After letting the log home magazines that I subscribe to (3 different ones) pile up for months, I decided to dive in and catch up on my log home reading the other night.

I knew it was coming... I mean, this is a feeling I've had for awhile... a feeling of dissatisfaction with log home magazines in general. I've just never verbalized it before.

The fact is, here we are 2 years into the process of designing and building our log home. We still haven't exactly broken ground yet (due to the fact that banks aren't really in the business of loaning money these days). And I'm already tired of seeing the same stories about the same things and the same pictures in the same log home magazines. Yet, I still want to be a well-informed log home owner.

Of course I realize (and can appreciate the fact that) the log home magazines are going to cater to those who are "potential" log home owners, future log home wannabees, newbies, and those considering building their own log cabin retreat. Especially since the advertisers are eager to reach those exact same people.

But at what point are the log home magazine publishers (and advertisers) going to realize there's more to be said about log homes than how to plan, design, and build 'em?

What about all of us who are past all that? I'm not even officially an "owner" yet, and I'm already craving information about the many ways that you can jazz up your log home and make it uniquely yours -- inside and out. I'm already thinking beyond just building it. I'm much more interested in other aspects of log home living at this point.

(Just wait, this gets better...)

I wrote earlier about how you can get a free 1-year subscription to Log Home Living magazine.

I've already received mine, and I enjoy that magazine very much.

Good news... now, you can get a free subscription to Log Homes Illustrated, too!

Sign up to receive a FREE one-year subscription to Log Home Living Magazine. I did!

All you have to do is complete a survey first.

At the end of the survey, they also offer you a couple of other trade magazines for free, if you're interested.

Do I have great friends or what?!?! Two different people gave me these two huge stacks of home improvement magazines in the past week.

Actually, one of them I've never even met... They just did a random act of kindness and I happened to be the recipient of it! (The other was a relative.)

Truth be told, the magazines you see here are just a tip of the iceberg...

Here's a complete list of magazines that would be of interest to log home and timber frame home builders.

Which one should you subscribe to?

Here's my $.02...

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...

Ever since our first year of marriage (7 years ago), I've been collecting ideas of things that I want inside my dream home.

It started as just an idea folder... in a drawer... that I stuffed random ideas, pictures and articles into.

Want to show your log home to the world?
Now's your chance!

If you've already built the home of your dreams, then submit a picture of your log home to Country's Best Log Homes, and you'll likely see it in a 2007 issue of the magazine.

Here's the scoop...