HOME ON THE LINKS

If you’re like most of our readers, you’re dying to know what it’s like to build a log home. Maybe you’re not quite ready to build your own home, still dreaming, really, but curious as a cat when it comes to the log home experience. Well, your wait is over. Here’s your opportunity to follow a home from beginning to end, from putting the first design on paper to hanging the last picture.

Together with Golden Eagle Log Homes, Log Home Design Ideas built the Double Eagle, a 2,377 square foot log home in the heart of central Wisconsin’s vacationland. The home is sited just off the 18th green of The Lakes Course at Lake Arrowhead, which offers great golf, gorgeous views and the perfect spot for a log home.

The Double Eagle was finished nearly a year ago, and is now privately owned. Over the next few issues, however, you’ll be to experience the design and construction of the Double Eagle, witnessing everything from site selection to a tour of the fully-furnished, ready-to-move-in home. We’ll look at the process of securing permits, offer advice on choosing roofing and flooring, watch as plumbing and electrical systems are installed, and learn the finer details of erecting a log shell, plus a whole lot more.

The six-installment story of the Double Eagle’s rise from the ground up is published here in its entirety. Each installment focuses one several key aspects of the building process is illustrated with color photography shot on-site during the construction phase.

BUILDING STEP-BY-STEP

So why did we embark on this project? Quite simply, the educational opportunities couldn’t be found anywhere else. “We build several research and development log homes every year,” says Jay Parmeter, president and co-owner of Golden Eagle Log Homes. “We try new log concepts, trim ideas, different stains. We are always trying to improve the products we sell. This hands-on approach is the best way to stay in tune with the market.”

Education is something the people at Golden Eagle know about. Both Jay and his brother Tod learned the family business from their parents, Wally and Marlace, who founded the Golden Eagle Building Center in 1966. After fulfilling their own dream of living in a log home, the couple added log home construction to the company’s repertoire. Wally and Marlace retired in 1997, but left the company in the capable hands of their sons, who had grown — and learned — right along with the company.

In fact, Golden Eagle was preparing to build a spec home in the Lake Arrowhead development when we approached them with the idea of building a showcase home. They immediately jumped at the opportunity.

“When the homes are being built they are a ‘shot in the arm’” for Golden Eagle and for the log home industry, Jay says. “We usually put them in the local parade of homes and show them as a model until they are sold.”

THE PLAN

Like many prospective log home owners, we began with a stock plan and tweaked it to fit our needs. Because we had selected a corner site for the showcase home, we needed to find a plan that would make the best use of the parcel’s irregular shape and take advantage of all of its views of the 18th fairway, green and pond.

Working closely with the staff at Golden Eagle Log Homes, we decided to begin with the company’s Mountain View plan, which has a basic 40-by-30 footprint and features about 1,640 square feet of living space on two floors. For the most part, the Mountain View remains intact within the Double Eagle plan.

BEFORE

Floor Plan

Loft

Our first goal was to enlarge the plan to approximately 2,000 square feet. The most significant changes were made on the first floor, where the only bedroom became the master suite. What was the only bathroom on the Mountain View’s first floor became the master bath in the Double Eagle, and that same bathroom gained a cantilevered bump-out to accommodate a jetted tub.A walk-in closet was also enlarged as the home’s overall footprint grew to 48-by-32.

Other significant changes were made in the kitchen, which Golden Eagle designers enlarged by ‘stealing’ space from the garage. The result is not only a bigger kitchen with room for peninsula seating, but, we think, better use of the space created by the angled garage.

Part of that former garage space was also used to create a utility/mudroom, which was not included in the Mountain View. Finally, because we used the Mountain View’s only first-floor bath to create the Double Eagle’s master bath, we added a powder room just off the kitchen, between the dining room and utility room. This space went through several transformations before we had a design that preserved the utility room, created a suitable water closet and placed them both in convenient proximity to the garage entry and a service entry off the rear of the home.

Upstairs, no changes were made to the original Mountain View plan, though the bedrooms and catwalk gained space due to the Double Eagle’s bigger footprint.

The end result of all of our changes: a 2,377 square foot home named after the company that designed it and its special place on Lake Arrowhead’s championship links.

AFTER

Floor Plan

Loft

THE LOG

Golden Eagle Log Homes has built its reputation on building $130,000 to $400,000 homes, homes company officials call “affordable and attainable.” The Double Eagle falls into the upper end of Golden Eagle’s portfolio.

“The Double Eagle will sell for $379,000 when completed, totally finished,” Jay Parmeter says. “Even the yard will be professionally landscaped.”

Golden Eagle does about half its business using its split-log systems, which feature half-log walls wrapped around 2x6 insulated walls. The Double Eagle, however, features the company’s double round full-log system. There was little doubt full-log was the way to go for the Double Eagle project.

“We chose our 8-by-8 double round peeled-inside-and-out full-log construction for the first floor of the home,” Jay says. “The garage, dormers and gable ends are our matching split log applied over a 2x6 insulated wall.”

Trees for the 8-by-8-inch logs were harvested in the winter of 2000 and air-dried until the fall of 2001. The logs were cut from the heart of white pine that had been dried to 19 percent moisture content at the heart. “We ran them through the log planer and then peeled them,” Jay says. “We are very proud of how dry our full-log homes are.”

Both sides of the logs were planed with a round profile while the top edge was routed with a groove to accept a foam gasket sealant. The logs were finished with an optional machine-peeled surface inside and outside, a detail Golden Eagle project manager John Batzer says is important.

“The super round series has our deepest profile, the boldest curve,” Batzer says. “It’s cost effective because of its uniformity … yet the machine peeling gives it a rustic look.” A butt and pass corner system completes the logwork detail on the home.

THE SITE

Golden Eagle Log Homes had purchased a lot in the Lake Arrowhead development and was ready to break ground on a spec home when Log Home Design Ideas approached the company about doing a showcase home. Everyone quickly came to the conclusion that Golden Eagle’s property wasn’t quite the right fit for the project.

The original lot was narrow but deep and wouldn’t really accommodate a home of the Double Eagle’s size. When it became clear the Mountain View plan would form the basis for the Showcase Home’s footprint, it was pretty easy to choose a new lot: number 83 in the Sawgrass Addition of the Lake Arrowhead Development.

In touring the development, both Golden Eagle and LHDI staffers concluded that lot 83 had everything the project required. The parcel is on a corner and features rounded frontage and views of the 18th fairway, green and pond on The Lakes Course. An added bonus is easy access to the course clubhouse, just visible through the trees across the street.

In addition to its generous size, the parcel’s shape offered an almost perfect fit to the Double Eagle’s design (see page 21), which featured an attached garage set at an angle to the home. It was also covered with trees — not too many but not too few — and had a natural clearing that meant few trees and little brush would have to be removed to accommodate the home.

The property’s most obvious benefits lie in its proximity to the golf course, which enhances its initial value and will boost the home’s resale value.

THE PRE-CONSTRUCTION PHASE

Obtaining property is perhaps the most daunting pre-construction task you’ll tackle. With the selection of Sawgrass lot number 83 for the Double Eagle, we were ready to move on to the next step.

In typical residential construction, this might be the point where you would begin to research financing. Our situation with the Double Eagle was a little different, of course, but we’ve listed a few considerations in the sidebar at left. You’ll also want to research insurance at this stage. Consider adding builder’s risk insurance to your existing homeowner’s insurance policy if your carrier offers it and be prepared to obtain proof of workman’s compensation insurance from all of your contractors and subcontractors.

There were many other details to be handled before work on the Double Eagle could get underway. Golden Eagle had to follow the same procedures as any other homeowner. This included applying for building and sanitary permits from the county and local township. The company also had to fulfill some requirements unique to the Lake Arrowhead development.

The Lake Arrowhead Association has stringent building codes and covenants in place to protect the development’s aesthetic and architectural integrity. Before construction could begin, Golden Eagle had to have color schemes for everything from the log stain to the roof approved by the association.

All the while, Golden Eagle builder Bob Strosin was busy behind the scenes. His first task was staking out the house on the property. The home was eventually sited further west than its original location, slightly closer to the street, to save trees and get the golf course views just right. As a result, the Double Eagle’s footprint was amended to set the garage at an angle more conducive to the lot’s shape.

This article previously appeared in Log Home Design Ideas magazine.