Log & Timber Home Living magazine is the ultimate guide to log, timber and hybrid homes. Expect expert advice on everything from floor plan design to materials and maintenance, as well as inspiring home tours, decorating ideas and more!
Square Footage:2,558 (plus unfinished basement with garage) Bedrooms: 4 Baths: 3 Sometimes, a child’s fairy tale can hold an important lesson for grown-ups, too. Take the story of Goldilocks. In the course of invading the Bear-family homestead, she searched for a comfortable place to sit, a hearty meal and the perfect spot on which to lay her weary head. But in this quest, she encounters a number of obstacles — a bed that’s too big, porridge that’s too cold and a chair that fell to pieces beneath her tiny frame. After some trial and error, she finally found solutions that suited her needs to a T … until the bears came home. Drafting your home’s floor plan — or even reviewing existing stock plans — can make you feel a…
WHEN YOU’RE READY TO PURCHASE A FLOOR PLAN from a log or timber home company or designer, be aware that you won’t own the actual plan — just a one-time right to build the home. This is an important piece of the process to understand, because it protects both the company and you from copyright infringement. Deciding on a plan from one company and “shopping” it around to others is a big faux pas. A reputable log or timber home producer will never knowingly use a copyrighted plan from another company. If you do plan to build or alter an existing floor plan from a designer other than your own, be sure to get permission from the plan’s originator. To protect yourself from copyright violations, keep the following tips in…
COMING UP WITH A TRULY UNIQUE HOME DESIGN these days is tough. Homes all have to have the same basic components, and in terms of flow, some layouts just make more sense than others. For log and timber home buyers, that’s good news, because chances are the producer you select has designed and manufactured a home that reflects your needs — or comes pretty darn close. On top of that, nearly every company expects that you will want to make some tweaks to a stock floor plan, and they are ready and willing to accommodate you. Armed with this knowledge, you can save thousands of dollars in design fees and still get the log or timber home you long for. Here are some easy floor plan modification dos and don’ts…
1 Sizing Strategies. Many people come to the design table with a smaller square footage in mind, either because of budget constraints or because it’s what they have their hearts set on. Achieving that benchmark may seem like a matter of creating some smaller spaces and clustering them together, but it’s a bit more complex. “I think a lot of people come in with the intention of a small home, but then they don’t want to sacrifice the third bedroom, or the library or the office,” observes Derek Hurd, principal at Gravitas, a custom-home design firm based in Garden City, Idaho. Thinking about how large (or small) these rooms will be plays into your decision-making process, as tight, cramped spaces likely are the exact opposite of what you hope to…
MODEL NAME The Smyrna Square Footage: 560 Bedrooms: N/A Baths: N/A The Smyrna Katahdin Cedar Log Home kit is an outdoorsman’s dream, perfect for those who want to take care of most things under the open sky but still want a dry and secure place to sleep at night. It is also great for the DIYer who wants to build their getaway spot themselves. The cathedral ceiling helps it feel roomier than its compact 560 feet while the great room windows bring in lots of light. 800-845-4533 www.katahdincedarloghomes.com info@katahdincedarloghomes.com MODEL NAME The Woodsman Square Footage: 850 Bedrooms: 1 Baths: 1 The Woodsman is the perfect plan for someone who is looking for the strength and beauty of a custom cedar log home but is also looking to downsize. With its…
1 If you have more than one cook in your kitchen, trash the triangle theory. For decades, the kitchen triangle (which places the stove/sink/fridge on each leg) has been the gold standard of kitchen design. But this concept assumed that one person would act as chef-in-residence. With families cooking together, a better approach is “zone design,” which segments the kitchen into areas for prep, cooking, plating/serving, etc. and gives each person unobstructed space to perform his or her task. 2 If your heart is set on expensive granite or marble countertops, think about using those surfaces only on the kitchen island. Opt for a countertop with a similar look but a lower price tag for the perimeter counters. Products like Staron’s acrylic solid-surface counters offer a natural-stone appearance but cost…
