Long time ago Mr. Mac Laird wrote in comments about his history as a log home enthusiast. I decided to check out his website to read more about his experiences as a log cabin builder. Interestingly, it turns out the site is mostly about bark canoe (test) building and bow/arrow raw material collecting.

Storyteller
Mr. Mac Laird has written a book about the old days and old ways. Instead of making a boring school book he has chosen to write in narrative manner, bit like being a grand father telling a story to kids. You can’t avoid learning some tips and tricks about living in the great outdoors, good point if you normally start to feel tired after glancing through the index of any given encyclopedic log home book. Tempo seems to be mellow, making it a good companion before bedtime (hey, in a GOOD way).

Slow tempo of log cabin living
Can you relate to canoeing or bow shooting? I can, because I have started to kayak and canoe on the river that flows right on my backyard. Swallows squeak happily as they swoosh by. Fish jump as if to say that they know I don’t have fishing rod with me. I just might have caught some kind of log cabin fever, because we all (yep, people who live in log home or log cabin) tend to have similar hobbies or habits. Is it contagious? Well, I have been thinking to purchase myself a fine bow. Keep updated about my mission to purchase a bow and subscribe to my feed.

Old and tested trick doesn’t always work. I don’t know if you are familiar with this traditional trick. First you pick a nice spot, which is free of any structures, quite possibly because that particular spot can’t be built. When officials come asking after licenses and permits, it’s time to start applying them. Usually this process can be ironed out with little negotiations and under the table offers.

Sir McCartney hasn’t been able to convince authorities and he has been ordered to tear down the one million pounds log cabin that he constructed. Tough luck, so be prepared and get to know the people who sit in district councils that way you know beforehand if you can secure a retrospective planning permission. Can’t buy me permit…

I came across this wonderful site that is all about green home building. Green building – if traditional building methods are followed – can be very cheap way to build houses, so this site is of special interest for us back-to-the-nature log home builders, who might be discouraged by the high prices of modern log homes and log cabins.

Kelly Hart has a long history in the field of construction and publishes information on green home building in cooperation with many experts of this field. Mr. Hart was happy to answer few questions, so here they are:

Q: Post and beam log building is mentioned here and there on your site, but always as a mere structural framework. Why Greenhomebuilding doesn’t include log homes as an independent segment?

A: This was a conscious decision on my part to not promote the use of logs for homes for several reasons. Primarily, I am concerned with the continued depletion of our forests, as expressed on my page about saving our forests. There are circumstances where logs for homes can be harvested sustainably, and I encourage this, but in general this is not the case. Another reason I don’t promote the use of logs is that they really don’t provide very good insulation as a shell for a home, and this is a very important factor in any climate with temperature extremes.

Q: You introduce several methods for greener building. Apart from earthbag building, which are your personal favorites?

A: Interestingly, one of my favorites is also wood, in the form of cordwood construction. I like this method of building because it uses very small pieces of wood (more or less firewood size) that can be arranged in such a way as to provide a very well-insulated wall. This means that a considerable portion of the tree can be used, and that very small diameter trees that result from thinning a forest can be used. When the cordwood is stacked with masonry or earthen mortar and an interior void for insulation, you end up with a wall that has wonderful thermal properties because the interior masonry acts as thermal mass. An added benefit is that once you build the wall there is no more finish work necessary, either inside or outside, and it is a very durable, low-maintenance system. Building cordwood walls is a technique that is easily learned, requiring little skill.

Q: It is often so that pioneers create future trends by working very hard on their dreams. Do you think that at some point these green home building methods that you introduce on your website, will become popular among commercial constructors and home buyers?

A: This is already happening, especially with strawbale construction, and to a lesser extent with rammed earth and adobe building. This movement gained momentum in the Southwestern United States and is now finding popularity in other regions of the world.

Q: Many readers of Log Homes Cabin are planning to buy a log home kit as their starting point for owner/builder home. How would you increase the greenness of such a home?

A: First of all, make sure that the logs for that kit have been harvested sustainably; check with the Forest Stewardship Council about this. Then select a kit that is as compact as it reasonably can be to house your needs…extra space costs more, both economically and ecologically. Choose a design that will heat itself with passive solar, especially if you live where you have cold winters. And get one with the best insulation package possible, especially for the ceiling and roof where most of the heat loss is.

Mr. Hart, thank you for your time. I wish all the best and continue to follow your website for updates.

BOOK REVIEW – THE CRAFT OF POST AND BEAM
This book has the most amazing start! Mr. Mitchell tells about his life experiences and how they made him the man he is today. He combines the passion to build and create into philosophy and financial freedom. Such a great motivational writer he is that I read the book in one day, it is that exciting (If you are in a hurry, you can now jump to the end of review to check the summary).

I will briefly go through every chapter of this book, but at first, here are the contents:

Introduction/Author’s Preface
1. Evolution of Post and Beam
2. Design
3. Wood
4. Tools
5. Hewing and Milling Methods
6. Joinery
7. Modern Timber Post and Beam: Wall System
8. Traditional Timber Post and Beam: Wall System
9. Log Post and Beam: Wall System
10. Log Blockwork: Wall System
11. Openings
12. Roof Structures
13. Floor Systems
14. Foundations
15. Utilities and Finishing
16. Wood Finishes
Appendices
Bibliography
Glossary
Index

EVOLUTION OF POST AND BEAM
In this chapter, Mr. Mitchell tells us the brief history of log building and how it evolved on Northern hemisphere. This chapter also gives a light overall introduction on different log home building methods. How log homes were developed? You have to read this chapter to know.

DESIGN
Basic design philosophy of modular construction follows in this chapter. Also practical design issues like space and aesthetics can be found here. This chapter helps reader to grasp the idea of building functional log homes in modular manner.

WOOD
Wood is very flexible raw material. This chapter focuses on what are the qualities of wood, how to collect it, use it and preserve it.

TOOLS
Tools that you need to build a log home, starting from felling the trees all the way to finishing the log home or log cabin. This chapter also has descriptions on how to use tools and what sort of working methods are related with them.

HEWING AND MILLING METHODS
After rather general start, this is where the reader is bombarded with detailed and clear pictures of various building methods, focusing especially on preparing the logs.

JOINERY
Joinery has its own chapter and after reading it, you are well prepared to go forward and understand structures in various wall systems.

WALL SYSTEMS
At this point, basic building methods are dealt with and aspiring owner builder can wonder to the countryside and start felling trees for coming log home. Well, not quite, but this is the phase where we get to dig into the actual structure of timber post and beam wall systems and also into log post and beam and log blockwork wall systems.

This section is divided between different styles of post and beam building. Someone might feel that book could go deeper if it focused on only one tradition. However, for me this was only positive, because I have been building in blockwork style and gaining wider understanding on other styles was easier because I could compare between them and the one that I personally master. To my opinion, this makes the book more appealing for wider audience.

OPENINGS
Walls standing and all, it is time to make those window and door openings or alternatively introduce it as a vacation location for in-laws (can’t get in or can’t get out). This comes before the chapter about roof systems, which makes sense because openings are easier to do while still building the walls.

ROOF STRUCTURES
Roof systems have a chapter worthy of their complexity. Settling is a major problem while designing roofs for log homes and log cabins. Luckily by using post and beam method one can work out settling problems quite nicely.

FLOOR SYSTEMS
Floors are on the menu after we have sheltered the log home from rain. Main issue in this chapter is to understand needed support for floors. But then we have something that strikes me as somewhat peculiar.

FOUNDATIONS
Foundations are discussed at the end of the book. How can this be, log homes and log cabins are built on foundations, if not they rot (hey, it rhymed).

UTILITIES AND FINISHING
On other note, I do understand that utilities are finally discussed here. This is the usual phase of construction for them. However, in this chapter you will notice that utilities must be taken into consideration while designing the log home or log cabin. It is very awkward to start ripping logs apart to mount some electricity sockets.

WOOD FINISHES
Wood finishes are done last as the building is finally standing. Good finishing gives extra years for your log home.

MISCELLANOUS
Other resources in the book include several helpful appendices. Now that we have Internet, bibliography isn’t that useful, but does give good sources and gives credit to other experts on this area. Index is always helpful in search of information, but for me as a non-native English speaker, glossary was the best resource. Understanding terms and sticking them on things I already know greatly lowered my learning curve.

SUMMARY
Mr. Mitchell, thank you for writing such an excellent book I am really happy I bought it. This book helped me to organize my existing knowledge and gain more information on many areas. This is a great general resource book on building log homes and log cabins by using post and beam techniques. Absolutely worth its price and much more but how much more that depends on your motivation and passion. Get it now and finally make your log home dream a reality. Order it.

Please hurry and read this article series about Berkshire and its leaders while its still online. In this Motley Fool article series, Mr. Buffet has been commenting various matters, but his comments on real estate are especially enlightening. Some ideas:

Real estate values can swing enormously.

Right now they are seeing their residential brokerage business in slowdown all over, most dramatically in the hottest markets.

If people are buying housing for use, market is not swinging much, but when people are buying real estate as an investment, then valuations tend to swing.

High-end residential real estate has bigger valuation bubble than low-end residential real estate.

2004 fewer than 9000 condos were for sale and there were around 2900 transactions per month. Now, there are 30000 condos for sale and less than 2000 transactions per month.

Has anyone ever heard of the theory of supply and demand? When Mr. Buffet is having this kind of thoughts market situation is getting really serious. Maybe it is time for Cinderella move and leaving the real estate dance floor with grace.

It is from year 1972 and under the log siding beats a metallic heart of doublewide trailer. Owner of the trailer is a retired metal worker Gale Spicer. The whole process of converting the trailer into a mobile log home took about four weeks. Mr. Spicer screwed log sidings directly to the metal walls of the trailer. Unexpected benefits include better sound and heat insulation so the mobile log home trailer has better living quality. Mr. Spicer says, “I’ve had people come here taking pictures. Others are going to do it to their trailer. I think we’ve stirred up something.” Article was originally written by Sylvia Anderson and it is called - Rustic way to remake doublewide.

You might remember Luoman Log Homes, a Finnish log home company, which introduced a mobile log home called MobileHome. I suppose Mr. Spicer could have something important to contribute for this Finnish company, after all he does have hands on experience.

This family has generations involved in the running of their log home business. They started with small cabins but have been expanding their product slate into bigger log homes. This warm news article goes through family’s ideas of taking the business into the future.

Logs have been considered to be on the more earth-friendly side of housing industry. Straw bale homes are now taking the lead. Can you believe it – straw! Here is a must read article about combined timber frame and straw bale building. With combined building techniques the hybrid straw house can be built high, without caring about the poor qualities of straw in weight-bearing. In this house, straw is for insulation and timber for weight-bearing. Family that is building this unique house has also some other earth-friendly solutions at use, but you can read all about it over here.

This one is quite fascinating and I think you will get something out of it, especially if you have a habit of browsing through log home magazines. In The Jackson Sun article Nancy is talking about her experiences on this male dominated construction field (yes, log homes are also part of the field). She was working for various companies in the industry, but today she has her own company that specializes on kitchens, called Cottage Cabinets, which you should also check out.

I wrote about the difficulties of KB Home and we all know the mess in which Martha Steward has been. Now these two seem to think that 1+1 is greater than 2. The purpose of this unlikely match is to create Martha Steward-inspired communities throughout the country. Martha will deliver a line of interior and exterior home products and designs. KB Home homebuyers will have these options available exclusively. Amazing, isn’t it? I wonder when we see a match between Jack Wolfskin and some log home manufacturer…