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Lynnette Walczak

We've gone through the entire process of designing and planning every single detail of our dream log home! We have the blueprints... and the land... and the contractor... and the goal for our log cabin home to be our retirement home. Before you build (or buy) a log home, I have a slew of helpful tips for you -- to plan, design, build, decorate, and maintain your very own rustic modern log home. When I'm not fine-tuning the log home of my dreams, you'll find me at the corner of Good News & Fun Times as publisher of The Fun Times Guide (32 fun & helpful websites). To date, I’ve written nearly 300 articles for current and future log home owners on this site! Many of them have over 50K shares.

Without a doubt, our log home will be more like a bungalow with some interesting angles, curves & unique hardware, rather than purely straight lines and squares. But it wasn't until we started fine-tuning the details like a big wooden speakeasy door with a dentil shelf -- Arts & Crafts; prairie style windows -- Craftsman; tapered columns and wide steps on the porches -- bungalow that we even realized we were gravitating toward the Craftsman style of home architecture and decor which encompasses all of these things, and more.

Little known facts about wells and water usage. Here's everything we've learned about digging a well, including proposed costs to dig a well in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Here are some easy ways to spot a Craftsman style home... What to look for and what to include if you wish to build a Craftsman style home or an Arts & Crafts style log home.

When it comes to finding good help when building or remodeling your home, there's a fine line between getting a quality result and being able to afford the type of result you're after. Here's the secret to finding good, fast, and cheap help.

See why we chose to have a General Contractor oversee the building of our new log home, rather than doing it ourselves. There are pro's and con's to doing the work yourself. But in our case, we feel that we are better off overall in the hands of a General Contractor.

Golden Eagle Log Homes chose to face the facts and state upfront the 'true' cost to build one of their log homes. This is what appeared in one of their ads in Log Home Living magazine.

Joe and his wife were recently in Tennessee visiting potential homesites for their future log home. He has compiled a summary of his findings. If you are interested in buying lake property in Tennessee -- or you're simply exploring the option of buying or building a log home near a lake -- then I'm sure you will find some valuable information here.

What follows are some of the most interesting things I've learned about composite decks, along with some of the questions I still have about composite decking materials. Specifically, I'm interested in TimberTech vs MoistureShield composite decks.

We will probably be adding some underdecking to at least 1 or 2 of the 4 overhead decks and porches that we have on our log home. I have explored 2 underdecking manufacturers at this point: Undercover Systems and TimberTech's DrySpace. Here's what I've learned...

Are you looking to buy a lake lot in Tennessee? Whether you plan to build a log home on it, or a conventional stick-frame home, here are some tips from someone who has thoroughly explored lake property in Tennessee. Just some thoughts...

We are considering using Superior Walls for concrete walls in the basement of our log home. Superior Walls are a pre-cast -- not pre-fab -- concrete foundation and insulated wall system. These basement walls are the BEST if you're wanting an energy-efficient home.

If you have a composite deck or patio... over time, scratches are practically inevitable. For the most part, 'routine' scratches won't even be noticeable, but it's the deeper scratches that you'll probably want to cover up.

As I see it, here are a few of the things that set TimberTech apart from other composite deck companies...

I went to the Nashville Home and Remodeling Show this weekend. While it's not a log home show, it had all of the key vendors I was most interested in seeing. Here's what I've learned about going to shows like this...

We are considering using composite decking materials for the decks and porches on our new log home. But we're torn... between looks and durability. Here are our thoughts...

The following pictures show some of the ways that you can still have a nice log home without necessarily having 'shades of brown' as your primary color scheme. Typically, you'll see one wall painted to serve as a focal spot or an accent wall. I have no interest in painting ALL -- or even most -- of the log walls inside our house. Just 1, maybe 2 of the smaller walls instead. Like these...

Douglas Lake has a LOT of expensive, high-dollar homes, so we didn't even think we could afford to build there. But, there were actually a handful of new developments going up, and we picked out about a dozen or so lots that we felt were well worth looking into.

The 2007 Log and Timber Home Workbook is a great manual to prepare you for building a log or timber frame home. It's FREE.