Joe's Page

I will give you a call but for other bloggers following this, your thoughts are well founded. Going from "city" surroundings to the woods is a major decision especially when you are going into the "bible belt" of TN. Everything has its plus's and minus. I have timed traveling here in Sarasota and have found it takes about 15 minutes to get to grocery store and 20 minutes to get to Home Depo. TN is just about the same although greater distances. I noticed in TN they talk in terms of time to something while in FL we talk in terms of miles. My biggest concern is the time for medical help to a well equiped hospital. I know in TN you can sign up for an air ambulance service to get you to Knoxville quickly. This all becomes important when deciding where to put that log home as we aren't as young as we used to be. This is another reason that we would like to be in a planned community with year round neighbors. The Watts Bar lake area tends to more this way.

The Telleco model is essentially offered by most log home builders. From the top it looks like a + sign or more often a T. Typically with a big peaked window wall in the middle on the view side usually using dormers on either side. Many offer the "prow" window in this center section which sticks out like the bow of a ship. This improves the view when in the family room but drives the cost up as the basement underneath must be the same to support this "prow". It also presents problems with furniture inside.

The garage underneath is by far the cheapest solution to the garage problem and takes advantage of a huge space that is wasted unless you want 5-6 bedrooms. The stairs is the big negative but your solution is good. A side note is that in TN. septic code is based on bedrooms not bathrooms. I see houses advertised with a permit for 3 bedrooms yet the house has 5. Somebody is going to pay a lot of money for frequent pumpouts of the tank.

You previously mentioned the building sites with the steep slopes. Some I have looked at you need to be a mountain goat. The view is great but the owners have literally put in a tram system to get down to the dock versus the stair case from hell. The driveways are actually scary on some of these houses and would be impossible to climb in snow or if covered with wet leaves in the fall. The slope certainly make it easy to put in a walk out basement and in many cases the foundation is easy to build if you don't hit TN rock. I have also learned that the "flat" lot normally means your lakefront leaves you in the winter as the water is normally shallow too. The problems of paradise.

I agree with your use of flat logs which is referred to as a Genesis log by several of the suppliers. Log home owners have told me that the round log inside is a big dust trap and I also suspect it cuts down on reflective light which I'm trying to avoid. I am also convinced that the kiln dried log is the only way to go to minimize the settling issue and help solve the bug problem.

As you know, in Fl the rage is the atrium family room with 20+ feet ceiling heights. I spent 6 weeks in a house like this and the noise level was terrible in the house. When in the upstairs bedrooms you could hear everything in the family room. I don't know if the log walls help to cure this but things such as using rugs on the second floor in the bedrooms and solid wood doors with good seals on the bottom might along with the insulated inside walls. My wife always complains that I blast the surround system so this is on my check list.

More later.

Joe