What is it about logs?
Log walls are special, whether you are inside of them, or outside.
Originally posted 2015-12-21 21:12:13.
She is not symmetrical
Notice how the center door and window are skewed to one side of the center of this cabin… and ponder, if you will, the affect that this change has given to this log home.
I imagine the reason the builder did this was to be able to create two equal size rooms within the cabin. He ignored the urge within most of us to make the home symmetrical, which tends to make a home “formal” looking and instead created… “charming”.
Originally posted 2015-12-21 16:09:07.
Siding and whitewash
It doesn’t appear that we are going to have a white Christmas this year… but the option is always there for cabin owners to have a white cabin.
Back when almost everyone lived in a log home a coat of whitewash on a home was considered a major upgrade.
Originally posted 2015-12-21 15:36:30.
The downside of rural living
Yeah, it’s a nice place…
But, think how far they have to drive to get to the nearest Walmart!
Those poor people.
😉
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Originally posted 2015-12-20 17:51:20.
Wood is such a wonderful renewable resource
Originally posted 2015-12-20 17:31:15.
Vertical corner post log home
Here we have a different type of log cabin… one where the corners of the cabin are made up of vertical logs where the wall logs are pegged into place with mortise and tenon joints.
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I’ve seen a few cabins built this way over the years. I would have thought that water would have gotten into these corners and rotted them out… but that has not been the case.
Originally posted 2015-12-20 17:25:26.
What are the benefits of living in a real cabin?
It’s a great question… and today, I’m not going to try to answer it.
But rather, I’d just like you to take a moment and look at this photo and contemplate for yourself on how living in a place like this would affect you. Would your life be better?… Enough so that having a place like this should become a goal to have, rather than just a daydream?
I heard it said the other day that “a goal without a date is just a wish”.
And we know that to be true… if we aren’t putting out some effort towards getting something it will likely never happen and then one day we will find ourselves living with the regret of never having tried.
So maybe, make this coming year the time where you will make the first small steps towards having a handmade home of your own. I’m working a little video now that I hope to release soon (free) that will give you a dozen or so inexpensive steps that you can take that will get you far enough down the path towards having a place like this that you will find yourself living in that cabin before you know it!
Originally posted 2015-12-19 15:21:53.
You are not the only one who wants a handmade home
One year ago I began posting here and on Facebook… the handmade house community has now passed the 50,000 mark in that short time! (this photo is what 50,000 people look like… it’s huge!)
It turns out that we are not alone… we are not just five or six people that are considered odd by the rest of the world. But rather many who want a special place to call home.
Originally posted 2015-12-19 14:45:51.
Cabins do love to show off in the Winter
A home should blend into it’s environment… even perhaps… be an improvement upon the landscape.
Log cabins, especially in the Winter, succeed in doing just that.
Originally posted 2015-12-18 22:37:46.
Inquiries like this keep flowing in faster and faster
Here’s a cabin that I built years ago.
And below, is one of two messages that I received just this morning, both of which asked similar questions. (I’ve edited it a bit for privacy sake, but I thought everyone might benefit from my response)…
Dear sir, I am in Central xxxxxxx. After doing some research I have not been able to find any builders of the style cabins you are recommending. Most, if not all of the ones I have found here are building kit homes. I am seriously interested in the style cabin that you advocate. Are there any source materials you would recommend to help me in that direction? Do you know of any builders in my area you would recommend? Lastly, I would be interested in possibly purchasing one of your floor-plans. If I have missed obvious answers to these questions on the website, then forgive me. I thank you in advance for any of your time and correspondence back that I receive.
Thank you for getting in touch. Congratulations on making the decision to move forward on building an authentic log cabin. You are going to love your new/old log home!
I’m afraid that I don’t know of any builders in your area that I can recommend… in fact I’m sorry to say that I don’t know of any other builders anywhere that I can recommend… It’s not that there aren’t any… I’ve seen cabins built by others that I felt were done well and that were attractive… but, I have no names to go with the finished homes. I’ve searched online for handcraft builders… in fact my main focus a year ago when I started posting online was to put together a community of builders who created handmade houses, but is seems that they are either all gone, or are keeping themselves well hidden.
Be aware that you are not alone in your situation. I get several similar emails per week from all over the country. The membership list is steadily growing on my website and here on Facebook the community has grown to 50,000 in only a year’s time. Clearly there is hunger by many to have special handcrafted place of their own.
So, here are my recommendations for you that I feel will help you achieve the cabin of your dreams… Continue following along here on Facebook and consider visiting my website handmadehouses and go through as many postings that I’ve made there as you can (over a 1,000 to sort through)
On that site you will learn a little something with each photo commentary while you begin the process of narrowing down exactly what you want in your own cabin. Make sure and sign up at handmadehouses.com in order to get any updates that I might send out. I’m not a spammy kind of guy, so no worries about getting a bunch of junk in your email box.
I am in the process of scanning my favorite dozen or so sets of plans that I have drawn and built over my career, and will be offering them for sale at a very reasonable price in the near future. All were hand drawn by me, were approved for permitting, and have been built, lived-in and cherished. Your particular building department might like more details on these plans, and if so, that should be easy and inexpensive for you or a local architect to amend.
I would also encourage you to consider being your own builder. It’s easier than you think, you will save a good bit of money (how much depends upon the amount of hands-on work that you do), and to top it off, you’ll have a great time doing it. I built my first two houses in my early 20’s with no experience and I did a great job. After completing those projects I decided to make building handmade homes my career. I’ve now spent several decades perfecting the craft and have kept what I learned as a trade secret. But I’ve now reached that point that it’s time to share what I know and I’ve been doing a lot of just that here on Facebook and on my website.
I’m also finishing up an online course that will encourage and guide attendees step-by-step through the process of building a truly handcrafted home. The course is called the Handmade House Academy and it will start sometime in January… you really ought to sign on when it becomes available (more details to be released soon)
And finally, once you get your land, you figure out exactly what you want to build, you’ve taken the Handmade House Academy course, and have taken care of starting the process of building (permitting, foundation work, a floor system in place) I’d be happy to help you find a great old cabin and a crew to set the logs in place… from there it’s just one step at a time… carpentry, roofing, plumbing… etc
If you’d like to know more don’t hesitate to shoot me an email at noah@handmadehouses.com
Originally posted 2015-12-17 19:52:38.