Plan A Log Home
Posted 12/18/09
Once you make your mind to build a log home, you would be surprised to see a lot of options in selecting a log home. The log homes are not only available in all shapes and sizes, but the logs themselves come in as numerous categories as you can imagine. Perhaps, the best way to choose from thousands of options is to narrow your search by deciding the look you like for your home and then find manufacturers that offer the exact log home kits.Log homes are not available in many categories, but only two, handcrafted and milled log homes. You may not notice the difference at the first glance, but with the help of few basic guidelines, you will come to know the difference. If we talk about handcrafted log home, the name clearly tells that these log homes are made with hands by using special tools and methods.
On the other hand, in a milled log home, logs are uniform in shape, cut by machine to fit together, and stack conveniently and evenly. The price difference between handcrafted log home and milled log home is huge, just because a lot of labor is required to construct a handcrafted log home. Today, milled log homes are preferred over handcrafted log homes. A Log home made up of round logs and chinking indicates that it is a handcrafted log home.
Log homes are available in different designs, standards, shapes and options, and that makes the choice very difficult. Here are some of the tips which would narrow your plan search, and would able you to plan your new log home.
You can look at your current home as a reference point to sketch your new log home. The simple way is to list down good and bad features in the current home, and add new features you like in the new home. Eliminate the problematic areas of the current home, and add features you like on those locations.
You can organize your initial plans by using scrapbook that contains pictures and illustrations of the styles of log homes. The illustrations of the scrapbook will enable you to narrow your log home providers list. At initial stages, a simple box plan can work well for you.
Science has progressed a lot, and software technology has made our lives very easy to design anything we like. Computer aided design (CAD) can be used to design the log homes you like. This design can be shown to the supplier to ask the best log homes according to it. Companies have special designers which can aid you through CAD, if you are not convenient to do it yourself.Once the design is ready, get quotations from companies and build your dream home.