Choosing the right floorplan for your dream home is based on two things:

1. Your basic "wants" and "needs"; and
2. How your family will ultimately utilize the spaces within your home.

Now is the time to explore floorplans and begin to scrutinize the layouts and the little things within each of them.

So, how many square feet are there in your home? If you say around 2,400 then you'd be in "the norm".

Ours (which is still being finalized, since we recently switched from a lake lot to a wooded lot) is projected to be between 2,500 and 3,500 square feet -- depending on (among other things) whether we go with a partial basement or not.

Once you've found a floorplan that most closely meets your wants & needs, it's time to determine whether it is close enough to your "dream home" to stick with, as is...

Or, whether you still want to make a fair amount of changes to that set of plans in order to make it your own.

Here's what we did.

Through my teenage years and all through college, I used to sleep with an electric blanket.

Why? Because it's always been hard for me to get warm once I catch a chill. And there's nothing more uncomfortable than going to bed when you're chilly and not being able to get warm enough to fall asleep.

Well, I recently read an article entitled "Will Using An Electric Blanket Save Energy?" and I think I might be going back to an electric blanket once again!

Here's why...

Log home or not, there were a number of things that I knew I wanted to include in my next home.

I started jotting them down on pieces of paper, and I stored them in the back of my idea notebook for the longest time.

Eventually, I transferred them all from chicken-scratched memos into my computer for permanent record-keeping and organization.

When it was all said and done, I organized each item by room within the house -- and placed that list in the appropriate section of my Idea Notebook. That way, when it came time to design the bathroom, for example, I had everything I needed all in one place -- our "wish list" right next to pictures and ideas I'd saved from magazines and websites, etc.

To give you an idea, these are some of the things that I wanted to try to incorporate into my next home...

We met Malcolm Stewart of Rocky Top Log Furniture & Railing when we were in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for the Log Home and Timber Frame Show. The company's main warehouse is in Byantsville, Kentucky, but this location in Tennessee (1152 Wears Valley Road/865-774-7662) is their only public showroom.

Rocky Top was scheduled to be at the Log Home Show, but they're currently working on an upcoming episode of Extreme Home Makeover (they're "regulars" on the show now!), so they weren't able to be there. Fortunately for us, Malcolm was in the showroom the day of the Log Home Show and he gave us a personal tour around the place.

Anything you can dream can become a reality in a log home. In fact, complete customization is more often the rule, than the exception when building log homes.

Did you know?

Homes that are built using standard floor plans (obtained from a builder or ordered online) are typically customized in one way or another for each individual home owner.