Log Home Diary: Entry # 35 Log Home-Building Tips (Stuff We Wish We Knew Before We Started). |
1. Talk it out.
Building a home is an important, possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so don’t rush it. Before we started, we spent considerable time reading and researching to make sure we got exactly what we wanted from our log home. We talked about everything, from room placement to hardware—we even decided exactly where we wanted our dog to sleep! It sounds silly, but it made things a lot easier once we started working on the design. When the time came to make a decision about something, chances are we had already talked about it and knew what we wanted to do.2. Create a smart floorplan.
Think about the house you want, now and in the future. Sure, we have four small kids now, but in ten years we’re not going to want a larger-than-life McMansion. So, instead of giving each of the kids their own room, we built two modest bedrooms that we’ll one day be able to use as guest rooms or an office. We also opted to include a huge bonus room on the second floor. Right now we use it as a playroom, but I’m sure it’s function will change as the kids grow up.3. Be one with the earth.
We’ve all seen them before; those houses that seem to be plopped down on their property, imposing themselves on the surrounding landscape. My suggestion: don’t do that. Pick a property that you love and then design a house that looks like it should be there. For us, it was important not to lose a lot of trees, so we combined three different Wisconsin Log Homes designs to create an L-shaped floorplan that suits our needs, but isn’t too sprawling.4. Meet your deadlines.
It may sound obvious, but keeping on schedule as much as possible is really important when designing and building your log home. Of course you’ll probably face your fair share of hiccups along the way, but you can help by coming up with backup plans ahead of time. Remember: extra time usually equals extra money, so try your best to complete the project as close to the projected time as possible.5. Pick the best team for you.
We have always had continuous open lines of communication with the Wisconsin Log Homes’ in-house designer, Stephanie, as well as our general contractor, Dennis. If we needed a question answered, we always got an honest and speedy response. We definitely credit these relationships to doing our research, checking our references and picking the people who we believed would do the best job. I suggest you do the same.Return: To Log Home Design's Log Home Diary for the rest of this story.
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