Our First Log.

       Bringing home our first log is a wonderful feeling.  It is the realization that we are taking our first major step towards building the house.  Up until now all of our plans and everything have been just a collection of thoughts and notes on paper; this is the first tangible thing that we have done. 

        In a way it is kind of like bringing home your first child...you can't wait to show it off to tell everyone all about it.  So with that being said...Our first log is 46' long and has a butt of 16" and a tip of 12".  As you can see it didn't quite fit on the trailer and we only had about 2 feet of clearance to keep the tip from hitting the road.  Thank goodness we didn't have far to go to bring it home.  It is also fitting to us that this first log came from the yard of our church; this tree is so large that it has been there since my husband was small.  If only this tree could talk, what would it say about all of the wondrous things that have happened at our little church.

       This log will most likely be one of the logs that will be used as the floor supports for the loft.  It has the honor of having the #1 lid/tag attached to the butt end and we will update this post with a picture of it in the house sometime in the future.

      We have many more trees that we are adding to the list, but no tree will be as special as that first tree.

An Architect at Last.

                      At last we have decided on an Architect for our project!

    We interviewed and submitted plans to a total of 11 companies and it took us a little over 1 month to reach our final decision.
       We have chosen to work with Josh Wood of Design Intelligence. 

    We have been pleased with everything that we have asked of him and especially his quick responses to our requests.  We contacted him about a quote for the job, and then we asked for pictures of his work, next it was references, and then samples of foundation and roof plans...he is always quick to reply and sends us the information that we requested.  So our signed contract and a check for them to begin working on our plans is in the mail.  Please check out the website above and get in touch with them for your designing/drafting and engineering needs.

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.