When the Jodie Thompson family wanted a weekend getaway from the hustle and bustle of their Dallas, Texas-based business operations, they chose the nearby town of Edom and began to consider a spacious log home with plenty of room for entertaining, hosting extended family, and offering the look of a bygone era along with modern conveniences. With more than 2,000 acres in picturesque East Texas, the Thompsons fulfilled their vision of a 6,450-square-foot main dwelling that captures the look and feel of th…

Don and Carrie Mann are in love with life, and it’s a good life indeed. Their menagerie of dogs, ducks, and horses keeps them happily occupied on the home front.  A rewarding veterinary practice, airplane for spontaneous getaways, and log home on 12 acres of bucolic central Ohio countryside don’t leave much to want for. “Then there’s Carrie’s goat,” jokes Don, “which tempers the goodness of it all with a little bit of an evil element.”  It’s about a 10-minute drive from the center of Moun…

John and Cindy Fitzmartin had long been impressed with the warmth and ambience of a wooden house. “Ever since watching Little House on the Prairie,” admits Cindy, “I have always considered a rustic cabin charming and inviting, cozy and warm. When John and I were searching for retirement property here in Tennessee, we came across some vintage log homes in the countryside and determined that we would build one, a new one, for ourselves.” The couple was planning to relocate from California to Tennessee bec…

More than a decade ago, spanning 2005 and 2006, an impressive build was taking place on rugged terrain some 35 miles north of Vernal, Utah. A local couple, Craig and Sharon Hart, had commissioned Montana Log Homes of Kalispell and general contractor Mark Feltch to build them a 2,800-square-foot handcrafted full-log ranch house on their 20-acre parcel in Utah’s Diamond Mountain region. “The log work on our end went smoothly,” recalls Brad Neu, owner of Montana Log Homes. “The Hart house is a custom floor…

Rick and Mary Hollstein have very little down time. Owners of a highly successful commercial roofing business, the couple operates at a pace not many individuals could keep up with. “Back in 2003,” says Rick Hollstein, “we decided as a family to look for a getaway home that would make us feel like we were really on vacation, even if it was just for the weekend.” The Hollsteins found and purchased a log cabin on Pine River Pond in Wakefield, New Hampshire. “Quickly hooked on log home living in the north …

Native Georgian Betty Maughon raised her family in a modest ranch house that she and her husband built in 1959. During those years she often dreamed of living in a log home. “I would tear out pictures of log cabins from magazines and newspapers,” says Betty, “in hopes of one day being able to build one. After the kids were grown, and I lost my husband to heart disease in 1996, I thought my log home dream was over … until my son Dan built one for his own family in 1998.” “My wife, Suzann, and I began dis…

A 1,275-acre Townsend, Montana, ranch offers captivating vistas of surrounding mountains, soaring pine forests, and rolling meadows—plenty of outdoor space for its owners to enjoy the fly fishing and seasonal hunting that drew them westward several years ago. Although they were not actually looking for abundant acreage, the site was something special. Mount Baldy rises more than 8,900 feet above the valley floor northeast of Townsend, and the owners chose to build as high on its slope as possible. A 780…

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions offer a wide variety of terrain and climate that is great for log & timber homes. If your ideal spot is a remote area surrounded by trees, you can find that here. Or you can have the benefits of log & timber living but be near an urban center and its amenities. If a water view or waterfront property makes you happy, this part of North America has plenty to offer. The regions have a long tradition of log & timber frame construction and your new home will…

Amy and Bill Richardson fell in love with Grand Lake, Colorado—and the dream of a mountain vacation home—at the same time they fell in love with one another.  “We met in grad school, and right after graduation from our two-year MBA program, we got in the car and hit 23 states in 26 days,”  Amy says. The couple’s journey took them through the Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Lake. “Grand Lake’s marketing slogan is ‘America’s front porch,’ and it really does look l…