Log cabin dreams are the precursor to the reality of sitting in your log home next to the roaring fire. Or even enjoying your log cabin from the outside. I remember a photo contest winner was a picture of a log home owner sitting outside of his cabin in a lawn chair in the summer time with his dog next to him. But his chair was faced toward the log home instead of turned to enjoy the view.

As you dream about your log cabin it is a good idea to put some reality behind those dreams. It is so sad to me when people have lovely drawings for their log home. Some owners invest as much as $10,000 or more in full construction drawings. Then at the end they realize the sprawling million dollar log home they have dreamed of and purchased drawings for is way beyond what they want to spend. We actively make ever effort to educate our customers about the overall cost of building their log home, regardless of it is a 500 square foot cabin or a 20,000 square foot log mansion. The bottom line cost cannot be avoided. So don’t just listen with a passive ear when accurate cost estimates are applied to your project.

For a full turnkey on a log cabin of more than 900 square feet you should have a minimum of $165 per square foot budgeted for the full turnkey in an 8 inch milled log. Larger diameter log shells and handcrafted log shells are more expensive. About $205 per square foot minimum should be budgeted for a handcrafted log home. And $220 per square foot may be more in line with the finish materials you are probably going to desire in your log cabin.

Other obstacles that can turn your log cabin dreams into headaches is not setting aside enough funds for the other essentials that your log home will require. Things like well drilling, well pump system, septic, driveway, bringing utilities to the property, and other costs are very job site specific. They are hard or impossible to estimate without seeing the property and they can vary extremely in cost from one location to another. So do your homework for you specific lot.

Log home dreams should be just that, wonderful dreams, that lead to the culmination of a gorgeous log home. Ending up with nightmares, broken dreams, and heart ache can be avoided if you have the right selection of people to help to turn those dreams into reality. And also you need to LISTEN to those who are trying to help you. It is hard wrenching when a project has to be cancelled due to lack of financing.

Cowboy Log Homes