You may be wondering what the elements are which classify a home as being of the Craftsman style or the Arts & Crafts variety.

Here are some easy ways to spot a Craftsman style home...

I find it interesting that one of the first homes designed in the Arts & Crafts / Craftsman style was a log home built in 1918. And, that Craftsman style log home is still standing in a town near me -- Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

According to David Jutkins:
Gustav Stickley first publicized Craftsman plans and designs in his magazine The Craftsman in 1901. In 1904 he started to show Craftsman-designed homes and floor plans, and in 1905 he first applied the word "bungalow" to the Craftsman style of home.

Although the magazine ceased publication in 1916, its influence continued to inspire house designs among Americans until the 1930s.

Enter Clark Woodard, an instructor of industrial arts at Middle Tennessee State College, who built his log bungalow in 1918 using Stickley's Craftsman style design ideas.

View Stickley's Craftsman style home plans, compared to Woodard's Craftsman style log home plans.

Jutkins also adds, "Stucco, stones, and unpainted wood became favorite exterior materials for these homes, because they were inexpensive, functional, and required low maintenance."

Sounds like the Craftsman style and log home living complement each other well!

When it comes to finding good help when building or remodeling your home, there's a fine line between getting a quality result and being able to afford the type of result you're after.

Building a log home can be the ultimate DIY dream -- if you've got what it takes.

Sure, we thought about building our log home ourselves.
...for about a minute!

See why we chose to have a G.C. oversee the building of our new log home, rather than doing it ourselves.

There's a lot of debate about the "true" cost to build a log home.

That's why I found a Golden Eagle Log Homes ad in the latest issue of Log Home Living magazine (December 2007) so interesting.

I appreciate the fact that they chose to face the facts and state upfront the "true" cost to build one of their log homes.

We specialize in affordably priced, high-quality homes ranging from $115 to $175 per sq. ft."

In the ad, they listed the following estimated prices to build a log home from scratch.

Joe is our "roving reporter" for the day. He's a longtime visitor to this site and you will find his comments at the end of many of the articles found here.

He has certainly done a lot of research on lake living (in Tennessee) and log home building, in general.

Joe and his wife recently spent some time in East Tennessee visiting potential homesites for their future log home. We are most grateful that Joe has taken the time to compile a summary of his findings.

If you are interested in buying lake property in Tennessee (or, you're simply exploring the option of buying or building a log home near a lake), then I'm sure you will find some valuable information here.

What follows are some of the most interesting things I've learned about composite decks, along with some of the questions I still have about composite decking materials.

Most of my initial questions have been answered by TimberTech reps here and MoistureShield reps here.

Onto the trivial facts about composite decks...