A kit house being advertised in a magazine for $30,000 will actually likely cost you $130,000 after everything is installed and completed. This is a typical scenario and you are left with a log house that really is just the bare minimum of what you may be dreaming of. Most peoples dream is a log house with logs that actually look realistic. Most affordable kits have lumber that slightly resembles a log but not by much. You will not have a rock fireplace as a part of this kit as that will cost you extra. For a substantial mediocre looking kit house you might pay $80,000 for a larger sized floor plan and end up paying about $450,000 when the kit is finally completed. These numbers are very realistic as I tracked them down from real life scenarios posted on different construction forums by log kit owners who went through the whole phase of purchasing the kit to completely finishing the entire house construction process.

There are log house seminars that will teach you the basic steps to building a log house using pioneering log home construction techniques that will allow you to build an affordable log home that looks much more impressive and authentic then a kit house. The real life examples of building log homes using pioneering techniques can cut the cost dramatically. Several people have built log houses using pioneering techniques and managed to keep their total costs between $10,000 - $30,000 then to turn around and sell their house for over $100,000 in profit.

If you have been interested in learning a good log home construction technique you should go over to the North American Log Home Builders Association and have a member answer some of your initial questions. They will likely give you a few helpful things to think about in beginning your log home construction project.

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What you will end up doing is buying 8 triple block pulleys on ebay as you will find them quickly and usually get them for about $30 a piece which isn’t too bad. You will pay about $240 for all your pulleys. If you were to buy these new you would likely pay that much for one. The way you use these things is you will use them with 4 poles about the length of a standard wood telephone pole. You will dig 4 holes near the interior corners of your pier and beam foundation. To clarify, near each corner of the house you will place the pole in the hole so that it stands up vertically in the interior part of the house where the floor will eventually be built. You will have a pulley chained to the top of the pole threaded with some of that affordable polypropylene rope you can get at Lowes and Home Depot. That rope will hang down on the ground and be threaded to another triple block pulley at the bottom. You will hook the bottom pulley to a chain on the end of a log you want to have hoisted onto the pier and beam foundation of your house. You will do the same at the other end of the log and then grab the loose end of the rope and hoist the log up with the help of a friend or truck. The log will move up and on to the foundation easier then you might expect. You will continue going around your house hoisting one log at a time onto your house until you have stacked them all up.

You may be asking, how do the logs stay in place? That question is best answered for a later time or you may want to visit the Log Home Builders Forum to learn the finer details of this construction process. There are a lot of good guys on their like, engineers, 6th generation log home builders and the like that will give you a good jump onto the right direction.

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There is a guy by the name of Ellsworth who is a 6th generation log home builder. His dad actually taught me how to build log houses. He lives in Washington state and his dad Skip was taught by his dad and so the story goes as each generation was taught by the other. I have my foundation done but I have had the project on the back burner as I now have a wife and little boy on the way and there is only so many things I can fit into my very busy life right now although I do see it as a fun hobby to get to every once and awhile as I have time. It will be nice to have a log house built and paid off with no mortgage going to the bank even if it takes me awhile to achieve that goal. Many people wanting to build a log house do it as a hobby and dream and I am no different. The time isn’t an issue as long as I eventually get it done. There is nothing wrong with cheating but it is fun to do it like the old timers did don’t you think?

I live in east Texas which is where my log house project is at and I plan to build once my day job slows down a little and goes on autopilot. I am not quite there yet but I am getting closer. It will be nice to get to work on it when my son is a little older and can watch and help me with it. I might have it done way before then but I am sure he will get to be a part of a future project. This site will be updated with my log house project pictures as I have them. I used to be active on the log home builder’s forum but had to take a break as my log house project was put on hold.

So How Do I Build One?

I think Skip Ellsworth or his son Ellsworth could do a much better job of teaching you the log home building trade. These are the people I learned from and they have all the shortcuts already ironed out. If you do decide to travel up to Washington state to learn how to build a log home be sure to come back here and let me know how it went. You may also feel free to ask me questions if you need help getting your own log home project going. I have loaned out my pier and beam forms for pouring a log home foundation but they are available to be loaned out again to any member of the Log Home Builders of North America.

If you would like to learn the process a good place to start is here: Log Home Builder’s Of North America

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