I monitor stories about the log home industry daily and most of the news that floats across my monitor is what you would expect. Log homes for sale, solving maintenance problems, log cabins of a historical nature, etc., but rarely does a story jump out at me.
My focus is the log home business in the USA and Canada and I honestly know very little about the European or Russian log home industry. Today I saw a story that made me sit up and pay attention and I thought I’d share it with you. On this side of the pond we’re dealing with a financial recession that has the entire home building industry struggling to remain afloat. Apparently, this is not the case in Russia.
In Russia, a log house is called an izba. What is amazing is that nearly 40 percent of single-family houses in Russia are being built of logs. The Association of Wood Housing recently reported that 7.3 million single-family wooden houses were built in Russia in 2010, a 25 percent increase over the last five years.
Read the entire story at The Moscow Times.
This photo is from the story, and I would have to doubt that this is the ‘average’ log house being built in Russia, but like advertising on this shore, few manufacturers would showcase a mundane example of their handiwork. If you’re like me, this wasn’t what you were expecting from the Russian front.
Fall is in the air, which means that football and firewood are on my mind. I’ve already seen my team, the Pittsburgh ‘Stillers’, play two regular season games and their performance is telling me this could be a long painful season. We got embarrassed by the Ravens and didn’t look like we were serious about the Seahawks (even though they scored a W).
I’m not one of those guys who sits all day in front of the TV watching football. Basically, I follow one team, the Steelers, and thanks to DirecTV and my DVR, I never miss one of their games. Living in the western U.S., most of the games start at 11:00am, so we usually record it and catch the action after dinner. All my relatives know that if they call on game day they are not to mention the game since I probably had not yet watched it.
It won’t be long before we’re watching football with snow on the ground. In fact, we’ve already had some sub-freezing nights here in northwest Montana. That means we’re now thinking about firewood.
Do you heat your log home with wood?
We have a woodstove and rely on it to heat our log home. We’ve been doing this for almost ten years now and to us, it’s just part of the experience and makes a long winter easier to bear. Unfortunately, there is additional work involved to enjoy this bone-warming heat. Getting enough wood put-up and maintaining the stove & chimney is an annual ritual.
Last weekend I cleaned the chimney. Do you do that yourself or do you hire a chimney sweep? Years ago I bought one of those DIY rigs that work quite well. The fiberglass poles come in 6’ lengths and you screw one on to the other to snake your way up the chimney and scrape out the soot. It’s a dirty chore, but I hate paying people to do work that I’m capable of doing.
Stack outside our door. The BIG stack is off to the side.
I had a couple marathon weekends last summer cutting & splitting firewood, but I still don’t have enough put up to get me through a typical Montana winter. I need to get busy before the snow flies or I will need to buy a couple of cords. Wish me luck.
Fire Prevention
Speaking of firewood and fires and log homes, I follow many log home related blogs and an interesting article caught my attention last week. On the PrecisionCraft blog they published a short article about “Fire Prevention Landscaping” that will be of interest to most log home owners who live in rural areas.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses — Henry Ford
That is an insightful quote from Mr. Ford and it pertains to every business or service I can think of. As it relates to the log home industry, I believe that it is profoundly important for both buyers and manufacturers. People don’t always know what they want.
Few of us grew up in a log home, most of us were introduced to the idea as kids when we first saw a log cabin in a movie or on television. In my case it was the Cartwrights’ Ponderosa ranch on the TV show Bonanza. Can’t you just hear that theme song playing?
My point is that we have these ideas about what we (think we) want in a log home, but once we take the time to research all the options we can find ourselves straying from our original ideas. A classic timber frame home is a perfect example. Once we are introduced to the look, joinery and open design, we might find ourselves drifting away from the idea of log walls.
Personally, I like a combination of everything; a log exterior and lots of stone with a timber frame interior. In my mind, that’s the ideal heavy timber home. It wasn’t until my knowledge of these building methods expanded that I changed my mind as to what I would choose to build.
Manufacturers need to keep this in mind when they talk with prospective buyers and make sure they are aware of all the possibilities. The customer is not, as the saying goes, ‘always right’. The customer can only make a decision based upon what they know.
Buyers need to spend as much time as possible learning about this marvelous industry and all the options available to them. Just choosing the corner styles of log construction changes many aspects of how the home will look and have an impact on other design choices.
Even Ben Cartwright needed to start with a basic floor plan for his log home, so the best advice I would give a prospective buyer is to start there. Find the floor plan that works for you and then work on the construction aspects. One of the best places to find a good selection of plans is our very own “Log Home Floor Plan Showcase“. Have fun!
I guess the better question is…can an inanimate object serve as as source of inspiration? According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the word “inspire” means:
to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural
to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on
to infuse (as life) by breathing
So, would you include a beautiful log or timber frame home as a source of inspiration? If you ask people who are in the dreaming or planning stage of their heavy timber home, I would bet that most would say yes, they are inspired.
For those of us blessed enough to already be living in a log home, the feeling of inspiration is a constant. When I began thinking about this topic I pictured a few things in my mind’s eye. I visualized the pleasant feeling I get when I drive up the road to our home and see it standing on top of the hill. I think about those snowy winter evenings sitting at home with a roaring fire in the woodstove. I think of those warm summer nights when the smell of pine is like a subtle perfume.
Hopeless romantic? Maybe, but living in a log home truly is different, and I have to admit it creates an inspiring atmosphere that my wife and I absolutely love. My answer to the headline question is yes, log homes inspire me.
Apparently, I am not alone in this conviction, and I was not the first to make the statement. One of the premiere log and timber frame manufacturers in the country beat me to it. PrecisionCraft has an area on their website called (what else) “Inspired Living“. This showcases some of the homes they crafted for their customers and tells the stories from the customer’s perspective.
Additionally, PrecisionCraft has a contest running at this time where they are asking people to vote on the next “Inspired Living Showcase” home. I want to tell you that it is a tough call. You have to choose one winner from six inspiring handcrafted homes. If you want to get inspired, click on over to PrecisionCraft and vote for your choice.
