Building a Cabin or Home? (Hamilton, Thompson Falls: fit in, transplants, apartments)

[Dizzydog]

So our planning is in it's infancy on this as we are just now acquiring our land in the Georgetown Lake/Philipsburg area.

Our big question is on home building, for those that have done it. We would love to hear your experiences. We are liking the idea of a Log Cabin and visited with a log company while in Hamilton. We have a lot of researching to do and figured we would start here by picking some peoples brains.

We are trying to stay around $250-300k for a home. We don't need anything huge, about 1700-2000sf, 2-3 bed with a loft. We will be putting it on 40 acres in the mountains.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Klapton]

Check out LHBA (Log Home Builders Assocation). Log homes & log cabins from scratch - Don't buy kit log homes

I took their seminar a few years ago. It was excellent.

[magoomafoo]

Make sure you look into the upkeep on log homes. It can get expensive with chinking and painting which sometimes, depending on weather, can be an every year ordeal.

[happiness is]

Check out this company in Thompson Falls, MT.
Loghomes | Dovetail Log Homes | Log Cabins

I first knew of them when I met members of the Babcock family when the company was still called National Log Construction Co. They started in the 1940's as the first custom designed log homes pre-made with air lock logs in the US. They have a lot of experience.

[Dizzydog]

Thanks guys.

[rambrush]

I can not begin to tell you how many contractors we have talked to. We are 8 miles down a logging road and nobody is hungry enough to want to build us anything. They think we are rolling in cash and will pay big bucks for a small cabin to only use for a few months of the year.
Thus we have a well and septic tank a shed to hold things. I set up a cabin tent and a kitchen area and make the best of things until I can get time off to stay for a full 4 months and build it myself.
Part of the problem we have is the semi's can not make the trek to our place with a kit house. Has to be unloaded down on the pavement area and reloaded on a smaller rig and hauled up the hill and unloaded and continue this cycle until it is all up there. so its like two forklifts man power and such.
hopefully you won't have to experience that fun.

[Jbechtel]

Hey dizzydog, I've been reading some of your posts but haven't commented yet. Welcome to the area. Your excitement in moving to the Philipsburg-Georgetown Lake area is what we all felt when we came here years ago. It was like being 'born' again. We take great pride in living here as it seems you will too. There are a few of us ex-Arizonans that have made the long ride up here and enjoyed staying. Philipsburg was just featured again in a national magazine as one of the best places to live in Montana. Just keep it down because we like to keep the place a secret is all we ask. There are mostly transplants here so you should fit in nicely.

Your budget is realistic but I would go with a frame house instead of a log home if it's at or near the lake. It's not quite like building a cabin at Pinetop or Show Low where they are more common. Most all of the houses built at Georgetown in the last ten years are frame homes because the weather is a lot different in temperature than the White Mountains. They just hold up better.

The Planning Board discussed a few years ago that more young people wanted to live here, and decided to say something about it. Rentals were hard to come by, so they have encouraged apartment building on the south end of Philipsburg. One is just about complete and a new one will be started shortly. Actually, they're more like condos than apartments with viewable gas fireplaces and semi-wood flooring. No one knows what the rents will be.

The owner of the ski area, Discovery, has been trying to finish the road down to Philipsburg via Rumsey rd. over the years but has met some resistance in completing it due to government red tape. Animal migration has a lot to do with it. He mentioned in a recent article in the local newspaper that building a gondola from the town to the north run was not out of the question.

The only drawback in building at the lake is the beetle kill problom that's going on. Philipsburg doesn't have it. Have you seen your acerage lately? They've taken out a lot of trees over the past year so it looks different. The houses look 'naked' with their tree cover gone. Actually, it doesn't look that bad. If your not use to seeing it that way then how would you know? But the homeowners complain.

[Klapton]

Originally Posted by rambrush

I can not begin to tell you how many contractors we have talked to. We are 8 miles down a logging road and nobody is hungry enough to want to build us anything. They think we are rolling in cash and will pay big bucks for a small cabin to only use for a few months of the year.
Thus we have a well and septic tank a shed to hold things. I set up a cabin tent and a kitchen area and make the best of things until I can get time off to stay for a full 4 months and build it myself.
Part of the problem we have is the semi's can not make the trek to our place with a kit house. Has to be unloaded down on the pavement area and reloaded on a smaller rig and hauled up the hill and unloaded and continue this cycle until it is all up there. so its like two forklifts man power and such.
hopefully you won't have to experience that fun.

Don't build from a kit. Have whole logs delivered, peel them, and build with whole logs using the Tight-Pinned, Butt-And-Pass method. You will have far fewer maintainance issues in the future.

[Dizzydog]

jbechtel- I had not heard frame homes hold up better than log homes. I am just beginning my research into it all but will look into it for sure!

We just got back from Philipsburg and looked at the land. No Bark beetles in this area as of yet. The area is down near Rock creek

[Dizzydog]

rambrush- thankfully the road leading right up to our land is definately accesable and maintained!