Consequently, when it was time to get serious about building a retirement home, Dave and Karen went right back to Northwoods, a three-generation, family-owned business that has been building log homes since 1956, after shopping around the competition. They considered both handcrafted and milled log homes. “We chose milled logs to have a little more regularity and easier maintenance,” says Dave. The aesthetics and efficiency of a log home also appealed to him. “I think the reason I picked logs over stick construction,” says Karen, “is that I don’t think I’ve ever walked into a log home that didn’t embrace me right away. They’re just so warm and welcoming.”

The Sharbos were impressed with Northwoods’ technology and even went and watched the logs being milled for their home at the facility in Laporte. “We specialize in a complete package of precut building materials,” says Northwoods’ Bryan Kerby. “When I say precut, I mean every single bolt hole, every spline cut, every window notch, every saddle cut, and all our roof truss and rafter components, which are all structural, are all precut. Rather than spiking or lagging or full through-bolting, we use a segmented, spring-loaded bolting system that allows the logs to stay extremely tight and settle over a period of six months to a year. Our special trim techniques also allow a building to settle in the proper way without the client ever knowing it.”

“Another argument in favor of choosing Northwoods is that it was convenient to drop into their shop since they’re in the neighborhood,” says Dave. “If we had a design change during the course of construction, one of the Northwoods people was here right away. It wasn’t like buying a package that arrived on a semi from a long distance.”

Bryan Kerby and Northwoods draftsman Joe Christianson helped Dave and Karen draw up their custom floorplan. “We brought in our ideas and stacks of magazine tear-outs,” remembers Dave, “and Northwoods made their archives—homes they’d done in the past—available to us.” Kerby also suggested the Sharbos visit a similar Northwoods home under construction not far from their property. “That floorplan was nothing like we wanted,” says Karen. “It was amazing because we were impressed with the logs and the look of the home, but it didn’t suit our space needs at all.” Dave agrees that walking through the place under construction really made a difference. “It really helped us fine-tune our floorplan,” he says, “because we saw what we thought were going to be our dimensions going up, and we realized that we wanted to do some adjusting.”

Dave and Karen’s home is 4,200 square feet, about the same size as their previous home in Fargo, but they designed it to suit their retirement lifestyle. Their wish list included as much glass as possible; a great room that incorporated living room, dining room, sunroom, and kitchen into one space; a studio with northern exposure for Karen, who is a watercolorist; a walkout to the lake; and space to accommodate their children and grandchildren. They wanted all of the outdoor access areas and bathrooms to have tile flooring to prevent sand from getting onto the hardwood floor or carpeting. They also wanted a fireplace and bay windows. “But mainly we wanted everything we will need as we get older on the first floor of the house,” says Karen. “We made all our doors three feet wide to accommodate the potential need for a wheelchair, and we included a large laundry/sewing room area.”

Dave and Karen sold and moved the old cabin off the property when they decided they couldn’t improve on the site where it stood. True to the company’s promise to “fit your home to the land,” Bryan Kerby helped the Sharbos situate their house on the lot. “I think the way we took their ideas and developed a custom plan to fi t that particular building site is probably one of the most unique things about that project,” says Kerby. He suggested changing the driveway so it winds through the woods, offering a glimpse of the house through the trees which disappears until you drive up into the yard. Kerby and Bernie Gartner, the Sharbos’ contractor and partners in Gartner Johnson Construction of Park Rapids, even got out a step ladder and set it up at the elevation where the great room windows would be so Karen and Dave could study the view to the lake from different angles.

The Sharbo home is built of milled 71/2-inch red pine logs with a Swedish-cope horizontal junction and outside saddle-notch corner intersections. It has white pine trim, paneling, doors, and other details. The Sharbos chose a Woodguard exterior fi nish in Warm Pecan, and they selected Benwood Stays Clear, an acrylic polyurethane water-based sealer, for the interior. “We used an extraordinary amount of wood,” says Karen. “I did not want any drywall on the main floor, contrary to our builder’s suggestion. He said we’d get tired of all the wood. Not for one minute. I love every knot in my house.” Dividing walls don’t extend to the ceiling on the main level because Karen couldn’t bear to hide any of the wood.

To ensure that there was plenty of light in the house, Dave and Karen included two skylights, one over the kitchen and one in the loft. “We put both of them on the north side so we didn’t have to deal with the heat in the summer,” adds Karen. Stephanie Linnerooth of The Lighthouse in Fargo helped the couple design their lighting, and Karen is pleased with the results. “Stephanie did a super job of allowing us to have soft lighting at night,” says Karen, “and also to light up all the wood by putting track lights on top of the beams, which I don’t think detracts at all from the log appearance.” Karen chose a black chandelier in the dining room to coordinate with the black straps used on the trusses and rafters.

Karen and Dave worked with George Kamrowski at Cabinet Corner in Bemidji, Minn., to design all the cabinetry in the home. “I knew what I wanted to incorporate in the kitchen, how I wanted the cabinets to be outfitted on the inside,” says Karen. “I think George got maximum use out of our kitchen space. We incorporated an island, and I liked the galley approach. I have my work triangle so I can go from sink to stove to refrigerator all in the open area and still have people sitting at the counter talking to me.” The kitchen is decorated in bistro style accented with roosters and baskets of vegetables and lavender.

Jeff Green of Heritage Flooring in Park Rapids helped Dave and Karen choose Rustic Red Oak stained chestnut color for the hardwood floors in the great room and entry. “He is an artist,” says Dave, “and the fi nish he recommended is dog-toe-proof, which is impressive to me.” Ceramic tile covers entryways and bathroom floors; and the loft, bedrooms, and downstairs family room are carpeted.

Dave is especially pleased with the effi ciency of their heating system. Some of that efficiency is due to Northwoods’ rigid foam roof insulation system that extends continuously across the roof to prevent heat loss. “This is the tightest house we’ve ever lived in,” says Dave. “We really are snug up here in the frozen Northwoods.” They are on off-peak electric, and they installed an electric storage furnace that gathers heat overnight during the low-cost hours and stores it in a bank of ceramic bricks. Air handlers pull heat off the bricks throughout the day. The basement has in-floor heat, and the propane fireplace, a Mendota from Wilkening in Walker, Minn., is sized to carry the house in an emergency and qualifies the Sharbos for a dual-fuel discount with their electric cooperative. Dave also installed an automatic back-up generator for power outages, satellite Internet and television, and a state-of-the-art security system.

Karen did her own decorating inside and out. Antiques she collected over the years add ambience and invite conversation throughout the home. Deep red, dark green, and dark brown leather combine to create her color scheme. Since gardening is one of her passions, she has surrounded the house with beds filled with everything from shrub roses to wildflowers.

Mornings find Dave relaxing by the great room window with a cup of coffee, watching the bird feeders, their English springer spaniel Maxie watching with him. Karen might be painting in her studio or sitting at her desk in the loft. Both are convinced they’ve built a home that will last them a long time. “We set it up with getting old in mind,” says Dave. And Karen doesn’t ever plan to leave. “This house is truly it,” she says. “Now that I have logs to hang onto, they’ll never pry my fingers off.”

LOG HOME PRODUCER: Northwoods Log Homes, Laporte, Minnesota; BUILDER/CONTRACTOR: Gartner Johnson Construction, Park Rapids, Minnesota.

Click here to see photos