The first order of business was to convince the developer to let them build with logs. "A log home didn't fit the original vision for the architecture he wanted in the community," William says. The developer agreed to let the Butins build their log home there with two stipulations: they couldn't build it on the golf course or on the road.

"For us it was like throwing Brer Rabbit in the briar patch," William says. "We didn't want our home to be on the golf course or the road anyway."

William now splits fishing time between the lake on his uncle's property and the 11 lakes that dot the Fox Acres community. "If Linda wants fish for dinner, I can take the golf cart to the lake and bring back trout--if they're biting," William says. "It's a two -minute trip in a golf cart.

The Complete Package
With initial plans under way, the Butins needed someone to turn their raw land and rough plans into the dream home they envisioned. They searched for a log supplier that could turnkey their project, contacting several companies before visiting a log producer they had driven past several times.

"Once we found Log Knowledge, we didn't have to do anymore research," William says. "They knew everything about log construction, they offered their own general contractor and they were just 45 minutes away from the job site. They were the right company for the job."

The couple also liked the idea of using handcrafted logs as opposed to milled logs, but they weren't sure about chinking at first. "Bill's uncle's log home had dark logs and white chinking," Linda says. "I didn't want that look where it's like a layer cake with icing between each log."

Fortunately Log Knowledge offers several chinking options, so the Butins chose chinking that complements their logs. Tan chinking blends with the logs on the exterior, while buff colored interior chinking offers a subtle color variation. Lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce logs averaging 12 inches in diameter were used interchangeably in the walls while logs with a minimum 14" diameter and up to 40' in length frame the roof system over the main living areas.

Circle Gets a Square
When it came to fitting their home to the site, the Butins were caught between a rock and a hard place. "Our lot backs up against a granite boulder outcropping," WIlliam says. And that wasn't the only challenge. "They were basically building on a large boulder field on a hill," says Jon Fogelson, sales estimator for Log Knowledge,Inc. "And they were trying to fit a sizable home on a 120-foot circle." The lot's shape presented other unique design challenges.

"The subdivision gave everyone circle lots. I've never seen anything like that before," Log Knowledge designer Jerry Kommrusch says. "The house ended up real close to the boundaries. It's a big house so we were working within feet, if not inches. It was pretty tight."