log home thoughts

The Secret ....Check it out

2011-12-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

First step in putting up the 17' tall Christmas Tree is to get it into our living room. You can see Cliff here with the tree stand that he has built.

Here is a close up look it is a standard large tree stand that he attached to a sheet of plywood that has turn buckles on the corners to help hold up the tree. The stand also has wheels so he can roll it around to decorate.

The stand goes on before the tree stands up sorry I have to help with that and so you don't get to see how I stand and hold the stand in place as Cliff goes to the top of the tree and start to walk it up into place so there isn't a photo of that.

Once it is up he then takes wire and wraps it around the tree into the buckles to help stabilize the tree.

Then once it is up he rolls it over to our loft and takes a ladder into to the loft to decorate the top from part from that location.

He is still on a ladder but now on the main floor and I'll help on the lower part of the tree.

For us it then gets rolled over to the Prow of our living room.

Here it is in all it's slender and I hope this helps you understand the "secret" to our tall tree.

Merry Christmas & Happy 2012 to all !!!!

Here comes Winter

2011-12-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

One of the big questions we get is "how much does it costs to heat a log home" ? Or "what types of heating can you use?

Personally we have a number of heating elements in our home as we started with a heat pump unit that had air conditioning also added to it. Then number of years ago we added on a Wood Burning Fireplace ( the above photo shows it at Christmas time ). We also have a small Propane wood looking stove in our family room end of our home. You can see back in the right hand corner.

But back to the Questions ....you can heat them the same as any home. And yes the cost to upkeep the home is just like your standard will built and insulated homes.

Love to hear your comments & questions.....

3 Different Photography Posts

2011-05-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

So Jamie has posted all 3 of her posts on her blog.If you do the click on the link in the next post you'll be taken to her blog, once you scroll down click "older post" you will get to see the next group of photos and then do that once more and you will have seen all 3 of her posts on the photo's she took for us. Words aren't enough to say thanks to her for all her work. Maybe you'll need a photographer someday and you'll call her! Thanks for taking the time to see what she has done for us.

Jamie Zanotti Photography: Eugene Oregon Wedding Photography, HS Senior Photos Springfield OR: Baker Pond Log Works: Glimpses

2011-05-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Jamie Zanotti Photography: Eugene Oregon Wedding Photography, HS Senior Photos Springfield OR: Baker Pond Log Works: Glimpses: "One of my favorite things about living in a log home is the strong connection to nature. Even when you're inside, you can often glimpse th..."

getting things updated

2011-05-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

We are updating ourselves...which is good because in some case's it has been 16 years ( our logo) others web site ( 7 years ) and then the addition of newer photo's.

So 1 of our customers Jamie Zanotti who has lived in her log cabin 10 years also does photography. She usually shoots Weddings, High School Seniors and families.

I thought I would ask her if she could bring that eye to shooting some of our homes so a week or so ago she and her family came to Bend for a couple of days and shoot 13 of our homes some where just a bit of updating others had never been done professionally before.

So click on the link in the next post and it will take you to here photography blog and enjoy : )

Jamie Zanotti Photography: Eugene Oregon Wedding Photography, HS Senior Photos Springfield OR: Baker Pond Log Works: Interiors

2011-05-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

Jamie Zanotti Photography: Eugene Oregon Wedding Photography, HS Senior Photos Springfield OR: Baker Pond Log Works: Interiors: "Here we go! This is one of those 'grab a mug of tea and get comfy' sorta posts (read: loooooong)! ;0) I love the warm combination of log..."

Round Log Walls Or Flat "D" Log Walls

2010-11-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

So I was looking at my header photo which is a wall in my Dining area and it shows a Flat " D" interior wall.

The photos below are from a round interior home and as you can see you can still hang things from the wall. In this first photo it shows a log wall on the right side with window and door and then the wall that the fireplace is on is an interior wall with log siding on it but they both match up and look the same.

The next photo is taken in the master bathroom...this shows how you can hid some plumbing in the corner with a branch or a log post. The vent pipe needed a place to go and the plumber put it in the corner but instead of boxing it in the home owners found this branch and it does a great job of hiding that ugly black pipe ...

In this photo you can see how you connect an interior sheet rock wall with the round log wall. Also notice how again the home owner used a great old chest to become the vanity of the 2 bathroom sinks.

So maybe this helped let you see how you can connect things when using round log walls....

Mid October Already !

2010-10-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I was watching a show last night and the main actor was suppose to be writing a book and he had writers block. I have this blog and it seems the last year or so that is exactly what I have.

I feel really bad because I know if you visit my blog you are looking for something new so today I wanted to post something new and hopefully plan to do that again at least once a month! So help hold me to it please : )

Over the last year I have taken on a new challenge of learning a drafting software program and love it. I have found it has been best thing for me because it is keeping my mind going for sure and a it has been pleasure to create something.

I'm working on a home plan right now for a very cool couple that Cliff & I have been talking to about log homes now for around 11 years and I thought I would show you what my new program can do.

This couple wanted a combination of the Lakeside I & II floor plans. So here is where we are right now on their design.

For your information the floor plans you see on our site are just a starting point for you to use but remember this will be your home and your design so please don't feel that you have to use our floor plans or that you can't change them. With "in house drafting" anything is possible!

Spring is it ????

2010-03-26T14:56:00.001-07:00

This week we took off our snow tires and worked in the yard..... then this morning got up to a new dusting of snow! Yeah you can blame us.

Cliff & I have been out on the land this last weekend and again this coming Sat. What I mean by that is we love to walk your land and see where it is that you want to build your log cabin!

By doing this we all learn a ton of info and the best part for us is when you are talking about that wonderful view you have we understand!

So if you have been thinking about building a log home and you have land or are looking at some land to buy call us we would love to come see !

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2009-12-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

Our favorite time of the year is Christmas....for 40 years now Cliff & I have gone into the woods and cut down our own tree.... Sometimes when we lived in the Portland area that would be in at a tree farm but more than not it has just been out in the woods.

So for the last 8 or so years now we have been going to the same place with a group on the Sat after Thanksgiving and it is a blast. Anyone can come and we all help each other out. But for the most part it has been our home owners cause we all have tall ceilings and get big tree's. The one above is for us. I think it is 16' tall this year we have had taller ones but we are getting old !

So here above you see we take a flat bed trailer and load all the trees on....Then we always do a pot luck lunch and sit around the fire talking and eating good food. My husbands favorite fire starter gas and his torch!

Then when we get ready to decorate it Cliff has his special made tree stand that is a dolly and an attached tree stand with guide wires on the corners that hold wire that goes into the tree about half way up. This seems to hold it up every year. If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you can see what I'm talking about. He also marks the front of the tree with the ribbon hanging on it. This is totally his thing he loves it and I love the finished product : )

So below is a finished picture of our rails and the tree.

You are invited to sip some coffee or hot chocolate any time come by and we will sit in front of the tree and fire and enjoy the season...we pray you are very blessed at this special time of the year. Again Merry Christmas and have a very Happy New Year !

Before and After 10 years apart !

2009-10-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Mid summer of 1998 J & P came to our "open house" to talk about building a log home. When we say build that was exactly what they did....they hired a contractor to work with them and off they went to build their dream home. This picture was taken about 10 years ago.

Then a couple of weeks ago Cliff had the opportunity to visit their home and now here is their home with rock around the foundation and patio's ....

Their front door 10 years ago ...unpainted door and gravel around the steps .....

They have added rock around steps and walk. And painted the door........

J & P I hope you are as proud as we are. Seeing someone else's dream come true is such a cool feeling ! That is why we have ask if we could share this with you all : )

Fall and Fireplaces

2009-09-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

So it is Fall and I love it ....but I was also thinking about it won't be long until we can start having fires in our fireplace. That took me to the thought of showing you some photos of our home in the beginning and then now.

So this photo was taken from our loft looking down on a wood stove that we bought used thinking it would be a start for us. And then as we stacked the logs on this wall we also thought maybe someday in the future we would want to ad a garage onto this end of the house and so behind the picture we planned to cut in a door.

So as you can see in this photo the door is in and Cliff & Justin ( our son) are starting to cut out the logs in the part of the wall to to add a true wood burning fireplace.

Above they are almost done taking the logs out.....funny Cliff thought wow this will be easy but it didn't happen to be that easy.... they had to cut each log out. When we built the logs where connected with12" spikes now they are 12" lags.

This photo is a couple of years old you can see how the project turned out to be a very nice River Rock ( local rock) fireplace. We love the wood fireplace nothing can match the feel, smell or sound of that crackling fire. You are correct it isn't the most efficient way to heat but we have a heat pump for that. You can also see we have a glass door that connects up to our new entry and the 30x30 garage that was added. Above the garage is our office....come see us sometime we love to share our home which is also our model!

The "D" family moved in and held a party for all who helped!

2009-08-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

Wow you can see the house as you come up to it.....those where my words as we headed to the "House Warming" party .....

Front porch from the driveway notice "red" metal roof, clad windows, rails and even front door.

If you take a right as you come up onto the porch you end up on the deck.

OK so lets go inside and take a look....

I tried to get more of the house and not so much of the party goers....(this is from steps that lead upstairs) looking into the great room area of Living room behind that corner of the door and Kitchen, Dining area with loft above.

I was standing in the Living room looking Kitchen area

Then this is from Dining area into Kitchen with a Pantry off it and you can see a hall way that leads to the Powder room ( that is the closed door) with kids rooms on each side of it....

Ana wanted a happy room for her daughter and I love the green walls with pink and green accents all around....something else to notice is that instead of closet doors they hung drapes ( not up yet in this room). As I was doing this post I thought really what a great thing to do, costs less than doors, But the best part is this is a small child's room with toys in there that need to be played with : )

Then what better than a cowboy room for their little guy. He wanted one.....the door you see open goes into "jack & jill" bathroom lets look.

Check this out ~Yes that is a very small toilet cause they are still small people in this bathroom,

plus the below sinks are on cabinets that are a bit shorter for them too.

OK lets take a look upstairs....sometimes you don't know what kinds of stairs to do...well they have done wood covered stairs. All though they thought that they wanted open wood or log stairs they didn't do that because of a couple of reasons one was the county wanted this to be a closed off stair case ( there is a basement below ) for fire safety.

Up we go....door at the top is to a small office

Look at the open space a wonderful view out that glass.

Check out what Eric brought home last year.....this bear on the wall!

Great 2x6 Tongue & Groove floor that is the wood ceilings for the main floor rooms....lets go to the Master suite

Remember they have just moved in and so it isn't all decorated yet....but yes that is a small bed on the floor there is a little one here that isn't sure she should sleep so far away. When they where building they all where living in a 5th Wheel .

Come into this wonderful master bath with a killer shower that you can see reflected in the mirror there is also a tub in here.

OK so lets join the party ....below in the plaid shirt Eric wanted to take time to say thanks to all the people who helped them build their dream home!

Ana's brother drove 1000 miles to cook a pig for the "pulled pork" sandwiches by the way they where the best ever !

I hate to say bye to this project, but first I must Thank Eric, Ana & the kids for this last year of tracking the build of their home. I hope as you read this you will enjoy the process as much as I have!

They still have a few things to do as you can see in the below picture they still have to rock the fireplace and stain the house and decorate so I will will be back.... but for the most part this will be the last of the build photo's.

What a blessing this has been for me I hope the "D" family has enjoyed it and for all you reading this I hope you found it interesting~~~~~

Finally I'm back.........

2009-06-19T10:08:00.001-07:00

OK so I have been busy check out the Press Release located on my home page at www.bakerpond.com to see what has keep me away from blogging......

So this is way past it's time in fact these pictures where taken back in March. Eric has had some very good friends and family help with their home project and as you can see doing the Tongue and Groove Pine on walls and ceilings can be way up there....

Here they are tucking the last T&G up next to their log ridge beam.

This was on the other slope......

But look how cool it looks finished with Ana's great pick of fans

Here is a picture of the kitchen and the granite counter tops remember this home is in the process of construction and family so you can't always have everything picked up and clean when you take the photo's

The "D" family thought about doing log rails but after they had a chance to see how much wood they have in the walls and ceiling they thought that a difference product would break things up a bit and I happen to love what they picked in this metal railing system. Besides with small hands around Ana will love the easy care also.....

Can't you just see them sitting in the loft enjoying the inside and outside views....

Moving into May they are at a place to start hauling in some stuff I'm surprised nobody was on the bed napping after all the hard work they have put into this project.

Or better yet in this awesome shower....

Yeah no more worries about falling off the sides .....

Now these just came to me "D" family is in and almost rolled over in the loan from Construction to Mortgage loan.....there are still things do besides unpack on the inside.

This is a close up look of the rails before they paint them again I think they will be very happy with the upkeep. I know some of you are saying but it is a log home where are the log rails....this is the cool thing though it is your home and you get to do the things you want : )

Check out that view they have and soon there will be green grass here to play on.....

You can see a ladder on the roof that is there until they get the home stained and the rock on the chimney.....

Here we are just over a year after they started the dream home .....I plan to have more inside finish photo's in the future....but have enjoyed showing you the process of this home in my blog and hope you enjoy looking at it. Thanks "D" Family !

Progress on the "D" house.....

2009-04-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Wow time has gotten away from me and I'm so behind in post about this house so I'm going to do a couple of photos now and then hopefully I will get to more later this week !

So at the end of Jan here is how things looked Everything had insulation and then just needed to have the T & G Pine put into place.

Here is the finished photo with T&G up and fans in place.

A look from the outside at that glass.

They also did a fair amount of Sheetrock on interior walls....so here is one in the process...

Then the finished painted wall with the windows trimmed out and light in place.

Just a couple of cute kids pictures because you know they where helping : )

Both the kids wanted to help Sheetrock....

And then Painting their rooms was also on the "to do " list !

Come back again......

Work is moving on at the "D"s project

2009-01-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

So the red metal roof is on and the guys are back doing the log siding on the dormers along with putting windows. They also

Even the family gets into the act Ana Dad is helping with the fan box.

Here is what the back side of the home looks like....big Shed dormer so there is a ton of room upstairs in loft, master bedroom, bath and closest. And yes they are on top of a daylight basement that is much needed extra space.

This is a close up picture of the finished concrete floor. They did radiant heating using hot water tubes and then poured colored concrete over it and then came back and stamped in a pattern with some more stain so it give the floor depth in the color along with texture and the bonus is warmth also.

This is looking down from the loft into the Living room. You can also see the doors and windows are here and getting put in at this time.

This is taken from the dining room area to the front door and stairs to second floor.

This is to show you that they left the kids bedroom floor flat so they could do carpet over the concrete if they wanted to.

This is in the kitchen area and they blocked out for the Island that has a stove and oven in it.

They have a very busy week ahead and then they are moving onto insulation and sheetrock : )

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2008-12-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

this is fun because everyday I get new pictures to add to this post : )

Dave & the girls out in the snow they got over 30" I think in southwest Washington...

Check out the wood ready for the fireplace and don't forget the dog !

These 2 pictures I have just added....as home owners have been passing around snowy pictures I ask them to send in Christmas ones also so Jay & Paulette live in an an area that doesn't usually gets snow or at least much of it anyway so here is their tree and outside look ......

This is a 2008 of the outside home and archway of friends who go out with us to get their tree.

Even the Archway got lights......

This is 2007 Christmas tree haven't seen this years up and decorated yet ..... OK so Kevin the neighbor has a web site and he took some 2008 pictures of his home and Tom & Carla's so here is this years tree all a glow below.....

Different home ( but is next door to the last home) they helped each other put up the outside lights..... this is Kevin & Michele's home.

Stocking from the mantel.....

Kevin loves this and each year I think he does more...these where taken last year. And because Kevin had some new stuff and new pictures on his web I borrowed some of his .....

Love this idea for the Christmas town.....and below are this years outside lights while it snowed how perfect can that be.....

He even decorated the gate at the archway !

Different home again stockings are hung : )

I believe these guys actually cut the tree on their land how cool is that.

This is the first Christmas in our home and it was taken by someone who knew what they where doing it was for an ad but if you look close in the 3 panel door there is a grey trap covering something we where tiling our floors at this time ......

The next year or so we got the boys to help line the house.....wished we could do that again but again this is a number of years ago and we have added onto the house twice !

This one is from 05 you can see the tree lights in the prow....we go out as a group into the woods and cut down our trees ( the first 2 homes are couples that come along ) and get our trees the Sat after Thanksgiving.

This was also in 05.....this is our driveway and the wreath you see in the back ground is our front porch.

Last year I talked Cliff into building this star for me but this is the porch we just remodeled and it is no longer there so Cliff took the Star and it is now on that archway you see in the above pictures.

I took this one last year also.....

and this one .....

And this also was last year ....this year is much the same just a bit smaller tree : )

Hope you enjoyed the tour ! Stay safe and warm and enjoy the season !!!!

Radiant Floor Heating

2008-11-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

These first 2 pictures show the D. family home and that they are putting down the tubes for the Radiant flooring going down..... I'm not sure yet as to what they will be using as a finished floor materials you 'l have to come back to see.....first photo is showing it done in this Living room area...the picture is taken from the upstairs.

Here you see them placing the tubes and tacking them into place.

The rest of these photo's are other customers homes that also have used the Radiant heating but what you'll be seeing is just the finished floor above them...

This above home used this great slate stones and did their own pattern over the tubes that where set in light weight concrete over the sub flooring....

This home used regular concrete and then stained it .....

The next 3 photos are in the same home that also used light weight concrete here in the kitchen they did Hickory hardwood that came raw and they stained it.

In their entry they used Slate tiles.....

And the in the Living room they put carpet over it ......so as you can see from these photos that it can have just about any flooring or just concrete over the tubes.....I can tell you that our customers who have this type of heating love it !

Just a month later !

2008-11-10T10:42:00.001-08:00

A month after the logs came this is what the home of the D. family looks like ( if you wonder what I'm talking about look at the next post to see )....everybody is very happy as to how fast things are going.....you can see the Gable End where there will be a deck wrapping around from the front porch. There is a big window in the living room part and a slider door in the dining room and above you will see at the end of this post how they will also have some glass to look out of from the second floor.

This is the other end of the home where the bedrooms are kids on main floor and mom & dad above them.

I took this picture from the living room part of the great room....on the main floor will be the kids bedrooms on that back wall and at the top of the ladder and right will be an open loft and to the left of the ladder will be master bed and bath.

I'm standing in the open loft area looking back to the Master. See the log posts and ridge beam along with the wood flooring that will get finished at the end of the project. See the framed out opening in the framed wall just behind the ladder....keep watch to see what happens there....

Here are 2 samples of what could take place in that wall.....

Above look behind the stove pipe that is an old window that is opening up to the master bedroom . Below is also in a master bedroom on the second floor......just a fun way to bring light and heat into a bedroom and not lose the view with a wall.

OK so back to the home under construction ....

Here I'm standing at the kitchen island area looking at the dining room window on left and slider with board in front to keep it safe.

We always suggest that once you have a roof on it is time to clean up the wood...so here our home owner is washing his beams and you can see they have prepared for the kitchen lighting because they have done a post and beam second system so the Tongue & Grove ( T&G) 2 x 6 wood you see in between the beams is the ceilings on the main floor and the wood flooring on the second floor so there isn't a void for the wiring to run in later.

Love this picture and the best part of what we do is to get to know new people and become a part of their lives .....isn't she the cutest !

Above you can see they have framed in for the future glass going in that end....this picture was taken a couple of days after we where there along with the last one in this post that shows the metal roofing going on.....

Stop by and stay up with this project along with other posts.....

Let me introduce you to the D. Family

2008-10-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would share with you the excitement of one of our customers as they go though the process of the building of their log home......we met this couple in March of 2006 at a Home & Garden Show for the first time....then they came out to one of our Open House's we held at another couples home to see what our product looked like....then later that spring Eric & Ana came to Bend to do what we call a "home tour" where we put you in our car and take you around the area to see at least 3-5 different homes.

In this process over the next couple of years some things changed one of which was they started planning for one style of home and then at the prelim stage changed to another style not common for us ..... but I think worked out much better for them in the end....they are building a version of the Woodside I & II. The family picture was taken Sat. afternoon before we left them. They got the logs Thursday at 8 am so we all thought that they had gotten a lot done in the first 3 days they where done with coarse 5.

This is the drawing from the cover of their final plans.

Above what you are looking at is the basement floor and the red tubes are for Radiant floor heating....they will have this in basement and on main floor also.

Again in the basement you can see the I-joist for the sub floor above.

Here in May the sub floor was down and ready for logs....but had to work out some issues on the land so they could get a construction loan. So on the 25th of Sept.....it all started

Here is the one of the log trucks....there where 2 that day and then they will have a delivery later this month with the windows and a couple of local lumber deliveries for the package.

Day after delivery Cliff is showing Eric how to prepare the logs....the log is sitting on what we call a "log cutting deck" that is a temporary staging area to able to true up the logs pre-drill for lags, thrubolts and electrical. In the back ground you can see the "crew" Dylan (our son )and Noah from Creative Carpentry and the logs for the project.

So later in the day Ana decided she wanted to do her own log so she could show friends and family she did this also and by herself.

Then William wanted to say he helped so he is sitting a lag with dad's help....and Izabel is just being cute : )

By mid day Wed. ( Oct.1 st) the logs where done ! Eric took 2 weeks off work to be able to help the crew work on the house.

Time to start the second floor and Eric & Ana are doing a Post & Beam floor system so all the beams and posts are showing. Here they are putting up the first beam for the loft upstairs but what you are looking at is the gable end in the great room.

This is looking from Great room to back of the house where the kitchen / pantry and 2 bedrooms and a bath are.

The crew is building and standing up the loft walls. They are standing on top of the Tongue & Groove wood floor that is the finished flooring upstairs and when you are downstairs is the wood ceilings you will see in kitchen, dining room and bedrooms....and yes this second story is framed but will have log siding on the outside and inside will be T&G wood that matches the face of the log used and in this case it is a "D" log.

When the boom truck was there they used it to stand up the back gable wall that is in the Master bedroom area .

So last week ( Oct. 9th )the boom truck came in and they boomed in the log ridge beams.....

Now this week they will start making sure the rafters and all upstairs walls are in place to get the roof on....I'll keep you posted on and off on the progress of this home!

Update on Kitchen ....but not completely done : )

2008-10-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering huh so I thought I was going to be looking at kitchen project.....will back in the spring when I started this blog I was on the other side of our pond and found that the Beaver was helping him self to an apple tree that just takes care of itself and in the last 14 years that we have been here has only had apples once and they made the best pie's and apple sauce around.....

So I thought no he is taking down that tree and so here it is full of apples again .....going over to the tree now to see if they are ready to pick for pie's !

So everything got all washed and dried and they started the staining. We use a product made by Sickken's called Log and Siding it is oil based and has been on our home now for around 8 years we have maintained it once in those years and will need to again next spring. This is the second product we used and found out fast what not to use ...but better than that what will be good for us to use....

OK so we made a trip with friends to the beach for a weekend and then went to dinner in Toledo at Chef's Place if you are at the Oregon beach around Newport it is a must place to eat at ....Toledo is out 7 miles east of Newport on Hwy 38 go into town and you'll find it on the right hand side of the road tell Patrick ( the Chef and owner) we sent you. He is also a customer of ours this is his home below.....anyway his daughter did a faux treatment on the beadboard in the restrooms so we ask how and got the ideas.....

So Cliff jumped in and did 2 coats of yellow with 1 coat of red on top and sanded away !

At this point we have only done the Hutch and what I call the Dish Pantry...but we do plan to do the back of the bar and the top part of the hood .....

So with those 2 things done now I have been working on getting my stuff put away.....and a bit of decorating....

The hutch filled up.....

open the doors and see what's inside : )

The Dish Pantry and my open pantry.....need to order a door .....

Open it up and I love how it came out even my hubby likes it .....now all we need is the handles and knobs...they are here but hunting season got in the way.

I'm taking a break form this and going back to what I started this blog about and that was Log Homes.....next post is about a couple taking the delivery and the early stages of the build....check back soon !

I'm using the kitchen all the time : )

2008-09-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

So we feel very blessed as we have been working on this project and just one of the things that has happened is that when we put our tile flooring in over 12 years ago we got some great tile that was a really good deal it was a tile 12 x 12's around $1.35 a sq ft...a number of years went by we added onto the house with a formal entry way and found that the same tile was still out there it had changed a bit to a 13 x 13 so we got it and put it down nobody knew it was different.....so when we started this we thought no way they would still make it but behold it is still out there : ) So you see Cliff is at the very end of laying tile down .

Here he is on his knees putting in the last of the grout

While he was doing that Tom the great friend ! was installing the T&G in the pantry.

Look close at this photo ....yes that is my bar sink and pot filler facet coming out of the log : ) When Cliff told me he wanted to do this I thought will OK but now I see it I once again know I have been blessed with a VERY creative hubby !

The picture below is looking at the log / pot filler / and behind that is the rack holding my dishes....yes I still need to paint the "Dish Pantry" and Hutch. So that was my project today was once again doing some more samples of bead board and Red & Yellow paints....hopefully we can get the process we want to do figured out soon....and oh yeah look at the stained butcher block counter top !

Over the weekend I got the pantry filled up door is on order....

I have been using my new kitchen sinks, dish washers, and stove love them all : )

So Cliff took this weekend to wash the outside in preparation to staining......

YOU can't see it above but he was power washing the logs ....below he turned around to see if he could wash me : )

So today he started the staining....and that should wrap up the outside.

Again any of these pictures you want to see bigger just click on them....see you next time !

..............Moving on again .........

2008-08-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe it has been almost a month from my last post I bet some of you who having been watching are wondering.....

We where working ...had a couple of deliveries ( maybe I should explain this....we had two different customers who got their log home packages delivered ) and so we had to take care of business also.... but in between some things got taken care of.

Here is the stove and it's hood that isn't finished the OSB ( above the hood around the vent pipe ) will be covered up with bead board like the cupboards I'm going to paint.

The guys are installing my new Dish Drawers...yes drawers and instead of having one on top of the other I have one on each side of the sink.....love them I just got to use them yesterday for the first time ...they are a bit different in the way you load them but OH so quite and easy to load and unload. By the way see my hubbies expensive water bottle : )

Below they are gluing together the new butcher block counter tops and you can see the 2 dish draws.

Love this the guys are so good they talked about it and they are cutting in groves on each side of the sink so the water can just run back into the sink....LOVE IT ! Wait tell you see the finished look on my next post .....

This is the Island cabinets installed but needing a counter top and the draws put back in.....I have the soft close draws something new and something to get used to.

Cliff ( on left ) & Tom ( right side) in the garage cutting the angles for the Island counter top.....and good thing we are headed back to Portland next week cause IKEA here we come for one more butcher block to finish the project....and no they didn't miss cut just didn't figure what was needed the first shopping trip....I get to look around IKEA again. Most of what they have isn't my style but they do have some cool things and some thing are a great buy.....like the butcher block.

OK so back to the picture taking and I'll be back sooner than a month I promise!

All the Bits are here

2008-07-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

So we have all the bits ( as my English friends would say) meaning that we now have all the parts to finish off our side of this project. As I write this my husband is on his way home from a work day in the Portland area and while there he made a trip to my new favorite place to shop ( not his ) IKEA.....he stopped in today to pick up the butcher block to put on the cabinets for our counter tops. We had stained green ones before I don't think we will do that again....but who knows.

OK on to the pictures about a month ago we had out trusty neighbors and friends come over to help with getting the hood in place.....but Cliff & I didn't think about where the new layout of the cabinets was going to be and so they got it up........but............this week Cliff moved it 27" towards the Living room to where it is suppose to be....oops.

The good thing was he had not cut the hole in the roof for the fan : )

But before they could do that they had to take out the old bar and take down our pot rack.

Cliff was up in the air again this time to stain the new T&G and logs so that the really white pine looks a bit more aged to go with what has been for 14 years.

Taking out some more tile and you can see old sink plumbing....Remember if you click the pictures they get bigger.........

Plumber is here today getting the new sink plumbed for us.....

Now Cliff and Tom can start to set the cabinets they are the lower ones....actually I really don't have upper ones. I used to think that was crazy not having them but more and more of my clients are not using them. So in the corner of the kitchen to then left side of picture the black space will be a walk in pantry and the you see a tall pantry looking cabinet that is my "dish pantry". I think I will love it........ there are 2 shelves at inside top then 2 roll out drawers behind the upper cupboards. then the black hole is where my drawer for silverware is going and then in the bottom cupboard is 2 more roll out drawers.....this all get a paint treatment you will see more down below.

Once again just when Cliff thought he had taken out all the old tile more needs to come out ! And even though this was one of his first time putting it down 13 years ago he did a very good job of making sure it would never come up : ) the best part is they are still making our tile so we also got that "bit" and it is waiting to get put into place!

The hood got move ( that is why the scaffolding is back again)....and Jeep of Blue Flame and our customer stopped by to hook up the new Wolf stove. Jeep & Leah added onto an A Frame this last year below are a couple of pictures of it......

So below is what it looks like today looking across kitchen to bay window

As you walk into the kitchen the 2 black holes are the drawer dishwashers they will sit 1 on each side of the kitchen sink....all in the garage ready to come in : )

Here is my dish pantry again : ) and I need help !

So here is the deal we want it to look like an old cupboard so I have done some paint samples and they are Red & Yellow...I was really wanting to do Yellow but the Pine cabinets and the yellow are not enough contrast for me so Red it is going to be I think.....

Which do you like......? Also let me tell you this bead board will be covering the new bar backing and around the top of the hood and I have a hutch that will go next to the Frig.

So I really would love to have your comments !!!!!

The addition has a new family

2008-07-10T09:19:00.001-07:00

This is Pepper she has been very interested in what is going on in our place but she isn't sure enough to spend much time coming over for a visit......

My folks have been sleeping in their new home for the last week now and Cliff is wrapping up the final to do list today. So I thought I would give you a small tour of the addition before we move back to working on our remodel.

These 2 pictures are of the living room as I stand at the edge of kitchen / dining area.

All my cabinets / dishwasher / and stove moved into this part.

Breakfast time ~~~ Chuck is on his own today.

Here is his desk over looking the pond what a great view....yesterday we had an Eagle looking for fish lunch.....

Coming into bath room from the bedroom.....

I know that this is about log homes and I have strayed a bit here by this project at our place but soon that is all going to be over thanks for letting us share : )

Last stages on the addition

2008-06-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

This is so cool to watch how they do things with trucks and lifts....here they are doing what they call "loading the house" with sheet rock.

It is all in now and you can see the home is all insulated. They have used some new cotton fibers it was very soft and fluffy.

So Cliff , Kevin and Tom started putting up bead board on the walls....I have always wanted this on my walls......

It just reminds me of a cool old cabin in the woods....

Next day the sheet rockers came in and started hanging it on the ceiling first.....

At the end of the day they where done and we made a deal to clean up the piles : )

This is in the bedroom at the top or what I call the gable peak they turned the boards over and they are flat ( the bead board is only on one side of this 1 x 8) and they laid it Horizontal.

The next day the tapers came in and taped all the joints....and then plastered the sheet rock.

So once that was done Cliff got out his sprayer and primed all the sheet rock after Tom had put plastic over all the wood walls.

On the outside Dylan & Noah built a ramp at the Entry....but ran out of Evergrain ( brand name )it is a composite decking we love it......... never will do real wood on decks again...sorry if you are a purest we just don't like the care that wood takes....

New day new color.... Sage in the great room. You can also see the vinyl got laid down the blue tape is to keep us from walking on the seams for an hour.

Cabin Red is the color in the bedroom this is the first coat of 2 which is normal with red paint .

This is the finished red and looking into the Blue bath.....Red for my dad and blue for my mom : )

Next day our friend Shore came over to help so he is putting clear interior varithane on the wood for us and being watched by the carpet layers who are also here working.

Carpet in bedroom , plumbing and wiring in the bathroom.

This is another grand puppy of ours this is Bones who is testing the carpet for us....

We needed to do deck railing off the back side of the addition and so we are using hog wire fencing and to hold it in place top and bottom again using the Evergrain . We really like using these products low maintenance and the wire is something that doesn't really block the view.

Tom and our other son Justin are cutting while the above picture shows Cliff marking a board to make the log cuts.

Here you can see how nice it looks from the inside....don't you love the big windows......

Once again the big boy toys are put to use. A couple of years ago we bought this small dump trailer and it is so nice to have around....here they are dumping some gravel to even out the ground from the drive to the ramp...later we will do black top or pavers....

The only thing missing is the hand rail........stay tuned the move has happened and so we are almost ready for the finished pictures of the parents new home....and we are back into our kitchen with our new cabinets coming this next week : )

I'm back and so is the sun : )

2008-06-11T11:06:00.001-07:00

So I know it has a couple of weeks but here I am again and the sun is back and I think we may even have some heat again....I'm whining because yesterday I thought it was going to snow it was so cold and windy and I do believe it is the middle of June : )

OK so here is what has been happening the last couple of weeks.....the guys finished roofing the wing and got it ready to log side once the windows got here.

You can see we put some hand peeled logs on the corners for the log siding to run into.

This is the day before windows came so they started the log siding. That is the front door for my parents wing.

Next day windows came and you see here they where putting in the last one in the wing.

Noah is outside waiting to hear if it is OK to nail it in....

Inside Cliff and Dylan are making sure it is in straight.

Then back outside to finish log siding the gable end and most of both sides almost had enough to finish now we will get some on our next delivery.

At the end of the day Noah on the left helped one of our home owners Kevin who came by to help us with getting our phones and cables wired in .

This is Kevin & Michele's home they built themselves a couple of years ago. And Kevin is big time into Christmas can you tell. This is a Lake Vista on a basement that house's the 2 car garage and family room / exercise room.

Inside is Kevin & Michele's tree. Just for your info we do an annual Group ( anybody who wants to go group) gathering for Christmas trees and Kevin's says he gets the biggest tree !

Then Sat we held an Open House in another couples home outside of Battle Ground WA.

Dave & Tamara are nice enough to open their home once a year. Again they also wanted to build their own home.

This is looking from the loft of their version of a Lakeview I.

So after the Open house we drove about 30 miles to another town to look at a stove that I found on Craig's list. You see my hubby is the best cook ever and he has always wanted a big boy stove and so I have been looking for the last 2 months online trying to find a good deal on a Wolf range and last week found one and so we took a trailer with us in case it was in fact a good deal and you can see below it was.....

So Sunday after Church some of our friends & customers came by to help get the stove into the house....you see it was around 700 lbs.

Once in it had wheels to help move it around but we where really happy to have the help of Thane ( in black T) and Justin our other son ( in baseball cap ).
Here is Julie ( with Haley the granddaughter ) with Thane her son ( Black T ) and Tom next to him and Cliff with his back to us and that is Julie's husband Bill at the end.

Below is a picture of Bill & Julie's latest project inside the Library Bill built this whole wall unit in their Creek III you can see other pictures on our site in the Profile.

Then this is a picture inside Tom & Carla's Woodside II....So whose tree is bigger Tom & Carla's or Kevin & Michele's ?????

OK so back to our project now with before and after pictures of the family room window.

We are also changing the door that goes from our eating area out to our porch so below you see old door on the grass and new slider on the deck.

We had to cut open the size of this and in doing that I got a chance to show you how the logs connect one to another. Our home is of the old method of 12" spikes now we use 12" logs that are at least 3/4" thick. So they are close to same size....

Notice the plastic is up to try and keep saw dust at bay.....

This is an interesting site ...see the chainsaw blade just left of the tile and it is saw dust raining in the kitchen as Dylan is cutting out for the new Bay window.

Sometime people ask if the logs are connected good enough will I can say for sure after this cut out and the wall we took out before that I think they are VERY connected and if there was something going on I want to be in our home.

Got one other one at the top to come out.....

And this one at the bottom take care of that hole....

Look close and you can see Dylan is cutting off the tongues of the logs for the window to sit down smooth on top of the log.

This is showing you a 2 x 6 window buck that is slotted for nails this way if the logs move the window doesn't.

This is the before look of the one kitchen window and upper cabinets .....

After....but not done : ) Remember if you click on picture it will get bigger.....come back!

Rain Rain Go Away

2008-05-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Last week the plumber was back and did the next step....got rough in and vents out the roof.

The guys set this corner log for the porch on pond side.

Here is a look from our porch ( which was an add on a couple of years ago) to the new porch on parents wing. Blue sky is here today and gone tomorrow....

Here is my parents front door there will be a ramp as a walk way up to porch.

Cliff at the end of the day staining the T&G for roofs before it goes into place...beautiful blue skies.....

The next day rain and more rain and so this was Friday and guys took it off because of weather and they where sick.

This is taken on Tues am showing what Cliff did this long weekend. First he put plastic from the ceiling to floor and started to sand glu-lams ( because some of them from log post to wall where outside just a month ago....) and the log walls and log posts needed to be cleaned up. Then he finished the can lighting now only lighting we have to do in house are pendent light which can't go in until upper cabinets come out and new window goes in and a light for new pantry in that back corner.

Aren't I pretty...this is Brandy our "grand puppy" ( that is correct no grand kids yet so this is one of the critters we spoil : ) Notice she is smiling !

Yesterday during a small rain break.... they roofed under the new porch

Then they put on the T&G both sides on porch roofs.

A bit of a different look taken from the small office window you can see below in the road shot picture of our place.

Today again raining on and off....the guys just carried up all those roofing bundles !

Lumber delivery....this time some more decking and fascia for porches.

Remember the apple tree / bush that the Beavers eat the bottom of ( you can see it at bottom of picture) will here it is with blossoms : )

Here is the road view and remember above the different picture from office window that is from that small windows at the top of the 2 story wall on left side of picture. Our office is above our garage.

Roof got covered

2008-05-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

So last Tues. the guys started sheeting the roof after putting up fascia boards all around ( for those who don't know what that is it is a trim around the edge of the roof ).

Looking at this process of sheeting from the inside

By Wed. it was all done....

So Dylan did a bit of finish trim work ...he is making cuts down the old and new logs where they meet. ( remember if you click on picture it gets bigger ) He is doing this because he wants to set that half log you see next to him in so it looks like it has always been there.

Here he is breaking out the logs where he cut them......

Then this is what the other side looked like when he was done. Scroll down and you will see in another post earlier where we are doing this same look on the inside. That was the end of our week we had to travel for work and Dylan went to help his cousin with a project in their kitchen.

So Monday they finished framing all the interior walls. As you look at this I'm standing in the kitchen area looking to the pantry / utility area on left side of picture and then back into the bath room ( shower has some insulation in it). The long wall separates the living area from the bedroom.

So that is all for now.... but the plumber is back here now and guys are going to be working on porches this week so I may try another post this week.

Bye to one Big Boy Toy but more to come.......

2008-05-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

So the last job for the Backhoe was to load up all the logs from the trees we cut down. We have a friend that lives by us that does great things with logs....his name is Dan and he owns Blue Pine Designs or http://www.bluepinedesigns.com/ anyway I have added 2 different photos of customers of ours that have his product in their homes. And we also hope to have some of his stuff. Anyway he came by last week and took about 15 logs to dry and cut up.......

These cabinets and bar are something Dan of Blue Pine did as a custom cabinet job....he even did the face cover for the dishwasher which is on the far right of sink.

This is inside another customers mudroom and when they got done building all of this we started calling then "shelves are us " . Jim & Marsha bought all the materials for these shelves and post bottoms and side panels and I believe even bench materials from Dan and then they built this themselves......

OK so back to our project mid week the guys sheeted the walls.

I took a walk around the pond again now they have the house wrap on.....

Then they finished working on the deck for the wing that attaches to our porch deck...they will come back sometime soon and build a porch on this part also.....

OK so we needed to have a cover up of the corner and we used a log that has been hanging around long enough to grey out and so Cliff got out his new find. One of our customers told him about this product they called "Gone in 30 seconds" . Will one day about a week ago Cliff went to every store in town and finally found something called "30 Seconds" and he has been testing it everywhere....so if you look at the middle of this log it has a tan strip around it ! Gone in 30 seconds : ) Again don't forget if you click on the picture it gets bigger.....

You can also see the deck got done and connected then they will do log siding on the right side of this log. Cliff has really been having fun seeing how God is providing for him all the deck we took off that porch we removed got put back in place on the new deck for the wing and we even had a couple of extra sticks left over that I had Noah put in place on our steps ( long story short we did this decking a couple of years ago and ran out on our steps but had another color and so that is what he took off and put the left over on so now it is all the same : )

So now it was a wait for a couple of days for truss to come so they came back inside our place and put up T&G on the dining room side .....while Cliff finished things over the kitchen side.

You can see he had to put back the vent pipe for the sink ( that is the black pipe behind him) and then we had to add a couple of lights into our old part of the kitchen cause things are changing a bit in there....

On Sat. our youngest son Justin came over for the weekend to help and here he and his dad are marking out where things are going to be in the bathroom. Cliff thought it would be a nice gift to my Mom to let her get a feel where all the walls and cabinets and shower/ sink and stuff would be. So they marked it out for her and then even laid down 2 x4's where walls would be. Sorry I didn't get a picture of that I was going to but the day got away from me.

Before Dylan & Noah left on Friday they also got up a few more log rafters. Then Cliff & Justin worked on the wiring for that end. See the black boxes each side of the door. And they put up our new fan / light and moved our antler light from the old dining area to it's new home.....

Monday morning and the Truss truck came first thing.

This is a good look at the truss. We are putting in what is called a Scissor Truss that way we have a vault inside the wing ceiling.

OK so now we have to make new and old come together. They are using this first truss to mark where they have to cut away the roof line.

They have cut away the roof and Dylan is cutting what we call the lookouts you will see them on the new roof at the end of today....

Cliff is using the chain saw to cut away the beam.

First truss goes into place !

Here Noah on the far left is adding in blocking in between each truss....Cliff is doing the same on the far right. And Dylan is putting metal straps on the top of each truss....you can see all this better on the last picture.

OK so what you are looking at here is a string line ( orange in color ) that they put up to keep all the truss lined up.

We are at the end of Monday and Dylan is adding the "look out" for the new roof. These are used to carry the sheeting and roofing as it hangs over 2'.

Moving along

2008-05-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to start off this post inside our addition and then move out to the wing we are adding on.

So above you see Dylan & Noah adding 1x9 T&G to the inside of our framed gable wall, while Cliff is in the ceiling putting in new can lighting. As a home owner you can pull the wires and do your own plumbing but as a General in our state you can't do these things on a job.

I'm very excited because we will have a pantry located in my kitchen I can hardly wait to fill it up. To the left side of it is where the refrigerator will sit and to the right of it the kitchen sink comes out and there is going to be a cabinet that gets used for a pantry in a normal kitchen but will be used for my dishes and glassware because we won't have any upper cabinets.

This above picture is great in that we always get ask how much do the logs settle....here is the answer on the right is the old log wall that has been there for 13 years this May. You can also see above the window the space left for the small amount of settling we have in our logs to take place. The gray stuff on the wall is backer board that was used behind the tile back splash that is coming down. The top logs are some older logs weathered and the bottom are newer logs....so you see a bit more settling in the lower part that in the upper where the logs have aged a bit more. We will sand down all of this and so you won't see much color difference.

This is how we are trimming out between the new and the old logs with a log cut in half. Again this is not a finished application yet every things needs to be cleaned up and then have some clear sealer put on it before it is done.

In the ceiling we have added log rafters so that we can cover up where the T&G in the existing wing meets up with the T&G ( not there yet) in the addition.

OK so now outside to the wing addition....last week the footing and stem walls where poured I think it was Wed. and then Thursday they stripped the forms and our guys started the sub floor.

Then Thursday and Friday the plumber came in and did all the under floor plumbing and here you see the heating guys doing the under floor work for the heat pump.

Monday morning first thing they took some of this insulation down under the floor and put it in against the inside stem walls just to give us some more insulation factor. The guys started sheeting and before they where done the inspector came and signed off on rough plumbing, heating and sub floor framing.

Today the guys came and got our propane going again so the camp stove is no longer in the kitchen and we are back to using the Jen Air stove to cook with.

This is mid day on Tues they are almost done framing all the outside walls in. Yes framing instead of logs. We will put log siding on the outside and maybe some T&G on the inside walls to have the look of a solid log wall. There are a number of reasons why we are doing it this way but I guess the big one is that for the most part over years of doing this we have gathered some left over siding from some of our home owners project and we have maybe enough to do this without buying more ( we may have to buy some ) but we didn't have enough logs to do it and so we would have had to buy them.....like all of you we also are on a budget. Remember we are doing this so we can move my parents in with us to save them money and then if needed to take care of them. So we looked at all the options and took this way because we had more log siding than logs.

So here we are on the pond side of the my folks new home and on the far left will be a door out to their new porch and then you see 2 big holes for windows the first from the door is in their new living room and the second it in the bedroom where they will be able to see the pond and enjoy the wildlife.

So 2 things remember if you click on the photo it will get bigger and then plan to come back again.....trusses come on Monday so check back then if not before....

The Sun is out and we are back at work !

2008-04-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

So the sun was out and so was I on a walk around the pond. This picture is taken at one end of our pond that is close to the road and so this is what all the people driving by for the last 4 days have been looking at. Yes that is a white wall....it was very cold here last week and so we had the insulators come out and insulate that wall to try and stay a bit warmer.....we will have to take that out to do some wiring but just wanted to keep our heating bills more in line.

By the way I think if you click on any of these pictures they will get bigger ....so you can see what I'm talking about .....

So next stop on this walk was by what was a big old Apple Tree that really was more of a bush cause nobody took care of it. So any guess as to what is going on here ?????
If you say Beaver you are correct and if we can get Dylan ( our son for those who don't know ) to remember to bring over his animal camera maybe we will get to see him or them at work....

This is what he or she or they do is cut down the branches then take them into the pond and strip the bark off ....and yes have a beer or two : )

This is the real reason for the walk as first thing this morning I noticed while we where gone this weekend we had some new babies at the pond. This is one family and the other one I saw had 5 and we have at least 2 more mom's sitting. I have a good story I'll tell you about in the next post when I have more pictures.....

This was last week job for Cliff and Tom sorry didn't take any pictures of the action but this used to be a walking bridge over a small inlet in between our big pond and the smaller one behind us and Cliff had that big boy toy for the month so he could put in a culvert and make a road to drive over. Once that was done he took apart our walking bridge and put it on each side of his new road....OK onto the good stuff for the day.....

The boys are peeling new post for our house.....

The concrete guys are getting started with the footings....

They have put in support post and Cliff is taking out the tile around the old post to prepare for the new logs....

Then they had to take out the bolts from the old buckets....and take out the posts

In come the second of the new log posts.....I was in the office working for the first one and almost missed this....they don't really like the camera : (

Had to take a bit extra off the bottom....

Then use the sledge hammer a couple of times.....so at the end of Monday this is how it looked

Concrete is ready to get inspected and hopefully we pour the footings and stem walls on Tuesday for the wing....

Before posts and no insulation.......

After 2 cool new log post !!!!

Our addition more fun !

2008-04-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hang with me today because I have added all the newest pictures and it brings us up to date with what is going on at our place....

Above picture starts off on the 11th of this month where you can see we put in new footings and sub floor. We have also added posts to hold the glu-lams. You don't see it but there is under floor insulation there also and this hole in the stem wall is to be able to get to the crawl space. See the log corners on the far left and right will as you will see below we needed to remove them so we could add in new logs walls.

Here Dylan our son is cutting the log wall out which he did on both sides of the corners on both sides of the house.

Cliff is checking it out notice the hole and logs on the ground....yes I was wondering about this also cause it still feels like winter at night around here....and some days also !

We did fill this hole with a board and insulation for the weekend.....

On the 14th Dylan & Noah were back putting up the new log walls on both sides and then they framed in the Gable end this wall will connect to the new wing for my parents.

Also I know you may be looking at the fact that we have a straight line of logs old and new.... will I can't wait for you to see how we finish that off with a real cool trim we are going to do later.

Why not logs on the gable end....we thought about it and talked about it and then couldn't figure out which side would get the flat side of the log and which would get the round so we just framed it and then we are sheeting the inside of our part for a couple of reasons ....one is for better sound barrier and another reason is we may use log siding inside our gable end ( still not a given for sure ) and the guys will screw that in from the outside so you will not see the connections on the inside.

So on the next picture you see Noah on the left finishing the sheeting and Dylan on the right side tearing down the original outside log wall which has log siding above the log wall.

OK here comes the fun part this morning starts the big tear down of our original log gable end you may have to go back to the post before this so you can remember what that used to look like....

At this point they have taken out the kitchen window on right the Double Doors in the middle ( when we first moved in those where our front doors ) and then above them was a fixed trap window.

Dylan got out his chain saw to cut the Kitchen side of log wall in half ...what he was cutting was the lags that connect one log to another.

Then they pulled down the top half of the wall......

Then they jumped on the bottom half of the wall....and some wonder if lags will hold up a log wall....

So on the family room side ....oops don't let this happen to you : )

So here is what it looks like opened up before we cleaned up.

So the next post will show how we are going to put it back together....remembering we are still in the process and want to live with this part over the weekend to get a better feel for our new space so you will have to come back again.

Can I add on to a log home?

2008-04-15T12:59:00.001-07:00

Sometimes we get ask this question and so I thought I would let you follow along with us and our addition. Our home was built in 1996 and we have since added on a couple of times by adding a Entry Breezeway that connected a 30 x 30 garage with our office above. We have also cut into the log wall to add a full masonry fireplace. The above pictures show this from the Street and the back side of our home.

But starting this spring we are adding onto the other end of our home to make out kitchen/ family room area bigger by in closing this 8' by 28' porch and then on to that we are adding a 28' x 30' wing for my parents to move into.

OK so that is all the before pictures now lets get onto the good stuff where you get to tear stuff up : )

Had to remove the porch first so we could add footing for a foundation. So below you see Cliff digging for footing and then using the bucket to carry away old footing.....big boy toys, got to love them !

One of the bad things is we had to remove some of our big trees to make room for this so above you see them behind the backhoe and below is the tree guys removing them.

They where some tall trees ...we took 2 of them down. And will use some of the wood for fire wood but most of the big stuff will go to a friend who has a portable saw mill and will use them to make slabs....more big boy toys....

That is it for now the next post will show the process of putting it all back together along with cutting out the log wall.........stay turned !

Where or How to Start

2008-04-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

So I have been thinking lately about what should I talk about here and this thought came to mind where or how to start. Everybody starts in a different place but I'm going to toss out a couple of suggestions of what I think helps.

I think one very big thought is to figure out what the budget is going to be and I know this is going to be uncomfortable to most of you but sharing that budget early on with whomever you are going to be working with will help big time. Let me explain why this is.

We all have dreams and wish lists of things we want or find important to us. That is good even having pictures will be good also. But I find in my own life and others I talk to also that sometimes the list doesn't match up with the budget. And so when I'm working with you I'm not trying to spend the budget but in fact I find I'm trying to help you get as much in your budget as we can and not going over that. But if I don't know your budget then I'm of no help what so ever and in fact I'm not only wasting your time but also mine.

So that is one thing to figure out early on in the process and you may have a very good feeling how much that is or maybe you need to talk to a lender about what your budget is (lenders now more than ever you need to be working with someone who understands log homes and we have some really great people in this area so please let us help you). One thing I can say loans have changed lately and are still changing daily.....

So then another very important thing to do is to visit us or any company to see the product first hand.......one of things Cliff & I love to do is a "Customer home tour" this usually takes 4 plus hours and once we know that this is what you are going to do and then we have some ideas of what you are looking to do before we sit down and do the contracts we love to put you into our car and take you out and about to show you different homes and product.

This will allow you a chance to talk to home owners ( about us if you want to : ) and their experiences and it will also let you see the many different looks of logs , log corners, options such as log posts inside and out or maybe should I do all interior wood or some sheetrock or maybe it is log stairs you want. There are many things you will see on this tour maybe it is a home that is like what you want and maybe it isn't at all what you like but they have added an option you want to see...... so as you can see from the many pictures I have placed in this post that there is a good reason if you plan to build to call us come visit us and lets talk.

If you look at the "Calendar of Events" tab you will see that we also have some up coming Open House dates this is a time to come see one of our customers homes maybe in your area where you live or maybe it is the style of home you like.

How Long Will This Take ?

2008-03-03T13:54:00.001-08:00

As we work the spring trade shows one of the many questions that is ask is "how long will it take?"

That is a good question but in order for us to answer it correctly for you we need to know a couple of things........

Do you mean from the time you do a contract with the log provider ? or maybe you mean from the time you have plans in for permits.....or do you mean from the time that construction starts.

So I guess you understand a bit more now and then another question we would ask are you going to build it all your self or will a crew "weather it in" or will you have a General Contractor on the project.....those would be just some of the answers we would need to have from you.

Now let me go back and give you a bit of an over view of the process for us :

First we would need to know what you are wanting to build and then we would give you a quote covering your materials cost for the project if you wanted to get started then we would do contracts with you and our parent company Lincoln Logs.

Then we would send that contract and your deposit to them.....they will start the process at Lincoln of drafting your plans once they have a 10% deposit. See where I said a process will that means that time line could take around 4 months to get your final plans.

Once you have those ( and let me remind you that Lincoln provides you with Engineered Final plans that are ready to submit for permits ).....each county or city has a different time line in which it takes them to get though the permit process ( there is that word again )....average is around 6 weeks.

Then you get the OK to start working on the land ....which means your dig a whole pour concrete do a sub floor and then we come along with your log package and that will mean the log walls all the roof framing and sheeting and shingles along with all your interior wall and maybe second floor framing. And so on I don't want to go on for to long because there are many different parts to this....along with inspections from the county or city to see that things are being done to meet codes....

I have added a couple of pictures of this starting process with captions below each picture.....

Above the footings are formed ready for concrete....

Here the sub floor is getting the sheeting and yes that is the ocean : )

This home schooling family have a ton of supporting families that wanted to help them......

Here is an inside framed out home ....doesn't have windows in yet....

This is the look of our "weather-tight " materials package in place now they are working inside to finish....

These pictures are of different homes.

How Does a Log Home do in the Snow ?

2008-01-31T20:07:00.000-08:00

OK so I got out this am in the snow and took some pictures and wanted to share them so that is the reason for this funny question.

Many times we do get a question about log homes and the place they are going to live in.....will I happen to think if you want to live there then your log home will also live there and be OK : ) Because I have seen our homes at the beach, in the rain, way up in the mountains and in the high desert like where we live and they all have been OK as long as the home owners have put a good sealing product on them and then watched it to make sure they take care of it every 3-7 years.

We got so much snow last night and early this morning that it looks like you can't get up the 2 stairs at our front porch but Cliff had not been out yet with his trusty shovel yet....

Anyway the only reason I wrote this is because I wanted a reason to post some snow pictures I took today ....you see Bend is getting winter this week and the white stuff is coming down and I love it. And my welcome bear was asking "HELP ME" this morning.....

So I hope you enjoyed them ......

$$$$ that is the BIG question : )

2008-01-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

OK so I know I started this blog and then I just didn't know what to say first but I got help with that from Lisa who ask how much does it cost.....

Well Lisa and anyone else out there that is the best question but it is also the hardest to answer because it really depends on us asking you a number questions first in order to give you a correct answer....so let me just show you what I mean in the list below;

First who will be building the home you or a crew shelling it in or a General Contractor running the whole project ? Or something else.....

Second where is this home going to be built....like in the country way out of town? Or maybe closer to a town or city ? There will be expenses that come the father out you go....travel time for everybody. And then how is it to get to the site? Or maybe it is in a town and those permits are different than in the county....

Third what size of home is being built smaller doesn't mean less $$$ per sq ft.

Forth what size and style of logs are you wanting?

Fifth What kind of materials will you want on the inside of the home....such as wood, carpet,or tile floors ....what materials are the counter tops going to be ....what kind of cabinets , off the shelf , out of a box or custom? Interior walls.... wood or sheet rock or both.....this is a small list of all the things that cost money some things can be done for less now to save and upgraded later some things should be what you like and can afford now because they aren't as easy to upgrade later....These kitchens you see are examples of different styles and cost...first 2 are of same home but upgraded at a later date ( started with no tile back splash and stained plywood counters later did slate back splash and Laminate type counters) and then the 3rd one is a new home that did it all in construction and used all top of the line finishes ( except the counter they did was actually one of the least expensive things you can do for solid surfaces and that was butcher block from Lumber Liq. ) So this is just an example of different looks different costs.....

So I know I didn't answer the BIG question how much will this cost.....I'm sorry I don't really want to toss that out without at least talking to you first so I have a better idea / or scope of your project....so please call me toll free 888-303-5647 and I would be happy to answer that question for you....and in the mean time I hope you've gotten a better idea of what things will be needed to look at in order to answer the question of HOW MUCH ?

Log home related stuff !!!

2008-01-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

OK so here I am blogging what am I thinking.....or not thinking some might say.

I plan this blog for mostly Log Home related stuff but may go some different ways once in awhile so please for give me.

I started thinking that I would like to try blogging out and I also know that lots of people like to look at info about log homes so thought I would try the 2 together. I really don't have a clue as to what I'm doing so hang with me as I learn.....

And please if you have any questions or thoughts about what this should be please let me know cause I'm open to what this blog is about.....

log home thoughts

The Secret ....Check it out

Here comes Winter

3 Different Photography Posts

Jamie Zanotti Photography: Eugene Oregon Wedding Photography, HS Senior Photos Springfield OR: Baker Pond Log Works: Glimpses

getting things updated

Jamie Zanotti Photography: Eugene Oregon Wedding Photography, HS Senior Photos Springfield OR: Baker Pond Log Works: Interiors

Round Log Walls Or Flat "D" Log Walls

Mid October Already !

Spring is it ????

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Before and After 10 years apart !

Fall and Fireplaces

The "D" family moved in and held a party for all who helped!

Finally I'm back.........

Progress on the "D" house.....

Work is moving on at the "D"s project

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Radiant Floor Heating

Just a month later !

Let me introduce you to the D. Family

Update on Kitchen ....but not completely done : )

I'm using the kitchen all the time : )

..............Moving on again .........

~~~~~~ All the Bits are here ~~~~~~

~~~~The addition has a new family~~~~

Last stages on the addition

I'm back and so is the sun : )

Rain Rain Go Away

Roof got covered

Bye to one Big Boy Toy but more to come.......

Moving along

The Sun is out and we are back at work !

Our addition more fun !

Can I add on to a log home?

Where or How to Start

How Long Will This Take ?

How Does a Log Home do in the Snow ?

$$$$ that is the BIG question : )

Log home related stuff !!!

All the Bits are here

The addition has a new family