Planning a Beautiful & Functional Home
Planning a Beautiful & Functional Home

Eco-Friendly Furniture Part 1

Once you have finalized the plans for your new log home, it’s time to start thinking about how you are going to furnish and decorate it. If you did a lot of research and put a lot of effort into making sure your new home is environmentally healthy and safe, you’ll need to do the same for the furniture for your beautiful home. One of the first things to consider is whether you can reuse any of the furniture from your current home. Can a sofa or chair be reupholstered or refinished? Can a table be refinis…

Go Your Own Way

When the log or timber home they have always wanted begins to take shape, some homeowners bring their own personal skills to the project, pitching in with certain aspects of the construction process. For these individuals, the satisfaction of saving money is complemented by the hands-on participation in the completion of their long-sought-after home. Many times, owners enjoy that degree of participation, contributing to the finished project, but there are risks i…

Mixing Materials

Log or timber? For many homeowners the answer may actually be both. A growing trend in construction across North America involves the inclusion of both log and timber elements in new homes. This combination brings endless possibilities to the look and ambience of a new home, and consultants have steadily warmed to the idea. “In my perspective, there are no rules. It’s wide open to the customer’s imagination,” observes Dave Carter, owner of App…

A Breath of Fresh Air

Of a whopping 86 percent of U.S. households having outdoor living space, 79 percent of those spaces are frequented at least once a week, and 27 percent of homeowners use their backyards and front porches almost every day when the weather permits, according to the International Casual Furnishings Association’s (ICFA) latest home furnishings survey. In light of these statistics, it should come as no surprise that more log homes are being built and/or retrofitted with beautiful decks, o…

Label Your Home Green!

We are all familiar with the Energy Star labels seen on computers, refrigerators, and other products. But did you know that the program also covers your entire home, from roof to basement? Like Brad and Daryl Thompson (see feature on page 40), you can design and build your log home using Energy Star guidelines to earn a five+ star rating and a home that has lower utility costs, optimum indoor air quality, and helps to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants in …

Hybrid Homes

We hear the term hybrid a lot these days. It’s used to describe everything from cars to tomato plants. But how do you define hybrid in homebuilding? If you look up hybrid in the dictionary, you’ll find a few different definitions. Among them: (1) Bred from two distinct breeds, varieties, species, or genera; (2) Composite; formed or composed of heterogeneous elements. (3) Composed of elements originally drawn from different la…

The Winning Team

The essence of a team is putting together the right group of people with complementary knowledge and skill sets to complete a project, and the concept stands up in just about any endeavor. It is true on the athletic field, and it is constant in building a log & timber home. Once the decision to build that dream home has been made and the notions of style and presentation are being considered, the next step involves the homeowner’s selection of a team that will make the theoreti…

A Home for All Seasons

When Jim and Sue Alexander built their log home at Crescent Lake in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, 10 years ago, the couple had a few key objectives in mind. For starters, they wanted a beautiful, waterfront retirement home that would allow them to enjoy 626-acre Crescent Lake and all of its surroundings. They also wanted a home that would serve as the perfect gathering place for their three grown, married daughters and their own families. Finally, the Alexanders wanted to tear down an existing cabin and repla…

Finding the Right Log Home Producer

For many, buying a log cabin home means owning their last home, because log cabins are the stuff of dreams—the place that will be the site of countless visits from the grandkids, summer evenings spent on the porch swing listening to crickets sing, and crisp winter nights sipping hot chocolate in front of a crackling fire. Dreams should never be left to chance. Keep these five essentials in mind as you shop for the log cabin producer who will fulfill yours. 1. Have land in hand b…

Hitting the Target

Nestled between two rivers at the base of the Uwharrie Mountains, the town of Norwood, North Carolina, seems like just another small town along a highway that is dotted with small towns. But this town includes a sanctuary of sorts, a place to find solace and surround oneself with nature’s beauty. Lucky Clays Farm began as a place to relax on the weekends and maybe shoot a few rounds of clay targets, a favorite pastime of the farm’s owner, Judith Carpenter, who won the North Carolina women’s state champi…

Outdoor Spaces That Inspire

Maybe you dream of a tucked-away sanctuary ideal for escaping into the pages of a good book; a cozy outdoor fireplace for gathering on crisp early autumn evenings; or a festive patio that lends itself to endless entertaining. We use our outdoor spaces in so many different ways—to entertain, to celebrate, to retreat—that we should apply the same care and attention to detail to those spaces as we do when planning the home itself. Planning for Perfection The design of outdoor spaces s…

A Perfect Cast

With more than 2,600 miles of streams winding their way through Yellowstone National Park, the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River  is but one waterway that creates the perfect conditions for some of the best fly fishing in the world. A fly fishing aficionado would easily jump at the chance to visit such a place, but one man took it a step farther. He created his own little piece of fly-fishing heaven, along the Henry’s Fork, thereby ensuring he can be streamside within minutes.   “…