As you know, I'm a dog person. We currently have one dog (a Black Lab), and we are finding that we've had to rethink a few things in our new log home in order to accommodate our dog. Just small things... like ways to incorporate his food & water station, types of hardwood to use on the flooring, and the easiest way to bathe him.

The aim is for the dog to have a place in the house (just like he does now), while not wrecking all of our favorite features of a log home. (He's a very big, very active dog.)

Anyway, here are some fun ways that I've found to include dog-friendly features into your new log home.

Lorraine wrote in recently:

I have been all over this site and can't seem to find a answer on what I should use in front of the doors when you enter my log home with pine wooden floors.

Here's what I've learned about rugs and hardwood floors...

As I mentioned earlier, we recently picked out the 7 exterior doors we will be installing in our new log home.

Now I'll share the details of the doors we picked out, in case anyone's interested.

Well here's something I just learned...

Reasons to buy paint-grade exterior doors versus stain-grade exterior doors.

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

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...

Here's a guide to asking the right people the right questions...

This weekend I went to the Nashville Home Decorating & Remodeling Show. No, it's not a log home show, but those are geared more for people who are just beginning to consider building a log home anyway. And we're way beyond that... We're at the actual design and building phase now. So we are more interested in the nitty gritty details that separate one roof company or window company from the other at this point.

Okay, so I've gone to this annual event at the Nashville Convention Center for the past 3 or 4 years now. But never have I gotten SO much out of a show like this before!

For starters, I spent 5 hours there ... the first day! And another 3 hours the second day! By myself, too. (Jim's out of town... again.)

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.

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.

I found an old, yellowed article I tore out of the newspaper several years ago.

It's as interesting today as it was then (circa 2001 - when we lived in Pensacola - which is the newspaper it came from - as determined by a car dealer ad on the back).

The article gives you an idea of the sheer volume of building materials that are used when building a "traditional" single-family home.