That's exciting that you are almost ready to start your build. I checked out your blog, it looks like it will be a beautiful home! Now I want a house in the woods!

Thanks for the kind words- we're really looking forward to the woods and the views ourselves.

We spent yesterday looking at appliances and lighting, way early in the process but wanted to get a head start and it's still fun right now. Once the decision time is here and we have to make one, it might be less fun. I've been doing some research in the appliance forum on this site too, a lot of good information but also a lot to sort through.

Thanks again.

Here is the floor plan for the log house we're building. Comments are welcome. There will be an unfinished walk out basement as well.

Where will coats go?

Hooks on the wall by the stairs for our grab coats and for guests, the rest will be in the mudroom.

Not a lot of progress because of the snow, over 30" in the last two weeks or so. Clearing started for the house and garage and we were able to get two days in before the snow started. Here's a picture so far.

Here's a view from yesterday after the snows.

Roads aren't plowed to the top of the mountain so we hiked about 40 minutes to get there- used my tractor to break a better path back down. Hope to be making progress soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Log House Build Blog

Lovely lot. Should see lots of critters :-)

Did I miss the w/d?

imo, never too early to look at ANYTHING. The kind of lights you want might determine how the electrical needs to go - for example some of my sconces were funky sizes or needed to go certain places, also if you have ceiling fans with lights you might want a switch for fan and light, (we have remotes too but I am sure we will lose them) our exhaust fans for the bathrooms have a fan/light/nightlight so each funtcion has a switch, added things like spotlights from the ceiling for fireplace and certain walls.

The kind of sinks and faucets and tubs might have an effect on the plumbing. For example some of ours were wall mount sinks so we beefed up the framing where it needed to mount. The wooden tub with a supply columm is done differently than the steam shower.

The extra gadgets and appliances might have a bearring on the size of your service or breaker box.

Even things like furniture placement has an effect on special outlets or special things like satellite box or Cat 5, even though for the most part we are wireless we also wanted some hardwire.

I won't go on, but I discovered that the more stuff I had picked out, the better. Seems to take alot of vision early on. It all seemed to be relative to something - either to framing, or electric, or plumbing or something. Someone was always asking me a question about something that was two steps ahead of where we were but needed to be taken into consideration ahead of time.

Anyways, have FUN!

Critters we have- it's 43 acres and plenty of deer, turkey, and the odd bear or two we're told although we haven't seen the bears. The deer there are a lot more skittish that where we are in northern Va, they run when they hear you. Here, they just stop and watch you as you go by.

Washer/Dryer will be in the basement. What we're calling an office on the main floor will be pre wired and plumbed for a washer dryer should we decide to move the office downstairs. We've had the w/d on all floors as we've moved around and think we liked the basement best- wife is a quilter and she'll have a craft area down there and likes to keep tab on the laundry while working. I'm more of a throw it in and forget kind of person.

As for electric, we spent a lot of time on setting up outlets, overhead lights and fans so think we have the locations lined up, now we're in to trying to decide what fans, pendants, etc. for each room.

The decision we're wrestling with right now is for the kitchen cabinets/countertops. We know what layout of cabinets we want but keep going back and forth between a painted/glazed finish or a natural wood (hickory). We like the wood and it's actually less expensive than the painted as well but given it's a log house with hardwood floors, maybe time to get away from wood grain. We also have the drawings with a small, one man custom shop whose work we've seen and really liked but guessing the pricing will keep us from going that route but you don't know until you get a price.

Thanks for looking.

Tree clearing was completed and excavation started. This shot shows the build site with the excavation for the garage to the left and the road base that has been put in going around the garage and then swings back to the main driveway. The house excavation will be beyond the road near where the backhoe is parked. It was a beautiful sunny day at the site- still about 10 or more inches of snow on the ground but finally melting.

More pictures are in the blog as well but starting to see some serious movement now. Hope is to have the excavations and foundations completed over the next 2-3 weeks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Log House Build Blog

Excavations are completed and footings are being poured for the garage and house, hoping for the walls for the garage to be completed this week and the house next week. There are some new photos at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Log House Build Blog

Progress really picking up on our log house build in West Virginia. Picture below shows one of the support poles for the window wall of the house going up.

This picture shows the front of the house, you can see the wall starting to take place. Window and door frames are in place.

The link below is to a blog we started to track the progress of the house.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Log House Build

House is starting to take shape. Roof beams and rafters were put in place yesterday. Here's a picture when they were done.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martin WV Build

Beautiful!! Love to see the progress and that "hint" of spring with the trees budding out!! Yea!!!

First layer of the roof is completed. Picture below shows the roof before a layer of material was put on to make it waterproof. This layer is made of 2x6 tongue and groove white pine and is what we'll see on the inside of the house. There will be rigid foam, wood sheeting and shingles going on top. The 2x6's on the right hand side extending over the edge of the roof haven't been cut to fit in the first picture.

This is the view from the inside, note the beams have one coat of stain, this was done before they were set in place. The view is looking up towards the loft from the Great Room. There will be a bedroom and bath against the far wall but the loft will be just about 20' long and extends over the kitchen.

Last picture shows a close up of the material being used for the first layer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Log House Blog

A lot of progress has been made on the house we're building in WV, here's a picture of the house as the shed roof on the back is being completed. This covers two porches and a portion of the kitchen. A lot more pictures and descriptions can be found on the blog we're trying to keep updated on the build. Just wanted to share progress, another month almost gone!

Here is a link that might be useful: Romnye West Virginia Log House Build

Oh gosh, how did I miss your posts over the last month or so?! Very very nice. I know you must be so excited :-)

Can't wait to see more :-)

We received the final occupancy permits on our log house and have started slowly moving in- won't be in full time until next summer but we're really happy how it turned out. Here are some pictures of the outside, we have plenty of projects to keep us busy but did get our fencing in place as well. The link below is to a blog I kept about the build as we progressed. Now that we're done, we're happy to say there were no major issues with our builder or the log kit they supplied as well. Thanks for looking and I'm happy to try and answer questions related to this log house build as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: WV Log House Build Blog

Gorgeous! Congrats, and it looks beautiful! I didn't get why you aren't moving in until next year, but it's great that you got your certificate of occupancy in good time. Can't wait to see interior pix.

Will use the house on weekends and holidays no. My wife retires next year so we can sell our current place and move to WV full time! It's only 2 hours away so an easy trip. Thanks for the kind words, will try to put up a couple of interior shots later.