Log Cabin Living

I love log cabins.  I'm not talking about those little one-room shacks way out in the woods in the middle of nowhere.  I'm talking about a log home.  Many are very elaborate, stretching 3000 to 5000 square feet, and have incredible amenities.  As nice as those are, I would want something a little more reasonable, something between 2000 and 3000 square feet, and a little closer in size to a typical house.  For whatever reason, I really like the design of a log home, with lofts and high ceilings and big windows with picturesque views and large stone fireplaces.  Maybe it's the setting that many of these homes are in that appeals to me, but I know that I really want to have a log home.

I fell in love with log homes on a trip my wife and I took to the Great Smokies.  We saw a log home being advertised as a model sitting on hill just off of the interstate.  I had been intrigued by log homes in the past, and I talked Teresa into stopping to look at it.  So that's what we did.  The home was awesome!  I really had never seen anything like it.  The layout was so different for a standard home, with many of the features I mentioned above.  I really liked how the bedrooms upstairs were connected to a loft that overlooked a great room with a large fireplace.  It had a nice sized kitchen that opened to a cozy breakfast area, and was adjacent and looked out into the great room.  It was really nice.  I told Teresa that I loved it, and would want one some day.  I'm not sure if she had the amount of enthusiasm for the idea that I did, but she didn't oppose it.

The idea planted a seed in the back of my head that led to my seriously thinking about it a few years ago, after finding a magazine at a book store about log homes.  In think it was creatively called LOG HOMES MAGAZINE.  The mag had lots of floor plans of various log homes.  I love looking at floor plans.  I think part of me wanted to become an architect before I discovered cartography.  Anyway, I've spent literally hours just looking through these floor plans, identifying the things I would want in a home, and finding a few plans that I would actually consider.  I'm pretty excited about the prospect of getting one, though, in reality, I couldn't build one until I retire.

So I've given a lot of thought to my retirement years.  Assuming I'll keep my government job for the rest of my career, I will be eligible to retire at around the time my daughter finishes college.  I've also thought about investing in some land in western Pennsylvania, somewhere not too far from Pittsburgh, but in the mountains.  Then, when I'm ready to retire, I would build my log home on that land.  Being within about an hour from downtown Pittsburgh would allow me to possibly get season tickets for the Pirates, or even the Penguins, and I'd want to be close enough to attend the games regularly.

I know that anything can happen between now and when I retire.  My plan may completely fall apart.  I might meet some nice young lady who will have a completely different idea as to what our retirement years might be like.  But I'm determined that it's good to have some goals in life, and this keeps me motivated to have plans for the future.  So I remain excited about it.  A log home is what I want.

Have a great evening, everyone.