Ten years have passed now since we first showcased the lovely Bear Creek log home plan that we built about eight miles from Bozeman, Montana. Still, this home is one of the showcases of our company. While we have done larger projects, this one remains one of our favorites because of the material choices, location, but most importantly because of the wonderful couple we had the privilege of building this for. The below we have updated this introductory page for this project with photos that were taken after the home was completed. So here you get a first-hand look at the answer to the question we are asked so often, “What will it look like?” We hope you enjoy getting acquainted with this beautifully handcrafted log home as much as we enjoyed building it. ~Mike and Sue Lemmon, Cowboy Log Homes
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We invite you to watch the progression of a handcrafted log home that we are building to turnkey completion here in the Bozeman, Montana area. We broke ground yesterday, April 9th, 2012, and project completion by November or December 2012. Through photos and videos, we will show the chronology from start to finish.
We are building a custom log home plan, The Bear Creek. It is 1822 square feet with an attached 24×26 solid log garage. This plan offers three bedrooms, two baths, open great room, and several other features customized by the owners.
The front elevation of the Bear Creek has many attractive features. The first is roofline. The center section is a 9/12 pitch roof. The wings to each side are a 6/12 pitch. The great room is located in the center of the home. The wing to the left accommodates the master suite and laundry room; the wing to the right is for the second and third bedrooms and the second full bath.
If you look closely at the gable in the middle of this side you will see three round log ends and three vertical logs. The top round log end is the ridge beam. The log ends on each side are purlins. The three vertical logs support the ridge and purlins within the gable end and allow for the large trapezoid windows. Inside the great room, there are also two handcrafted king trusses. Our next photo shows the log trusses over the great room.
While only one truss was required structurally, the owners loved the exposed log work so much they decided to add a second for added aesthetics. The first is over the living room area while the second resides over the kitchen end of the great room.
There are two covered porches, one on each side with the sliding glass door located in the center. The support posts for the covered porch roof can be seen on either end of the first photo.
The porch on the left side, pictured above, leads into the master bedroom and also the great room. The matched porch on the right opens into the second bedroom. While not very deep, the symmetry of the covered porches was a very important feature to the owners.
The stone chimney, also visible in the above photo, cuts through the roof on the front right corner of the cabin. The chimney will be covered in cultured river rock stone above the roofline. It is for the venting of a corner propane fireplace insert. Inside matching river rock work will cover the wall surrounding it.
Returning to the exterior, we have a 3/4 view of the left front corner of the log home. The garage is located to this side and tucked behind the house due to the setbacks from the property lines.
To the extreme left of the above photo, you will see another section of the home. This is the edge of the attached garage.
The large trapezoid windows will allow wide views of the Bridger Mountains into the great room.
The blueprints reveal that the attached garage is solid stacked log to provide an exact match to the house. The garage is located in top left corner of this photo. The outline of the log home is stacked log. There are two interior log walls on each side of the great room in the center. The great room also has a log roof system which includes a log ridge beam, log truss, and two log purlins. The bedroom wings to each side have two purlins set into the top wall logs to provide a feel of the round logs overhead. To save on cost, standard trusses will be used over the bedroom wings and the garage.
This photo shows the rear of the Bear Creek Plan. The rear end of the great room is in the center with the garage to the right. The back elevation shows the end of the garage and the rear of the house. The door on this side opens into the dining area. This elevation gives a better estimation of the two-car garage. It will also be built of the handcrafted solid log. It is not a good idea to attach a framed garage to a solid log home (without the use of a breezeway). The window to the right of the door opens into the kitchen.
The right side of the home shows the bedroom 2 and 3 wing and garage. Beginning from the left side, the porch roof lines can now be seen. They are a shed-style roof off of the main house and have a lower roofline. The support post is a round handcrafted log. Also, you can see the roof is supported with another round log laid horizontally on top of the log support post. The chimney is on the front side of the roofline. The windows on this side open into bedrooms 2 and three. The door to the right opens into the garage. And the window on the extreme right opens into the garage.
This is our final elevation. It shows the master suite side of the home and reveals where the garage doors open. The log ends of the garage show that it is in fact solid stacked logs. The ridge of both the garage and the master suite match. The first window from the left opens into the master bath. Windows 2 and 3 open into the master bedroom, and the porch on this side opens into the living area space of the great room. The matching covered porch roofline can also be seen on this side. The home is being built on a crawl space foundation for the home and a cement slab for the basement.
Now for the floor plan of the Bear Creek. Please click the floor plan to enlarge it.
The walls are shown with the thick logs and the log corners. There is a solid log interior wall on each side of the great room. Log tails can be seen intersecting with the exterior log wall. There is also a solid log wall between the garage and the master bath and laundry. Structurally this is the best way to build this log home.
The log roof system over the great room includes the ridge and purloins that traverse the home front to back. One of the king trusses is located over the great room area. The second truss is located over the dining and kitchen area.
For the rest of the home standard flat bottom trusses are being used. Over the bedroom wings, decorative log purlins are being added to give more of a log feel to the flat ceiling. Also, 1×6 pine tongue and groove is being installed for the bedroom wing ceilings and the great room ceiling.
The porches are 8 feet wide. The porch ceilings will also be covered in 1×6 pine tongue and groove.
The end of the great room steps out 8 feet. This feature was added because the owners wanted the entry door on the side. 8 feet of solid log was required to make this work. There is a certain amount of wall space that is needed to make a door and two log corners tie together.
The corner stone fireplace and be seen located at the end of the great room. For the outside of the home, we are only stoning the chimney above the roofline. This way more of the exterior log wall is left visible.
A first-floor laundry and furnace room were added as a transition between the house and the garage.
The master suite also deserves attention. The master is designed for a king-size bed. The sliding glass door on the front side allows for a private porch. The master bath features a walk-in shower, double vanity, and linen cabinet. (When the home was actually built the owners moved the mechanical area to the crawl space and added more space to the master bath to allow for an antique claw foot tub and five-foot shower.)
We look forward to sharing each step of this custom handcrafted log home with you!