A typical Sunday afternoon at Larry and Sandi Lott’s log home feels like something out of a classic movie that’s set in the South. Sipping sweet tea and enjoying a beautiful, 360-degree view of Cyprus Black Bayou Lake, the Lotts, along with their friends and family, relax and unwind on a one-acre peninsula where the couple built their log cabin home in 2009. The Lotts, who are both retired and the owners of several homes, built their three-bedroom Benton, Louisiana, log home with the intention of r…

When the opportunity to build a home in which to spend their retirement years popped up, Paul and Joy jumped at it. With two grown daughters and four grandchildren, Joy and Paul were looking for a place with a quieter pace of life that would allow them to welcome family and friends throughout the year. Known for stunning scenery, the Finger Lakes region of western New York offers an abundance of year-round recreation opportunities. Nature lovers can spend their days exploring one of the area’s 26 state …

With more than 15 years of vacation memories and two previously owned homes under their belts, it seems only natural that Jan and Bob would consider the wilds of northwest Wyoming their home away from home. “We fell in love with the area and kept going back every summer for vacation. Then we were back two or three times during the summer,” says Jan. “Bob was still working and we decided to rent a house to see if he could be away from work. During that visit, we walked around the area…

For Todd and Sue Stokes, it all comes back to family—his, hers, and theirs. When the two met and married five years ago, they envisioned building a home their grown children and grandchildren would visit for years to come. Their log home, completed in 2016, brought that dream to reality. Their community in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, west of Pittsburgh, is adjacent to the borders of Ohio and West Virginia and is nestled in the farming region Sue grew up in. Todd and Sue are getting close to retirement, …

Watching the sunset from the dock at Averill’s Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork, Montana, is a visual delight in stereo. Whatever alpenglow plays across the mountains and skies reflects below, across the seven-mile breadth of 30-mile-long Flathead Lake. Twin sunsets … but everything here is twice as nice. Another day closes at this historic guest ranch and folks are making plans for tomorrow as they dangle their feet in the lake’s cool waters. It’s a good thing the summer d…

Acquiring something for the first time will always have a special place in one’s heart and memory, an extra sentimental value that the subsequent ones (even if they’re better, bigger, or more valuable) can’t match. When Danielle Deraiche and her husband Jean Lemelin started their log home-building company in 2007, this pretty and distinctive blue log home was their first project. Originally, it was destined to be a guesthouse at a hunting lodge, but the client abruptly cancelled the contract due to fina…

There’s no mystery to the appeal of Flagstaff, Arizona, and the surrounding Coconino National Forest. At an elevation of 7,000 feet, the high desert area is a recreation paradise, with four seasons including snowy winters (an average of 100 inches of snow each year). When hot summer temperatures in the Phoenix area become too much to bear, folks head north to Flagstaff for relief in the higher elevations. In fact, the proximity was one of the things that drew Steve and Laurie to explore the area around …

Roger and Mary Ann Miller didn’t realize they wanted to live in a log home until they stumbled upon their dream home while visiting their daughter and her family in Kentucky.  But the “opportunity presented itself,” Roger says, when his wife started flipping through a real estate brochure she found in her daughter’s home. That’s when Mary Ann came across a 2,760-square-foot home in Paint Lick, Kentucky. She couldn’t resist the cabin’s cozy rustic charm.  “I fell in love with [the house] withou…

One family’s annual vacation destination to picturesque Jackson Hole, Wyoming, became their home nearly two years ago. The outdoor enthusiasts, who enjoy activities such as hunting, fishing, rafting, skiing, and kayaking, designed and built Bighorn Lodge, a 10,000-square-foot home inspired by their many visits to the great lodges of the national parks in the Western states—particularly Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone National Park. “We love the outdoors and visiting the national parks,” the homeowner …