Any Experience With Log Homes

Rollie, remember Mentch from our area here? He not only builds high-end homes, but lives in a log home.. He can probably be a big help.

 

The only experience I have with log cabins is my great grand dad built one in 1875. At one point in history he was the largest land owner in the state of Illinois. In 1916 the original log cabin was expanded upon. Its been documented that Abe Lincoln stayed in it. The structure lasted until 1988 when my grand parents passed away. The original log cabin can still be seen in Springfield Ill. As it was dismantled and re constructded on site.

 

Wait, the cabin was built in 1875 and Lincoln stayed in it? Impressive.

 

I'm sure he slept the sleep of the dead.

 

My dates might be off by ten years or so. LOL

 

Hey, let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story. LOL.

 

Yeah, it's documented and all...

 

Depends on how it was built. We built ours (my childhood home) in the late 70's. Ours was old school swedish coped with spikes. Ran a layer of pipe insulation and caulking between each log. That home is still in amazing condition.

I built one for a client when I was still working construction that was some crazy ass tongue and groove with all thread run vertically from bottome to top. There were plates and springs and the bolts had to be tightened every year. We also had to build around every window, door, stair case and any other item so that the house could settle around it without breaking stuff. I wasnt impressed.

Research the different methods of build. I'm kind of out of the loop but I know the old school stuff is still standing strong.

 

It's been a while, I can't remember who he is. But PM me with specifics.

 

Just wanted to thank everyone again for their help on this topic! Spent about 3 hours on Friday looking over the house from head to toe. IMO, this particular log house was built very well and I learned it was a cedar D-Shape log style home. Reflecting over the weekend I've decided I'm not going to counter my original offer. The owners built this in 1985 and then had 3 kids - this lead to a few renovations inside to try and break up the living space. By breaking up this space there were a few rooms that were entirely too small and one of the main bathrooms was about the size of an RV bathroom. I'm just not prepared to spend another 20K opening the house back up and relocating the bathrooms, etc. while maintaining a pile of other things in the meantime.

All in all, it was a great experience and I learned a lot. I would imagine going forward in the future, if I ever found a nice piece of land, I would probably build a log home, but until then, looks like I'll be able to race motorcycles more this year as I won't be working and spending money on a home!

Thanks again!

 

Worked out good then, racing motorcycles is better anyway.

 

Sounds like the right decision.

 

Man, I happen to see this awesome log home during my Zillow surfing session and all I can say is WOW.....now THAT is my type of log home.....even with the rounded style logs which normally isn't the style I like.....mostly always had preferred the squared off log look....don't know the name of that???

But thought of this thread immediately.....anyone from that area? Nice or trashy?

http://www.zillow.com/savedhomes/fo...093,35.191766,-88.291626_rect/8_zm/1_rs/1_fr/

 

LOL, yeah, some log homes are grander than others. My friend (Dr. Henry McDonald) that died in 1999, lived about one half mile North of me and had a log home that was just over 9000 sq ft. The main part of my log home which is about 1200 sq ft, could fit into Dr. Mac's living room. His home was made of lodge pole pine and when it was about 15 years old he spent over 40 grand replacing logs and trim because of fungi rot. It is a beautiful home though.

 

All I remember was mine was the D cut logs but I had a bitch of a time keeping it comfortable during upstate NY winters. Of course, it did have a 16 ft. ceiling, soooo.

 

nowadays you spray foam the basement and put good blown in insulation in the attic area and you are good to go. I live in upstate, Penn Yan to be exact

 

Yeah, mine was built in the late 70's and the interior was not the raw logs, but completely done in T@G. Beautiful, but not insulated well. Carpenter ants were a problem, also. Still, I loved it!

 

Not that you lost any sleep over it but if you click the zillow symbol, on the screen that tries to sign you up, it should take you to where you can enter an address> 1341 Glen Hinson Rd,Centerville, TN 37033

OR just highlight the address here and put it in Google then click 'images'. Aaaaah here, I did it for you>
https://www.google.com/search?q=1341+Glen+Hinson+Rd,Centerville,+TN+37033&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS657US657&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigkt3FuejLAhWIbB4KHbYwDf4Q_AUICSgD&biw=1527&bih=841