Upon a very rare occasion, the Association bestows our "Exceptional Log Home Award" when a student has built a truly awesome log home that deserves such an award. 

This prestigious award is meant to recognize one or more of the following principles:

• A log home that is very well built, where the quality and craftsmanship really shines.  Often times it is a students very first time building a log home.  In fact, we try to feature such 'first attempts,' just to show that someone with zero previous construction experience can build an awesome log home -- just like Larry Kapin did.
• A log home that was built very inexpensively.  Too often people assume that low cost equals low quality, and that just isn't true.  Some of our members are building log homes for $30,000 or less, and those homes exude high quality and value.  Just look at Jeff Cooley's log home, which sold for almost a half million dollars -- and yet cost just a fraction of that amount to actually build.  
• A log home that has a unique story behind it.  Every log home has a story behind it, but we try to find homes that have special stories.  Sometimes the story can serve to inspire others.  Or it may help remind people what is important in life.  Or it gives us an example of what we should try to emulate.  The story behind Mike Vowels' log home is a great example of that, and it is also an absolutely stunning log home that is very well built.

Recipients of our Exceptional Log Home Award receive a framed certificate, which they can proudly display on the wall of their log home.  They also recieve one of the Association's 40th Anniversary, limited edition T-shirts.  And of course their home is publicly recognized in our gallery of student homes.

* The Association receives no payment or compensation for presenting an Exceptional Log Home Award.  We would reject any such offer if it was presented.  The Association does not perform any sort of detailed buyers inspection on any of these homes, and an Exceptional Log Home Award should not take the place of a buyers inspection.