1977 East Texas log house

Started by nandajor, April 11, 2006, 01:32:55 PM

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nandajor

Hello, Glenn.  Here are some old pictures of our log house, built from scratch, finished in 1977.  I doubt if the pic.s will come up decent on the site, but I thought you might enjoy.  After a story in the local paper and a witty follow-up about "all the folks that said we couldn't do it, eating crow", we became a small tourist attraction. The first year, after we moved in, over 100 folks knocked on our door and signed our guest book.  It was an adventure, and we will always have wonderful memories of those days and our young family. The house will soon turn 30 and our daughter and her children still have a home there. (oops, I guess I can only send you one pic.)

Sassy

Hi Nanda,  wonderful house!  Very impressive, especially for a 1st house.  Showed them, huh?  (the townspeople)  I'm sure your daughter & grandkids are still thoroughly enjoying it.    What a great idea... having a guest book.  Never thought of that!  I'll have to get one.  I have no idea how many people have toured our place. And now you are going to build your 3rd house?  What all do you do in the building process besides designing the home?  It is always interesting to hear what building skills the women have.  (I think we had a thread awhile back where all the ladies could list their skills  ;) )

Welcome to the forum.  I am Glenn's wife, Kathy  


nandajor

Hi Kathy, so nice to meet you.  Actually, the planned cabin would be our 4th house. We were only in our twenties when we built the log house, young and very dumb. Didn't know a thing. We devoured every construction book, log house book and looked for old log houses to inspect. The kits were not popular and available like now, and we wouldn't have been able to afford one anyway. One big advantage we had, the hubby was a new fireman. You know how fireman always have other jobs. So many days, one of the guys would drive up and share his skills and knowledge in the day's work. We also often had the loan of tools and equipment. We started with pencil drawings on manilla paper, made lots of mistakes and learned tons. To everyone's surprise we ended up with a good home that still serves our family. That house cost us $14,000 (cheap even back then) and recently appraised for over $100,000. We moved up to graph paper plans and built the 1400 sq.ft. lake front house for under $80,000. Eight years later, we sold the lakehouse for nearly twice our investment and that got us into this 1600 sq.ft country house, mortgage free. I felt very professional ;) when I got a computer program for this plan. I do love the design work and feel I gotten pretty darn good at it. I did all the painting on this house, huge job, but saved us lots of dollars. I am always on site, everyday, very involved, the general helper. The hubby would be the first to say "we built these house together".  We have always scrounged at surplus and salvage houses, and on this house bought tons of bargains online. Everything from a $600 kitchen sink for only $200, to rugs and faucets, a stainless steel vent-a-hood and much more. I liked un-conventional storage, like antique vanity and dresser in bath (no built-ins) and free standing cabinets in my kitchen.  Gosh, sorry to so long winded. I am just so excited to talk to folks that speak my language. As you might guess, any questions welcome. Nanda R.

Sassy

You'll have to post some more pics - of all your places, if you have them.  Have you tried Photobucket?  Even I can post pictures now, after Glenn walked me through it 2-3x's.  There is a thread that tells how you do that also, as I would probably confuse you if I tried to explain.  

If you've seen our pictures, you can tell we go for the more rustic, antique look - I don't even have doors on my cupboards, decided I'd rather sew curtains for them, which I change periodically when I get tired of the pattern.  The last ones I made, I had gotten the material at a yard sale.  We are always shopping for bargains, too.  I scout around for antiques, find neat stuff at some of the discount stores like "Big Lots, Marshalls, Tuesday Morning, etc.  Glenn makes all the cupboards & shelving.  I sand & finish them.  Have done quite a bit of cob, plastering walls, etc; do a lot of the gardening.  We couldn't have afforded to build conventional & we've scrounged around for recycled stuff... Glenn frequently goes "dumpster diving" at the jobsites - its shocking the amount of stuff that gets thrown away.  He's always bartering with friends, so everyone ends up happy.

It is really impressive what you & your husband were able to accomplish at such a young age with your 1st home... & then going on to build 2 more & now on your 4th!  It shows that where there's a will, there's a way, as the old saying goes.

There are a lot of very creative, resourceful people on this forum & all are happy to share what they have learned with anyone who is willing to listen & wants to learn.  John Raabe has created a wonderful forum here where it feels like a big family - we don't always share the same viewpoint (if you follow the political discussions) but we are free to discuss & maybe learn something from another viewpoint we didn't know before.
They're always pretty lively!  :o  

nandajor

You sound like our kind of folks.  We have always managed to have a home, as nice as, and usually quite different from our friends and never spent the big money.  I will try to post some pic.s  I can usually manage, I just have to think (a lot harder these days) and work on it. I sold small collectibles on e-bay for quite a while.  Had some antiques booths in big antique malls and even did about 6 or so estate sales. You talk about work. I loved doing them and made some pretty good dollars, but OMG, just entirely too much work.  You have the right idea, a little imagination and ingenuity can get you way ahead of the masses.  Love your open cabinet ideas.  I plan lots of open shelves and storage in this cabin.  In my kitchen now, one big unit (actually was originally an entertainment center) is what I call the "beverage center". It is all glasses, cups & coffee pot and coffee, bar stuff, pitchers, anything to do with drinks. Another, old wardrobe...mirror was stripped and is clear glass now, glass shelves, houses all my everyday plates, etc. and some collectible and family dishes that display well.  Cooking stuff in center island across from stove (bought large stainless commercial style at a restaurant supply, much cheaper than fancy residential) and finally, open shelve pantry holds everything else and more.  I will post my new cabin plan eventually. I am not that great on the plan software, but get the basics.  


glenn-k

#5
Thanks for sharing the picture and information, Nanda.  That was a great accomplishment.

If you use the insert image button above the message box when typing instead of the attachment box below the message, you can put multiple pictures in.  Photobucket www.photobucket.com will give you an IMG tag with your photo's if you store them there, that can be pasted directly into this message as you compose it and you can easily edit to resize and rotate there also.

Picture help info from forum news-- http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1115032671

There is no such thing as long winded here - at least you couldn't hold a candle to me.  John assured me that we have lots of electronic paper. :)

nandajor

 ;DThanks for the info.  About long winded...once, when on a vacation with some very old friends, they were kidding me about my chatter. A fellow from  Germany overheard and said, "you mean, she could talk a glass eye to sleep". My friends thought that was hilarious and said they were going to put that on my tombstone.  That's old friends, for ya.  

glenn-k

Well, Nanda, now you'll have to work on talking the leg off a chair.  :)