Log Homes Illustrated, July 2002

by Colleen Morrissey

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.”