Monday, December 28, 2015

Best New Year’s Resolution Hikes

The close of a year is a great time to look back at all of your accomplishments and successes, as well as set new challenges for yourself for the year to come. As New Year’s approaches, people are going to start asking what your New Year’s Resolution is. If you want to have something better…

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Sunday, December 27, 2015

Hiking San Gorgonio Mountain via the Vivian Creek Trail

In June of 2015, the Lake Fire burned its way through thousands of acres of forest contained within the San Gorgonio Wilderness area of San Bernadino National Forest. Several popular trails, including the South Fork Trail to San Gorgonio Mountain, are now closed as a result (as of July 2015), leaving some of the more…

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Saturday, December 19, 2015

What is the difference between prefab and a custom log homes

If you have ever driven by a log yard you may have seen a number of timber structures being built on site. Because of this notation that log homes are built on site and then taken down and shipped to their destination they often get confused as being prefab homes. In this article we will break down the difference between a prefab and custom log home.

Prefabricated homes, also know as pre-fab homes, essentially these homes are constructed in a factory and then shipped to their location in pieces where they are put back together in a matter of days.

The category of prefabricated homes can be quite large including:

Modular Homes

Homes that are built in modules in a factory and then shipped to their destination to be reassembled. Most modular homes are also equipped with windows, doors, cabinetry, flooring, plumbing and electrical. These designs tend to have a bit more “boxy” feel to them as they need to be easily shipped ad delivered.

Manufactured Homes

Also known as factory framed or panelized homes, manufactured pre-cut your floor system and build the walls. The framing is stacked flat and then trucked to the location where it is built on site. These home do not have the windows, doors, kitchen installed but have select vendors that they work with.

Kit-Homes

Kit homes are commonly found with log cabins. If you want to have the experience of building your own home but don’t have the time to deal with all the measuring details these homes are good for you. Kit homes are cut to spec and packaged up in a way that allows you to do it yourself. The main difference between a kit home and a panelized home or modular home is that in a kit home you put it back together yourself and a modular home the company does it.

Artisan builds and sells log cabin kits. Contact us to find out more details.

Shipping Container Homes:

New to the market place is shipping container homes. They are literally made from old shipping containers and can be stacked together much like Lego to make your home any size you wish.

Custom Log Homes

Custom log homes, are exactly how they sound, custom. With the previous options we discussed above they all have slight limitations because much of the work is done in a factory. Custom log home builders build their homes on-site in a log yard before shipping it to ensure quality control and because all of the tools and materials are available. A lot of work is required for a custom log home such as drying the logs, pealing and cutting. To do that on location site would take months and be very costly to the consumer. Artisan log homes can be custom to fit any design and property. Because we assemble and dis-assemble every log and transport it separately we don’t have height and weight constraints for the size of the home.

Even though a log home will first be assembled at a log yard everything is done custom, not mass-produced. You are able to pick every element of your homes design and customize it to your liking.  Once we have it right in the log yard we take it down and ship it to your location where we meet up containers and assemble it on-site.

No one type of home is better than another, it depends on your likes, dislikes and budget as to which home is best for you. If you would like to know more about log cabin kits or custom log homes please contact us.

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Sunday, December 13, 2015

Why are log homes built in a log yard?

It’s a pretty amazing site to drive by a log yard and see some of the massive timbers on site and watch as crews of craftsmen build beautiful custom log homes.

Recently, we were asked why we build everything in our log yard and not at the future location of the home. Some custom log builders will build the entire project on-site but it isn’t very common for a few reasons.

Cost

There are a number of tools and machines required to build a custom log home including cranes, peelers and mills. Like Artisan, many custom builders have most of these items already in their log yard. To pack all the equipment up and ship it, or try and source it for each location, would be extremely costly and time-consuming and not beneficial to the client. Having a central location to prepare all of the timber is more economical.

Time

The process of building a log home can take anywhere from one to three months to complete. Hiring a crew to go on location for that amount of time, would again, quickly become costly. Also, depending on the time of year and species of wood, we may need to dry the wood which can take even more time.

Quality Control

If you have ever built anything, you know that at some point something will go wrong and need correcting. The same goes for building a log home. Throughout the process we sometimes will find that a log twisted, split or was cut too short and we will need to make adjustments. When we are working at the log yard and these things happen it’s a much easier fix because we have other logs available, expertise on hand, and more resources available to ensure your project gets back on track.

Having your log home assembled first at a log yard, disassembled, and then shipped to your location to be re-assembled is the best way to ensure your dream home is built with the least amount of headaches and cost to you.

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Thursday, December 10, 2015

Our Favorite Hikes of the Past Nine Years

It’s hard to believe it, but today is Modern Hiker’s NINTH anniversary! This year was pretty huge for us. We broke another outdoor vandalism story – and fought back a legal threat, experienced the beauty of Nepal and a full-fledged natural disaster, welcomed amazing new writers from all over the West to the site, and…

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