Home Style Choice

Log Home

I’ve had many different ideas over time as to the style of house I wanted to build. From geodesic dome, to earthship, I always wanted something unique. Unfortunately those two are hard to find builders to build, and even harder to get past local town building departments, (not to mention buy in from family!)

A log home on the otherhand satisfies the desire to live in a unique house, while also being easy to describe, visualise, build, and approve. We’ve been calling it our tree house. I like it.

Southland Log Homes

Did you know that there are several dozen different manufactures of log homes in the country? From fully custom bespoke sweedish cope style logs hand hewn from gigantic timbers and stacked once at the “factory”, then painstainkly taken apart and shipped to your lot and put back together. To the more Henry Ford style assembley line of milled logs that stack like the lincoln logs from your childhood.

Each style has pros and cons, but more importantly, each style has a different cost. As you can imagine one is signifanctly more affordable than the other. And ultimately when building a house, cost is everything. We always knew that we wanted the milled log look, it fit more with what we wanted in our house to begin with - log style exterior, and a flat wall interior that looks more like panneling.

We signed up for Log & Timber living. We read that magazine for weeks, we watched YouTube videos, we researched companies. Ultimantely we decided to go with Southland Log Homes.

Finding a Builder

Building a log home is not the same as a traditional 2x4 built house. A log home from a kit company is easier to erect than one of the hand hewen style of course, but there’s still tools and skills needed. Luckilly the companies know this and have builders on file that they can link you up with.

We interviewed 3 different builders, all gave a pretty close estimate for turn key service, so from there it comes down to vibes. When it comes to a contractor the vibes you get from them and their prior work often say more than anything else. Willingness to share prior work, willingness to be flexible with timing and communication, fast communication. It all adds up and can turn an already stressfull situation into something much smoother.

As it turns out, the willingness to be flexible turned out to be the most important attribute. Delays come next…