Category
Room-By-Room

Four Tips for Greening Your Great Room

These days everyone’s favorite color seems to be “green.” In a log cabin, there’s no better place to showcase the benefits and the beauty of this eco-minded hue better than the great room. Whether your goal is to protect Mother Earth, save some cash on your monthly electric bill, or ensure your home has that natural, rustic touch, these four fantastic options will take your family’s everyday living space from good to great.  Reclaimed Wood Think you can’t do…

17 Kitchen Design Ideas

1. Consider flagstone instead of hardwood floors; it is durable enough to last in even the busiest kitchen. 2. Incorporate universal design, with wider access and lower cabinets to make the kitchen easy to use at any age or ability. 3. Add a bar-height island or peninsula to increase seating capacity. An open floorplan allows guests to linger in the kitchen without crowding out the cook. 4. Showcase your design aesthetic in your kitchen. Contemporary stainless-steel appliances or a…

Staying Put

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…

Head for the Hills!

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…

Vacation Days

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 …

The Basics of Buying & Building a Log Home, Part 1

You have been dreaming of this home for years. You have collected a binder full of ideas and sketches of what you envision your log home to include. And now you are looking for a building site. What should you be looking for when preparing to purchase property? Here are five important factors to consider when choosing your building site. Where will you build? We all have a general idea of where we want to build our dream home. Maybe you envision your home tucked into trees on the side of a mountain or n…

All in the Family

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…

Cozy Comfort in a Wide Open Space

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…

Log & Timber Coast to Coast: Northeast & Mid-atlantic

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…

A Place to Gather

Mike and Julie McGlynn had vacationed on Bay Lake in Northern Minnesota for years, often boating past a quaint 1933 log cabin located on a popular causeway called Echo Point. When the property came up for sale in 2001, they jumped at the chance to purchase the lot and its dilapidated buildings.  “It was always sort of a dream to find a vintage log home,” says Mike McGlynn. “We wanted a place to spend time with our daughters, their husbands, and our seven grandchildren.” The prev…

101 Design Ideas

If you are in the process of designing a log home, or just dreaming about it, this room-by-room list is designed to spark your imagination and help ensure that you include all of your needs and wants in your floorplan. Photo by Karl Neumann Great Rooms 1. Position windows to “frame” the picture of your view. 2. Anchor a large living area with a stone fireplace; it will provide a natural focal point in harmony with the outdoors. 3. Use hand-forged log straps to add a custom touch to your home. 4. Give yo…

Ray’s Ridge

“We just love being here,” remarks Bill Ray, gazing out over North Carolina’s Cataloochee and Smoky Mountain ranges. “It’s worth every mile and minute of the 71/2-hour drive it takes us to get here from Indianapolis.” Located at Cherry Hill, a rural development near Waynesville, North Carolina, the Ray cabin is situated on four-plus acres, but the astounding views make it feel like 4,000. “My heart has always been in the Smokies,” chimes in Bill’s wife, Louise. “My parents brought my twin sister and I d…