My husband and I both dreamed of owning a log home one day. To us, the log home represented a return to the simple life -- a connection with nature and really just a lifestyle. After 4 years of dreaming, planning, attending log home shows, and cutting pictures out of log home magazines, we finally realized our dream of building a log home in northern Michigan.
It was quite a journey and learning process to having our log home become a reality. Now that we are living our log home dream, I have had time to reflect on what we would have done differently. Make no mistake, we love our log home and believe we did more things right than wrong. But you can always fine tune something – whether it was with the design, something we should’ve added, extra costs that we incurred or something we should’ve splurged on in … [Read more...]
I was recently posed a question by a member of the log home forum I belong to on how I was handling the time and maintenance of having a secondary home – in my case – our vacation log home located in Northern Michigan. They wanted to know if I had enough time to enjoy the property and whether the maintenance interfered with the enjoyment of the time I am there. I am here to tell you – it can be done. Here are some tips for staying organized and saving time when … [Read more...]
You've always dreamt of a log home. You've attended the log home shows, read the log home magazines, picked out your floor plan design and you're doing things to save money. Now all you need is the log home financing. Should be simple, right? Well, considering today's mortgage crisis... wrong! Below, I summarize our personal experience with log home financing, as well as provide information and tips that will hopefully help you finance your log home. … [Read more...]
Your log walls will absorb 50% of the light in your log home, so you will need to be especially diligent in selecting and placing the lighting in your log home. Here are some great lighting ideas that won’t break the bank but will light up and showcase the beauty of your log home! For starters, this article from Log Home Design can help you with the “formula” for lighting your log home. They suggest combining ambient and task lighting throughout your log home to counteract the … [Read more...]
Your log home is built and now it’s time to spruce up your outdoor surroundings. A tip before you start the landscaping around your log home: pay attention to the trees! (We learned the hard way.) Following are some reasons why it’s important to survey your lot for trees that need to be removed, as well as a few tips for determining where you should plant any new trees, shrubs and flowers around your log home. … [Read more...]
The most important factors when you go to stain your log home are: Weather Timing Diligence Whether you do it yourself or hire a skilled professional, log home staining is a process that needs to be followed meticulously to ensure the protection of your log home. Having recently finished staining our log home in northern Michigan, let me share with you what to expect when you apply log home stain to your log cabin. … [Read more...]
Looking for a great way to add extra space to your log home, while still staying within your budget? If so, then I would recommend considering a walk-out basement. Here’s how we decided to add a basement to our log home floor plan... … [Read more...]
Your log home is built, the weather is right, and now it’s time for the exterior of your log home to be stained. Greg and I are currently at this phase in our log home building process. So let's review the steps leading up to log home staining and what you need to know. … [Read more...]
In my opinion, one of the best showcase items for your log home is the log staircase. In fact, I think it's a “must have”.When we went to visit Hiawatha Log Homes in Munising, Michigan, we were struck by the log staircase they had in their model log home. It was comprised of half logs for steps and fit perfectly into the home's layout. I fell in love with it and had to have it. We set out to get one just like it. So we researched the cost, and compared the … [Read more...]
One of the hardest decisions Greg and I had to make was whether to build a handcrafted log home or a manufactured log cabin kit. If we waited another 3-4 years, we would have the money to build the custom log home -- which is generally more expensive. But ultimately, our need to have our log home dream now and the discovery of the affordability and flexibility of the log cabin kit sealed our fate. … [Read more...]
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