Building a Log Home, chapter 25

Acting as our own general contractors was a piece of cake for us. After all, as teachers who handled 150 students a day each, coordinating 29 sub-contractors was easy and pleasantly satisfying. If a student was late to class, missed an assignment, needed a reminder or a phone call home we were on top of it. We used the same hovering attention in regards to the tradesmen whom we scheduled in overlapping succession. Many log homes require a year or a year and a half to complete after the logs are erected, but we did it in six months. My number one piece of advice to others who want to build is to be on site daily. If there are ten ways to do something and you’d be happy with nine of them, trust me, if you’re not there on the day the sub-contractor has to make a decision, he will pick the one way you didn’t want.

In this picture you see the tile guy grouting the 14 inch slate-like tiles in the sunroom. The choices are seemingly endless, but the hardest part is deciding on a grout color. With different choices of tile and grout for the sunroom, bathrooms, and laundry room, we watched closely to make sure there were no mix-ups.