Real People. Real Experiences. Real Helpful.
If you haven’t considered this yet, you surely will soon… so long as you’re planning on building a new home, that is.
Which will it be for your master bath?…
For years now, I’ve had my heart set on a completely custom shower inside the master bathroom. I call it “my YMCA shower”.
What follows are some of the unique features that we plan to incorporate into our log home’s master bathroom.
One way to use this is as an “idea list”… to help you weigh out the pro’s and con’s of various bathroom features in order to ultimately determine your own “wants” and “needs” list for your own master bathroom.
Another way you could use this list is to think of these things as some of the most often overlooked items in master bathrooms.
It’s certainly not a list that will accommodate everyone’s personal bathroom design tastes, but it may get you started in the right direction.
[NOTE: This article is part of a series about bathroom design. Watch for new articles explaining each of the following items.]
Yep, at Heart Pine Reserve, what once was old is new again…
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen such a excellent example of recycling and preserving the past — all the while creating a unique handmade product that’s as practical as this!
Check out what the “specialists in antique heart pine wood” are up to these days…
“Our current selection of antique heart pine flooring is milled from the timbers of old whiskey-barrel warehouses of the nineteenth century Old Taylor Distillery in Kentucky.”
Log cabins have certainly gone high tech. At least in terms of this interactive Blog found on the DIY Network anyway!
Their newest venture is called Blog Cabin. It’s an interactive site that includes lots of opportunities for YOU to help design and build a log cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains
Here’s the scoop… (It’s lots of FUN!)
We’ve been to a few different log home shows now, and the consensus is this:
Log home shows are primarily for the homeowner who is just beginning the process of deciding whether or not to build or buy a log home.
That’s not a bad thing… it’s just to say that if you’re farther along in the process (like us), you will find fewer things of interest to you.
Here’s what I mean…
Up until recently (after we attended the Nashville Log Home & Timber Frame Show), I hadn’t thought much about the type of garage doors I wanted for our new log home.
Rather than color or style, I think my biggest concern to date has been whether to have one “big” door to accommodate 2 cars, or 2 individual doors — one door per vehicle. I had always thought that was more of a personal choice than a design issue, but I recently learned that 2 garage doors (plus a third, utility door) are in our future. It mostly has to do with support and beam issues, and with the home as we’ve designed it upstairs, we will be required to have 2 separate doors on the garage which are off the basement downstairs.
Enter into the picture: The Great Northern Door Company!
Is your home located on or near a creek?
Does your property include a small body of water?
Do you have to drive over water in order to get to your house?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, and you have a fondness for the log home lifestyle, then this wooden covered bridge may be right up your alley.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of traditional yard art. Not in the least.
But the non-traditional, outside-the-box type… I kind of enjoy that. Especially if it makes you smile whenever you pass by it.
Case in point: This porch pig. (It’s located just down the street from where we live.)
I think it’s hard to find a “classy” way to store extra rolls of toilet paper in your bathroom — especially the guest bathroom or downstairs powder room, where you want to make a good impression to those who visit your home.
Currently, this is my favorite toilet paper holder for the bathroom, and I think it would look great in a log home. Baskets and logs kinda go hand-in-hand, right?
The bonus: You get a built-in tissue holder as well!
Here’s a growing list of the reasons that I look forward to moving out of a “traditional home” in a “traditional subdivision” and into a non-traditional home (a log home) in a non-traditional setting (on a lake).
See if you have the same subdivision pet peeves as I do…
Goodbye to this…
Do I have great friends or what?!?!
Two different people gave me these 2 huge stacks of home improvement magazines in the past week.
Truth be told, the magazines you see here are just the tip of the iceberg…
This is where we will be February 16th thru 18th…
At the Log & Timber Home Show in Nashville, Tennessee!
It’s taking place at the Convention Center on Commerce Street, downtown Nashville .
See who’s going to be there, and what you can expect…
What a FUN idea I’ve found over at Red Oak Hollow blog! (…It’s highly creative, too.)
I’m sharing it here for fellow homebuilders who would like to surprise their loved one with a very “special” gift (read: *something for the house*) on a very special day.
See how to package your special gift… in a way that only a devoted homebuilder who loves you dearly could appreciate!
Fewer people are parking in their garage than ever before. The reasons for this are numerous. Not the least of which is the fact that today’s families simply have bigger cars and more stuff.
As a last resort, families are using their garages as storage sheds, rather than for parking their cars.
Hindsight is 20/20… I would encourage you to plan now — in the design phase — so you don’t find yourself second-guessing your new home’s design later.
Wondering what’s going on in the log home industry these days?…
Here are some little-known facts about log homes, including a number of log home trends that are affecting the housing market today.
If you’re building a new log home, check here first for the inside scoop on log homes!
When we bought our property on Dale Hollow Lake, we wondered just how much snow would fall in that area during the winter months.
Dale Hollow Lake is a couple hours north of Nashville, and a tad east (it’s fairly close to “the plateau”).
So yesterday morning, we hopped in the car to check out the freshly fallen snow on our property.
