Creating a Log Home Budget.

Let's briefly cover the estimated costs associated with construction of your custom home and how to manage the budget:

The first question is "How much to build my dream home?" The response to that question is as varied as the types of log profiles and home styles available to you. A good rule of thumb for an average 'turn-key' construction cost varies throughout the country but here in the West it currently ranges from $140 to $165 per square foot for the popular 'D' log profile to $200 plus for the Swedish Cope log, depending on the size of log used. However, these figures can change depending on many factors.

• Location - remote locations will typically cost more both in getting materials to the site and in construction labour costs.


• The log profile you use - CNW Log Homes of America offers many from the popular 'D' log, Swedish Cope and Hand Crafted.


• The way you are going to finish your home - Wood floors, Granite, and a lot of rock work will add to your costs.


• Your involvement in the project.


• Log Interior/exterior additional accents - gable trusses and log porches.


• Foundation type - crawl space, enclosed basement or daylight (walkout) basement. Are you using poured concrete or an ICF block poured wall? These choices are major factors, and while basements may be very inexpensive square footage, it also may take you out of your budget.

You can control your costs. Depending on your budget, you choose the items to finish your home. Often if your budget is tight it may be best to use standard grade materials now and plan to upgrade them in the future. For instance, install laminate counter tops instead of granite, vinyl floor covering instead of tile. The choice is completely yours. It is important to realize that it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of building your home. This is a trap that many fall in to. We all have our dream of what we want in our home. Often our dream and our budget are not the same, so you must make careful choices. It is recommended to get the home's shell built to the look/level you require because changes here down line can be very costly; you can always upgrade the interior at a later date.

Join the CNW Log Homes of America Inc dealership network, for more information log on to http://www.cnwloghomes.com/

Go Green

Go Green!

At CNW Log Homes of America we are committed to helping you to achieve your Green building goals. Whether your goal is to save energy, create a healthy home environment, be eco-friendly or all of the above, our experienced dealer network can guide you through the Green design and building options to meet your individual Green build requirements. By selecting a log or timber frame home you're already on the path to Green building. Today's engineered log or timber home already uses timbers from a renewable resource with many manufacturers using trees from sustainably managed forests. Green design and building has many more facets than just the logs. Here are some of the elements we use when working with our clients to develop a Green building agenda:

• Green building goals. We'll work with you to help define your Green building goals and offer recommendations from home design to material selections and more while keeping your budget in mind.
• Design with Green building in mind. It all starts with the design of your custom home. Incorporating your Green goals into your custom floor plan we'll offer recommendations for site placement, window size and location, HVAC options, ceiling heights, lighting and much more.
• Site planning. We'll offer recommendations to help you create a design that not only takes advantage of your site, but keeps the surrounding environments in mind through a detailed site plan.
• We'll work with you and your builder to review eco-friendly building material choices, building waste disposal methods, lighting systems, in-door quality, water efficiency and much more.
• Develop an energy efficiency plan. We'll suggest options to help you create an energy efficient custom home. From positioning your home to take advantage of passive solar to working with your mechanical contractor to select an energy efficient HVAC system to selecting ENERGY STAR appliances. We'll help you design an energy efficient plan that fits your Green building goals and budget.

To learn more about Green design and building contact a CNW Log Homes of America dealer and let's 'Go Green.'

Click here for more Green building ideas!

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Customizing a Floor Plan

"Duncanwoods," the name of our log home, started as a basic chalet plan, and from there we customized it with a 22 ft shed dormer in the loft at the back to accommodate an extra bedroom and the master bathroom. We also added a 10ft gable dormer in the master bedroom.

We then modified the floor plan on the main floor to give us a laundry room and a pantry. In addition we added a sun room on to the east side of the house giving us a view of wonderful sunrises on a summer morning and a warm and inviting place to relax in the winter

Any of CNW's standard log home and log cabin floor plans can be customized in this same way. For example, if you were to build on a walkout basement and add dormers as we did, then you can double your square footage without having to increase the size of your footprint. You can take a virtual tour of Duncanwoods by going to the Duncanwoods International Log and Timber Homes Inc. web site.

Any of our CNW log home dealers are happy to work with you to customize any of our log home and log cabin floor plans to meet your requirements.
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