We qualify for the loans, but there just aren’t enough log homes that have been sold recently around here for the banks to use as ‘comps’ in order to determine a fair appraisal value for our proposed log home. They’re coming in way lower than we can build this log home for. And the banks won’t budge.
Tennessee land
All These Delays & Changes May Actually Be A GOOD Thing…
It’s been about 2 years since we started the process of building our log home. We had the land picked out, the bank picked out, the GC picked out, the builder picked out, the logs picked out, the floorplan designed the way we wanted it, and we even started clearing the land. Then why isn’t our log home done yet? Why haven’t we even raised the first log yet?
Personal Highs Matched With Regional Lows
The first official sign that construction is about to take place on our new log home site: the posting of the Building Permit! But it was a day of highs and lows, thanks to a series of tornadoes that hit in Williamson County the night before.
Williamson County TN Building Permits & Fees: What You Need To Know
We got our Building Permit today. Who knew the cost for a Building Permit in Williamson County TN could be so much?… $9,177! It’s mostly due to the county’s Privilege Tax. And boy do we feel privileged to live in Franklin, TN!
Yes, Our Dale Hollow Lake Property Is Still For Sale
We’ve decided to advertise our Dale Hollow Lake property for sale. If you’re interested in building a new home, vacation home, rental home, or lake cabin at Swan Ridge Lake Resort on Dale Hollow Lake, let us know! Here’s more info…
Getting The Lay Of The Land… Surveying The Property
Of the 5 acres we own, there is only one tiny little spot where the home can actually go. The rest will be hilly trails and a forest of thick trees lining the creeks. So, to ease our mind, and clarify for all involved — including the bank, the County, and ourselves — we asked the surveyor to come back out and re-survey it again for us.
The Exciting Process Of Digging A Ditch And Putting In A Culvert
If you’re building a home on a private piece of property, chances are you’ll have to put in a ditch and a culvert. Here’s how it went for us… including photos of the culvert, ditch, and driveway.
Tips For Buying Lake Property In East Tennessee
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.
Important Info Regarding Lake Property For Sale In Tennessee
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…
Douglas Lake Properties For Sale
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.
Center Hill Lake Properties For Sale
Center Hill Lake is between Dale Hollow Lake and where we currently live in Williamson County, Tennessee. It only made sense to see what lake property was for sale there, but we never found anything we liked.
Lakefront Living In Tennessee
Looking for lake property in Tennessee? Did you know that lake FRONT doesn’t necessarily mean lake ACCESS in Tennessee? The thick perimeter of land surrounding every major waterway in this state is technically owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Tennessee Valley Authority. As a result, they dictate what you can and cannot do on that piece of property between your house and the lake.
Clearing The Land: Day One of Bush Hogging
First photos after we cleared the land to build our log home in Williamson County Tennessee.
Preparing To Clear The Land For The Homesite
Our first official step toward building this log home was to clear the land. We decided to hire a professional team to take out most of the trees & brush that we knew would be in the way of the home. They had all the right equipment for heavy duty bush hogging, and they were even set up to deal with all the rock they encountered on the property.
Tennessee Lake Property For Sale
Here are details of our lake property on Dale Hollow Lake in middle Tennessee.
Got Creeks? What Is A Blue Line Stream, Anyway?
I had no idea what a ‘blue line creek’ or ‘blue line stream’ was… until recently. The 5+ acres of land we purchased has 3 creeks running through it and one of them is a blue line creek, and it is controlled by FEMA. Here’s what you need to know.
Can’t You See It???
When you’re trying to decide on which property to buy for your new log home, sometimes it’s hard to visualize how things will look. Here are a few tips…
It’s REALLY Official This Time… We’re Building Our Log Home In Williamson County Tennessee!
Pictures and details of our 5 acre property in Williamson County Tennessee.
The Top Vacation Log Home Hot Spots To Build A Log Cabin
The Log & Timber Homes Network has compiled a list of the most ideal areas across the country in which to build a vacation log home. See if you’re as surprised as we were to see which ‘hot spots’ are on the list…
Enjoying The View At Our Dale Hollow Lake Property
Here’s a photo collage of a day spent at our property — at Swan Ridge Lake Resort on Dale Hollow Lake. It was our dog Tenor’s first time visiting the property. Also his first time off-leash to roam free. He did great!
Where We Are Now In The Log Home Building Process…
We’re down but not out! After a year spent securing the land, finding a log home builder, designing the blueprints, and saving money to build the log home of our dreams, we had a minor setback when we learned that we couldn’t build our log home for under $160/SF. Now we’re gearing up for Round Two in the log home building process. See what we’re planning now…
Can You Build A Log Home For $150/SF?… Apparently In Middle Tennessee You Can’t!
This article is one of the few in which we have actually vented our yearlong frustrations in dealing with finding a general contractor to build our home, topped off with some of the runaround we’ve received from the banks who seem unwilling to finance log homes in this area.
Snowy Dale Hollow Lake Property
When we bought our property on Dale Hollow Lake, we wondered just how much snow would fall in that area during the winter months. Dale Hollow Lake is a couple hours north of Nashville, and a tad east — it’s fairly close to ‘the plateau’. So yesterday morning, we hopped in the car to check out the freshly fallen snow on our property.
How We Decided On Dale Hollow Lake (& Swan Ridge) As The Place To Build Our Log Home
Word of mouth. That’s how we found this beautiful property on Dale Hollow Lake. Here’s how we discovered Swan Ridge Lake Resort near Cookeville, Tennessee.
Summary of Our Search For Lake Real Estate in Dover, TN (Lake Barkley/Barkley Lake)
When we began exploring lake real estate in Tennessee, we started with Dover, TN. Here’s why we ultimately decided NOT to build on Lake Barkley or Kentucky Lake. While definitely beautiful lakes — and a great place to visit — we just couldn’t see ourselves living there. Here’s why…
It’s Official… We’re Building At Swan Ridge Lake Resort on Dale Hollow Lake!
We plan to build our log home on 1.62 acres at a new lakefront development in Northern/Middle Tennessee. It’s called, and we’ll be one of the first to build there. Here’s more…
Log Home Lenders… A Few Things We Learned
We learned quickly that getting a loan for a log home is quite different than getting a loan for a traditional ‘stick-built’ home. Odds are, even if you qualify for a traditional home mortgage, you might not qualify right away for a loan to build a log home. When we were trying to obtain a loan to build our log home, these are the banks and mortgage lenders that we personally approached for a construction loan, and highlights from our experiences with each of them.
Exploring Kentucky Lake & Lake Barkley Some More
We still have so many questions about living in the Dover area. The prices for the land seems quite reasonable — for waterfront no less! But the only ‘odd’ thing is that waterfront doesn’t necessarily mean water access.
Our First Trip To See Lake Barkley & Kentucky Lake Properties
We had so much fun just riding around Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. While Dover is a really small town (it’s also the county seat), it’s fairly quaint and clean and quiet. At least that’s how it seemed to us — our first impression.
We’re Starting With Middle Tennessee Lake Properties
We are going to start our search for lake property at Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley — the northern part of Middle Tennessee, near the Kentucky/Tennessee border.
Which Lake Should We Build Our House On?
We’ve decided to open up our search to include West Tennessee and East Tennessee — in addition to right here in Middle Tennessee. Actually, we’re looking wherever the biggest, nicest lakes are. Here are all the lakes in Tennessee that we are exploring…
Reasons To Build In Tennessee
Here’s a list of the biggest reasons to live in Tennessee, and therefore the reasons we want to look for a place to build in either East Tennessee, West Tennessee, or right here in Middle Tennessee.
Friends Give Us A Big Nudge
Jim & I thought of a whole new angle to our search for a place to build our dream home… We’ve only considered the possibility of having creeks around our house up to this point. But what about considering LAKES?!
Calling All Landowners
To help speed up the process, I’m spending some time going through the Williamson County Property Appraiser’s website looking for vacant property in our favorite areas. You know, land that may have been passed down through the family, or that someone bought as an investment. For whatever reason, they have not built a home on that particular piece of land yet. The plan is to call each of these homeowner and see if they’d be willing to sell that land to us.
Could It Be… Yet Another Forested Piece of Paradise?
The one we like is on Oscar Green Road (technically in Primm Springs, TN… a very tiny community right next to Franklin & Leiper’s Fork). The builder/developer met us there so he could show us the boundaries of the property. Good thing he did — we’d never have made sense of those woods on our own. Anyway… It was SO nice!
Exploring More Land
After the bad news, we stayed and talked to the guy about a few other pieces of land that he knew were for sale. A couple of them are in some fairly remote parts of Leiper’s Fork. We drove our Jeep to one of them today… pretty cool
We’re Moving On…
Oh, the emotions — the ups & downs, the highs and the lows of looking for property are beginning to take their toll on me. It’s like a roller coaster ride & I want off!
Looking For Land… In All The Wrong Places!
You are NOT going to believe this! The 5 acres next to Smokey Joe’s Cabin?… SOLD!
Driving Around …and Around
We spent the day looking at a few more properties we’ve passed while driving around Williamson County. But now… nothing compares to the 5 acres next to Smokey Joe’s Cabin!
Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining: 5 Acres!
We went out to explore the 5 acres of land next to Smokey Joe’s Cabin today. Wow!…
Our First Official Meeting With An Expert In The Field
After he told us that Smokey Joe’s Cabin was sold, we decided to meet with the developer/log home builder guy to try & get some ideas about pricing and the actual process for building our own log home. He’s the expert… been doing it for 20-some years. Until now, we’d never even considered building a log home.
We Met A V.I.P.!
Small world… We met a key player in this process of buying (or even building!) a log home here in Williamson County, Tennessee!
A Couple of Land Rovers
For over a week now, I’ve rushed home from work most days so that Jim & I could go riding around looking for land here in Williamson County before it gets dark. Yep, we’ve spent most of our evenings…
Our Search For A Place To Call Home
Today we decided to start the process of looking for a new place to call home. I’m not sure how it happened, but when we were out riding around in the Jeep today, we just got this wild idea to start looking for land for sale here in Williamson County.
New Home Construction Photos: Building A Stick Home In Tennessee
The following photos document the process of building our first home together in Franklin, Tennessee. It’s a stick-built house, as opposed to the log home that we started building 6 years after we finished this one. For the complete story on building our log home, start with the oldest posts here. The new home construction […]
