Memory Maker

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 better.

Speed the process by buying an already-built log home. A spec home, maybe, or one vintage mid-eighties to late nineties. Maybe even last-year new, as when folks move in and go whoa, too much wood and we don’t really like country living.

Buying an already built log home means surrendering the custom touch, including where to build it. Log homes aren’t cookie-cutter homes, and that’s precisely why you want one made just for you. That and the logs.

When you buy an existing log home, someone else already made the site, log and design decisions. That they chose a log home, however, means they were at least thinking along your lines. And if you don’t like the first one you see, there are others around with different looks and in different settings.

But if you’ve ever bought any other kind of home, you’re used to living in pre-arranged spaces. Folks adapt. Find the right log look, imagine your furniture in it — or fresh furniture — and you’re instantly enjoying logs, just like buying any other house.

Condition issues arise, especially in homes 20 and 30 years old whose exterior wood wasn’t maintained. Most problems are cosmetic, not structural. Log restoration experts provide remedies, but for homes needing extensive fixes, the time and money needed might negate the appeal of buying an older home.

There are aesthetics issues. Middle-aged milled-log homes used smaller logs, even in the West. You might not like a metal roof or the chimney stone.

It’s rare but not unknown to buy existing log homes before they exist. Construction might be under way on a spec home you can buy in time to adjust the interior space to your liking.

Other like-new homes, their owners realized logs aren’t really for them, or they regretted moving so far from friends and family. Couples split.

If your heart-set on a custom log home, designed and built exclusively for you, then your response to an existing log home will surely be to deepen your commitment to building new. And seeing the mistakes others made, especially how neglecting logs can turn out in the long run, may increase your determination to start fresh. If you’re the sort that prefers new cars to used ones, definitely steer clear of pre-loved logs. Otherwise, you’ll find log homes for sale all over.

When you do, but before you move in, give your logs a thorough cleaning if they need it and make sure they’re properly sealed and coated. Then step inside and start making your log-home memories.