First floor plan that gets the honor of being reviewed is Finnlamelli’s Aapo. Finnlamelli is less-known custom log home manufacturer from Finland. Excellent product quality and flexible manufacturing and deliveries make this company one of the first choices when you consider buying a log home from Finland. Being so strongly technology oriented log home manufacturer, Finnlamelli’s standard catalog models aren’t stunning architectural thrills, still I found one that I especially like.

COMING HOME
So you come back from work and pick up some groceries on your way. You park into the carport and expect to conveniently get those bags inside. No such luck! There is no access from the carport to wetroom and inside. Luckily overhangs extend far enough to protect you if it’s raining so you get inside without getting wet. There are two independent storage rooms connected to the carport one with optional access to inside the house.

HOME SWEET HOME
Open living room with cathedral ceiling greets you, once you get past the entrance. Statue-like oven is the focal point of living room. Imagine those warm and cozy nights, family getting together and playing board games and fire flickers through glass crate. Door to backyard veranda invites outside to sunshine and to sunset.

KITCHEN
From living room you have an access to almost every room in the house. Kitchen is almost integral part of living room and separated only by cabinets and the decorative partition wall behind them. Large kitchen area, plenty of room for dining table. Is there anything more natural than whole family having dinner together?

BEDROOMS
Three bedrooms make this log home a small family home. All the bedrooms have plenty of storage space, one comes with its own closet. Parents’ room is separated from kids’ rooms by living room, a nice detail that gives some privacy. Unfortunately same cannot be said about toilet, which is directly connected with living room. No matter what, it is always slightly embarrassing to use this kind of toilet when some guests are visiting.

UTILITY
Utility has lots of room for washing and drying machines also cabinet room for linen. This room also has a door to outside, you’ll probably find some kind of rack to hang laundry on. This kind of wetroom/mudroom area is reasonable to marry with bathroom and (as in Finland we are) sauna. Nothing splendid in bathroom, just very efficient, pretty much the same goes with rest of the house.

SUMMARY
This floor plan uses space extremely sparingly, providing good return for your money. Efficiency turns against itself and takes away some points, also carport should be connected with direct access to the house and mudroom. I can warmly recommend this floor plan, but with slight alterations. Luckily the company is up for the challenge since most of their homes are custom made.

Do you want your floor plan reviewed? Just leave a comment, I read them all. ]]> http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/finnlamelli-floor-plan-aapo/feed/ 0 http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/got-my-log-home-book/ http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/got-my-log-home-book/#comments Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:02:44 +0000 Jake http://www.hirsilinna.com/?p=366 [...]]]>

The Craft of Modular Post & Beam: Building Log & Timber Homes Affordably is the name of the book. Could the title be any longer? Thank you for Amazon UK for managing such a speedy delivery.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Illustrations are clear and simple, which is good for educational book like this. Just like me to check pictures first, I just love comics!Everything gets covered starting from materials, so this is a good handbook for person needing the overall idea on how to build post & beam log home.

On the negative side, book lacks depth on some areas. Luckily topics, which are interesting for builder are included and dealt with in detail. I suppose this book is must read on log building courses that author holds.

Thank God it’s technical and not general picture resource book.

Good glossary and index, both are something that I especially appreciate, because this book is my first real step into English term in the area of log homes and log cabins.

I am certain that this book will make my favorite past time activity for coming weeks. I plan to write a complete review as soon as I feel comfortable with its content. As an example, there is a section in the book that tells you how to build a spiral log staircase into your log home. How cool is it that this book tells you how to use log to make everything imaginable… Ok, ok, get rid of that image of wooden fireplace, you are burning the house down.

Yesterday I got mail from Honka log homes company. They had printed several successful case studies from their various business categories and now were sending them around capital area.

I can draw some interesting points from their pamphlet. First of all, they have added Timber Heart on this ad. It is there along with their other independent divisions. You might remember this post that I wrote while back.

Another thing that catches my eye is the recreation and project services. They claim that their service package includes: lot search, design, building permissions, construction, after services and local knowledge. Nice punch of claims, sure sounds nice.

When I look back, I realize that all standing, old log structures in Finland are some sort of manors or churches. To less degree, there are some other buildings but almost to no exception, they are in poor condition. Why is this?

Log homes were popular because it was easy to fell trees and stack them as a log home. Sawing was impossible because of the inadequate tools. What made the difference were the building location and artisan skills. Farmers and hunters built lone log cabins all over Finland’s forests. However skilled they were, they weren’t master builders and their log cabins tended to rot away.

When important building was in question, master builders did their very best. These log homes and log buildings were also investments, therefore it was sensible to keep maintaining them even it was expensive.

Locations were also different from moist forest clearings. Important log buildings are located on hills and they are built on stone or rock foundation. This way log home can stay dry and solid.

These two principles are still valid today. It is fairly cheap to have a log home frame, but it is expensive to have professionals working on it and to locate it on solid and high foundation. I will soon write more about choosing a good location for log home in the article series, but for now – have a nice day. ]]> http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/log-homes-are-expensive/feed/ 0 http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/finnish-paper-industry-in-turmoil/ http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/finnish-paper-industry-in-turmoil/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:17:44 +0000 Jake http://www.hirsilinna.com/?p=343 [...]]]>

Finnish paper mills have been pushed into corner. Traditional cycle of currency devaluations in order to improve paper companies’ competitiveness has come to an end because of Finland’s European Union membership. Now it is the company that has to change instead of the currency value.

Finnish paper companies have been pushing hard to get in shape. Investments have been done near end markets and remote Finland has lost its importance as a production location. Right now the unimaginable is happening. United Paper Mills has announced massive downsizing programs, which focus especially on Finland.

Arrangements in the use of capital are another road that most paper companies are taking. Properties are sold to garner money to be invested in core functions. This in turn affects sawmills. There are lots of sellers but few buyers. Moreover the logging industry has been on the red for five continuous years and things are not going to get better any time soon.

Where am I getting at? Demand for various timber products in Finland is about to drop and that means business for log home manufacturers, which can benefit from lower raw material prices.

I got curious on what there is available on log mobile homes in the net. I made a search with Google like this “log mobile homes” and results were scarce only about 576 results. I started to wonder is it really so new an idea to have mobile home, which is made of logs?

In theory, the modular structure that log homes have makes it possible to put them into pieces and back together again – movable solution so to say. Difference with traditional mobile homes is that log mobile homes often stand alone from the ground, while traditional mobile homes have wheels under them at all times. This frequently gives difficulties for manufactured log home owners who want their log homes to be classified as log mobile homes.

So what about those search results? I found following results helpful:

http://www.house-uk.co.uk/
http://www.mobile-parkhomes.co.uk/

These two services seem to be most appropriate, however, looks like they belong under same umbrella, so no real competition between the two websites.

Rest of the sites that come up in the search are basically junk sites or then vaguely related like photographs or real estate sites that offer opportunities to own something. It appears that log mobile homes are really unique and new invention. Or maybe I should try to use different keywords. Maybe later.

Later is now (7th April 2006), slightly different view to log mobile homes comes in form of mobile log homes. ]]> http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/log-mobile-homes/feed/ 0 http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/kb-home-teams-with-martha-steward/ http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/kb-home-teams-with-martha-steward/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:36:01 +0000 Jake http://www.hirsilinna.com/?p=331 [...]]]> I wrote about the difficulties of KB Home and we all know the mess in which Martha Steward has been. Now these two seem to think that 1+1 is greater than 2. The purpose of this unlikely match is to create Martha Steward-inspired communities throughout the country. Martha will deliver a line of interior and exterior home products and designs. KB Home home buyers will have these options available exclusively. Amazing, isn’t it? I wonder when we see a match between Jack Wolfskin and some log home manufacturer…