A Craftsman style log home?... Yep, our "bungalow" will be of the Arts & Crafts variety. Much like the very first Craftsman-style log home built back in 1918.

Arts & Crafts was an artistic and philosophical movement that began in 19th century Britain. Craftsman refers to a specific style of early 20th century American architecture that was part of the Arts & Crafts Movement. So Craftsman is actually a subset of Arts & Crafts." Source

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.

If you are considering meeting with a space planner or an interior designer to help you fine-tune the details and features that you plan to build into your new home, here are a few things that we've learned along the way...

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.

When building a new home, you are investing a lot of hard work, time, and money.

But have you given any thought to just how long those things that you're installing are going to last? I have.

Recently the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shed some light on the life expectancy of common components inside a home -- everything from appliances, cabinetry, and flooring... to roofing, plumbing, and HVAC.

Have a look...

When we sat down with a couple of interior designers to get some ideas for our master bathroom layout and the design of our kitchen, we learned a few things about "standard dimensions" that are good to know when designing a new home.

Below are those which apply specifically to the bathroom.

Plus, I've found a number of great online tools for designing your own bathroom, and lots of other great tips & resources that could save some time and money in the long run.

Who knew something so simple as the placement of the toilet could be so difficult?

...Not me!

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.

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...

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...