news-record.com

Building a home is very personal. The process takes countless hours of planning and research and more money than many are likely to ever see at one time. Few undertake it casually.

For Bonnie and John White, the idea of buying a log home was one they’d considered for years.

They finally realized their dream last year when they moved into a 2,100-square-foot log home on their nearly 3-acre lot in Julian. The house was built from a kit they ordered from Southland Log Homes, a national manufacturer with a location in Whitsett.

The purchasing process was fairly straightforward, though different from the typical custom procedure. Michael Doran, managing partner with Southland, said the company tries to put together a “one-stop shop” with the log home packages, lending options and a network of preferred builders.

The decision-making can be lengthy, though. “We worried Mike for over three or four years,” Bonnie White said. “And it was just a process of going up there and just talking with them about how it was built, how long it takes, just a zillion questions I think we asked them. Mike was our salesman just about the whole time up there. And we really just focused on the log cabin that was already built up there, their model home.”

According to The Log Home: An American Dream, a report from the National Association of Home Builders Log Homes Council, many log home buyers take on building tasks when constructing their log homes.

The Whites were very involved in the process. After the couple settled on a plan, they ordered a kit and hired a professional builder to lay the foundation and put up the materials from the package. John White, who has plumbing and woodworking experience, served as the contractor.

“We did all the trim work and put all the hardwood floors down,” Bonnie White said. “We finished up a lot of it after the builder built it for us” with help from family members. They added fixtures from cabinetry to lighting and performed numerous cosmetic tasks including staining the exterior. The building process took about 11 months.

The Whites said the process could take less or more time, depending on how much of the building a buyer decides to take on.

A buyer can hire a builder to complete the entire project or customize their level of involvement through the chosen home plan. The contents of kit packages vary depending on the manufacturer.

Doran said Southland’s standard kits include the floor framing system, walls, interior studs, second-floor beam system, roof framing system, porch and decks. The company’s costs for materials range from $45 to $60 a square foot, he said.

Richard “Scoop” Mason, manager of the model home center for Kuhns Bros. Log Homes in Mebane, said the national manufacturer’s packages range from basic kits that offer just pre-cut logs and timbers to the most complete package that includes the logs and timbers, the roof system, windows, doors, sinks, light fixtures, floor coverings and cabinetry. Prices can range from $50,000 to several hundred thousands dollars.

Mason hastened to add that the kit cost is only a portion of the price tag of the total project, which also includes construction.

He said Kuhns’ customers generally come in with a design idea and then they get an estimate for the package and construction.

“If those things are agreeable and they’ve done some preliminary shopping,” Mason said, “then they can put a deposit down on plans. Then you get blueprint drawings that you can use at the bank to get financing, to get accurate construction quote numbers from builders. Most builders aren’t of a mind that they will give you a construction price based on a picture from a magazine. A good quality construction estimate takes several days.”

When they’re ready to proceed further, he added, buyers put down an additional deposit to get complete construction blueprints that include the foundation, or they put down a deposit to schedule delivery of the package. Buyers also need to finalize the builder’s fees and secure financing and permits. Delivery can take four to 12 weeks, depending on the design complexity, type of wood and wood species.

Stock designs have a quicker turnaround than custom choices, but “95 percent of people want a custom design,” Mason said, “whether they take a standard model and they modify it slightly or they walk in with a set of plans from a different source.”

The house the Whites ended up with is a modified version of Southland’s Red River model. They took the original 2,705-square-foot plan and pared it to the 2,100 square feet that suited their empty-nester lifestyle. The traditional-style home has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a loft that overlooks a large great room with 24-foot ceilings, a kitchen large enough to accommodate both food preparation and dining, and a deck along the front of the house.

The kitchen was a strategic upgrade from the sparse quarters in the 2,400-square-foot home the Whites lived in for nearly 20 years, a circa 1905 house at one time occupied by the rural area’s doctor.

“When you have a family get-together, everybody congregates to the kitchen,” Bonnie White said. “I don’t care if you have a 2-by-2 kitchen or a 55-by-50. Everybody wants to get in the kitchen. So we just made it so you could just entertain in here and just walk right into the living room and everybody could still see each other and talk to each other.”

Their former home is next-door to the log cabin. They’ve transplanted mahogany doors and other fixtures from the older house, which eventually will be dismantled because of termite damage. “We’re trying to take a little bit of history and put it in this house, too,” she said.

The Whites are still fine-tuning the home a year after moving in, but it’s already decorated with historical family photos and heirloom furniture. John White also built cabinetry, and his wood carvings shaped into figures as diverse as an eagle and a Confederate soldier are peppered throughout the pine cabin.

“I love it all,” he said of the log home. “It’s an experience — it’s not a place to live. I’ll never live in another house and feel the same. It’s totally different.”

The natural materials and open design appealed to the Whites, who moved to Julian from Greensboro 20 years ago for a more laid-back setting. “I can always go to the city” for entertainment, Bonnie White said. “But you cannot go to the city and get this,” she added, referring to the views of the stars at night, the quietness of the area and the shade and beauty of the decades-old trees.

That return to nature drives a lot of buyers.

“If you’re looking at a log home, you’re really looking at a lifestyle change,” Doran said. “They actually can be as rustic or modern as you want them to be.”