Small Log Homes: Storybook Plans and Advice (Hardcover)

by Robbin Obomsawin (Author) "LEAVING BEHIND A COMPLEX, HECTIC LIFESTYLE AND RETURNING TO A MUCH SIMPLER EXISTENCE IS THE IRREPRESSIBLE DREAM OF MANY..." (more)
Key Phrases: master log builder, log home, log work

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Whether you’re planning a starter home or a lifelong retreat, Small Log Homes is an indispensable idea book for planning, building, and outfitting your cabin in the woods or on the prairie.

Lush photographs show how log-home owners, builders, and contractors around the country have achieved the richness and warmth of cabin living within the bounds of economy and space management. And all without feeling cramped or hamstrung.

For more information about log home building please visit the Author's Website.

From the Inside Flap
Whether you're dreaming of a starter home or a lifelong retreat, Small Log Homes is an indispensable idea book for planning, building, and outfitting your cabin in the woods or on the prairie.

Lush photographs show how log-home owners, builders, and contractors around the country have achieved the richness and warmth of cabin living within the bounds of economy and space management. And all without feeling cramped or hamstrung.

The perfect starting point for your own cabin, fifteen plans by contractor/author Robbin Obomsawing are thoughtfully designed to help you develop and create a structure that will reflect your personal style and match your vision of the perfect log home. The result is a home that feels large but has fewer than 2,500 square feet. Practicing prudence and economy of space, her floor plans have been created to simplifiy life--one's own, or the comings and goings of an entire family.

As Small Log Homes inspires your own cozy log-home dreams, quality designs and decor are bound to materialize into a timeless treasure for many generations to enjoy.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith (May 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586850431
• ISBN-13: 978-1586850432
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,552 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just pictures and a few undetailed floor plans, September 30, 2003

By A Customer

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.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Affordable and attainable log homes, January 3, 2003

By A Customer

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.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Log Cabin Storybook, March 31, 2003

By	"water05201" (Vermont) - See all my reviews

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.