How to Find the Perfect Plan for Our Dream Log Cabin - Artesian Lakes

It is unbelievable how many places there are to look for the perfect plan to build a log cabin....log cabin magazines, floor plan books, internet, trade shows, log companies, email, book stores, owners of cabins, builders,etc. I guess I just never realized that so many people were interested in building a log cabin. Wow . . .I was wrong!!

I must own every log cabin magazine that has been published in the last couple of years. I'm talking at least 100 without going in and counting them . . . I'm not talking 10 or 20. If a log cabin plan was anywhere in any book (even if it was just one), I probably own it too. Looking at log cabin plans on the internet was fabulous. It kept me up into the wee hours of the morning almost every single night checking out every room size, the location of the kitchen to to family room, any wasted space, locations of windows, etc. I called or emailed every log cabin company that I could find asking for them to send me information on their stock plans. I now have crates of advertising materials. I called log cabin owners to find out their pros and cons of building their log cabins and asked them what they would do differently (if anything) if they could do it over again. I spoke to builders to find out what their thoughts were about building and inquired about their opinion on what they thought were some of the best plans for our area of the country. The wealth of information is OVERWHELMING!!

My husband told me I was obsessed . . .and I was!! I poured over all the information I had time and time again.

We started looking at building a cabin around 1500 square feet. I thought that would be pretty easy. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! There were things that needed to be taken into consideration for the intended purpose of the cabin. My husband, Jim, and I wanted our two daughters to bring their friends . . .and eventually their husbands and children to the cabin. Therefore, we needed space for all of us that would eventually be staying there at any one time. We wanted our parents to visit and for them not to have to climb stairs. We wanted a kitchen that was slightly out of the way, but open to the dining and family rooms so that the "cook" never missed out on anything that was going on. It had to have a loft overlooking the family room and a fireplace and a lot of windows for the tremendous views and on and on and on. Of course, we wanted to be right on the water so the "great bass and catfish fishermen" could throw their poles in from the deck whenever they wanted.

Our 1500 square foot cabin GREW, to say the least. Before we knew it . . .it was a large home. The dream log cabin grew to become a dream log homewith over 3000 square feet . . .and that didn't include the covered wrap around porch. It needed to have 4 bedrooms (two up and two down), 3 bath rooms, the over-sized family room, a dining area, a breakfast bar, the loft and the covered wrap around deck.

I began wondering if the dream was going to "burst " because of the size , the amenities it would have and the cost to build it. The log cabin was supposed to be our dream come true and it seemed that it may be out of our grasp. (I'll talk about the cost approach in one of the next blogs concerning the cabin.)

I continued reviewing plans with the intent to find something similar to what we were dreaming about. In my heart I knew it would be too hard to trim back the size, but maybe I could do something to a plan that would reduce wasted space and costs.

Well, I'm going to try and make this l o n g story a bit shorter. I had actually seen my dream home in the first log company book that I had seen. It needed some tweaking, but I really, really liked it. Figures, huh?!?!?! My husband would have liked to have saved the hundreds of dollars spent on magazines and books. BUT, you have to understand . . .I had to make sure it was the right plan for us. That's one of the reasons why I had to keep looking. The other reason I had to keep looking was because it was going to cost a lot more to build than we had budgeted for. I didn't realize dreams had to have budgets to come true.

I guess I better stop here for right now. It's late and I need to tell you the next step in my next blog.

Anyway, if you want to know more about our dream cabin, or need information on the continued log home development at Artesian Lakesin Romayor, Texas (next door to The Big Thicket of East Texas) . . . I am here to help you.

Meg and Jim Zoller - The Zoller Group of Keller Williams Realty, The Metropolitan

Website, http://www.finehomeshouston.com/ . Also, feel free to contact us at:

Direct: 713-661-0884

Toll Free: 800-808-6153

E-mail: Meg@FineHomesHouston.com or Jim@FineHomesHouston.com

Cells: Meg - 713-875-4844 Jim - 713-545-6338