DESIGNING YOUR LOG HOME: Tips to keep you out of trouble
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Article by: Mercedes Hayes Nearly every log home , A Look at Embroidery Sewing Machines is a custom design, , Home Pest Control: Battling Against Mosquitoes on the Home F whether you are altering a stock plan , Easy Rose Care Tips or starting from scratch. By their very nature, , Building A Garden Fence custom floor , Easy Rose Care Tips plans open up a large number of untested challenges - especially if you are trying to design , Homeowner Demand Sparks Innovation in Hardwood Flooring the house yourself. , A Heartfelt, Natural Way To Lift Our Spirits With almost all log home , Learn Some Feng Shui Guidelines For Your Children's Room manufacturers, an in-house architect will take your design , 6 Easy Tips On How To Care For Your Plants and turn it into a set of drawings that conform to their building , Home Equity – Foreclosure Often Not Necessary In Current Mar system. Your home , Online Gardening Catalogs At Your Disposal will be structurally sound. However, don't necessary expect them to point out every inconvenience or snafu in your design. , Understanding Weeds - But mostly How to Kill 'em This is a hands-on business, and in the end, your house design , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Troy Pa. is on you... and you'll have to live with it. Here are a few pointers I can suggest to make your design , Part IV: Different Types of Home Foundations and When to Us more efficient. MECHANICALS: Open floor , Arborvitae - A Multi Use Plant plans are the essence of the modern log home. , 6 Easy Tips On How To Care For Your Plants They make a home , Equity – Foreclosure Often Not Necessary In Current Mar feel larger, and keep the cook from feeling isolated. However, if you're planning a second floor , Site drainage problems you need to consider how you are going to get the plumbing, , Homeowner Demand Sparks Innovation in Hardwood Flooring the electric , How to Decorate Your Garden Using Profound Garden Statues th and the ductwork (both supply and return) to the upstairs rooms. , Homeowner Demand Sparks Innovation in Hardwood Flooring You won't be using the exterior walls , Garden Leaf Blowers - More Power to Your Elbow for that, so you need to create enough interior , Thinking of Remodeling Your Kitchen? walls on the main floor , Thinking of Remodeling Your Kitchen? to fit all the mechanicals. Even if you use radiant-floor heating, you'll need ductwork for the air , A list of power tools that women should have in their toolbox for general home rep and emergencie conditioning. There are some systems that use high-pressure ductwork much smaller in diameter than conventional ducts, so there are other possibilities if you are pressed for space. But the best solution is to think ahead. Each object in all likelihood will take its own space between the 2x4s. If you're tempted to use an interior , Gardening - Lawn Maintenance Chores Part V full-log wall , Buying Used Chainsaws (or none at all), you may be sacrificing an opportunity to get more ductwork upstairs. PLUMBING: The wisest floor , Buying Used Chainsaws plans are the ones that try to keep the bathrooms , Learn Some Feng Shui Guidelines For Your Children's Room together (either back-to-back or one directly above the other) and the shortest runs on the plumbing. , Buying Used Chainsaws This can't always be done, but when placing the upstairs bathroom, , Understanding Weeds - But mostly How to Kill 'em try to line it up with an interior , Understanding Weeds - But mostly How to Kill 'em downstairs wall. , Planting Hydrangeas For Late Season Color This way the plumbing , Site drainage problems doesn't have to snake all over the place. , Patios: The New Trend in Home Remodels CLOSETS: I would venture to guess that log homes , Thinking of Remodeling Your Kitchen? are usually notoriously short on closet space. I know my home , Five Tips for Decorating a Girl’s Bedroom is. First of all, it would be a terrible waste to put a closet against an exterior log wall. , Thinking of Remodeling Your Kitchen? Why hide your beautiful , A Heartfelt, Natural Way To Lift Our Spirits logs? And because we try to keep the square footage down to a minimum, it almost seems a crime to waste precious space on closets. However, there's more than one reason to include them. Not only do we seem to collect more stuff as we get older, but by law in several states the closet determines whether a room , Black Roses - Fact or Fiction is a bedroom or an office. This could affect the resale (or refinancing) of your house. , Planting Hydrangeas For Late Season Color Here is a suggestion: put two closets side-by-side on the wall , Black Roses - Fact or Fiction separating two rooms; the closets may not be huge, but it doesn't change , A list of power tools that women should have in their toolbox for general home repair and emergencie the shape of the rooms. , Site drainage problems Try to include a coat closet near your front door. , Avoid the "How Much?" Hassle When Buying Firewood for Your F WINDOWS: As I'm sure you've already read many times, you can't have too many windows , A Beginners Guide To Garden Bridges in a log home. , Gardening - Lawn Maintenance Chores Part V The wood , A Look at Embroidery Sewing Machines sucks up the light , Avoid the "How Much?" Hassle When Buying Firewood for Your F like a sponge. If you have a large empty wall, , Earthworm Friends in the Garden the insertion of a window , More About Butterly Gardening near the peak not only lets in more light, , Learn Some Feng Shui Guidelines For Your Children's Room it adds character. Some people add windows , Tulip Bulbs - Fall is the Time to Prepare the Perfect Spring Flower Garden along either side of a shed , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Troy Pa. dormer. Placement can be critical; in my case, I had to move the roof , Maximize Your Fireplace Heat-Output To Lower Fuel Bills line to increase the size of my bedroom window, , A Look at Embroidery Sewing Machines because by code it needed to be 6' square for egress (In any upstairs bedroom you'll need your windows , Online Gardening Catalogs At Your Disposal to be large enough to climb out in case of fire. , Planting Hydrangeas For Late Season Color ). Also remember that too many direct-set windows , Replace the White Birch With River Birches In The Warrington Pa. Area will decrease the amount of air , Black Roses - Fact or Fiction flow to your upstairs. In my house , Part IV: Different Types of Home Foundations and When to Us I added an awning (a small hinged window) to the bottom of stationery windows , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Troy Pa. in my dormers. This helped let air , Planting Roses - Tips And Ideas To Ensure Beautiful Results in, but even so the rooms , How to protect stone floors from staining can be stuffy. A ceiling fan helps, but ultimately I may need to add a skylight to create a draft. KITCHEN VENT: One of the more difficult decisions we made concerned how to , Arborvitae - A Multi Use Plant vent the range hood. If you don't want your stove to be on an exterior wall, , Pest control for perennials you are going to have an interesting puzzle. Will you run the exhaust duct between the floor , Gardening - 10 Most Hated Weeds joists to the exterior? Will the run be so long you'll have to add another fan? I gave in and moved my stove to the exterior wall, , Maximize Your Fireplace Heat-Output To Lower Fuel Bills but then we had to cut a hole in the logs for the vent. Horrors! How do you hide that? My builder built a little cedar box around the hole and we were lucky enough to have a porch roof , A Look at Planting Flower Bulbs underneath, so you can't see it from every direction. Still, this ugly vent is on the front of the house, , Black Roses - Fact or Fiction and had I thought of it, I may have moved the kitchen , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Milan Pa. to the back of the house. , Maximize Your Fireplace Heat-Output To Lower Fuel Bills CRAWL SPACE vs. BASEMENT: There are many reasons to opt for a crawl space rather than a basement , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Handling Tips - none of them particularly comfortable. Aside from the obvious disadvantages of a crawl space, there are a few things we didn't think of. I, in my blissful ignorance, didn't give any thought to the ugly electrical panel. Of course, I knew we'd have meters and a panel, but I didn't think of where they were going. What I didn't know was that by code, we couldn't put the panel in the crawl space. Since we don't have a garage, , How to Decorate Your Garden Using Profound Garden Statues th the electrical panel was installed in one of our rooms , Avoid the "How Much?" Hassle When Buying Firewood for Your F on the log wall. , Best Way To Clean Carpet? Isn't that lovely? Another disadvantage of the crawl space: you'll need a short water , How to cast bronze and other metals with plastic molds. heater if that's where it is going, and you may need to purchase a horizontal-mount furnace. Because our water , How to protect stone floors from staining quality was poor, we had to install a purification system. This 54" unit must be mounted upright, and our crawl space is 48" tall. We had to punch a hole through the concrete floor , Online Gardening Catalogs At Your Disposal to make room , Gardening - 10 Most Hated Weeds for the unit. GUTTERS: Yes, you want to get the water , Easy Rose Care Tips away from your log home , Buying Used Chainsaws at all costs. There can be challenges; we have an alpine-style home , How to protect stone floors from staining with a vaulted ceiling. However, the roof , Five Tips for Decorating a Girl’s Bedroom comes to a deep V on the corners that create a magnificent rain chute. This is not necessarily wonderful when it dumps onto your deck! , Authenticity Of Vastu (Science of Indian architecture) Because of the generous overhang that comes with a log home, , Five Tips for Decorating a Girl’s Bedroom the end of that V projects far from the walls , Home Equity – Foreclosure Often Not Necessary In Current Mar and doesn't make a logical angle from which to hang a downspout. On one corner I satisfied myself with an old-fashioned rain barrel, and on the deck , Homeowner Demand Sparks Innovation in Hardwood Flooring side we had to divert the water , Maximize Your Fireplace Heat-Output To Lower Fuel Bills to the pergola we built against the house, , Cozy Nooks: Creating a Secret Outdoor Place and ran a gutter along the edge of the pergola. OVERHANGS: You should have at least a 1' foot and preferably a 2' overhang to protect your logs. This overhang needs to be taken into consideration when designing your roof , Easy Rose Care Tips line. If you have overlapping angles, make sure you are not creating a water , Gardening - Lawn Maintenance Chores Part V trap or a snow , Easy Rose Care Tips trap. There are times your overhang might bump into another angle of the roof. , Tulip Bulbs - Fall is the Time to Prepare the Perfect Spring Flower Garden You may actually have to raise part of the roof , A Heartfelt, Natural Way To Lift Our Spirits a little to make clearance. DOOR SWINGS: This can be one of the most annoying errors you can make and not catch until too late. Think of what your door , Planting Hydrangeas For Late Season Color is covering when opened all the way. Is it covering another doorway? Will two doors , A list of power tools that women should have in their toolbox for general home repair and emergencie bang together? If you are in a tight space, will it open all the way at all? When we installed our bathroom , Carpenters - Significant Points vanity, we didn't think about the door , Best Way To Clean Carpet? swing until the plumbing , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Handling Tips was already hooked up. The door , Easy Rose Care Tips cleared the vanity by one whole inch; it could have been worse. You can compensate by swinging the other way (before it's already hung, or your hinges will be on the wrong side). Or, in the design , Site drainage problems phase you can use a narrower door. , Thinking of Remodeling Your Kitchen? Or get a smaller vanity. ELECTRICAL: The electrical and plumbing , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Troy Pa. layout will not come from your log home , Grow Organic Vegetables architectural drawings. The manufacturer , A Heartfelt, Natural Way To Lift Our Spirits is not concerned about where you put your outlets. Once the plans , Home Pest Control: Battling Against Mosquitoes on the Home F are firmed up, the time will come for you to sit down with the electrician and mark exactly where you want your outlets, switches and light , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Handling Tips fixtures. Local , New To Organic Gardening code will determine the minimum distance between outlets, but anyone will tell you to put in more than you need; eventually you will probably use them anyway. Even if you don't need it, put your cable and telephone into every room; it's so much easier and cheaper to do it up front. Also remember, you can't ever have too many lights , Building A Garden Fence in a log home. , Patios: The New Trend in Remodels Plan , How to Decorate Your Garden Using Profound Garden Statues th ahead for those fixtures - especially the ones in the ceiling. They will not be pretty to add later on. DEAD SPACE: If you are building , How to cast bronze and other metals with plastic molds. a huge log home, , Arborvitae - A Multi Use Plant you've got so much space it doesn't really matter. But for most of the rest of us, every inch counts. There are some approaches that might maximize your floor , Best Way To Clean Carpet? space. First of all, do you really need hallways? Some space-saving designs , How to cast bronze and other metals with plastic molds. arrange the rooms , The American Arborvitae Grows well in Troy Pa. so they all open into a small hallway. I prefer none at all. Also, consider that every closet door , Easy Rose Care Tips creates dead space. If you can arrange your floor , Inspecting Your New Home - 17 Areas You Must Inspect Before plan so that closet door , Part IV: Different Types of Home Foundations and When to Us swings into a place , Cozy Nooks: Creating a Secret Outdoor which is already dead (for instance, another closet door , Grow Organic Vegetables or a foyer), you might open up the room , Buying Used Chainsaws a bit. Does your loft serve a purpose or is it merely an open hallway from room , Online Gardening Catalogs At Your Disposal to room? Can you put a piece of furniture , Planting Hydrangeas For Late Season Color on it? If not, perhaps it would serve to give it an angle and make your "open to below" space a little smaller. Hopefully I've helped a little bit. I learned many of these tips , A Beginners Guide To Garden Bridges the hard way, and I'm sure there are plenty more I haven't bumped into yet. After all, a custom home , Black Roses - Fact or Fiction is one giant learning curve. About the Author Mercedes Hayes is a Hiawatha Log Home , Avoid the "How Much?" Hassle When Buying Firewood for Your F dealer and also a Realtor in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She designed her own log home , Garden Leaf Blowers - More Power to Your Elbow which was featured in the 2004 Floor , How to protect stone s from staining Plan Guide of Log Home , Rawhide Lamp Shades - Professional Handling Tips Living magazine. You can learn more about log homes , Tulip Bulbs - Fall is the Time to Prepare the Perfect Spring Flower Garden by visiting http://www.JerseyLogHomes.com. |
  
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