Pete Pyles has been in the construction industry for the past 45 years, the last 20 years dedicated to the construction of quality log homes. “I have had a passion for building since my grandfather and father involved me in the art of building construction before I was a teenager,” says Pete. ”I had the good fortune of having quality bred into me while working on some very fine homes as a young person.” Pete and his wife Jackie have built three homes together for themselves duri…
For families looking for year-round recreation, Lake Sunapee in western New Hampshire offers something for everyone. Summers are spent swimming, fishing, and boating. Winters are spent skiing at nearby Mount Sunapee. Spring and fall offer the chance to explore local hiking trails. So when Nicole and Stephen were looking for a place to build a vacation getaway, Lake Sunapee fit the bill. Since it’s just two hours away from their primary residence in Boston, they are able to spend plenty of time there wit…
Heaven’s Landing, a unique residential airpark community, is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northeast Georgia, about three miles from the city of Clayton. The 635-acre gated development is surrounded by thousands of acres of National Forest. “My wife, Jan, and I have a 1.5-acre lot at Heaven’s Landing,” says Tom Nasser, “but it came with a million dollar view.” Owners of a Cirrus SR22 airplane, the couple met Mike Ciochetti, developer of Heaven’s Landing, during the annual Cirrus Mig…
Mother Nature outdid herself imbuing mountains, ocean, and lush forests into the Pacific Northwest. The outdoors becomes integrated into the lifestyle in these environs. It’s an opportunity that doesn’t go unnoticed for one former Seattle family now residing just outside the Bavarian-like town of Leavenworth, Washington. As avid hikers and skiers the active threesome, mom, dad, and son, often find themselves outside as much as inside. This led them to seriously considering buying a vacation home over a …
What do you get when you combine luxury living in Montana with a beautiful, rustic, log cabin home? The end result is the ultimate second home nestled at The Yellowstone Club, an exclusive residential club, ski resort, and golf resort in eastern Madison County, Montana. Situated just west of Big Sky, south of Bozeman, and northwest of Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone Club is operated by Discovery Land Company and offers a variety of options for premier mountain living. The club’s home sites provid…
As the owner of Oregon Log Homes, Mike Neary has nearly 40 years of experience supplying and building custom log homes around the country. From weekend cabins to large-scale commercial projects (including Disney’s Fort Wilderness Lodge in Orlando, Florida), he’s pretty much seen it all. So when the time came for Mike and his wife, Patti, to build on their property near Dufur, Oregon, he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. In this case, what the Nearys wanted was a home that would bl…
The Duke family history is permeated with a love of the outdoors that can be traced back to David’s father. He loved to hike in the mountains and built a cabin for his family near Hebrew, Utah, when he was 70. When he died, he left the cabin in trust for his six children. David and Hanne Duke vacationed at that cabin with their children for many years. “We really enjoyed the chance to bond as a family and be in a beautiful place in nature,” David says. “We decided that it would be nice to have a place l…
Appalachian Log Homes, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, prides itself on providing unique character logs to their clients when requested. “I will never forget,” says the company’s vice-president, Dave Carter Jr., “the character log installation at the Atwill/Peck cabin in West Virginia.” Steve Atwill had come across a special piece of wood that he wanted to serve as a support post and artistic focal point for his 20 x 26 cabin. “Normally,” relates Carter, “we arrive on site with our load of logs and stack…
“It all started way back,” begins Brad Thompson, telling the story of how he and his wife, Daryl, came to acquire their 362-acre farm in the rural community of Stewartstown, in northern New Hampshire. “I grew up in the town of Winchester, on an 1,100-acre farm. In 1974, my dad, brother, and I built a hunting and fishing camp in Clarksville, just north of here. I guess I have the love of the land bred into me.” His father, at 88 years of age, is still enjoying the camp, his very own piece of paradise.&nb…
David Cobb and Karen Sommerlad knew they wanted to stay busy when they retired from their jobs at Harvard University; they just never knew how busy. “We gave up 35-hour-a-week jobs to work 70 hours a week,” says David, former curator of maps at the Harvard University Library. He and Karen, a senior campus planner, purchased a 15-acre lot in Sudbury, Vermont, five years ago with the hopes of starting a small organic farm upon their retirement. Today, they cultivate about a quarter-acre of wh…
Timber framing—using large posts and beams to form the structural support—has been used to build homes and other structures for centuries. Requiring no interior load-bearing walls, timbers are joined by connecting a mortise (hole) on the end of one timber with a corresponding tenon (tongue) for a precise fit. In modern timber frame construction, walls are often structural insulated panels (SIPs) erected on the outside while leaving the timber framing exposed on the interior. SIPs can then be finished us…
Southwestern Montana’s Big Sky region is home to some of the most spectacular, unspoiled mountain terrain in the country, showcasing the Rocky Mountains, access to Yellowstone National Park, blue ribbon rivers, and expansive blue skies. Recreational opportunities abound all year long, from summer golf outings to skiing in the winter. It’s no surprise many people choose Big Sky for their vacation retreat, and this home in particular was designed with family and fun in mind. Construction was completed in …
