Mark and Lisa (Lisa is a professional artist and graphic designer) built this beautiful log home in scenic South Dakota on their first try. They are already talking about building their second log home nearby. As you can see from the photographs below, Lisa's artistic touches really create the perfect rustic log home design.
This home is a slightly different design than most of our members build -- the Sherrodds built a modified piece-on-piece log home based on the butt and pass system. Mark says that the decision was easy because he had access to free logs, but the logs were too short to build a butt and pass style home. As Skip says, "Build with what you have." So rather than spend money for longer logs, Mark and Lisa got creative.
They used the principles we teach in class to design a piece-on-piece system that doesn't settle. In addition, the piece-on-piece walls are made from panels that could be assembled on the ground and then tilted up into position. They built all of the panels in one weekend, and then put up all of the panels and built all of the walls in just a single Saturday.
(Click the photos for a larger view)
Shhhh... don't tell anyone, but the barn doors on the end of the house aren't actually functional. They match the gambrel roof to give the house a country barn feeling.
One of the nicest parts of this home is the landscaping outside, including this beautiful water feature. The water feature sits just outside Lisa's home office for a relaxing view.
The two shed dormers (coming out of the roof on the second floor) are an excellent way to add useable space upstairs and add interest to your roofline, however they are less expensive and easier to build than gabled dormers.
Come on in and see what's inside...
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