Building Your Dream Home

11 December 2000 - Our son and his wife have decided to build their own home. The foundation is under construction this week (it is a pier and beam instead of cement slab). I will try to get pictures on this site while construction is in process. This will be a major undertaking for them since both have full time jobs and plan to do most of the work themselves. Oh! Did I mention the home is a log home! Please come back frequently to see their success! I will also be posting their problems as well as their successes along the way!

7 March 2001 - I am in the process of putting together the text portion of our efforts so far. To let you have a glimpse of what we have had to deal with, I have uploaded a few pictures (see below) taken during the last few months. On the 4th of March, we finally had enough decent weather to begin putting the truss system in place. If the weather cooperates next weekend, we hope to be able to raise all of the trusses and secure them in place. We will then be close to having the structure in the dry and well on the way to looking like a real home. Yeah!!!

3 June 2001 - Just after posting the above update in March, the trusses that had been erected (only about 1/3 of the roof) were blown over by 70mph gusts of wind. Nothing anyone could do to prevent it as the trusses had been braced sufficiently for normal weather. Anyway, we did have a little luck - when they dominoed they fell on top of the house instead of falling off on the ground which would have broken them in pieces. As it was, my son just had to raise them again in place. Click here to see our latest pictures.

Photos of Log Home Under Construction

Click on the thumbnails below to see enlargement

#1. This is a very common form of construction in the south. Cement piers extend below the soil surface to a change in the soil or at least 4 feet.		#2. The large truck on the right side of the picture is a tow truck and he has just finished pulling the cement truck out. We were lucky - the charge for the truck was only $150. This could have been much higher as was the case with our home in 1987 (the cement contractor was out a bundle)
#3. The wood sitting on top of this pier was to make sure the foundation bolt coming out of the middle of the pier was tall enough to go through the girder.		#4. This gives you an idea of the weather conditions we were dealing with and the reason for the time it is taking to get in the dry. That is snow on the ground.
#5. This was actually no different than when my husband and I built our home in 1987. Our weather was about the same. It is one of the things you have no control over when building a home.		#6. This is the front porch foundation. The subfloor was completed on the actual house portion but the porch area was to be covered with treated 2x6 material instead of plywood subflooring.
#7. The logs arrived on another beautiful cold clear day. The truck parked on the country road and used a forklift to bring the logs to the house site - a distance of about 1,000 ft.		#8. This is Kathy, my daughter-in-law. She looks like she can't wait to keep house but actually she is making sure the subfloor is clean of all debris before she sprays it with Thompson Water Seal for protection. It took ten gallons to cover the 1500 sq. ft. of floor.
#9. This is my son with the saw (it only weighs about 38 lbs) and was used to cut out the window openings. I am helping steady the log while my husband watches. Satterwhite Log Homes rented it to him until he completed the walls. This is really the only time he used it. It was too heavy to maintain a square cut. The logs were all cut with a 12" DeWalt Compound Mitre Saw.	Click Here to go to Page 2 of Log Home Photos