November 2006 - Building the model

Jeff had taken a new job in Orange County so we moved there in Oct. 2006. I also found out I was pregnant around this time, for which we were very excited. Progress on the log home was limited to building a scale model and trying to find an engineer. Jeff worked evenings in the garage building a model and trying to come up with a floorplan. We were torn between two sites on the property to build, which required different types of plans. There was the site on the hill, which is pictured on the home page or there is a site farther back on the property where you get more privacy and better lake views, but would be more challenging to build on. We asked everybody we could get to come out to the property their opinion and majority said we had to take advantage of the site in the back of the property. So, that was our plan and we designed a model for a 55x25 foot home. Another challenge for this site was a drainage that ran through it, for which we planned to span over. There were also quite a few boulders that we needed to work with and it was pretty far from the road. But, we decided if we were going to do it, we might as well go all the way and take the utmost advantage of the property. However, after building the model, Jeff was having second thoughts. This plan meant a lot of logs to stack! We learned a lot from building the model, but were having trouble making decisions. This was taken on Christmas Eve 2006 on the property.