Kit or no kit for a log home

[learning2homestead]

Hi everyone,

I am looking at getting a log cabin. I am a very new to log cabins. I have helped my dad build houses from the ground up(he is still alive so he could help me build a kit). I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on if I should go with a kit and build it myself or look into buying. I am sure that I can build a lot of it myself. I love the kit idea, but I don't know where to start or what company I should go with. For the ones that have built kits, who did yall use and did yall like them? any help will be appreciate. The house will be in NC

 

[N F C]

Hope you don't mind if I follow along...this is something DH and I have talked about too. It will be interesting to read what others have to say.

 

[Elyrian1]

I'm going to stick my foot in the door here too, just to listen in on the conversation. When the time comes, I've looked heavily into just having the prepared logs shipped to site, wherever that ends up being. But nothing is decided, and the money isn't there so I'm just in "dream" stage.

 

[Tinahomeschools]

Hi everyone,

I am looking at getting a log cabin. I am a very new to log cabins. I have helped my dad build houses from the ground up(he is still alive so he could help me build a kit). I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on if I should go with a kit and build it myself or look into buying. I am sure that I can build a lot of it myself. I love the kit idea, but I don't know where to start or what company I should go with. For the ones that have built kits, who did yall use and did yall like them? any help will be appreciate. The house will be in NC

That is great because today i was looking up the same thing and came across Amish modular cabins with a price list that compares kits to build out!
http://amishmadecabins.com/_index.php

Looks like kit building saves significant money.

 

[GardenTillers44]

I am looking at getting a log cabin.

Hope you don't mind if I follow along...this is something DH and I have talked about too. It will be interesting to read what others have to say.

My wife and I always dreamed of living in a log home. We read all the mags, went to all the regional log home shows and planned for years. The expense of acquiring a property and building from a kit was insumountable for us once we really looked into everything involved. When we factored in a well, septic, grading and prepping the ground and bringing power of some kind into the equation along with the kit and everything needed to turn it into a home, which included permits, equipment rental, tool purchases and hiring out any skills we did not have, we started to change our thought process. The first thing I realized was that even though I am fairly skilled at small scale carpentry and have never been afraid to dive into DIY projects, I did not have the experience or tools needed to erect and turnkey a log home, even from a kit, and couldn't afford to pay someone to build it.
So we put the log home dream on the back burner for a while, and I just kept poking around the realtor sites, classifieds and rumor mills looking for a piece of affordable land. We looked at a ton of properties over a seven year period, it became a hobby and an obsession searching for the property that checked all the boxes. One day I found a 3-line classified in our regional paper that simply said "Home with acreage in the Hocking Hills" with a realtor and phone #. I called about it and it sounded promising, so I went out with a friend to check it out. It turned out the property was exactly what we had been looking for and it had an 8 year old log cabin built from a kit that needed a bit of work but had good bones. Well, septic, propane and electric were all in great shape. The guy who owned it had the kit professionally assembled and then pulled "weekend warrior" duty for a year building it out himself. He cut a lot of corners and the workmanship left something to be desired, but it was certainly habitable and we could live with it. Bottom line was we purchased the property and home that we could start enjoying immediately at a negotiated price far better than we could have bought the land, prepped it and built the log home. We have now owned the place for 17 years, chipping away at home improvements as we could afford them, retired to the place of our dreams this year and loving every minute of it.
The two takeaways for me are: first, to not overlook the option of checking out resale properties with a log cabin already in place. Building new is a great way to get exactly what you want, but often you can purchase a property like that for substantially less than a build and have some amount of instant gratification. Second, we have learned as log home owners, that there is nothing inexpensive about owning and maintaining a log home. Do your homework so you are not blindsided by the high cost of maintaining the home with stains, chinking (if you have it), prevention and repair from critter damage (oh yeah, squirrels, woodpeckers, borer bees, termites all want a piece of that lovely wood home), higher insurance and installing/maintaining your own services (septic, well, propane etc.). We also have a lengthy private drive that needs graded and graveled periodically. That said, there can also be some savings over city life such as much lower taxes, ability to grow/harvest your own food, fuel savings with woodburners etc. And the experience, peace of mind and country quiet is priceless.
One last thought: Since we did look at kit manufacturers for quite a while, if you consider that route, do your homework there as well, vetting the company and checking reviews and history. Make sure you understand exactly what you are getting with the kit...and what you are not getting that you need to supply yourself. Get a first hand reference or two from the manufacturer that you can contact to get their take on the quality of the product and the experience with the company. There are a lot of quality manufacturers with a long and satisfactory history, but the industry is rife with "here today-gone tomorrow" buyer beware type of companies. You want to have a manufacturer you can fall back on for any trouble-shooting and to be able to get replacement logs and trim years later if needed.
Good luck following your dream!

 

[N F C]

@GardenTillers44 thanks for the thoughtful response...lots of food for thought. Glad you found your home!

 

[Nardo]

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