We had talked about building and living in a Log Home for many years, twenty-plus actually. After at least fifteen of those years we made the decision to simply build a conventional home. I drew several sets of plans, none of them being quite what we wanted.
We took our vacation to New England the summer of 1993. We stopped at several Log Homes on the way and when we returned home we decided there was only one kind of home we would be happy with.
I drew the plans within the next few weeks and from the original thought of about 2500 square feet the home grew like "Mopsy" to 6400 square feet including the garage and small wood shop. There is 4000 feet of living space plus 1000 sq feet of deck and covered porch and a twelve foot Gazebo that is built as an Octogon. The home rests on 2 1/2 acres of wooded land that has Soft and Hard Maple, Black Oak, Hickory, Elm, Hackberry, Locust, American Black Walnut, Wild Cherry, and some other species I cannot remember right at the moment. The woods floor is covered with wild spring flowers in April and May. We have a herd of Deer numbering somewhere between 15 and 25, they have decided that since I feed them corn all winter and provide corn and water in the summer,that gives them priveleges beyond normal. Almost impossible to keep them out of my perennials and annuals along the edge of the woods plus they love the sunflower and other seeds we have for the birds at the bird feeding station that is a small gazebo. Thousands of birds, skunks, opossum, raccoons, squirrels into the hundreds, a few ground hogs, chipmunks, and probably some I have forgotten.
We were never quite satisfied with any of the "Kit" homes we visited and made the decision to buy the logs and timber to our specifications from mills in North Carolina.
Having built homes and most every other type of building for most of my 64 years I was getting the "itch" to get started. We dug the footers for the foundation three or four days before Christmas 1993. The day after the footers were poured the bottom fell out of the thermometer and we couldn't do a thing but leave the dirt around the footers to protect them.
The first of six semi loads of logs and timber started to arrive right after Christmas. We had to pile all of it on the parking lot of our commercial business. We spread plastic sheathing over it and had to constantly nail 2x's over it to keep the wind from destroying the plastic and of course, the rain and snow destroying all that material.
March in Ohio is usually a mixed bag of snow, rain, wind, and anything else you can think of but I announced one day that we were going to the foundation and break the ice that had accumulated and get things moving. The ice was eight inches thick and we could barely break it with an eight pound sledge. I rented a backhoe to get it out of the crawlspace but got it stuck in the mud before accomplishing very much. Called my Excavator friend of many years and gave him the job of cleaning-up my mess. We got the remaining footers poured and started laying the block foundation.
The two very large loads of material arrived for the floor system and we anxiously began. Rain fell from the sky as though the Good Lord thought we needed a bath real bad, it took seven days to get the floor joist and plywood down.
My youngest brother had a wagon at his disposal that I could use to haul the logs from the shop to the home site, about 2 miles distance. I have no idea how many trips we made but that trailer was a lot smaller than those Semi's and I had no idea the road was as bumpy as it seemed to be now.
We rented an "All-Terrain" fork lift with a 5000 pound capacity to move material around the site. Denise and I with help of family and friends, when they could get away from their work and lives, started laying the logs the first part of May 1994. I had devised jigs for cutting the corners and end joints so other than being fairly slow, things worked fairly smooth. We became more fatigued than we thought possible. Five weeks later we had "stacked" 5,000 lineal feet of eight inch milled white pine logs and were ready to place the very large "Scissor" style mortise and tenon trusses over the Great Room. These trusses weighed about 2500 pounds each so we decided a crane would be in order.
The 2 x 6 tongue and groove yellow pine decking took 3 or 4 days just over the great room. We covered the decking with roofing felt to protect us and the material. The second floor over the main wing of the home is resting on post and beams that are themselves resting on screw jacks to accommodate the shrinkage and settling of the home. There are seventeen jacks that I have lowered about 1 1/2" since 1994. The second floor is 4 x 10's with 2 x 6 decking applied over them. The roof is of 4 x 8's and has the decking showing fourteen feet above the "Library Loft", the guest bedroom and Jaime's bedroom.
The roof consists of the 2 x 6 decking, six inches of grooved styrofoam, a half inch layer of OSB, another layer of 30# roofing felt and 448 bundles of Architectural Fibreglass composition shingles. I nailed every one of those shingles and I assure you there are 448 bundles.
We wanted to have the home "Dried-In" and the doors and windows in by August. We had a deadline to meet because our business was all-time-consuming from then until February. The last week of August we accomplished this.
We had the plumbing and heating done by contractors but we done the remainder of the work ourselves. Christmas Eve 1994 we had our kids and grandkids for our traditional get-together. Mind you the home was still a little open but one bathroom was finished and operational and the sink in the laundry room was also usable. We also had heat.
All outside walls are full log and the only areas we covered were where the kitchen cabinets are and in the master bathroom at the tub. The inside walls are drywall, consisting of 275 sheets of the stuff, we done that also, some are painted and some have wall paper.
The timbers and logs were bleached to make them all the same color and to clean the mill dirt from them then they were all sanded by hand and given a light "nutmeg" shade of stain. We used 14 gallon. Outside and inside was sprayed with a water soluble insecticide twice, followed with caulking and two coats of stain and preservative on the exterior.
Summer of 1995 found us working in the heat that seemed so threatening some days. August was more than we could take. The old home that we had lived in since 1977 was not air-conditioned. The decision to move into our new home was actually a "No-Brainer" since it was nice and cool and it was certainly livable.
Living in a Log Home is the epitomy of human comfort. Your soul seems to relax and God certainly meant for Heaven to be such as this.
Since we built this home we have a regional shopping center within 10 minutes but we have very little traffic on our street with the exception of "Sight-Seers" that often stop and want to talk about our home. Last summer we planted almost 2000 flowers and have ordered the seed for what will be something between two and three thousand this year. We love to get down and dirty in the flower beds and love working in our yard. Many hours are spent sitting in the Gazebo whether it be eating our evening meals or feeding the many birds and squirrels that feed off the railing of the deck not more than three feet away from us.
My wife was diagnosed with Lupus disease June of 1995 and we are trying to deal with that and keep our lives running. I fell from a ladder in the top of the Great Room the winter before we moved in and broke my right ankle in two places but it is fine now. We have been blessed in so many ways that we do not allow ourselves to become complacent or self-indulgent. Our Log Home is one of the greatest achievements of our happy and busy lives. Our youngest daughter Jaime is the complete description of Happiness and Joy. Everyone loves her and she loves everyone in return.
We have begun many new things since building our home. Denise and Jaime are both accomplished artists. Denise writes music and plays the piano and guitar. Jaime is studying piano and after 6 months of lessons wrote her first "Melody" for the piano. They are both taking lessons in Oil Painting. I spend any and most all spare time at the computer I'm told. I work with Retouching and Restoring Photos and am now affiliated with a log and timber producing company in Ohio.
We welcome visitors but do ask that you make arrangements with us in advance. It is quite a "trip" to show our beautiful home but it does take some special arrangements. You may send us an E-mail if you are going to be in Southwestern Ohio
ADDENDUM:
The original of this dissertation was written some 13 years ago, it is now 2008. We still live in our log home in the woods and enjoy every minute. We built our wood shop onto the back end of the garage wing and downsized our business so we could slow down and enjoy life a little more.
I have passed my seventy fourth birthday in January and enjoy relatively good health. Denise and the Lupus have decided to get along better, and Jaime is in her fourth year of college studying Graphic Arts.
LINKS TO FAVORITE SITES
Apple Valley Photos (Photos for everyone to enjoy. digital downloads as well as prints)
Little Patch Farm (Boer Goats)
Hand carved wooden grips for Smith & Wesson Hand Guns