Cedar 9″ Swedish Cope Log Home Project

It’s always fun to start a new log home project from scratch…Sierra Log Homes, off and running again.

The project is in the Redding area of northern California and the clients first names are Jan & Steve. We met about 2 months or so ago. They found us on the internet and called. They were very pleased to find out that we design and manufacture the logs here Chico, Ca (which will be only an hour or so from the job site).

A little bio on the clients. Steve is an owner builder who is going to build the home himself with very little outside labor. He has a  welding background, actually owned a welding shop in southern California that he sold. Jan owns a plant care business and is into horses…western style. They bought a 100 plus acres of gorgeous land, rollings hills, creek with elk and wild pig roaming the landscape about 5 years ago. Jan is going to do the equestrian thing with training and boarding horses. Steve found a used 14 bay steel barn and built it for her last year. Huge structure…he did an incredible job using a very low amount of money. Steve is no doubt a talented individual who will have no problem building their log home and developing the entire ranch.

From the start, Steve made it known to me their  target budget. This made it easy for me to guide them into the style of home that was going to be the best fit for them (from a financial and owner builder standpoint). We did a construction costs worksheet together (this is a spreadsheet i wrote to line item the cost of construction, unique to us and our approach to the project) to validate their budget. Then we changed costs to start generating a “what if” to establish a low range and a high range. We also agreed that designing a single story 1950 sq ft home was going to be the best design for them…easier for Steve to build and easier to control costs.  All went well with the meeting and they faxed me a “napkin drawing” of their desired floor plan the next week.

On the way to their property a few weeks later, they came by to meet us and see our log yard. It seemed like they enjoyed the visit and loved what we do.

sample corner of Sierra Jumbo 13" log

They got to see the big Jumbo 13″ cedar log we were producing that was going to Big bear, Ca (the blog i just posted). Over the next couple of weeks we had more conversations and they felt comfortable that the budget was in hand, the floor plan idea was good and we were the right choice for them.

So they commissioned us with a design retainer to start designing their log home. We had agreed to reduce the original log desire of  a 10″ swedish cope log to a 9″ swedish cope log. This was going to save them around $,000 to $5,000. This opened up the budget so it wasn’t so tight. Plus a 9″ log is easier to stack from a lifting standpoint.

About a week or so later after we got their project file created. i then started formalizing their idea into a dimensioned cad drawing. Jan informed me that she was pretty set on the layout and was pretty comfortable with me being nominally creative.

The floor plan process went very well and very quickly. They did a really good job in displaying to me room sizes and placement. It all worked within the size parameters they sketched. There were only a few revisions until we were able to plot a quarter scale (1/4″ = 1′ scale) blueprint to send to them for review. During this time we were emailing back and forth cad drawings of the floor plan. We would then have design phone sessions changing the plan and shooting images over to them while they were on the phone. we had few 45 minute design phone sessions on the floor plan.

Once they received the blueprint, they called me and said to go ahead and create the 3D model.

So the next step for me was to take the 2D floor plan and turn it into a 3D photo realistic model. I used a 10″ log at that time because they were not sure of the desired size. So within a week i had the model ready for viewing. So i sent them an email with some 3D images and they got real excited. They were now seeing their log home come to life. It’s always fun to hear the reaction when the model is what they thought it was going to look like.

We then had some additional phone design meetings revising the model to its final stage. This took about a week of going back and forth over emails. Once i was done with the model, i then created a blueprint of all the elevations and floor plan in quarter scale. That was then sent to them for a final review.

All went well…Jan only wanted me to move a window…that was it. Steve and i did another construction worksheet on the model to make sure we were on track with the targeted budget. i was able to do a formal log estimate from the model and window quote from Pella. Again all went well and we were within our budget parameters.

So they commissioned me to go into the final engineered drawings. The final decision to go to 9″ log was made, and off we went.

A couple of weeks later we had a foundation, floor and roof frame laid out for engineering. Before we went any further, i met them on their property to go over the plan and make sure the foundation design was correct and to see the property (something i really like to do). I got to meet their wonderfully nice neighbors of which Lonnie was going to help Steve build. He was a builder by trade…retired. Great neighbor to have!

While i was there, Steve had informed me that our conversation about bringing in power had paid off. By sharing with him that he could do his own line installation to the log home, he found he could save somewhere between $30,000 to $40,000. That conversation we had was worth big bucks!!!

Anyway, we all spent the afternoon together telling war stories about our experiences, laughing and getting things ready for the next step. Jan informed me that they were now planning to actually build the log home this year instead of waiting. i was excited to hear that!

sierra 9" swedish cope log trade show sample

i shared with them that the timing was right, i could give them a no cost upgrade to our cedar 9″ swedish cope hand peeled log (shown to the left). They were very excited. (this would normally cost about $10,000 to $15,000 more). But we had this raw cedar log in inventory that i purchased at a good price in 2009 with no project tagged to it. “Timing is everything they say!” They got really excited over that opportunity…as i did.

Off i went excited that all was more than on track. So currently we are finishing the engineering this week so Steve can be submitting into the county the first week in April for his building permit.

I will be doing our final log package quote and will be commissioned with the log deposit this week with a target delivery date of late May or early June.  The delivery date has much to do with the county processing of releasing a building permit.

So wish us all a good build!

When the action starts, i will post a series of stories until the project is dried in.

Until next time.

Larry

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