Introduce yourself

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Originally Posted by bertelli

Hi all:
I took the class in Las Vegas last October and find the hardest part is deciding where to build. I'm in southern Florida and definitely don't want to build here. I would like to build my 1st cabin and live in it for 2 years, then sell it off for a profit. I would appreciate any input as to where in the US would be the best place with the highest demand for sales and value.

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The answer to this depends on a huge number of variables. Similar question to "how long does it take to build".

You already said you're building for profit. So how much capital you have plays a HUGE role.

To maximize profit one option is to buy a piece of land in an area with lots of very large, luxury homes. Then you build the LHBA version of a mansion, and sell it a couple years later. You can end up making a great deal of money this way. The problem is that building an LHBA luxury home is STILL going to cost you a lot of capital investment. So your bankroll, and your experience in construction project management, can play a big roll.

Or maybe on the other hand you're cash-poor, or you want to start off small. So in that case you might consider the pacific northwest where land can be extremely cheap. Then you build small. That way you don't get in too deep, and you have a low capital investment. The problem is that you wont make much money on it, in most cases.

There are obviously many more options, with a lot of gray area in between.

So no one can really answer this question except you. But the more information you provide about your specific circumstances, the better our advice can be.

Other considerations are "what states do you WANT to live in for the next few years?" Do you have family and do you have a maximum distance you are will to go from them? How much cash do you have? Do you have a wife and/or kids which you need to make sure are comfortable while you build? Lots and lots of variables.

I would also recommend you take this conversation into the members forums if you want to get into any personal details.

GOING TO ROANOKE, VA. THIS WEEKEND TO A LOG HOME SHOW. I'VE DECIDED WHO I'M GOING TO GET MY KIT FROM (ALMOST) BUT I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THEIR PRODUCT(QUALITY OR EASE OF CONSTRUCTION) WHAT DO I DO TO GET UNABISED INFORMATION? OR OPINION?

Come see me, I will be at the show this weekend, and will be doing an open house at a Home I currently have for sale next weekend. I dont do"kits" please read the links on this site about the pitfalls of kits, and steer clear of them. Read on this site, look at what I have built out in Hardy in my link below, and come look at it for yourself, you will never accept a "kit" as a log home again!

WHAT IS THE "NAME" OF YOUR BOOTH. YOU CAN ALSO CONTACT ME AT: JAADAD14@AOL.COM

Go look at Rockclimber's fantastic loghome & talk to him.
We were in your postion 18 months ago - BUT thankfully stumbled on to this website before we made the mistake of buying a "kit" home.
Take some time reading the posts on this forum.
It will be time extraordinarily well spent! We are admittedly very biased towards building "real" log homes - ours will be mortgage free & have none of the typical headaches of settling, shrinkage etc. that kit homes frequently experience!
Best of luck!

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Originally Posted by RONNIE FLETCHER

GOING TO ROANOKE, VA. THIS WEEKEND TO A LOG HOME SHOW. I'VE DECIDED WHO I'M GOING TO GET MY KIT FROM (ALMOST) BUT I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THEIR PRODUCT(QUALITY OR EASE OF CONSTRUCTION) WHAT DO I DO TO GET UNABISED INFORMATION? OR OPINION?

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Ronnie,

My wife started looking into "kits" and found this web site... I am now going to be starting on my own place and after visiting the other Ronnie's place, I am doing a very similar project. I highly recommend the visit.

Yoopers Pat

Hello Folks

Looking forward to learning more about a B and P style log homes and getting to know your members especially the ones that live around SE TN. . I look forward to visiting and helping them build while learning more about the whole process. I have been blessed with 19 acres in SE Tn on a river that is full of mature and straight Southern Yellow Pines (SYP) that are around 20 years old and ranging in size by the diameter of average around 20 inches at the base with the taper seeming to look good as well.

I plan on having about 4 or 5 camping cabins with covered porches (20' x 30' cabin with 10' coverage porches on each side) on stilts next to the river while on the hill out of the flood plain building a 40' by 40' cabin with plenty of open areas inside. I have a very large family and I want to make it availible all of them for holidays. Am I a great uncle or what?

I would like to use my SYP trees I already have on my property as I have experimented with skinning some to make my log skinning devise set up to place the logs on when I start my skinning process. The SYP that I have hand skinned have turned out to be very nice and beautiful since they have a very thin layer of dark bark left on from the hand process. I have a tractor already to man handle the logs. Since I have plenty of space I have thought about making a very large covered shed to work under while skinning and can even store and keep my logs out of the weather while they dry.

I really look forward to meeting some folks in my area with the same interest that I have.

IS IT SPRING YET?

Regards,

Riverfishone

DEAR YOOPERS PAT,? I'VE PURCHASED LAND WITH A WELL, SEPTIC, AND POWER IN PLACE. DRIVEWAY AND HOME SITE ESTABLISHED. I'M WORKING WITH A W.VA. LOG SUPPLIER ON PRICE OF LOGS. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM I ENCOUNTER IS WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE "PACKAGE" AS IF IT IS A DEEP DARK SECRET OR "WE'LL SELL THE KIT TO A SUCKER AND LET HIM FIND OUT FOR HIMSELF WHAT WE DON'T INCLUDE." I HAVE EDUCATED MYSELF PAST THIS POINT AND HAVE GOTTEN TO THE POINT OF BUILDING A GARAGE TO RELOCATE MY "STUFF" I HOPE TO START CONSTRUCTION IN LATE SPRING.

Enjoyed your pics

Wish you were in SE TN to see my property and get some ideas off of.


Riverfishone

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Originally Posted by riverfishone

Hello Folks

Looking forward to learning more about a B and P style log homes and getting to know your members especially the ones that live around SE TN. . I look forward to visiting and helping them build while learning more about the whole process. I have been blessed with 19 acres in SE Tn on a river that is full of mature and straight Southern Yellow Pines (SYP) that are around 20 years old and ranging in size by the diameter of average around 20 inches at the base with the taper seeming to look good as well.

I plan on having about 4 or 5 camping cabins with covered porches (20' x 30' cabin with 10' coverage porches on each side) on stilts next to the river while on the hill out of the flood plain building a 40' by 40' cabin with plenty of open areas inside. I have a very large family and I want to make it availible all of them for holidays. Am I a great uncle or what?

I would like to use my SYP trees I already have on my property as I have experimented with skinning some to make my log skinning devise set up to place the logs on when I start my skinning process. The SYP that I have hand skinned have turned out to be very nice and beautiful since they have a very thin layer of dark bark left on from the hand process. I have a tractor already to man handle the logs. Since I have plenty of space I have thought about making a very large covered shed to work under while skinning and can even store and keep my logs out of the weather while they dry.

I really look forward to meeting some folks in my area with the same interest that I have.

IS IT SPRING YET?

Regards,

Riverfishone

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"Got the job, want the land, need the class"

Hey Riverfishone-

I've been lurking around the forums for a few years, and I'm currently living in Chattanooga, TN. I was going to take the Vegas class this time around, but lacked the finances at the right time. I'm definitely taking the class if it's in Vegas the next time around. Sounds like you've got a nice place to build. Stay in touch! Might be building near one another in the near future.

I knew there would be some more folks here in TN.

Do you have some land in Polk County? Have you been up on the Hiwassee?

I have some land in Hamilton County as well on Hixson Pike I am selling that would make a good place for a cabin. It too has lots of SYP on it already.

You should come up sometime and I will show you around. Do you know much about SYP logs?

Thanks for your responcse

Riverfishone

Quote:

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Originally Posted by riverfishone

I knew there would be some more folks here in TN.

Do you have some land in Polk County? Have you been up on the Hiwassee?

I have some land in Hamilton County as well on Hixson Pike I am selling that would make a good place for a cabin. It too has lots of SYP on it already.

You should come up sometime and I will show you around. Do you know much about SYP logs?

Thanks for your responcse

Riverfishone

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"Got the job, want the land, need the class"

I've been in TN for a year and 1/2 now for work, so I haven't invested in any land quite yet. I've been to Ocoee area a few times. Beautiful up there. Hopefully, we'll make a trip or two there this summer for some camping & rafting. I've searched online for some land that way, but haven't come up with much. Best land prices I've found so far have been in northern TN near KY border--from Cookeville to Celina, and across the border in NC--Hayesville & Murphy areas.

I'm not an expert on logs at all, but from reading the forums, Southern Yellow Pine is plentiful, and it's usually pretty cheap. Grows fast, so it twists, shrinks & warps more than most...but w/ the butt & pass building method, it's perfectly acceptable.

Thanks for the input I'll reconnect in the members area.
Starting to get a handle on this site.

Hi all, Chris here, took the class just over a year ago (April 29, 2009) just after getting back from Afghanistan working for the state department. Afghanistan changed my life......I served in the military and actually was &quot;boots on the ground&quot; in Iraq 1, that too changed my life. Did twenty years in the Navy....lot of good memories and some that still haunt me....divorced once, remarried and have four kids. 2, 6, 8, and 10 yrs old, my family is my life and maybe that is a silver lining to going through some of the things I have. Chasing the $$ is not as important as it is to be with my family. Our kids and my wife are everything to me, hence trying to get some sort of financial freedom. It?s a shame our country has been almost destroyed by the elitists over the last few decades. But I digress? My second son is handicap; he has Hypochondroplasia and essentially will be short. Since we have been blessed with him and understand the system relative to doctors and health insurance we decided to adopt also. We were in the system for adoption for a long time trying to get a child from China. Long story short, it was a nightmare....after some time?we stumbled upon a little girl in S. Korea that was in the system for a year since birth, no one wanted her because she has brittle bones. God put it in our hearts to adopt her so here we are. She had 7 broken bones when she was born. We've now have had her for almost a year, she can now walk (feet never touched the floor in Korea) and has only fractured three bones in the whole year we've had her. We will be in Indy Indiana in about six months, looking to build our log cabin finally and balance the kids at the same time. We home school as well so this should prove to be interesting. Having two special needs kids, our goal is to get in a 35x35 as soon as we can to keep costs down. So needless to say I?ll be on here with the wife a lot. With the issues mentioned above, I?m sure the house will have lots of modifications, should be fun! I will keep pictures coming once we?ve started. Be blessed and thank you very much in advance for any advice or recommendations. -Chris and the Stanhope clan! (4-kids, 3-dogs, 4-chickens, 1 and ? adults?my wife says I?m still a kid at 48yrs old!) <img border="0" src="/sites/all/modules/tinymce/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cool.gif" alt="Cool" title="Cool" />

Hi there and welcome. sounds like your household is VERY busy:) Welcome to the family!!

Hi Steve,



Thanks for allowing non-LHBA members to interact on your forum.



Great looking website, I've been lost in here for about 3 hours now and haven't touched the tip of the iceberg.



I don't usually get involved in joining forums. So it was no big surprise when after writing my very first post, I pressed the &quot;Preview comment&quot; button, followed by the &quot;back&quot; button on my browser - and the whole thing went away.



So now I have something else to learn about besides building a log cabin.



Several years ago I took a course similar to yours here in Burton, Michigan - except they taught me the scribe method of construction.?The project?never got started because of all the tedious labor involved. From what I gathered by reading some of the posts, the LHBA method seems a little more practical to suit my needs.



Basically, I have 20 acres in northern Michigan and would like to have a small, affordable cabin up there in the near future. I cant afford to spend 20 years or $200,000 building it and have been?searching the web for?some sort of alternate construction method to achieve this goal.



After exploring everything from building with straw bales to underground construction, I?believe I have finally come full circle when discovering your website tonight. A log cabin is really what I wanted in the first place.



Keep up the good work and thanks again.







&quot;I was going to write a short letter, but didn't have time so wrote a long one instead.&quot; ~Mark Twain~

I just couldn't resist... StressMan79, [redacted by staff?for privacy reasons] and I are all in Stevens County (I'm near Northport). Whereabouts are you? If you prefer, my email is akguy_1 (at) hotmail dot com. Nice to have another LHBA member as a neighbor. Cheers, Ken

well, if you WANTED to you could spend 20 year or $200,000 building our LHBA way, but you have to try REALLY HARD!

I think most everyone who's built will tell you it can reasonably be done in less than 2 years if you're able to devote a bunch of time or have some help, and most folks who already have their land can do it in less than $50,000 (because they've taken the class and so they know the 'tricks').

if you're really serious about this then take the class. THEN after you've become a member you can come help us build and see what you learned in action:) we'll be building in northern MN this year.

welcome to the forums

by the way, I've NEVER done the preview thing (which explains some of my grammatical and spelling errors... Hmmmmm...) so can't help you there. sorry!!

I?not sure?Michigan has a Stevens county, but I know where Northport is. I'm near Benzonia, about 10 miles east of Frankfort and a 40 or so mile drive south of you guys.



?&quot;I was going to write a short letter, but didn't have time so wrote a long one instead.&quot; ~Mark Twain~

I think he was talking about northport WA, just a bit east of where I am building (as the crow flies). I am up by Curlew WA, in Ferry County.

Gotcha. Thanks.

Hello everyone, I'm Joe and my wife is Renee. We've been talking about doing this class and building a log home for nearly four years and everything has finally lined up for us to attend the May weekday class. I'm very excited about attending the class and taking the first steps to our dream house. Hope to see you in the class and on the members area.

welcome aboard.. san diego eh?? my old stomping ground..i miss the fish tacos from south beach bar n grill.

are you planning on building out there??

Not all who wander are lost...

http://s888.photobucket.com/home/rusty_bucket_album/index

Greetings, I'm new here and have been drooling on the website (I've gone through a few keyboards) for the past couple years wishing I could attend and now through an odd set of circumstances, I can! I'm signed up for the week day class in May this year and will be there.

I currently own 10 acres of land up north west of Fairbanks, Alaska and have cut the road (nearly a quarter mile) by hand (chainsaw and curse words) TO and INTO the property and will start on the clearing this Fall.

I'm pretty excited to get in and get taught some good habits for my personal foundation before I try it all on my own and learning bad habits...

Glad to hear we have somebody up in the frozen tundra. There are lots of northerners in here who can give you all kinds of tips for the colder climates, especially in the members forum.

and congratulations on signing up for the class:)

hello my name is tim from freeburg mo. north of rolla and i am attending the class may 2010 in boston. i talk to the conversation about pine logs and got a couple names of loggers in mo. who cut off the national forest. just thought i would mention it . good luck

welcome! great that you have a lead on logs. enjoy the class and welcome to the family:)