Log Home Blogs (697)

Memorial Day is time to remember men and women who served their country. But the holiday is more about the future than the past. It signals that a brand-new summer lies ahead and, with it, fresh memories.

This impulse forward stokes some people’s determination to get going building their log home. Folks with fond memories of cabins in their youth often long for logs later in life. How much later depends, but once you decide to make it happen, sooner’s…

The cabin has been visited lately by a red-shouldered hawk. We saw him perched on the tin roof next door. He had dignity and a seriousness of purpose about him, unlike the noisy crow who sometimes struts about near the window looking for handouts. I had a good look at the hawk's russet underbelly…

Do I have your attention? (Of course, I do.)

As I’ve mentioned before, we at Country’s Best Cabins love to connect with readers; every story has some point of interest or inspiration that shows why the cabin lifestyle is something to aspire to. For our October…

Like baseball and apple pie, log homes are about as American as you can get. If you're building one, you likely want to pass it down to your children and grandchildren so they, too, can enjoy its warmth and hominess for generations to come. But unless you act early to protect and maintain your logs, your home, and…

Any of you stain experts out there have any knowledge of Lifetime Wood Treatment from Canada??

Been reading a little about it, some say its a big scam others swear by it.

Anyone with personal experience with this product??

Mary, Mary, quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

I have heard different things about this Mother Goose rhyme ...

Read more at: …

 keeping it professional, No cutting down other, handcrafted log home is the kind of home I am going to build   I have Chambers book and Mackie ....Who is more on top of there game??   thanks  marty

Can you imagine living in a home where you have to climb a stepladder just to reach the kitchen counter? That was pretty close to being the case with a Japanese woman who sued her builder. The Kyoto homeowner, who stands 4 feet 6 inches tall, accused the builder of making her home too big. The diminutive plaintiff insisted she couldn’t reach the keyhole, for instance, and was able to see only the top of her head in the bathroom mirror. The court sided with the woman and ordered the builder…

When it comes to home-design preference, we all have a different idea of the size and style of house that will perfectly suit our lifestyle. But no matter our tastes and needs, there's one thing we can all agree on: We all want to build a home that will go easy on our pocketbooks in the long run and maybe, just…

Before my daughter was born, my husband and I spent hours playing with graph paper and furniture cutouts to determine the best layout for her nursery. It’s amazing how quickly a decent-sized room can become consumed with furniture — even when said pieces are pretty much just a crib, dresser and rocking chair.…

We went to an event last Friday put together by Angela Bacskocky. It combined fashion and art and music and shoes. Lots of shoes. The theme was nesting. The women wore Angela's clothes of satin and leather and feathers, their…

Kitchens’ prominence is apparent from the existence of certified kitchen designers. After all, there aren’t planning specialists for living rooms, master bedrooms or other individual interior spaces. Clearly, kitchens deserve extra attention to create the right look.

That doesn’t mean you need to hire…

Whether you're building a small, simple cabin or an expansive, ornate estate, some of the best places to find inspiration for your design are magazines that feature homes in the style you wish to emulate. While our regular publications feature a handful of home tours in each issue, they also offer advice on a…

After the last few years of planning we've finally gotten to the point of applying for a building permit. When I got to the building department tonight I learned that the town has adopted the "stretch code" which is apparently a much more stringent building code that, as far as I can tell, requires a minimum of an R-38 wall insulation. I'm not sure if this is confined to Massachusetts or if it has spread nationally but it appears to me as if the log home industry has a lot to lose from this.…

Cabins have long had a wonderful connection with the nation's park system. Whether through structures on-site or a lucky landowner who chose to build one on a directly adjacent lot, these wooded settings provide the perfect backdrop for cabins and their inhabitants' desires to reconnect with nature. 

This…

Got a carpenter bee problem? Interested in using an all natural non insecticide method of reducing your carpenter bee population and the damage they cause? I have been building and selling these bee traps locally (49264) for the past two years and have had excellent feedback with them. A repeat customer came this spring and in addition to purchasing additional traps for his parents and friends, suggested I try to find a log home specific market to offer them to because they are so effective.…

I understand there is a new movie out, The Cabin in the Woods, just in time to celebrate our move to the cabin. I read a good review of it, but I doubt I will see it. I don't handle horror very well. Besides, there is plenty of horror at my own cabin, from infestations of…

Maybe you're not looking for advice on what kind of dishwasher to buy, or you've already figured out your financing and bought your land. If you just need inspiration gleaned from other log homes, then you won't want to miss the Best Of 2012 issue of Log Home Living that just hit…

The last Friday in April is Arbor Day, an occasion to celebrate trees. Log homes are all about trees.

I remember the first log yard I visited, seeing hundreds of branchless tree trunks stacked to dry. Then I watched some being turned into wall logs. They still implied the tree they came from.…

Why should you clean the exterior of  your log home?

1. Maintain the durability and appearance of your exterior finish.

2. Dust, pollen, and other airborne contaminants provide a food source for fungal growth on your logs.

3. If using a contact insecticide, dirt accumulated on the exterior…