Thinking of building a log home in Georgia

[jinman]

If you are gonna have a traditional mortgage, you need to find somebody who will lend you the money. Non-traditional homes are a tough sell to the banks. They have to think about resale should they have to foreclose (especially in today's environment). They do not want to be left with a very non-conventional house that nobody wants. I have a pilot friend who bought 10 acres close to me. She was sure she was gonna build a monolithic dome house. She could never get to 1st base with financing. They all showed her the door. Now, she's paying taxes on land she doesn't use and doesn't even visit to my knowledge. I suppose her son will inherit it.:confused3:

 

[bzimmel]

No mortgage required. Would be a 100% cash purchase/build.

 

[MotorSeven]

No mortgage required. Would be a 100% cash purchase/build.

Wow

 

[jinman]

No mortgage required. Would be a 100% cash purchase/build.

Excellent! I'm a firm believer in your building what you want where you want it with your own money. When I built my house, the appraiser had to go around 45 miles to find a comp house. That made me happy, but I think he was a bit frustrated. I knew I was building a unique house. Putting down 20% certainly helped grease the mortgage skids too. I could have paid cash, but felt I could do as well as the interest by holding onto my cash. My investments have easily outperformed my interest rate. Of course, I didn't go out and build a half-million dollar house surrounded by mobile homes either. I see that done on country lots sometimes and don't understand why anyone would want to do that. So my advice would be to select your site carefully and then don't overbuild for the area.

 

[tow653]

I have worked for a guy that takes down 1800's log homes and puts them back up,and for a guy that builds Rocky Mountain Log Homes kits. No way would I want a kit,they are cut from dead standing lodgepole pine,and require a ton of maintenance. I would venture to guess his display home,which he lives in,gets 7 to 8 thousand dollars worth of maintenance every 5 to 6 years,pressure washed,acid washed,caulked and re stained,sealed. They shrink so much that they allow two to three inches in rough openings. The 1800's homes have all been covered with siding for years,which is why one can still find them. Often the owners want the logs exposed,and can't count the number of houses that we have gone back and sided because they start to deteriorate when exposed to the elements. Granted they look great but be prepared to spend a fortune on maintenance.

 

[bzimmel]

Hmmmm.....a lot of good bits of information. Thanks, Tow.

 

[Larro Darro]

We built a cabin from pine logs when I was a kid. We used all the old timey hand tools to work the logs. [felling ax, adze, broad ax, drawing knives, brace and bit, chisels, mallets, etc.. This was before we had a gernerator] The logs were allowed some time to dry out, but not enough. There were 1" gaps between the logs and we put up rough cut pine boards for inside walls. Bees were a problem, but don't know about the longer term. Back then we were still making square bales of hay. We had a bumper crop, and all our hay barns filled up. The cabin was on the river behind the hayfield, so we used it for the overflow. It was filled to the rafters when the river flooded. The county road over a 1/4 mile from the river was covered in water before it got up to the cabin, so we couldn't get in there to move the hay. When the river went back down, the weight squished the support beams. It stood for years, and we still used it to camp in, but we never finished it. And when the roof started to fall in, we sent some of the logs down the river, and had a big bon fire with the rest.

 

[caver]

Gastineau log homes here in MO use Oak if that might work for ya.

 

[vabiker23518]

I had a log home constructed in 2009 for my land. It was from Old Virginia Log Homes. Had a local builder ready the foundation. OVLH came and erected the entire home in two days. Then the local builder did all the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and finish work over a couple months. Nice end product. I do fight carpenter bees all the time. I have restained it once, and in only four years really needs it again. The sun is hard on the finish and wood. But I wouldn't trade it! Good luck

 

[dave1949]

We looked at log homes seriously, but after hearing about the maintenance needs to keep them looking good and sound, I decided that wasn't what I wanted to commit to. Painting or staining and power washing just aren't what I wanted to be doing. We were leaving a house sided with stained western red cedar that I tried keep looking good, so I had some insight to the work involved.

There's no doubt they are cute as could be if you don't stray too far from the basic 1-1/2 story with a porch -- for my tastes anyways.