Customer Reviews

Small Log Homes: Storybook Plans and Advice

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

 

 

The pictures are beautiful, and there are a few floorplans at the back. The text however is useless, unless you need to be told that putting in lots of options will raise the price, create the floorplan based on your family's interests and that you shouldn't spend more than you can afford. It really isn't anything more than you could get with a 10 minutes trip to the website of a log home manufacturer, except that it has much less info!

It tells you, for example, that you should make careful and deliberate use of all the space by planning it carefully, but does not show examples of good planning, give you thought provoking questions to ask yourself, or anything that could help you do it.

The book mentions that there are 2 types of log cabins, names them and gives a few uncaptioned photographs, without even one word to tell you what the advantages of one over the other might be.

It tells you that a complicated roof is more expensive than an uncomplicated one. Did you need to be told? It does not tell you what the choices are in roof styles, the advantages and weather reasons you might want one more than the other, dispite the cost, and it certainly does not tell you what the price differences are (even an approx % difference would have been a start).

It does not suggest anything useful and should only be bought by someone who is on their way to the log home manufacturer in their area so that they can point to the pictures in the book and facilitate the teaching the company will then have to provide. This is for a person buying a finished, installed product, not building a home.

I was very disappointed and would never have bought this book if I had seen it in a bookstore. It is meant for someone who buys magazines exclusively for the pictures and does not read the articles. This will not help you build a house.

This book is for the log home dreamers and offers affordable and attainable log home plans. These are not your multi million dollar mansions featured in popular log home magazines but homes that can and are built for the average homeowner with a desire to live in a log home. Very interesting book with information on chosing a plan for a log home as well as plans that can be purchased.

This book is aptly second titled a "storybook" - it is the stuff of fantasies - far removed from today's "cut and stack" modern log cabin building. The pictures and design ideas are beautiful. Well worth the time and money. A must read for small log cabin would-be owners.

I'm trying to design some sort of floorplan for my future log home and I thought this might give me some ideas....it's not that great. In fact I'm disappointed from what I thought it would be and should have taken more of the reviews to heart. It basically goes over building a log home...ok - well I thought it would be focused more on its title: Small Log Homes: Storybook Plans and Advice. The advice it gives is probably stuff you've already heard before...and the plans are just more of the generic ones you see from all the log home manufacturers.

A good, usable well-illustrated book for the everyday person..the middle class "dreamer". Not focused on millionare showplaces, but homes for the average family, homes under 2500 sq ft. Cozy photos and a nice selection of floor plans. A good working tool if you are considering a log home in your future.

This book is a nice little overview of small log homes. It's not meant to be a "how to" manual, or provide detailed information. It's just a starter for those dreaming of building a log home.

Some of the positives are that the book itself is high-quality, the photos are very good for the most part, and it does provide enough information to help determine if a log home really is for you. Some of the negatives for me are the photos are unrelated (there will be photos of the exterior of two log homes, followed by a photo of a kitchen, followed by a photo of a porch, followed by a photo of another kitchen . . . interspersed with text that may or may not have anything to do with the photos shown); I would have preferred groups of photos of one home at a time so I could understand the house better. And the plans and elevations at the back of the book are "stand-alones" for the most part; they are unrelated to the photos shown earlier in the book. It would have been nice to have plans and photos of homes actually built.

It's a nice "starter" book, so I gave it four stars. For me personally, I would have given it three stars for its usefulness.

This book is a great reference for the first time log home buyer. Many links to take you down other paths. Robbin outlines a few things that many new buyers should look out for in a compact way. There are also several nice photgraphs that will add to your idea database. The floor plans in the back of the book are great general floor plans to start and modify in your own way. I nearly used the entire book to plan my cabin project. Many thanks to Robbin for a great reference.

This product did not function correcly on my Kindle DX. The black and white photographs looked OK, which was no doubt a major technical accomplishment. However, the line drawings (floor plans and elevations) were too faint to read so were no use whatsoever.

Also, I believe that the work should have been proof read after converting it for use on the Kindle. The first half on one sentence was several pages from the last half; and the last half was spliced into the middle of another sentence in an unrelated paragraph. Also, the reference in the text to (I believe) page 5 was frustrating as there is no Kindle pagination reflecting the original pagination.

In terms of content, the ideas in this book are hardly original. The floor plans and elevations might be helpful if one could see them on the Kindle.

All this being said, the details shown in the photographs were helpful to me and might be to others too. However, subscription to a log homes magazine would probably be a better choice for this type of information as the pictures are brighter, clearer, and in color in the magazines.

One more thing: This book addresses small log homes. This is not to say that it addresses inexpensive log homes. I would caution the reader to be aware that many of the homes pictured are small, expensive log homes. They may not be multi-million dollar homes, but square foot for square foot - they are much more expensive than conventional construction. The author even admits this in one of the passages.