Our Favorite Tools and Such.

**Please note that we will update this post when we find a tool that is needed or useful and if possible why we feel that one brand is better than others.  So check back often for updates! (In most cases we have made the link direct straight to our favorite tool rather than the company homepage.)

We have added a quick click button on the home page so that you can visit this list without searching.**
 

Unfortunately our favorite store does not have a website; but if you are in our area, then we HIGHLY recommend The Castor General Store. Matt and the gang will help you with just about anything that you need.  We have bought lumber, cement blocks and much more from them...and since they have groceries too it really is a one-stop-shop.

Stihl chainsaws...this is the ONLY brand we use.  We have 3, Ken uses a 660 to cut the trees down, Lisa and John use a 250 and a 170 respectively to remove limbs.  We plan to use the 660 to cut the wedges for the notches and the 250 to clean the notch up. Here is a link to our favorite Stihl Dealer. We also own other Stihl products...and don't forget to buy chainsaw safety equipment.

Red Wing Shoes....we all wear Red Wings; Ken wears them for his normal job too.  They are durable boots that work as hard as you do and keep your feet in comfort all day long.  We recommend that you purchase a pair that has some type of safety toe to help protect your little digits from those big logs.  They are more expensive than the type you will get at your local department store, but they are far more comfortable and will last a LOT longer.  When you visit your local Red Wing store they will measure your foot and they have large sizes and wide widths on most of their boots.  (John wears a size 15EE..and they even had a large selection for him and some that were even bigger!)

Ebay!...This is where we shop for our gouge chisels.  You could run yourself ragged looking in all of the antique stores and pawn shops and never find one, but you will probably find 1 or 2 a week that is being advertised online.

Timber King Sawmills ... This is the brand of mill that we use to cut our sills, purlins, joists, dimensional lumber and MUCH much more.  If a new one is not in your budget then look around and find a used one, that is what we had to do.  We get most of our blades and supplies from Cook's Saw.

Facebook...is a great tool to find used equipement and other supplies.  Join all of your local trading or backyard sales sites.  The best one in our area is Hicktown Trading Post.

Bobcat...one of the best purchases that we have made EVER was our Bobcat tractor (CT230).  We have a lot of accessories for it too; including a bucket, forks, bushhog and more.  There isn't hardly a day that goes by that we don't use this great piece of equipment.

Log Home Store...this is a great company to get your log home supplies from.  They have stains, caulk/chink, log tools and MUCH MUCH more.  Not only have we found that they have a wide variety of products to choose from but if you order more than 250 pounds of merchandise your shipping is FREE!  The free shipping on our first order saved us about $70. 

Sashco...we have chosen to use several Sashco products.  We are using Penetreat, Capture Stain, Cascade Clearcoat and Conceal Textured Caulk.  The folks at Sashco have been more than helpful in answering all of our questions about the preservation and protection of our logs.

Design Intelligence...these are the great guys who drew the architectural and engineering plans for our home. Looking back through our posts you will see them mentioned several times.

Montana School of Log Building...Al Anderson will teach you EVERYTHING that you need to know in order to build your own log home.  His training videos are a plus, his bulls-eye scribe is a must and his week long training school will make all the difference in the success of your log home construction.  If you don't want to build it yourself...hire Al and his son Nick to come to your site and build it for you.

Paslode...we recently purchased a framing nail gun, and after much debate we chose the Paslode CF325Li...this awesome nail gun uses a lithium ion battery, and a fuel cell with strips of nails.  No more chasing a power cord or an air hose around the job site.  Floor Joist installation was fast work with this powerful gun.

Milwaukee Tools... Ken has used a variety of Milwaukee brand tools on the jobsite for years.  Now Lisa has found her new favorite tool...the Cordless Caulking Gun...this little gem has saved hours of time and best of all no hand cramps from "clicking" a traditional caulking gun. 

Ridgid... John's favorite new tool is our new screw gun, he was able to screw the subfloor down in record time.

More on architects.

      As we discussed in one of our previous posts, we are trying to decide on a company/person to design and make the blueprints for our home.  Here is a note to everyone for every kind of business.  When you say "I will have that ready for you by X day" make sure that you have it by then.  We originally had our designers narrowed down to 2 and then we found the name of a 3rd person, we liked the way their style looked and so we sent the information to them for a quote.  Meanwhile we cut one of the 2 that were from the original list because we reviewed some sample plans from them and we did not like the way they were written (not enough structural detail).  So #3 person comes back with a quote that has too much in it, we don't need the blueprints for plumbing, electrical and hvac...that will be discussed in a future post.  Well the quote from #3 had all of that plus some other things that we didn't want.  We replied (within 12 hours) that we would like these items (be specific) removed from the quote and why we didn't need them and we asked for them to resubmit the quote.  He responded that he had a big meeting that day but would have the revised quote for us by the next afternoon...it is now 1 week and 1 day later and we still haven't gotten the revised quote.  For us that shows that they do not stick to a timeline well, and we don't want to work with anyone who has issues like this.  So #3 is out the window for sure.  We have one more company, they are actually a handcrafted log home company, that is looking at the plans and we anticipate a response from them in a few days.
   So here is our thoughts on dealing with anyone who may be helping you with your home; manufactures, architects or even sub-contractors.
          *Make sure that you are comfortable talking to them, you need to be able to communicate your needs and wishes to them; that may even mean doing some research or studying on the terminology for that trade. For example when you are talking to potential plumbers make sure you know what kind of pipe they are planning on using for your home; copper, pvc or pex and if you know the differences in these then you can tell them what you would prefer or at least understand why they are using one type of material over another.
          *Set reasonable expectations.  If you submit something for a quote give them at least 5 business days to respond.  When we send something out for quote we usually ask that they email us as soon as they get it.  Then when they do, we give them 5 business days from the date of their response or if they tell us "we will have your quote by X" that is the time frame that we use.  If they can't get a quote to you in a timely manor then what makes you think they can complete the project on time.
          *Once you have chosen someone, make sure that you sign a contract with them...a signed contract is your only form of legal protection if something goes awry.
          *Pay them on time!  If you expect them to complete the project on time, you have to pay them on time.  Make sure that your payment terms are written into the contract.  However!  Make sure that they work that you are paying them for is completed; i.e. don't pay for the finished plumbing if the toilet is still not set and the house is not connected to the main water source.
          *Don't be afraid to fire someone!  Mind you, don't fire them in haste...make sure that you have thought it out and have weighed the pros and cons. Make sure that you sit down with them and let them know that you are not happy and why, if you need to point out any portion of the contract that they are not fulfilling; give them the opportunity to correct their shortcomings.  If in the end you feel that your contractor or anyone else who is helping you with your dream is not working out, let them go and contact your back-up person. Don't let yourself be taken advantage of by a contractor just because they are already on-site. 

Log Home Building School

       We really recommend that you plan to attend a log home building school.  There are lots of them out there to choose from, so again do your homework and choose the one that is right for you.  Some of them range from 1 week of training all the way up to a month or more.  While you may get a lot more hands on training at the schools that are several weeks long, we just couldn't afford to not be bringing in a paycheck for that long. 
      We narrowed it down to The Montana School of Log Building.  We purchased the video course from him as well so that we can have a heads up of what we will be learning when we arrive and we can have questions ready for him too. We spend a lot of our down time watching and re-watching those videos.  We will be taking the class in June, so we will make sure that we continue this post during and after the class.  We feel that it is a good thing for everyone who is going to build their house like this to take a hands on class. 
      You can watch all of the movies and read all of the books that you want, but it doesn't hold a candle to getting hands on experience with someone who really knows what they are doing.

Save your lids

                   Why on EARTH would you need to save lids???
    
     We know this sounds CRAZY, but save the lids from any canned item that you use.  Soup cans, veggie cans, any thing that requires a can opener...save those lids! Some have a similar lid on the bottom some have the easy stack bottoms, the easy stack bottoms are useless just don't worry about it. When we open a can we immediately wash the lid and dry it and put it in a specail container that we have, you will be shocked at how quickly they add up.  Last night we opened the container and counted the lids, we have saved nearly 100 lids in just 2 months. Well then we took a paint pen and marked on those lids giving each one a number.  We put them in numerical order and bundled them in groups of 25 and placed that group into a small baggie. When we start cutting trees we have a spreadsheet that we have made up that has basic information about each tree.  We will take those lids and nail one to the butt end of each log that we cut and then we can have an inventory of sorts of all of our trees. Here is the information that we collect about each tree.  The number of the tree, the diameter of the butt cut, the diameter of the tip cut, the length of the tree, which drying rack it is located on and any notes about that tree (standing dead, beetle kill, or maybe where we got it from).  We believe that this list will be very valuable when we are planning which log to use next while building the structure.
       
       So save those lids, if you don't think you can get enough on your own then ask somone to help save them too.  Keep in mind that you want to wash and dry them right away, and please be careful those edges are SHARP!

Floor plans and architects.

     Well so far we haven't done very many tough things.  However; one of the toughest things you will do is to agree on a floor plan!  We both had things that we wanted in the house, things that were important to us, it was just a matter of making it all fit and then making sure that it fit onto our property.  It seemed like every time we almost had it we were either going to end up over top of the septic tank; that is not where you want to be if there is a problem. Or we were too close under some large trees that we want to keep, but we don't want to be right underneath in case a limb falls off. At long last we have a floor plan that we can agree on, that fits our site and is easy to work with. 
     Make sure that when you are designing  your home that you can get logs that fit your plan; for example if you have one wall that is 60ft. long and the longest log you can get is only 40ft...then you need to rethink your plan.  Also remember that your 60ft long log will weigh about 1.5 tons when it is green, can you handle a log that big?  We overcame that by adding in extra corners, yes that means we have more notches to make but it keeps our logs shorter and easier to manage; and it helps to give our home a unique look.  One of our biggest goals while developing the floor plan was to make sure that our home didn't resemble any other home in the area but yet it needs to look like it fits the surroundings and that it totally fits our lifestyle. When drawing your floor plan ask yourself what are the important rooms in your home and start with those rooms and then add others in around them.  For us the Kitchen and the Great Room were the most important.  We have a large family and when we all get together we can sometimes feel cramped, we wanted to design the house so that there was plenty of room in the kitchen to prepare a big meal and plenty of counter space so that we could set everything up buffet style; and plenty of room to kick back and relax after we have stuffed ourselves.
     Now that we have this GREAT floor plan we have to find someone with a bit more knowledge about log structures to tweak the design and create a set of blue prints for us.  That is one of the on-going projects at the moment.  We have emailed our plan to several log home architects...and I stress to you make sure that they have done a log structure before, log homes are different from standard homes and many dimensions are different.  We received quotes from everyone that we emailed and they ranged from .85 per sq.ft to 7.00 per sq.ft; you can expect outdoor living areas to cost less for designing that indoor spaces. Don't be afraid to ask your designer for pictures of homes they have designed, samples of what drawings and prints they will be providing to you, references and so on.  One key thing to also remember is that you need to contact your local planning agency and find out about permits and building requirements. We are fortunate not to have any such restrictions in our area, but many people do.
     Trust your gut! When interviewing anyone who is helping you with your home, if they seem to hesitate or delay or side skirt a question, then take that as your first warning that something may be wrong.    A good example of this is early in our search for an architect we spoke with a man who spent 30 minutes trying to tell us all of the ways that we would fail at this endeavor, and he kept making snide comments about other drafting companies and more...We finally told him that we just didn't think he was the right person for the job; it was simple he DIDN'T BELIEVE in us or what we are doing and we didn't like his personality, we don't want to work with someone who is not on board with this project and who is telling us that it will fail before he even got to know us. So we have narrowed our list down to 2 different people and we are gathering more information about them, including ratings from the better business bureau and anything else we can find online. *Remember...the biggest or most well known is NOT always the best..and stay in budget*
                  Always have a back-up person or company in mind for every aspect of your project.

Where to begin?

     Where to begin is always the question when starting a large project.  Sometimes it seems like we can't find the beginning because we are too busy thinking about the middle or the end of the project.
Well here is our story....from the beginning.
     We got married in 1988 and we have always wanted a log home, but could never find the land and the money to build.  When we would find land, we were broke; when we had money land was out of reach. Fast forward to 2004 we moved to what we like to call "The Middle of Nowhere, Louisiana"  and believe me, we LOVE it.  After living in the middle of a large town, we are happy to have the very few neighbors that we have.
     We finally have the land and we can finally afford to build a house, as long as we do it ALL ourselves.  We spent months drawing up a floor plan that was what we thought we wanted and more months of sending that plan to various log home manufactures and handcrafters only to find out that the price of our dream had sky rocketed in the last 5 years.  We made up our minds years ago that we didn't like the look of small logs. (No offense intended to those of you who live or are building homes like that, if you love your home we are happy for you...it just isn't us.) We like the look of the large handcrafted logs with the scribe fit and the thin chinking.  So we decided that we were going to do it ourselves...ALL of it. Our philosophy is that if the pioneers could build a log home with animals and all hand tools, then surely with the use of modern equipment, chainsaws and power tools we can do it too.
     Step 1. Find a log home school, there are several to choose from.  We spent several weeks talking to the owners/teachers of various log home schools across the country. Make sure that you talk to them on the phone; tell them your dream, make sure that you have the skills and if they are excited to help you with your dream and you like talking to them...sign up for class. We have decided to visit Montana and learn from Al Anderson at the Montana School of Log Building.  We will be going there in June for his week long class.
     Step 2. Find your logs! This is where we are right now.  While we are waiting on our turn to learn the art of handcrafting from Al, we are lining up our logs....right now they are still standing in the forest!
     Step 3. Begin construction of your home. We are planning for this even now, remember planning is everything. Don't wait until the last minute and then discover that you are missing a piece of the puzzle that you should have anticipated months ago.
     Step 4. Finish your log home and live happily ever after!

Ok, ok, we realize that there are more steps to it than that....A LOT MORE!  So tune in here and we will take you through it with us, step by step.  We will try...not promise, but try to update this site often so that everyone can keep track of our progress. It might be a good idea for you to go to the bottom of the page and "subscribe" to our page so that you will know when we publish updates.

So let's begin...WELCOME to our log home experience;
                                                    The Bare's;  Ken, Lisa & John