Wow, plenty of disinterest in these questions! :lol: I thought of these questions because I found a log home book in the library and it was full of some not so traditional photos of extravagant log homes and the features people have put into them.

There were living trees with retractable roofs and waterfalls, items made out of toilets, rooms dedicated to cats and birds, streams and brooks running through the living rooms, stairs leading up to lofts and slides coming down from them, etc., I won't even mention the bathrooms!

I just thought it was very unique to see what so many people had done and thought I'd ask what kind of things people here may have seen. Admin can delete this thread though since it's not of interest.

We are going to build a second home and have learned quite a bit from doing the first one.
To start off, we will use bigger logs on the second house. They just have a better feel to them and you set less logs per wall if they are larger.
We will also use a crane for the whole process of building the shell on the second home. Its more expensive but less dangerous in my opinion. We had a lifting log snap while we were lifting our ridge pole. We were lucky and didn't damage the ridge pole.
I have a better idea now of how to layout the wet walls and the rooms directly below it. I think I could go on and on about all of the things we learned on this first house.
For the worries, we stressed about every single step of the building process and then we would complete that step and realize it wasn't anywhere close to the difficulty that we thought it would be. We haven't come across any part of building the log home yet that was harder then we expected. Except for logging the logs ourselves, that was something that was way more then we expected.
What I like the best in log homes I have seen is the staircases made with logs, the handmade iron angle pieces (which is something we did), and how good the logs can look when stained properly and time is taken on the inside chinking.
The dumbest thing I saw was the basic structure of most log homes. I still don't get how most of those are staying upright.
The most unique is definitely the staircase in the turret. I completely agree with rreidnauer on that one. My husband now has all of these images of building a log turret on the roof of our next place and having a little hideout/observatory up there.
Great questions KeithMN.

I don't have time to write a response to the original questions(haven't built, in fact just took the class a few weeks ago), but figured I'd give a few tips on where to stay since you're still looking.

We stayed two nights at the Sea-Tac Value Inn in Seattle, 3 nights at the Gaylord B&B in Everett, and a night at the Wallace Falls Lodge in Gold Bar. I recommend all three highly.

Keith -
Several ideas that you may find interesting:
1. Enertia-type building concept (enertia.com) that builds on the concept of using the mass of the house to heat / cool...
2. Hidden stairs behind a bookcase (not sure who's house but I have seen somebody that has used this idea)...
3. Totem-Pole / carving at the top of a vertical (support?) log. I believe that this was used in one of the houses on the website...
4. Port-hole window (like on a boat)...
5. Concrete floor - I have seen lots of interesting ideas that use different etching / scoring / acid wash that look nothing like "concrete."
6. As mentioned above but has to be noted again - the cool door that was given some personality with the adze (spelling?).
7. "Green Roof" that has soil / plants...

Hope all is well - we plan to be in the cities between Dec 26 & Jan 8 and let you know when time is available...
J-

"What would you do differently, if anything, if you rebuilt
your home again?"

Right now I'm just about to finish the guest house, but....

1. I would buy TWO good 24' ladders
2. Two ladder jacks
3. 16' plank
4. Harness & two good 100' 1500# test ropes
5. Two ladder top jacks
6. Two matress belts
7. Have my mill operational and the wood milled.
8. Only pay cash (done that, smart move)
9. Make the storage building and garage bigger, with bigger doors,
and design the house to be smaller.
10. Sell everything and live on the property.
11. Design it simple, build it simple, and keep it cheap.
12. Build on a flat area on the property.
13. Wear shin protection.
14. Build as spartan as possible. Don't worry, the house
will still have plenty of character. Keep it very simple!
15. Find the best tarps, then keep looking for better tarps. Get a
size larger than you think you will need, and buy two more than
you anticipate needing.
16. Have fun!!! You're not building in a subdivision, you hopefully
are building for cash and don't have a lender breathing down
your neck.

What did you worry most about but later realize wasn't
necessary? What did you maybe not worry enough about?

1. I spent too much time worrying about the local weather.
2. I spent too little time considering the local weather.

In other words. prepare the materials, and plan your work.
Build in phases. If you can't finish the phase before the weather
hits, then don't start that phase and spend the time preparing
and gathering more cheap or free materials.

Now those AREN'T the answers you were expecting, but man, oh, man,
these are things I wish I had considered.

-Rick

Tarps protect thigs from the weather. Logs, tools, work areas, that portion of the roof that blew off before you got it screwed down, etc. If you are in a position where you have to build on a site without storage, tarps become storage. Cheap tarps are delicate, leaky, and prone to shredding in a strong wind, when you might need them the most. The more on-site storage you have, the less you need tarps. Especially if you don't have to season your logs.