Nearly three decades ago, before kids and back-to-school days, my wife and I often spent warm midweek afternoons driving country roads, dreaming about a location for a family cabin. Neither of us had weekends completely free, but we didn’t miss the crowds that often choked nearby lakes and streams on Saturdays and Sundays.
One day, while in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Marysville, we followed a for sale sign down a gravel road until it stopped at a small meadow with a view of a spring-fed lake.
“Great spot for a log cabin,” I told Jodi. “We could get one of those Montana companies that brings the logs to a site, then get all of our friends up here to slam ‘em together.”
She laughed at the thought of me actually overseeing a home-building project and at the notion that the project would come together quickly and smoothly.
The idea and practice of a log-home building party still exists, but the log and timber frame industry has evolved into an all-encompassing housing process from basic cabins to custom luxury homes. It has also caught the built green wave with more and more primary and vacation home seekers inquiring about a solid log structure.
Today’s log home is anything but a dark, drafty, rustic cabin. It is a thoroughly modern house built with logs instead of studs. The phrase log home refers to a method of construction, not a style of house, according to the Log Homes Council, a part of the National Association of Home Builders’ building systems council. In fact, if the phrase simply were dropped, it would please the nation’s log home producers.
The main difference between a log house and a stick-built house is a log home’s walls are built by stacking logs atop one another; while a conventional home’s walls are made by building a frame of wood studs, stuffing it with insulation and covering it with siding and wallboard. Either method can be used to build any style of house.
Log homes have always been a part of the American scene (thanks, in part, to Abe Lincoln), but they became increasingly popular beginning with the earth movement in the late 1960s. In response, many new producers entered the market, selling their homes as do-it-yourself kits to people looking for an inexpensive house and a way to get closer to nature. In time, the movement evolved into the more sustainable and quite permanent country lifestyle. Consumers gradually began considering log homes as their primary residences.
Homeowners still wanted a low-key lifestyle when they were away form work, but they did not want a home considered only for vacations, according to Jim Young, owner and president of Meridian, Idaho-based PrecisionCraft Log and Timber Homes (www.precisioncraft.com). Young, who also serves as the log council’s president, said log home producers met the consumer demand and began producing homes that had a wider appeal. Log homes moved away from being inexpensive, do-it-yourself dwellings and into the mainstream of American housing.
Where once 75 percent of all log homes were owner-built, today only about 10 percent are owner-built, according to Young.
Today, the typical log home has more than 2,200 square feet of living space compared to 1,100 30 years ago. The new log home has at least two bathrooms, contains every interior amenity imaginable — including balconies and whirlpools — and features at least one exterior wall with large windows. Costs average about the same as a comparable custom frame house plus provide the resident with the cozy, natural environment created by solid wood walls.
If your dream is to build a log home yourself, it’s absolutely still possible. Log home buyers usually work with a manufacturer to obtain logs and other structural components. In addition, the manufacturer assists in design and may provide construction services. When design work is complete, the manufacturer prepares a detailed materials list and delivers the materials package to the homeowner’s building site to be constructed.
Just as with stick-built homes, it’s important to understand the services and costs required to complete the home. In addition to the log home materials, it’s important to budget for site work, foundation, heating and cooling, electrical and plumbing work, cabinetry and final finishes. Reputable manufacturers include guidance in the form of trained sales staff, construction manuals and videos and technical support to ensure that the home is properly built.
Maybe my wife thought I would have trouble with the manuals.
Tom Kelly’s new book “Cashing In on a Second Home in Central America: How to Buy, Rent and Profit in the World’s Bargain Zone” was written with Mitch Creekmore, senior vice president of Houston-based Stewart International and Jeff Hornberger, the National Association of Realtors’ international market development manager. Copies are available on www.crabmanpublishing.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
