And now for the inside!
When you walk in the front door, it is almost sensory overload. The massive totem pole is actually a structural element of the log home. It is a ridge pole support log (RPSL), which means it supports the ridge pole.
After the home was constructed, he hired a local artist to carve a totem pole in the RPSL. You can see the bolts holding the RPSL to the wall are actually incorporated into the design (see the closeup photos, bottom right).
Here is an interesting angle that shows one method of supporting floor joists (below). The floor joists rest on top of a girder, and cantilever over to the wall. In this case, the joists do not need to be affixed to the wall.
Below are a couple of photos of the living room stove. We included both photos here because there is something extremely unique and unusual in the masonry behind the stove. Can you spot the mountain pattern in the rock?
The masonry wall and floor insert are built from local stone. The upper portion of the stone is rock that came out of his drainfield.
Here you can spot the mountain pattern again in the wall trim.
This is another angle of the main living room. You can see a small window into the children's rooms. The curved wall pattern holds a closet.
This log home was built mostly from wood harvested from Mike's own property. Some of the floorboards were even cut from those same logs, milled on a portable sawmill. When you use a portable sawmill to cut boards, there is some leftover wood at the top and bottom of each log that is too rounded to use as a board.
Mike is an industrious and creative guy. Many of those leftover rounds were added to his beautiful log staircase (below).
Take a look at the native tile designs under the steps.
And now for the kitchen. The ceiling photo shows the beautiful log floor joists that hold up the second floor.
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