Gayle’s choice of simple, gray-painted custom cabinets creates a striking contrast to the natural log walls and wood ceiling. Additional storage is provided by a separate walk-in pantry. The center island seats six and has ample room for food prep on the 1/4-inch rolled steel countertop that matches the stove hood.
To complement the log interior, the Petersons chose drywall painted with a custom-mixed light gray shade for all non-wood wall surfaces throughout the house. To capture a rustic feel, the couple requested that the staircase posts and trusses remain rough with only a light sanding applied.
Capturing mountain vistas and flooding the great room with light, windows stretch from the vaulted ceiling to the hardwood floors. Flanked by the master bedroom suite and the kitchen and dining area, the great room offers access to a wide, open loft.
A custom metal piece by Chip Gerber of Steel Forest Furniture, this table is positioned comfortably before a great room fireplace of cultured stone and warmed by a gas insert. Patio doors open onto a screened porch.
Evan’s loft office was designed for maximum use of a small space. A baseboard window adds light and peeks through the front porch gable, while low bookshelves take advantage of the room’s knee walls.
The master suite includes a full bathroom and a walk-in closet separated by a handmade, space-saving sliding door. Honest Abe dealer Darlene Dawson advises using windows positioned near the ceiling in bedrooms to allow for flexible furniture placement.
The master bathroom’s gray cabinets are topped by an accenting granite countertop with twin sinks.
The 12-inch-square multicolored slate floor tiles carry through to the walk-in shower’s walls.
The Petersons savor the luscious Blue Ridge landscape from the rear of their house, which was designed for relaxation on three levels: A 210-square-foot upper deck spanning the main floor, a lower deck off the stucco-finished basement and gravel patio with a fire pit.
Perched on a mountain slope, the gravel patio is enhanced by a central stone fire pit and stabilized with a pressure treated retaining wall. Metal furniture was designed and crafted by Gayle’s brother, Chip Gerber of Steel Forest Furniture.
Spanning the main floor’s mountain-facing side is a 210-square-foot open deck that becomes a covered porch on one end and a screened-in sitting room off the other. Darlene Dawson, owner of Bear’s Den Log Homes who sold the Petersons their home package and consulted with them throughout construction, says she recommends Andersen 400 double-awning windows, which create an unobstructed view while providing both ventilation and protection from rain when open.
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There are two kinds of cabin fever. Gayle and Evan Peterson had the good kind — the kind that whispers a memory and teases of the future. A fever that starts low-grade, intensifying to the point that owning a log cabin is the only cure.
“Growing up, my family spent summers in a log cabin on a lake in New Jersey,” Evan recalls. “There were many fond memories of our summers in the cabin. Three boys sleeping in one
bedroom can be entertaining, if not restful.”
After they were married, Gayle and Evan, who had been sweethearts through high school and college, were drawn to waterfront weekend escapes with their own boys, boating and swimming in the lake just as Evan had as a child. Some 40 years later, as the couple contemplated retirement, cabin fever began to rage.
“Gayle had a magazine about log homes and suggested that ‘having one might be different and cool,’” Evan says. “In an instant the memories of the lake house came rushing back! It was a great idea, but we knew nothing about
building a log home.”
During their lives together, they had built four custom homes and were living in the last one in Texas with a second home in Florida. However, both homes were too far from their two sons who were now grown with families of their own. “After a great deal of research, we flew to North Carolina to look at property and met a couple who would become our guides and confidants for the next three years,” explains Evan, referring to
Honest Abe Log Homes independent dealers Darlene and Rodger Dawson, owners of
Bear’s Den Log Homes.
That weekend they bought land at Grandview Peaks near Nebo, North Carolina, almost 1,400 miles from their home.
“Soon Gayle and Darlene started designing the cabin,” Evan says, laughing at the word “cabin” and remembering that over the two years spent developing a final
plan, the house grew, then shrunk, then grew again.
Manufactured by Honest Abe Log Homes in Moss, Tennessee, the resulting 3,250- square-foot “cabin” is a custom designed, three-bedroom D-log home with a heart-stopping view from any of its 18 windows that face the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“We sit on our
deck in the morning, have our coffee and watch the sunrise,” Gayle says. “In the evenings, we sit around our fire pit with a glass of wine (or two) and enjoy how relaxing and quiet it is in the mountains.”
Evan and Gayle agree that the cabin has become far more than a retirement home. With their boat moored nearby, they re-create for their grandchildren some of the memories that stoked their fervor — and fever — for a cabin.
“It’s a beautiful retreat,” Gayle says with a sigh. “The cabin has become so much of what we do and who we are. Every day is a vacation in a wonderful place. And living in nature is good for the heart and soul.”
Home Details:
Square Footage: 3,250
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2 full, 1 half
Log Prodvider: Honest Abe Log Home/Bear's Den Log Home
Builder: Carolina Builders Services, Inc.