Many people have asked us how we ever found the Swan Ridge Lake Resort development, and what took us to Dale Hollow Lake in the first place.

Wondering why we chose this as the location to build our new log home?

Here's how it happened...

The 2007 HGTV Dream Home will be featured for the first time on television January 1st, following the Rose Parade.

See future air dates & times here.

The interesting part to me:
While not exactly a "log home"... it's a rustic lodge home, with a number of heavy timber accents and timber frame characteristics.

Check it out!...

Dalton, Georgia (specifically, the Dalton Carpet Outlet facility) makes a great road trip for anyone who is in the process of -- or even considering -- building or renovating a home.

There's definitely something for everybody here... no matter what your style or your budget.

Today Dalton is unrivaled in its production of carpet. Almost 90% of the functional carpet produced world-wide is made within a 25-mile radius of this north Georgia city. --Source

Jim and I drove past all of these carpet outlets in Dalton, Georgia on our way to South Carolina a few months ago. Thank goodness we did a U-Turn and actually went into the biggest one called Carpets of Dalton. Otherwise, I probably never would have learned about this great place!

We must've spent 2 hours in there ...just looking around. It was almost overwhelming, there was so much to take in. (Think: Disney World for home owners!) While we were there, we took a lot of notes, and we decided that we would definitely make a return visit when we had more time.

Here's why I love Carpets of Dalton and the Designer Dream Home...

Even though we were having difficulty finding where to build our log home, we still decided to go ahead with our plans to build anyway.

Instead of just sitting around twiddling our thumbs, we turned our attention to designing our log home. That way, we would be ahead of the game once we eventually found the land.

(This is not the recommended order to do things, however. Typically, you'd want to have your land secured before you start designing a home that will suit the lay of the land.)

Anyway... here's how things went for us.

Here's a great way to incorporate a secondary dog house into your primary living space.

This dog crate is disguised as a functional piece of furniture...

And it's an attractive one at that!

Without a doubt, one of the hottest items for kids this year is the Little Tikes Log Cabin!

But everywhere you look, this log home playhouse for kids is "out of stock".

GOOD NEWS! At the time of this writing, the Little Tikes Log Cabin is available at a few different online retailers. But it probably won't last long.

Here's where you can find it...

If you're thinking that dogs and log homes don't mix, think again.

Why do you think they fetch so many sticks? They're trying to tell you... "Build me some log home stuff!"

But seriously...

One thing I'm noticing after visiting log home after log home in our quest to meet with log home owners and explore log home design & decorating ideas is this:

Many log home owners are dog owners, like us.

But, one thing that's different is this:
Many of log home owners are not including their pets in their log home design & decorating plans.

For good or for bad, it's just something I'm noticing.