As soon as Tom and Jacque Downs
saw the slight rise of the wooded lot, they knew they
had found the perfect spot to build their family’s
new log home. They were out in their boat one cloudy
morning, on a lake in northern Minnesota, when they
spied a stretch of land where the sun had broken free
of the cloud cover. The property’s stock of white
pine glistened with morning dew. Everywhere else a
smoky haze enveloped the landscape. “You know
how the sun will sometimes shine through the clouds,” Tom
says. “It was almost like a beam of light from
the sky was shining right on this land.”
It was something else, quite unexpected,
however, that really caught Tom and Jacque’s
eye. After docking the boat, they walked up the muddy
shore to see what was glimmering in the sunlight.
They were amazed to find a “For Sale” sign. “It
was just one of those feelings that it was meant
to be,” Jacque says. “I actually had
the hair on my arms and neck stand up. It felt like
we were guided there. I looked at Tom and said, “Well,
I guess we’re supposed to build here.”
“Needless to say,” Tom
adds, “24 hours later we owned the property.”
Tom and Jacque weren’t newcomers
to this part of Minnesota’s North Woods lake
district. For the past six years, the couple had owned
a home on the other side of the lake. Although they
live in Florida year-round, it was childhood memories
that brought Tom back to the lake where he often visited
as a boy.
After they married, Tom showed Jacque
all the charms of the region from the nightly call
of the loons to the peacefulness of living near the
water. Everything that kept Tom and his family coming
back year after year resonated with Jacque as well.
“What captured me,” Jacque
says, “were the loons—they take you back
in time. Everything up there just feels familiar.
That area has absolutely stolen my heart.”
While the couple already owned a
conventionally built home on the lake, they were interested
in building a more rustic retreat that would fit in
with the surrounding wilderness. They also needed a
slightly larger home that would comfortably welcome
a slew of friends, their adult children and three grandchildren
who visit frequently throughout the summer season.
They started their research like
everyone else interested in log homes: looking at magazines
and asking log-home owners to recommend companies.
One name that kept popping up was Northwoods Log Homes.
Tom and Jacque visited the company’s plant in
Laporte and toured several of their homes. When the
couple met with Bryan Kerby and his parents, Ray and
Julia, all co-owners of Northwoods, they liked their
attitude and were impressed with the quality of the
company’s workmanship.
It was after touring the log home
of Bryan’s grandfather, the founder of Northwoods,
that Tom and Jacque knew they had found the type of
log home they wanted to build for themselves: a prow-front
facing the water with open living space and lots of
windows. “The only difference is that ours has
a full basement,” Tom says.
Even though Tom and Jacque were committed
to have Northwoods build their home, they had a minor
problem. Tom was still several years away from making
a full break with his company. They decided to take
it slow and start small by building the home’s
two-and-a-half car garage on the property first. Included
in the garage’s design was a bunkhouse, which
the couple could stay in until their home was built.
After the garage was completed, Tom
and Jacque spent the next two years working on the
design for the rest of their log home. Using Bryan’s
grandfather’s home as their model, they designed
a home with 4,298 square feet of living space, including
the basement.
At the heart of the home is the great
room with its prow-shaped back wall. The couple loves
this feature because its towering windows open up the
great room to the spectacular views of the lake and
surrounding woods. “You feel, when you’re
inside the great room, like you’re part of the
outside,” Jacque says. “It’s just
wonderful.”
By taking their time with the design,
Tom and Jacque discovered that they were able to plan
ahead for things that they might have otherwise overlooked
if they had rushed through the process. One example
is the placement and number of electrical outlets in
the home. As they discussed where their furniture would
go, they realized that the majority of their outlets
would have to be in the floor several feet from any
wall. “When you have to situate furniture in
a home that is open, your furniture is not going to
be close to a wall,” Jacque says. “That’s
not something people might think about and plan for,
but they should.”
Having completed the design, the
couple hired Jim and Kevin Day of Northern Industries
in Laporte to raise the log walls and finish the home.
Since Tom and Jacque had purchased a full package from
Northwoods, the only decisions remaining for them to
make concerned specific finishes and fixtures. “Our
package includes everything from the floor system to
the shingles,” Bryan says. “Then the customer
can come back and make deviations, if they like.”
Northwoods produces its logs from
red and white Norway pine, which are native to Minnesota
and cut to a precise 7.5-inch diameter. The company
pre-cuts and labels the whole package to make the components
easy to assemble on the building site. “We actually
cut every bolt hole, spline, window notch, rafter and
truss,” Bryan says. “And we use quite long
logs. The cross I-beam in the great room is 28-30 feet
long. This is because of the machines we use, which
allow us to turn an unlimited length of log.”
To accommodate shrinkage, Northwoods
uses a spring-loaded system to bolt together its walls
and enable the company to independently manipulate
each log that goes into place. “This allows us
to maximize the plumbness and strength of our log walls,” Bryan
explains. “A spring tension on the top log helps
facilitate settling over and above the weight of the
structure as well.”
Tom and Jacque learned a lot about
building during the two years it took to take their
home from design to completion. And just as they seemed
instinctively to know the first time they saw the property
that it was perfect for them, so, too, do they agree
that their log home was meant to be. “Sometimes
you don’t just know why things happen,” Tom
says. “But a lot of good things have come about.”
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