Cabin update & contest winner

I've been thinking that's it's time for a cabin update! Would you like to see how our Katahdin Cedar Log Home is coming along? Join me for a tour :o)

Loving the green shingles and window trim!

This picture was taken about a month ago. Our builders, Cabin Run Construction, are doing such a nice job! The roofing is complete and all windows are installed in this picture. The log walls are ready for the finish/protective sealer to be applied. We've decided to go with Perma-Chink in the Cedar colorway; this seems like a natural choice since our home is built with cedar logs from Maine.

Door into great room

This side door leads into the great room. I'm sure we'll use it a lot for fire wood :o) I'm so glad we decided to wrap the decking around the side of the house. The original plan was to just have a front porch and a back deck. But once we saw how the land would be graded around the house we opted to have this decking to connect the front and back. It's one of my favorite features.

Sliding glass door on back of house

From the living room to the back deck we opted for a sliding glass door instead of a swinging patio door. This decision was based mostly on my thinking that a sliding door takes up less floor space to operate.

Deck off the back of the house

We kept the deck off the back of the house a cozy size. This picture shows how it covers the patio door leading into the lower level. Both panels of the patio door are functional in order to allow large items to be moved in and out with ease. We won't have a carport or garage for awhile so the lower level will need to store kayaks and garden equipment. Since the back is the shady side of the house we had a concrete pad poured under the deck to prevent a muddy mess.

Quadra-Fire Wood Fireplace

In the great room the living area is to the left and the dining space to the right. We had a wood burning insert installed in the fireplace for maximum efficiency. This unit has an internal fan and a burn time of up to 16 hours. We are going with native field stone cut to a thin veneer and hope to do a rough hewn mantle. That big pile of wood to the right is actually cedar paneling. Katahdin log homes are built using what they call the energy envelope system. The inside of the house will be lined with rigid foam insulation and then covered with the cedar paneling. So, it looks as if you are seeing the inside of the logs, but it's actually the cedar paneling. This greatly increases the R value of the walls.

Looking the other direction...

When you turn around and look the other direction you can see the other rooms of the cabin. On the upper level there is a guest bedroom to the back with a loft and 3/4 bathroom in front. On the lower level the kitchen will be to the left with the front entry hall/mudroom and master bathroom behind. To the right is the master bedroom, laundry closet, and a small office. That yellow LVL beam will be encased to make it more attractive :o)

This is pretty much where we stand right now. We'd hoped to be moving in by the end of the year, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now. We've been busy picking out appliances, fixtures, and flooring. The decisions are both fun and a bit stressful; knowing these products are expensive, and must last a long time puts pressure to make wise choices.

Okay - now for the results of the Quiltmaker's 100 Block Volume 14 drawing! The Random Number Generator chose No. 18! The winner is Bonnie and she sent me her mailing information which I've forwarded to Quiltmakers. Congratulations Bonnie!





Thank you all for celebrating my block, Order in the Court, with me. If you end up making one I'd love it if you'd tag me! I've already submitted a design for inclusion in Volume 15 which will be published in the spring ~ wish me luck :o)

Order in the Court by Debbie Martin

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Magazine Drawing Winner!

What an exciting week this has been! I hope you've enjoyed visiting each of the blogs for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 13 block designers...I know I have :o) It's always fun to read about the design process of a quilt block ~ and get some layout options!

Flowers for the Cabin

If you make Flowers for the Cabin I sure hope you'll stop by my blog and let me know, or tag me on flickr or Instagram so I'll be sure to see it!

For the magazine drawing I asked readers to tell me about their sewing machines - what they like, what they don't like. I read about many great machines, from featherweights all the way up to mid-arm machines. Thanks for sharing your insights with me!

I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner for an issue of 100 Blocks Volume 13 to be sent directly from Quiltmaker's. 

The winner is No. 110!! Hooray!! I've sent Karan an email to let her know she is the magazine winner from my drawing.

Our log cabin begins!

To add to the excitement of the week here is the very first progress shot of our log cabin! One of our future neighbors snapped this photo and sent it to us this morning! We can't wait to go by and see. Hopefully there will be many more pictures to share through the summer. 

Thanks again for joining me as we celebrate 100 Blocks Volume 13! I hope to see you stop by my blog again ~ If you are not already following Shadows of the Blue Ridge you can sign up using Bloglovin, Follow by Email, or Google Friends Connect. All these options are available on the top right sidebar. If you do, be sure to leave a comment so I know you are a new follower :o) Hope you have a great week!

Log Home *sweet dreams*

You probably noticed that my blog posts vary quite a bit in frequency. My best intentions are to blog on a somewhat regular basis, but sometimes other things tend to crowd out blogging. Lately these other things have been designing our new home and experiencing a book hangover! {Definition of book hangover: when you've finished a book and you suddenly return to the real world, but the real world feels incomplete or surreal because you're still living in the world of the book - quote Urban Dictionary.com} In the past four months I've read 15 novels written by Earlene Fowler and enjoyed every single one of them! I really did feel a bit lost when I'd finished the final one.

Today I thought I'd share an update on our log home. As I've mentioned in the past, my husband and I are dreaming {and planning} on building a small log home on land we purchased several years ago. When you look at the gravel road on my blog header you can see where we will be building. Our land is on the right hand side of this road. We've spent the last eight months working with a builder on the design of our home.

Design drawings for our log home

It's been a fun and educational process. We'd been dreaming of our log home ever since we started looking for land about seven years ago. As we searched for land we had two main criteria:

• my husband wants to be able to hunt on it
• I wanted to make sure it did not have a scary mountain driveway that would stress me out every time I drove on it

We were blessed to find land less than 20 miles from where we currently live. This allows us to stay with our current jobs, remain in our beloved church, and keep all the same service providers we've used for the past 29+ years. Our lot is just about a half mile off a well maintained state route. Neighboring homeowner's frequently comment on seeing bear, deer, turkey, wildcats, squirrel, and other small animals.

Work book to help plan your home

Last fall I attended a Log & Timber University in order to gain basic knowledge about the process of building a log home. One of the things they encourage is developing a priority list of features you'd like in your home. Then, as you need to make choices regarding what to include you have something to help guide your decisions.

While attending the log home show I met a builder/dealer for Katahdin Cedar Log Homes who works in the area we plan to build. A couple months later he came to meet us at our lot and look over the land. Both my husband and I liked him immediately. He has been a wealth of information and so patient as we've worked through many drafts of home plans.






One booth at the log home show is called the newsstand. Here you are able to purchase bundles of outdated log home magazines at a greatly reduced price. I've done this twice now. Most of the homes in the magazines are way too fancy and elaborate for our needs, but it is so helpful to look at things such as floor plans, kitchen & bathroom layouts, wall treatments (all log interior versus including other wall materials), porches, etc.

A few of the many magazines I've collected for reference

As with any custom home construction it is difficult to know what you want to actually afford without just jumping in and submitting a preliminary design to a builder for pricing. Let me just say I have a new appreciation for the fancy roof lines, custom windows, and elaborate floor plans we see all around us in builder/developer neighborhoods. We quickly found that plain and simple best met our needs.

When first having to face up to choosing between the dormer windows or the fireplace we've always dreamed of it was a bit hard. But, we tend to live in the practical world and found that after a day or so of lamenting that ALL our dreams cannot be included we were perfectly happy to whittle down to what we really want to afford. We had no idea how much time and doodling goes into designing a floor plan that both meets your needs, and fits into the footprint dimensions of a home...we've put many, many hours into this over the last several months.

Approximate location of our home

Anyway, at this point we are pretty much finished with our final designs and hope to be advancing to the next step of the process soon. I hope you've enjoyed this little peak into our log home journey. Hopefully in the near future there will be more excitement to share as we move forward :o)