Customer Reviews

Hands-on Log Homes - Cabins Built on Dreams

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is NOT a how to book any way,shape,or form. It IS a beautiful wish book that will give ideas and inspiration for your project, but thats where the help stops. Rate it a 1 star for the how to crowd and a 4 star for the wish list/coffee table crowd.

Hands-on Log Homes is our third, full-color, idea design book on the subject of log home architecture. As such, it was also my third opportunity to loop America - cameras in hand - seeking out unique log homes and meeting the people who build them. In this case, those people happened to be mostly involved owner-builders. That is, creative, resourceful people who used sweat equity to help build their dream. Similar to our second book, "The Log Home Book", there is a virtual photo-feast inside. The only difference is that the scale of these homes tends to be more moderate, and the owners themselves share their own unique and entertaining building stories along with practical bits of advice gleaned along the way.

Along with built-from-scratch homes, there are those abodes built largely with recycled materials - old logs, old doors, old fixtures! Perfect examples of turning one man's junk into veritable treasure while often saving money along the way.

Next comes a marvelous chapter on historic restorations. Often "rebuilt" with the help of skilled craftsman, we include these handmade originals as true examples of once upon a time, do-it-yourself ingenuity.

While this is not a "how-to-build" book, Art wrote a final chapter that leads the reader through the practical steps and considerations of building a small log building. Of course, there is also a resource guide in back with plenty of leads for designing, building and decorating the home you plan to build, remodel or buy.

Check it out, and let us know what you think by emailing thiede@sunvalley.net.

Cindy Thiede

I'm about half way through with the book. It is basically just short stories about people who have built a log home. Very little inside about the actual construction which is what i was led to believe with the title, "Hands on Log Homes".

This is a true collection of extraordinary homes that bring to life the uniqueness of their creators. These homes span the breadth of America and the book does an outstanding capturing the different styles which represent the individual characteristics throughout this multifarious geography. Splendid.

Gives anyone thinking of building a good idea of what to expect. Not as detailed as I would have liked, just the same a good book.

I'm a Japanese reader and living in Log Cabin. This book provides me with many decoration ideas. I wish to reccomend this book to my friend who are living in Log cabins.

I feel I know this book as well as anyone; I designed the book! It is a great book to glean ideas to plan, create and decorate your own log home. The photos are breath-taking. I enjoy the authors' clear but amusing style of writing, and I bet you will, too.