Real Log Style

The days are growing shorter and the start of football season is upon us so we likely will soon be spending more free time inside the home than out. And while none of us want to admit to being couch potatoes, the average American watches around three hours of television a day. Since this activity occupies a large amount of our time, it is best to make the watching experience a comfortable one. In the log home, there are some logistical issues that make planning a TV viewing area more of a challenge than other homes. Here are some suggestions on planning your space.

We have focused a great deal on appropriate lighting solutions for the inside of a log home, since having great lighting can provide a real boost for one’s quality of life. While lighting inside the log home is important, outside lighting is also an issue that you shouldn’t neglect. A good lighting scheme outside both adds to your home’s charm and safety when outdoors at night. Here is a general guide for selecting lighting fixtures for the exterior areas of your home.

With Labor Day only a few weeks away, it’s the time of year that many are off and enjoying summer vacations. And thank goodness for that! Multiple studies have shown that getting away and taking your vacation time is important to your health. And if after reading up on the subject (which this post should help you do) you still need more inspiration to get away for a vacation, we’ll show how a Real Log Home can provide the perfect getaway.

As we’ve mentioned several times before, the great room is the defining interior space in the majority of today’s homes. While the separate family and living rooms may be harder to find in modern construction, one of the great advantages of building your own Real Log Home is that our designers will work with whatever plan you have in mind. Separate family and living rooms certainly fit in a log home; they can provide a more intimate spaces than one with only a single great room. If this type of house sounds right for you, then the Ashley floor plan may be just what you are looking for.

Many homeowners believe that by renovating their homes they will increase its value when they go to sell their home. Unfortunately, there is no renovation that you can do that will guarantee a positive return on your investment. Nationwide, every type of renovation will return less money than the cost of construction. However, several desirable features return almost as much money as their cost. While these upgrades may not make sense on an older house, they do indicate which features are desirable to homebuyers and thus what features are good ideas to include in new construction. Here are some of the features which will help your log home maintain its value through the years.

Real Log Home owners love taking pictures of their homes, as evidenced by our customer submitted photographs section. But while taking photographs of your home can be rewarding, it also presents challenges you don’t find when taking snapshots of people or pets. While modern digital cameras are more forgiving than film cameras of the past, there are still several techniques that will allow you to produce better shots of the interior and exterior of your home. Whether you are looking to take pictures to advertise your home for sale or just share with friends and family, here are some tips to improving your log home photographs.

Last October, we wrote a post on predicted future trends in home design. The conclusions of that post were that great rooms and first-floor master bedrooms would become even more prevalent while living rooms and specialty rooms like media rooms would decline in popularity. While this addresses the kinds of rooms that are found in new homes, it did not address how large each of these rooms are. When clients first start working with the Real Log Homes design team on their layout, many have questions about how large each room should be. Clients starting a design from scratch are often especially interested in this question. To help guide your planning, we’ve compiles data about average room sizes from a 2013 National Association of Home Builders survey of new construction.

This Fourth of July Weekend is set to be a warm one, with a great deal of the country experiencing high temperatures in the 90s or above. For the remainder of the summer, the National Weather Service is predicting above average temperatures in the South and West. This hot weather may get you thinking about ways to cool down your log home. While we appreciate the moderating effect of thermal mass in a log home’s walls, if the average daily temperature is above 80 degrees it can feel uncomfortably hot. Air conditioning is an option, but requires a great deal of electricity to run and can therefore be expensive to operate. If you’re considering other ways of cooling your home, here are a few alternatives.

While dedicated movie rooms are a popular way to enjoy films right at home, the aesthetics of a log home make them a perfect candidate for filming in a movie. Sometimes, a log cabin or home is used for historical accuracy. Other times, the log home is the perfect metaphor for any place away from the rest of civilization. Whatever the filmmaker’s needs, log homes have found a place in American cinema. Here are a few examples of log homes featured in movies.

Along with the bathroom, the kitchen is probably the most “functional” room in a house. Since the layout of a kitchen is dictated by its function, with little floor space to spare, lighting in the kitchen must be accomplished by wall or ceiling mounted fixtures. Complicating matters, more types of light sources are required in a kitchen than other rooms. While a bedroom or living space may only need ambiance lighting so you can see in the dark, a kitchen also requires task lighting to help you prepare food and clean up afterwards. If you are looking at designing appropriate lighting for the kitchen in your log home, here is a guide to several types of lighting.