I agree with what dvb said above.

On top of that, if you have that much time until you hope to be ready to build, the best thing i can tell you is follow Dave Ramsey's advice if you ever listen to him on the radio. Get debt free as quick as you can (credit cards, car payments etc), then get on a strict budget & stick to it.
By the time you are ready to build you should be debt free, have a large nest egg to build with, & be living free after you get your house built.

Well I guess you found the right spot! All the info you want is right here. If, you intend to build your own house. The advantage of time is good. First you need to get to one of the upcoming classes. Without the class, its hard to know where to begin. Property is a must, but again, take the class first so as not to make a costly mistake. Ex. What if you wind up on a grade? Lake front or not it makes the whole process a lot harder and more costly. Ellsworths teaches the most cost effective method. So get to class, listen carefully, and then weigh your options. We'll be here to help any way we can!

Your story is like dejavu for me. Like the others have said. The class will deffinatly be worth it, even if you don't build yourself. Your plan is ideal, the more time you have to prepair the lower your build cost will be. I looked at quite a few lake lots before we decided on this one. We are not right on the lake, 550 ft up the road from lake. I have a perfect veiw of the lake during the winter months. I could take a few trees down for year round view, but I lke the trees too much to do that. Just a two min walk and I can go swimming fishing whatever.
Stu
http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/hemlock77/

"Here's where I need some advice....what should I be doing right now ...from a financial, research etc
standpoint....in order to best accomplish my goal? I have been looking into log home construction a bit,
but just from internet resources and magazines. I haven't actually talked to a builder or anything."

Well, after I ran-off at the keyboard it dawned on me that I missed your questions.

*Right now, get your life in order. Small inconveniences now will become mountains later. An example is
that I ran out of storage space. I had some logs stored at a friends place. He had some time so his crew
milled my logs for me. So, instead of free logs, a few hundreds dollars as a thanks for storing my logs,
and some gas for my mill in the Spring (no, you don't need to buy a mill, I just found mine at a rediculous
price), I paid for milling, and had to store my lumber in our carport over the Winter. Very expensive and
inconvenient. Don't fill your day planner...keep holes in your schedule. Things come up during the day and
a busy schedule can add a lot of stress when unforseen circumstances happen. Just keep your life simple,
and plan ahead.

* Get out of debt and have cash set aside. Life has less stress if you're faced with an emergency and the
cash is already there. Also, being out of debt will give you options in life by making you financially light on
your feet, and yes, Dave Ramsey is excellent. You can even get a one hour class for free on Youtube. The
Larry Burkett video series, and the Charles Givens video series are also excellent, but Dave Ramsey has a
website and videos on Youtube, so it is convenient and most of what you would need is free.

*Collect tools. Which tools? You won't need many, but the list is...well...in the class.

*Research what you want in a log home. This is fast and easy. Just read the forums, and look at members
log homes. It will give you a wealth of information, and set your dreams in a good direction.

*Take the class, and take it together. My wife thought it might be a good thing for me. Since she wasn't
there at the class she had her own direction for us to go, and we then had two schedules:
Mine was sell the house, and rent while we built.
My wife's schedule was "remodel this house first (WRONG!) then build a log home, then we can sell this one
and move into our log home." The remodeling is almost finished. It's been a long road.

Don't worry about making arrangements for the kids, grandparents love having them for a few days, and we
have had some young ones in the class. Jerry Sargeant was 16, A.J. Beck was 17, and Chip Ellsworth was old
enough to use his coloring book.

Well, that's all I can think of, but ask questions. We're all eager to see you get your dreams accomplished.

-Rick

Look, listen and learn
Im Your Huckleberry!
Keep Rocking With Dokken!

Eric Kits are very attractive home but are made like garbage.
Kits will put a hole in your wallet for life.
You could build you own place the way you want for a fraction of what the kits cost.
Would you do it if you can build a great home for less.
There been a few of the homes built by are members used in tv shows and movies.
Do a web search on log home building clubs i dont think you will find to many around.
Now do a search on log home kits you find so many you cant keep track of.
It becuse they make so much money off you for a product that less then good.
I was one those guys who was going to buy the milled logs and build a so called log cabin.
After looking at the junk those kits put out as log homes i stay way clear of them.
Kits a dowl pins so perfect and pretty. After doing this to the log it gives away rvalue and to many other things to list.
You can buy some 6 by 6 and take a router to it. Does that make it a log.
Take a look at the 3 inch holes they cut about the doors and window of the kits home. That look so cheep and so bad.
Butt and Pass you dont have do that since it is a real log home.
Eric you came across a good web site to learn about real log homes.
It will be your chose to learn ore be taking advantage of by a kit comany.
Everone one in this club comes from all walks of life and that makes it interesting also.
Eric good luck on your adventures.

If I had that kind of money to build a log home, I would first take this class and then act as my own contractor. I would subcontract each stage of each job and have it all built RIGHT with the right stuff. No screw jacks, no "log look" facades, no stick house interior with fiberglass fill covered with quarter logs. No Bullsh*t.

I've been to the home shows. I've been to the architects. I was disgusted with all of it so I came back here, registered as a member, took the class last January and now I know what kind of log house I am aiming for. I'm collecting supplies and drawing plans until I am liberated to go to my land. My sister owns a crap sh*t kit log home that's rotting right under her nose. It's a D-log disaster that I'm so embarrassed to look when she asks me for help with the bugs and rot.

If you have the money, don't be so anxious to part with it. Alot of so-called log home builders are just regular construction guys who have found that there is big bucks in raising those mail order kit homes. They don't really know LOG homes.

Frances

That's very sweet of you Chad to think that some people, even some women, would welcome help and change. However, families can be very political and if i spoke out of bounds to Sister, Sister would attempt to sabotage me right in front of other people. My sister is very proud of her mess of a house. Everyone thinks it's "quaint"despite the fact that it is obviously rotting. So she comes to me for advice because her multiple boyfriends in the construction businesses don't know what to do to help her. It's better for me to shut up and let her house go to whatever condition she allows it. I can't teach her. She is very very shallow and acts helpless. I won't tolerate the emotional attack. You gotta understand that this woman will never listen to another woman's advice, even though she says she values family and she wants family involevement in her life. My sister always listens to the loser men in her life despite the advice her family gives her.

She may be desparate to save her stick shack but she is not going to give anyone but "Boyfriend" credit.

Frances

You have stumbled into the right place and the place you want to build sounds nice. There are builders here @ the LHBA who could build you a home / for one the loghomeguy and others also! Just because a lot of us are building cheaply or plan to does not mean were building A less quality HOME. Some to be sure are thrifty and have learned in life once money is spent--its gone. My older brother is wealthy and he says he likes to make Lincoln scream before he lets it go--that would be a penny. He got wealthy the old fashioned way--he earned it. Most people today don't understand the value of a dollar--that is why they waste so much. If you like throwing money away perhaps we are the wrong crowd. Look at the economy--think it does not affect everyone? It can/it has before / history repeats itself. People who lived in the great depression learned not to waste-even after that depression was over. Anyway whatever you decide its your choice-some here including myself want to get the satisfaction of doing it themselves. Perhaps we can teach the teachers

Dornz87,

As everyone else said, clearly you want to have no debt, and some surplus cash, before you start on the log home project. Your idea for the land/location sounds fantastic, my parents are in the process of buying a similar place on a lakefront in NovaScotia.

Also to repeat others before me: Take the class the next time you get a chance. I saw that you said you weren't particularly thinking of doing this yourself, but if you're planning to do ANYTHING having to do with logs or a log home, youw ant to take this class so that you are as educated and informed as possible. The magazines and most of the internet resources you'll read about log homes on make their money to stay afloat by selling advertising space to the log home kit manufacturers, so you're not going to see negative stories or complaints of an unbiased flavor. After all, each builder or manufacturer says that their method is the best, and that all the others have it wrong... that's no way to decide what kind of construction method you want, and it's certainly no way to learn about the pros and cons of each choice that each manufacturer makes. Having taken the class, you'll be able to look at any kind of kit home and instantly see what will work long-term and what won't.

You mention that you're interested in a log home from $300k-$500k... Having just planned a project where the financial end fell through (someone else's end, not mine!) I can tell you that with the luxury of time that you've got, it's *easy* to make a half-million-dollar home for under $100k in materials using the LHBA Butt&Pass method. ("Easy" meaning "not complicated", not "Sweat-free"). And if you are really determined to hire someone else to build your home for you, chances are really good that you could find a number of LHBA members that would gladly build your home for you, if you were to pay them a work fee. (I, for one, would pounce on that opportunity, since I am in the process of trying to make and sell my first home for profit, with the hopes of eventually quitting my day job and making homes for a living.)

Where in the country are you?