?

Most of the choices you make about interior design will, in one way or another, affect the exterior appearance of your home [and vice-versa]. Plans for each must be made with the effect upon the other always in mind. This includes everything from the placement of nooks and crannies to the size, shape and number of windows you’re planning to install. One of the elements that will profoundly impact the personality of your home, on both sides of the wall, is the log profile you select. Log companies offer many different profiles for you to choose from and which finally forms the outer shell of your new home is more a matter of preference and who wins the argument, than it is a concern of function.

One of the more common shapes is the “D” log, which is round on the outside and flat on the inside. We chose this style for our house because it provides the kind of wall surface we’ve grown accustomed to seeing and working with when hanging pictures, cabinets, shelves or placing furniture. It would also coordinate nicely with the massive amounts of tongue-in-groove material we had planned for the interior walls. Yet the exterior offers the distinctive character of logs, not just walls of wood. The logs fit snugly together and chinking is not required. “Full Round” or “Double Round” provides the same tight fit and also offers an authentic log flavor inside as well as out. Its interior curvatures create a bit more rustic atmosphere than the “D” log. The “Double Notch” is flat on both sides and lends itself nicely to chinking, for people who like more of a “frontier” look. While usually more costly in both construction and material, “Swedish Cope” presents an impressive, very stylish appearance. To make things even more complicated, logs are offered in several textures as well, including varying degrees of hand hewing for that hint of Abe Lincoln-Daniel Boone beer, books and bearskin! Each manufacturer has its own menu of shapes and sizes sufficient to cause sleepless nights for even the most veteran decision maker.

Since I can’t climb inside your head [and if you get ten people in a room you'll get twenty opinions anyway] I can only suggest that you think carefully about what makes you feel most comfortable when it surrounds you. Is any price difference in the short run worth paying in the long run? And shop around…see it all. Whether round or square, 6″x8″, 8″x8″ or the really beefy round stock measured in feet instead of inches, you’ll know what you like when you see it!

Another early exterior choice you’ll need to make is what you want your corners to look like. Should they stick out or be finished flush? Do you want a trim cap on the ends or let the log ends show…or stick out…or go in different directions…or the same direction? This, again, is personal preference and if you don’t have any yet, you’ll soon develop strong preferences as you mentally apply each finishing technique to the ends of your mental log picture. Remember, this is for “keeps”. It isn’t something you simply change every so often like paint, wallpaper or a daredevil hairdo!

Ultimately, your selection will most likely be a fine blend of taste and budget. Vigi and I discovered, during several phases of construction, just how rapidly caviar tastes can turn to tuna when they are weighed against the reality of cost.

For our own home we chose 8″x8″ D-Logs because we felt they made the house look more substantial than the 6″x8″s that seem to be more commonly used. We selected the D-Profile for the reasons I mentioned above and finished the corners with a method called “butt and pass”, which looks suspiciously like what is now called Mortise and Tenon. The funny thing is, to this day we don’t feel we’ve compromised anywhere inside or out. Living in a home that literally contains your blood, sweat and tears and is so uniquely you can have that effect. Ours is just perfekt!

Among the hundreds of decisions you’ll make during the planning and building of you new log home, few will have a more lasting impact on your long term satisfaction than the layout. Other people may gaze with admiration at the outside but you’re the one who has to live on the inside! That’s where you and most of your stuff will spend most of your time.

The first piece of information I’ll offer that’s sure to brighten your day is that the “perfect floor plan” doesn’t exist! That is, at least not in terms of a gold-plated yardstick against which all other plans are measured. Actually, the perfect plan is the one that best suits you and your living requirements. Whether your house is built out of logs or paper mache, there are several considerations that deserve close attention during the design phase.

Is this to be a year ’round residence or part time, vacation home? How you’re planning to use it will most likely affect the size, style and layout of your home…not to mention the cost. In either case you’ll want to plan, not only for today’s needs, but for tomorrow’s as well. If the possibility of eventual resale exists other elements should to be addressed, particularly in the case of a permanent residence. Generally, a more traditional design offers broader appeal for future resale.

How do you really live? Examining your traffic flow through the house is a good place to start as you anticipate the layout of your rooms and hallways. Provide for smooth and convenient movement as you conduct your daily activities. If you’re a family with growing children, you’ll probably want plenty of bedrooms and baths to provide enough privacy and cut down on early morning traffic jams. Your proximity to the [particularly younger] children may also be a consideration and a good size country kitchen never hurts a bit where kids are concerned. On the other hand, if it’s just the two of you, a more open floor plan offers less privacy but greater, more elegant living space. Are you aging more rapidly than the rest of us? Locating the master bedroom on the first floor and making sure all doors and hallways are wheelchair wide can be comfortable right now and may be more than just convenient in the future. Do you have a lot of friends? If you’re big on entertaining, a larger, formal dining room could be a piece of planning that makes you look like a genius!

You need to be flexible with your floor plan. Be aware of wasted space. It is important for a plan to be efficient as well as attractive. When it comes to space, just like money, there’s no such thing as having enough. While adjustments for efficiency may be desirable, changes to address building codes, structural systems or differences in manufacturers’ capabilities may be mandatory. Sometimes there are specific criteria which must also be met to satisfy your source of financing and, of course, there is always your budget lurking just out of sight. We actually went through 122 versions of our original floor plan before we satisfied both ourselves and all those outside influences. But you know what? At the end of the day, we have a design that turns out to be absolutely perfect for us and we wouldn’t trade it for any of the other 121!

Where do you get ideas or find a plan to call your own? The easiest [and fastest] way is to pick something right off a log supplier’s shelf. Check out what they have; you might get lucky. More often than not, people wind up combining bits and pieces of several plans from a variety of sources. You can discover any number of good ideas in log home magazines, model homes, manufacturers’ literature and on the Internet. Some people design their own floor plan from scratch, like Vigi and I did, incorporating the best features and leaving out the lesser ones from homes we had lived in or visited previously. Some people, with virtually bottomless pockets, even hire a professional architect. For our part, as people who had to search to see if we even had any pockets, we opted for more personal involvement.

Wherever you get your ideas, whatever the expression of your desires, always be aware of how the plan for your home’s interior affects the design and appearance of its exterior. There must be balance and proportion between the two. Above all, before you do anything, understand how things work functionally, structurally and what their impact is economically. This will make your entire experience more enjoyable and keep your changes, as well as your ulcers, to a minimum.

Trying to find the perfect piece of land is a lot like trying to find the perfect mate. In both cases you’re looking for physical appeal, an easy going personality and financial demands that won’t land you in the poor house. If it turns out you’ve made an unwise choice, getting either one out of your life can be an unpleasant experience! Appearance is strictly an individual matter but, at least with land, several other considerations can be more easily identified.

What about location? Are you looking for a building lot in a neighborhood or for elbow room in a more rural setting? Is it convenient for work, school and shopping [If not, how far are you willing to travel for these things]? Do you prefer public utilities or are you comfortable with a well and septic? Hint: Be open to either option.

If a well is in your future, be sure you’ll find a source of good, potable water when you drill. Well drilling companies in the area you’re considering can provide valuable guidance. If you’ll need a septic system, make certain the land “perks” [I'll cover wells and "soil logs" in a future post]. Physically, hilly property is more challenging than flat; rocky terrain could require expensive blasting. If the land is low lying or has nearby water, you can get into easements, variances or have flooding problems [I'll cover these in a future post, also]. Log homes look terrific high on a hill or next to a stream but there can be a price that comes with both. Be prepared to pay it. You’ll, also, want to make sure there are no protected animal species on the property. These are all items that cost time, money and often lead to disappointment.

Something people frequently forget to do is check area zoning. If you’re planning to build a single family home, you won’t want the view from your front porch to be a shiny new gas station or the loading docks of some trucking terminal a few years down the road. Last of all, remember to ask about the taxes of nearby comparable homes to get an idea of overall affordability once your new home is finished. The town or county tax assessors can probably offer some guidance and neighbors can be helpful, too. Add in your own personal desires and you’ll have a pretty realistic check list when you go ’shopping’.

Once you’ve established your criteria and your budget, establish a level of flexibility, too. Whether you’re considering a mate for life or land for construction, perfection is a concept that is both relative and illusive. Be realistic. Remember, the consequence to overspending for a tempting piece of property now, may be a shortfall in the home and construction funds you’ll need later.

At times it may seem as though a place that meets all your requirements doesn’t exist. Believe me, it does. How hard it is to unearth exactly what you’re looking for may depend, to a large degree, upon your geographic location. Land in the East, especially the Northeast, and along the West Coast is more scarce and expensive than property in the South or mid-section of the country. Land closer to metropolitan areas costs more and is less available than its equivalent in more rural areas.

Okay. Now that you know what you want and where you want it, how do you go about finding it? We looked at more than 125 parcels of land, Monday through Sunday, rain or shine, day and night [some by flashlight], for nearly a year before we found something that satisfied us. Notice I didn’t use the word perfect…but it’s near perfect.

Realtors can be helpful if they have a land division or someone who is dedicated to land sales. Most realtors have at least a few listings but since they earn their livings from commissions, and houses pay more than undeveloped land, guess where they’ll invest most of their time! Get several realtors ‘on the case’ but realize they are only one resource, not the whole answer to your search. Newspapers and supermarket ‘Sunday Shoppers’ [where they list everything, including the kitchen sink] can sometimes be helpful. Vigi and I left no stone unturned…but our most productive activity was simply riding repeatedly through areas of interest, looking for “For Sale” signs, talking to people in their yards, at local businesses and even knocking on doors when appropriate. When you finally see something you like, be ready to pounce. He who hesitates may find himself still looking!

Whichever methods you employ, use more than just one approach. Know what you want before you go looking so when you see it, you’ll know it. Just like searching for that perfect mate, it pays to get in the habit of carrying a notepad and pencil…and your checkbook!

(NOTE: Our podcast, Speaking Of Logs will address this topic in more detail in a few weeks)

This is probably one of the most common questions we hear and one that is usually addressed fairly early in the planning stage. Naturally, it’s also a question we managed to miss when we were building, and that bit of oversight gave birth to a 122nd version of our house plan. Being kind of a chicken or egg thing, there’s really no right answer but since there are several considerations that might make your life easier, or save you time or money, we’ll take a look at it anyway.

On one hand, the answer could be just a matter of timing. If you already have your land or find the ideal spot before you decide on your design it’s a no brainer. The same holds true if you find the perfect house plan right up front. On the other hand, if neither item is in evidence, you have a decision to make. Conventional wisdom says to find you land first because you’ll want to choose a house plan that properly addresses the characteristics of your property. This makes a lot of sense…except when the log home guy is offering you all sorts of assurances on everything from locking in a cheaper price, and holding your materials for 2 or 3 years, to switching designs later without penalty. My advice is to weigh your options, keep as many of them open as possible and be flexible.

Your home and land should complement each other aesthetically, functionally and efficiently. For example, you’ll want your home to be seen at its best when guests approach and to blend gracefully as if part of its surroundings, rather than looking as if it were just ‘added on’. You’ll want to have the garage located conveniently, walkways or steps which are easily navigable and windows that reveal any vistas or views as completely, yet naturally as possible. In addition, you’ll want to take advantage of any construction economies such as building upward rather than outward on a hill or in a level clearing rather than on a rocky wooded slope.

Whether you fit your land to the home or your home to the land depends upon several factors, including which element is more important to you and what kind of property may be available at the time. I said to be flexible because your ideal solution may be to compromise a little on both design and terrain to achieve the result you desire.

We designed our own home from scratch, starting with a rectangle and working out from there. We had some very specific needs which nothing ‘off-the-shelf’ would fill, and the choice of land within our price range was very limited. Most building lots we had seen were reasonably level so I was comfortable in going ahead with my design work. Well, we wound up falling in love with a heavily wooded mountainside that sported an average 20% to 30% grade and no level areas. The sprawling house I originally configured could only work, affordably, if I tucked the garage underneath and moved my recording studio upstairs. Today, it couldn’t be more perfect. Back then, we needed to exhibit some serious redesign hustle, creativity and compromise. My best friend lives by the credo, “My back may break but it won’t bend”. He should never try to build anything.

Which ever is most important to you, design or location, remember there’s more than one way to achieve your own brand of perfection and, as Fred’s fourth law states, “It’s not how you start but how you finish.”

If you want a log home, build a log home. The first thing you hear from anyone offering an alternative to solid logs is, “No one will be able to tell the difference. It will look the same.” So does a knock-off Rolex! Actually, they’re right…mostly. From the outside, it probably will look pretty much the same and to anyone who isn’t ‘in’ to log cabin homes, they might not see any internal differences, either. However, there are a couple of problems and the biggest one is that you’ll know the difference!

Once we decided to build but before we got into questions like what kind of wood, exterior corners, log style, type of drying, plus a dozen other decisions we needed to make before choosing a vendor, we faced that same decision. Do we build a real log home or what I have come to call a ‘phony baloney’ one? I guess you can tell from my statement we chose real logs and, in fact, felt so strongly about it that one of the reasons for selecting our particular log company was they were one of the few suppliers using solid logs, top to bottom, on the entire house. Even though many use solid logs on the first floor, they switch to conventional stick construction for second story walls and gables. Then there was the group that manufactured a ’sandwich’. It’s kind of an Oreo cookie made of wood and fiber. Essentially they use standard frame construction, studs and all on the inside, log siding on the outside and insulation in-between. There are a couple of different variations which are called panelized, system built, pre-fabricated pre-manufactured, and any number of other names, most of them pre-constructed in sections at the factory. Call it what you will, it’s still not a real log home. It’s traditional construction without the integrity of an on-site, stick-built home. The sections roll off an assembly line, are bounced, twisted and jarred to the building site, then dangled into place by a crane. My choice of material was log so I expected to visit a mill, not a factory. Then I wanted to see my house being built, not bolted together like a bar-b-cue grill.

To Vigi and I, the log-sided cookie seemed to offer all the disadvantages of solid logs without any of the advantages. Aside from the desire to have a genuine log structure, our first red flag was the realization that many of these manufacturers were not licensed to do business in states like New Jersey, Southern New York, New England, California and several other places that have strict building codes. To us, that sent a pretty strong message about quality. The added strength and inherent energy-efficient properties of solid logs, such as the effect of thermal mass, would be missing with a factory-issued house. In case you’re not familiar with thermal mass, the most concise explanation I’ve seen is on-line in the Wikipedia, which states:

Thermal mass, in the most general sense, is any mass that absorbs and stores heat during sunny periods when the heat is not desirable in the living space of a building, and then releases the heat during overcast periods or during the night, when the heat is desirable. The same can be said for not absorbing heat during hot periods of weather. The internal mass remains at a lower temperature than outside keeping the occupants more comfortable.

Our experience is that it really works, too! Thermal mass is not measured in R-values but if you need to equate it in order to make comparisons, our 8″x8″ log walls would be the equivalent of R-38 insulation and our roof about R-39. The factory pre-built gives you an R-19 with a rare few offering up to R-28. R-19 is typical for today’s more traditional paper house. When it comes to heating and cooling, that’s quite a difference. In areas where snow load may be a concern, the log homes we researched ran rings around the ‘knock-offs’. Since I work extensively with audio, I appreciate the added sound insulating property of solid logs, as well. But strength, quiet and energy-efficiency are only part of the story.

If you’re building new, you probably want custom. For us, off-the-rack wouldn’t due. Of course the assembly-line houses have a certain amount of flexibility [usually as optional upgrades] but we found that ‘writing on a blank slate’ offered us the ultimate in unlimited choice. Building a real log cabin home did cost more and take longer than the log-sided cookie but the old saw, “you get what you pay for” never applied more than here. A house is probably the biggest investment you’ll ever make. When looking at dollars and cents, we found that panelized, system-built, or whatever name the factory’s marketing team chose this week, only held or increased value at about the same rate as any other traditionally built home. Real log homes were in greater demand at better prices. With regard to speed of construction, remember, the mighty oak didn’t grow from an acorn overnight; it may cost more but you’ll have more. As for the completeness of your package, whenever you’re building a home, there’s no such thing as including all the items you’ll need. There is no ‘no-shop’. As Fred’s third law states, “Just when you think you have everything, you need one more trip to the store.”

When people ask if we bought a ‘kit’, I sort of cringe. In as much as we opted for pre-cut logs and a well-supplied package, I suppose you could call it a kit. But my pride always forces me to qualify my answer; because I shudder to think a true devotee of the log lifestyle might mistake the word ‘kit’ for a pre-fab paper house with log siding. When the big bad wolf comes huffing and puffing at my door, the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin want the confidence of knowing my house of logs is not only authentic but is stronger and functions more efficiently than factory-fresh!

Once you have an idea of your budget and make the decision to become a log home owner, you face your first possible dilemma. If you haven’t already made up your mind, will you buy an existing home or build a new one? Up until now, I’ve made the assumption that you’ll probably build. You probably will, for several reasons we’ll cover, but there are pros and cons with both options and I feel we should examine at least some of them.

The one big advantage of purchasing an existing log home is that you know exactly what the cost is going to be. You simply agree on a price, as you would with any home, add in closing, escrows, commissions, taxes, whatever other extras and the costs are fixed. You know just how broke you’re going to be when you move in! Some other advantages are any settling the house is going to do and major cracking or checking of logs is probably finished, so what you see is pretty much what you’ll get. The landscaping is usually complete and you don’t have to make a thousand decisions about contractors, woods, floor plans, fixtures, room sizes and so forth. Neither will you be having any shootouts with the town about building codes, easements, subdivisions or variances. It’s a ‘cleaner’, easier, faster way to go and you know precisely when you’ll be moving in. “Gee, just a straight real estate deal…where do I sign,” right? Not so fast.

Try to find one! Most log home owners tend to hold onto their pride and joy with both hands! If they do let go, it’s most often at a premium price. Log cabin homes hold or increase their value better than conventional homes. They are the smallest segment of the real estate market but, in recent years, have become the fastest growing segment. Do your homework well because you might just find the price of buying an existing home is nearly as much as the cost of building a new one. There are, of course, the other benefits to ‘ready-made’ I mentioned and some I probably didn’t…things you may discover that are important, specifically, to you.

It should come as no surprise to find most of the points which can be listed as advantages of buying turn out to be disadvantages when building and vice-versa. It’s like following two nearly opposite roads to arrive at the same destination. To me, the greatest (and scariest) drawback to building is the uncertainty of costs. No matter how well you calculate them, there will always be surprises (remember Fred’s First Law). Fred’s Second Law states, “Building is like playing the old shell game. Just when you think you know where the pea is, it shows up under a different shell.” There’s a lot to keep track of and endless decisions to make. You’ll, probably, wrestle with the town, your builder, subcontractors, even the log company and not be certain until the very end exactly when to call the movers. However, I believe for those truly immersed in the spirit of log home living, many of the challenges that make the ‘average bear’ shudder are many of the reasons they want this very special kind of home in the first place.

I’ve often found that things you don’t have to do are also things you can’t do. When you build, you are able to select or design your own floor plan. Inside and out you get exactly what you want with few compromises. The colors, textures and materials are yours. The land and where you place the house, the attention to detail, the fit and the finish are yours. You become involved with the birth of the house and get to nurture it into a lasting home. We discovered that many of the battles we fought to breathe life into our log home actually made it more a part of us and are some of our most lasting memories. Even sanding and staining to the hum of bullet heaters during sub-zero temperatures, in vinyl enclosures beneath the sub-floor, still feeds our sense of accomplishment. The smell of the wood and occasional gunshot-snap of a new check being born are parts of our home’s character and its personality. As to the cost overrun, ours was excessive but there are some things you just deal with. The adventure Vigi and I shared for those many months falls squarely into that Mastercard commercial category of “priceless”.

It’s kind of a shell game all right but when all is said and done, whether buying or building, you put the game away and life is good…in your log cabin home. To sum it up, buying an existing home is more predictable, less hassle, may be less expensive and is faster. Building a new log home is more work, usually costs more, offers greater uncertainty but greater flexibility as well as the opportunity for more personal expression. What’s important to you?

Falling in love with a log home is like falling in love with an elegant woman: passion can out rule common sense and there’s a price to be paid for each. In the case of a log home, it’s usually expressed purely in dollars and cents. With an elegant woman there are other considerations, as well, but that’s a topic for a different time on a different blog. Let me tell you a tale of whoa. No, I didn’t misspell woe, I mean WHOA!

If you’re smart, you can learn as much from what you did wrong as what you did right. That probably makes me a genius. We thought everything was nailed down. We had done extensive homework on types of wood, drying methods, log suppliers, floor plans, land acquisition, building codes, financing options, engineering, methods of construction, costs of construction, finishing materials and every one of a thousand details. We padded the budget by 15% and still went over by nearly $150,000! I’ll cover the specifics of that adventure in a future blog. For now, so as not to put the tree before the bark, suffice to say ours was an exceptional case…but the deeper your pockets [or Aunt Ethel's or the bank's or...well, you get the idea] the better off you are. Fred’s first law of log home acquisition states: “When building a log cabin home, you can’t anticipate everything and all of the surprises cost serious bucks”. The whole idea is to try to determine your major costs in advance, be creative and ready to modify some of your expectations. Still, you’ll get used to dealing in amounts of $10,000, $30,000 and $50,000 as casually as you write a check today for $50 or $100.

There are two formulae you’ll most commonly hear for determining construction costs. Most log home companies will tell you to figure about 2-1/2 to 3 times the cost of your log materials package. The more complete the package the better that proportion holds up but figure on closer to the 3 number. We actually came out to about 2.8 times the cost of our log cabin “kit” so the formula seems to have merit. The more accurate way is to use a cost-per-square-foot price. Depending upon where you live, this will likely be in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 per square foot and a few direct questions to a local builder will fix that figure accurately.

So now you have a quote from a log supplier and an idea of cost to construct the physical house, what about land? That can cost you almost any amount these days but it’s becoming more of a factor than ever before, especially in the northeastern U.S.. Are you thinking area or neighborhood… acreage or lot? What about financing costs, costs of surveys, site plans, variances, subdivisions, permits, wells, septics, site preparation, construction delays and the like? These all need to be considered, and they can be significant, but are all managable as long as you know they exist. You’ll still run into some costs you didn’t anticipate and that’s why I suggest a “pad” of around 20% in your budget, even though some sources may tell you only 10% or 15%. The best you can do is anticipate the larger, more obvious expenses you know about and just be aware there’ll be more. I’ve put together a BUDGET WORKSHEET which I hope you’ll find helpful. Print or download it, fill it out as accurately as possible and you’ll have a reasonable sense of how much house you can actually afford. The two factors that will bring your actual budget into focus can’t be shown on any worksheet. They are how much debt you are willing to stand and how much self-control do you have.

I mentioned earlier you must be creative and ready to modify some of your expectations. There are lots of ways to perform budgetary surgery without losing the patient. Here’s what I mean. Remember that your construction costs are generally calculated by the square foot. If you cut just one foot off the depth of your house, that saving applies to the entire length of the house and, if we’re talking two stories, the savings double! Say your house is 50 feet long. That’s 50 x $25 [or more] x 2. Dormers and gables above the first floor can be standard stick construction with log siding. Choose the less expensive stone or brick for the fireplace and chimney. Install inexpensive lighting and plumbing fixtures to begin with. They’re easy to change a few at a time after you’re in. The same goes for kitchen and bath cabinetry. Do as much of your own staining, clearcoating or painting as possible. Add the porch, deck or patio later instead of during initial construction. You’d be amazed at how it can all add up. The key is to be flexible enough to bend so your budget doesn’t break.

Toward the end of my last post, I rather casually gave the advice to make sure a log home is for you. While I provided a few generalities, I feel we should examine the process more thoroughly.

Although most log homes seem to invite a more rural setting and the people in them are often seeking a gentler manner of living, “the sticks” have no monopoly on the log home lifestyle. I know of any number of houses built in neighborhood settings and a few homes whose knotted peaks rise up in city outskirts. One such dwelling is a million-plus dollar edifice of more than 4300 square feet sitting in the shadow of New York City, with a breathtaking backyard vista of a large truck terminal in Secaucus, New Jersey. Another atypical setting that leaps to mind is one offered by a gentleman I recently spoke with who wants to build a log cabin home in the Golan Heights of Israel. I believe he said it would be one of only two such homes in the entire country! So, you see, it isn’t so much where home is but rather whether you’re at home with the features log living offers.

Most floor plans offer a fairly open design and, usually, at least one or more of the ceilings is vaulted. Our ridge beam in the Great Room is twenty-six feet above the floor. Tall, sloping ceilings can make any room seem spacious and, even if you favor rustic decor, evoke the feeling of elegance combined with a sensation of coziness and warmth. However, don’t look for the level of privacy you may have been used to in a traditional home. If you pick the right plan there will be plenty of nooks and crannies and, of course, privacy in the more personal rooms such as the bedroom. But open is open and while I like having [my wife] Vigi in a separate area while she’s cooking rather than in a separate room, she is more susceptible to my “Hey Hons” than she used to be. Her objection, not mine. On the other hand we can both enjoy the fireplace or the company, when someone visits, from almost anywhere in the house. If you’re a particularly private person you’ll want to evaluate the interior layout carefully. Just remember, if you defeat too much of the house’s personality you might as well go for one of those “paper” houses like everyone else has.

Speaking of personality, a large part of that, for us, is the wood. We wanted wood everywhere. There are exactly one and a half walls of sheetrock in our entire house and that was only done for visual variety. Yet, I’ve seen people sheetrock the entire interior! People have come to visit us and said, “How can you stand all this wood? It’s beautiful but too much wood!” They didn’t even notice all the stone we’ve used for textural contrast or the patterns we’ve created with the T&G material on the interior walls. Quick! Somebody grab me! I want to hit something! Don’t feed them! Clearly, none of these people are candidates for a log home. NONE. These are types who would try to change the color of a sunset because it’s too orange! If you don’t like different or don’t like open or don’t like natural or, especially, don’t LOVE wood…don’t build with logs. If you’re a traditionalist buy or build a traditional house. It sounds like a no-brainer but I know people who fit all of these descriptions, went ahead with a log home anyway, complained for three or four years and sold it.

I strongly recommend talking extensively with people who live in log cabin homes. You’ll get the honest best and worst. Log folk love to talk about their houses. Talk with everyone, everywhere. Read log home books and magazines, go to log and timber frame shows, talk with other log-eyed dreamers doing research, surf the web…there are tons of information to be had. See a log home? Go knock on the door, tell them what you’re doing and then be pleasantly surprised at their friendliness. Don’t be shy. The only thing log home owners like doing better than talking about their houses is showing them off. Then, if you decide the log lifestyle is for you, check your budget. Can you afford to do this? We’ll look at that question next time. I’ll have a very useful budget worksheet for you, too.

With The Holidays recently passed and a whole year until the childlike magic of my favorite season returns, one of the things I like best about living in a log home leaps to mind. From the first time I ever set foot in one right up to this moment, a log cabin home stirs within me both the feeling of Christmas and being away on vacation all wrapped up in a single package. It’s a feeling that stays with me all year…everytime I walk through the door or stand on the hillside looking up at the place where I am so very fortunate to live. My house of sticks!

The first time [my wife] Vigi and I saw a log home up close was in a little town outside Scranton, Pennsylvania. My earlier background was in radio and I had the crazy notion that I’d like to own a station. The small AM/FM combo we came to look at turned out to be a dud but the log home sales models, on a green grassy knoll backed by brilliant blue sky, will live in my mind forever. We had only a few minutes to spare, stayed just long enough to sniff the fresh smell of wood and left with a couple of brochures. Natural…open…free…what a great way to live!

The next time we were exposed to the power of logs was a few years later, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. We were on a trip through the South; you guessed it, still looking at radio stations. Just off Interstate 95 we spotted some log home models and this time we made time. A little beyond Denny’s, Bob’s Big Boy, Honest Abe’s Used Cars and an abandoned Gas and Wash we entered nirvana. There was that fresh smell of wood again. I remember being impressed by the spacious feeling of an open floor plan, even in the smaller model. I was intrigued by the blending of different types and textures of finishing materials. Wood gave way to stone in one corner. In another area bright wallpaper blended with the richness of wood forming various patterns. A touch of carpet kissed only the center of a heavily-knotted wood floor. I was hooked. Even better [or worse depending on your point of view] WE were hooked! The rest is history. In the coming weeks I hope you’ll give me the chance to share the good, the bad and the ugly of that history with you…as well as provide answers to the many questions you’ll have and practical solutions to the challenges you’ll face.

As you’ll soon discover [or if you own one you already know] a house of logs is more than simply a home, it’s a lifestyle. I’ve seen a lot written about “the log home lifestyle” and even though we’ve lived in one now for several years, I don’t know if I can quantify that phrase and do it justice. The best I can offer is that you don’t just move in to a log cabin home…you slip it on, like a comfortable shirt. It’s a personal expression of who you are. Some people want such a home to reach back and touch their heritage, nurture their roots. Others just want something unusual, out of the ordinary. For me, our log home puts me in touch with things natural. The material itself lives and breathes. I’ve designed it with many large windows so it’s airy and with certain other touches which invite the outside in.

Before you get too far down the road, make sure a log home is for you. For one thing, they’re usually built in a more rural setting; is that what you want? You don’t need your own band but it helps if you march to a slightly different drummer. Be certain you can afford to build before you begin. Talk with people who own one…lots of them. Dare to dream! Why a log home…what’s the big deal? It becomes part of you, that’s what. And unlike most “paper” houses, it will always make the butterflies in your stomach dance!

Actually, the function of an Engineer in construction isn’t so different from that of an Engineer who drives a train in that he helps steer your building project and keep it on track.

You’ll need a site plan signed, sealed, on file with the town and on the construction site at all times (in fact most building departments require 2 or 3 copies before they’ll issue any permits). This is in addition to your floor plan or blueprint. You’ll also need surveys of your property, soil logs if you will not be connected to city utilities (used to be called a Perk Test), precise location of your log home on the lot, and staking of your property as well as the foundation. You may require retaining walls, bridges, drainage pipes, diverting of streams or any number of other elements your Engineer will design and coordinate.

In some locales you might get away with simply hiring a surveyor and a good, savvy builder but if your land presents some physical challenges or your town is a bit of a ’stickler’ about things, I don’t recommend trying it. Some Engineers can be a bit pricey but especially if you get involved with subdivisions, variances, wetlands and the like, they can save you time, money and a boxcar full of aggravation in the long run.