Custom Home Log Plan

Whether you're dreaming of a starter home or a lifelong retreat, Small Log Homes is an indispensable idea book for planning, building, and outfitting your cabin in the woods or on the prairie. Lush photographs show how log-home owners, builders, and contractors around the country have achieved the richness and warmth of cabin living within the bounds of economy and space management. And all without feeling cramped or hamstrung. The perfect starting point for your own cabin, fifteen plans by contractor/author Robbin Obomsawin are thoughtfully designed to help you develop and create a structure that will reflect your personal style and match your vision of the perfect log home. The result is a home that feels large but has fewer than 2,500 square feet. Practicing prudence and economy of space, her floor plans have been created to simplify life -- one's own, or the comings and goings of an entire family. As Small Log Homes inspires your own cozy log-home dreams, quality designs and decor are bound to materialize into a timeless treasure for many generations to enjoy.

Log buildings are embedded deeply into North American history and culture. For more than one thousand years, builders have been weaving logs into homes, shelters, barns, and churches. Today, however, the buildings where we live and work are rarely handmade from natural materials. In this context, handcrafted, scribe-fitted natural log buildings are an attractive and uplifting alternative to conventional buildings and building materials. This book tells you what you need to know to build your own log home and also reveals the deep rhythms and patterns of log construction. Author Robert Chambers shows how to take naturally shaped, tapered, round logs and scribe-fit them one to another so that they look like they actually grew together in the woods. The Log Construction Manual is filled with information available nowhere else, including the Log Selection Rules, Chambers's brilliantly simple method for choosing which log to use next; instructions for building hip and valley log rafters and roof trusses from full-round logs; step-by-step directions for laying out the sill logs for virtually any floor plan, including hexagons, prows, and more; state-of-the-art compression-fit saddle notches and underscribing to keep fits tight over time; details on scribing and cutting long grooves and corner notches just like the pros; and more. Chambers also offers advice on organizing and financing a log home project and has loads of experience to share on cutting costs and avoiding common pitfalls. He presents practical ideas for saving money and controlling costs. Although handcrafted log homes are expensive to buy, they are within reach for many as owner-managed building projects. Writtenconcisely with great care in explaining important details, the Log Construction Manual brings clarity, insight, depth, and even humor to the log builder's craft. This is a comprehensive book for log home owner-builders, beginners as well as professionals.