Building a Log Home, chapter 2

We had the land, we had the plan, next we needed to decide on a log home company. Years of touring homes, going to log home expo’s, and researching the various companies led us to one particular style and company. I’m not going to name this nationally known company, but they were featured in log home magazines and on television. Although they were based in our state, they were expensive. Then we stumbled upon a home being built in our own little off the map, backwoods village. The logs were huge, the Swedish cope style of fitting the logs together was more appealing than what we had previously envisioned, and the company was Christian owned: North Arrow Log Homes.

We visited their operation in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where they were building several homes in their log yard. They took us to several finished homes where we noticed their signature arrow piercing an upper log and, of course, pointing north.

Every house was a masterpiece. And, unlike the other (famous) company, they did not charge extra for larger logs. We were still a year and a half away from being ready to build, but we slapped our money down and snagged a place on their schedule. Meanwhile we continued to spend as much time as we could in our northern Michigan woods. We plotted the course of the sun, determined the best orientation for the house, and cleared as few trees as possible. My husband and his two chain saws felled around forty mature (60 year old) trees.