THIS PAGE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING: 

#1. A SMALL AMOUNT OF ADVICE ABOUT  PURCHASING "KIT" LOG HOMES

#2. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFERENT LOG HOME
      BUILDING METHODS

#3. SAYINGS IN THE TRADE

#4. RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

#5. ETC.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL SOON BE ADDED TO THIS PAGE.

ADVICE REGARDING "KIT" HOMES;

Volumes of good advice will soon be added to these pages. For now, our advice includes (BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO) the following:

1.  Before purchasing a "kit" log home it is recommended that you WRITE to the manufacturer and ask the following questions (requesting that the questions be ANSWERED IN WRITING);

2. Ask the manufacturer for a list of the most recent fifty people who have purchased homes from him, along with their addresses, phone numbers, and the dates of their purchases.

3. Talk to these purchasers by phone. Use your personality so they will cooperate with you. Ask them if they are happy with the homes they purchased. Ask them if they are having any problems with the homes. Ask them if you can go to their homes for a visual inspection (if you buy the pizza and beer).

4. Ask the manufacturer if he is currently incorporated – (which might limit his liability regarding any future claim you might have against him for faulty workmanship, etc.).

5. Ask if he has ever been incorporated using another name, or in a different state (who, what , where, when, why, etc.). If so, why did he change the name of his business ???

6. Ask for a tour of the factory where his "kits" are manufactured. Introduce yourself to the "hands on" workers who do the actual fabrication in the factory. Quietly get the names of these workers. Call them after work. Take ‘em for a beer. Pick their brains.

7. Ask if you can meet the crew who would eventually come to your site to assemble the "kit." Get their names. Call them. Take ‘em for a beer. Buy ‘em a pizza. Pick their brains.

8. It is not a good idea to enter into any agreement with the "kit" builder, or give him any money, or sign any contract of purchase, without first having the agreement carefully checked over by your own attorney.

9. Any questions that you want to ask the manufacturer should be put forth in writing – and you should ask that his response be in writing and mailed back to you.

In this way, the manufacturer will probably realize that "mail fraud" might be involved if you are deceived or mislead in any way that damages you.

Frankly, we think that there might be many "kit" log homes that you would not purchase if you first made a careful investigation of the product.

Also, we think that there are many manufacturers of "so called" log homes that would not give you the information referred to above – because they know what the results would be.

Caveat emptor !!! (Let the buyer beware !!!)

IF YOU THINK WE ARE PARANOID, IT IS ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT HEARD THE THOUSANDS OF "HORROR STORIES" THAT ARE TOLD BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE PURCHASED "KIT" LOG HOMES.

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IMPORTANT: Most "first time" log home buyers are easy to take advantage of – primarily because they know so little about the craft.

If you purchase a "kit" home you can easily make the mistake of assuming that the people who built it knew what they were doing – or that they even gave a damn.

Some "kit" builders are not concerned about quality control.

They are often more concerned about getting the job done quickly (and therefore more cheaply) – because this means they can make more profit.

As Mike Simmons often says:  "You can easily build a "bad" log home out of "good" logs – but it is very difficult to build a "good" log home out of "bad" logs."

If you are going to purchase a "kit" log home, then it  is important that you learn how to tell a "good" log home from a "bad" log home.   You should learn about the mistakes that the kit builders often make. 

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Here is a "saying" that we often hear in the log home building trade:

"Many log home builders who say they have built fifteen log homes have really only built the same log home fifteen times."

In other words, many builders who claim to be "experienced" always use the same techniques, the same styles, the same methods, and the same approaches – because they only know one way to do the job.

In other words, these guys often make the same mistakes in their fifteenth home as they made in the first home. 

These types of builders get very good at making their mistakes -- because they get so much practice at doing so.

However, they never get any better at building log homes."

Personally, we would be suspicious of a builder who said, ‘I only know one way to build a log home, but my way is the best way.’ Well, if he only knows one way to build a log home, then how does he know it is the best way ?

If you are not going to build you own log home -- and if you are going to hire someone to build the home for you -- then we recommend that you only deal with a log home builder who is an expert at every way of doing it – so he can give you a comparative analysis of the various methods -- the advantages of each -- the disadvantages of each -- etc.

You should only deal with someone who can educate you, so you can participate intelligently in the decision making process.

Obviously, it is important to learn about log homes if you are going to "build" one yourself. However, it is sometimes even more important to learn about them if you are going to "buy" a kit log home. When you purchase a kit log home you can get taken advantage of (to put it nicely) in many different ways -- so you should really learn a lot about log homes before you make a commitment to a particular style, contractor, builder, etc.

THE "ALLEGED" LOG HOME MAGAZINES:

One of the members brought a few log home magazines to the last Log House Builders meeting.

In the magazines, there were many photographs of homes – but  there were very few photographs of REAL log homes.

So… what kind of [supposedly log ?] homes were in the magazines ???

Frankly, we don’t know exactly what you’d call them.

We are confused by the following factors;

A) Some of the homes were built with giant dowels (pieces of wood that had been turned on a lathe) that were stacked on top of each other in an obvious attempt to IMITATE real log homes.

B) Some of the homes were built with pieces of wood that were cut into "beams" (three by sixes ? four by eights ? etc. ?) that were stacked on top of each other in an obvious attempt to IMITATE the way real log homes are built.

C) Some of the homes were built using a strange mixture of the two principles mentioned above – involving beams and/or dowels that had tongue and groove details on the tops and bottoms of them.

Some people reported that many of these so-called "log home magazines," contained photographs of only two or three "real" log homes.

Who is trying to confuse you regarding the above phenomenon… and why ???

Whoever it is… do you suppose they are being motivated by "profit" ???

It is amazing to us that many people can’t tell the difference between a "phony" log home and a "real" log home.

This makes us wonder…

If prospective purchasers are so ignorant about log homes that they can’t even tell a "real" one from a "phony" one, then how can they possibly make an intelligent decision about what type of log home to build or purchase ???

How can they possibly differentiate between poor workmanship and good workmanship ???

How can they differentiate between a "bad" log home and a "good" one ???

How can they keep from making a mistake that it might take them 30 years to pay for ???

Potential log home purchasers often become frustrated by their own lack of knowledge.

There is no excuse for their frustration, because in two days they can easily learn everything they need to know.

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