Blending with its surroundings, this sunny porch makes the perfect spot for relaxing in a wooded environment. PHOTO COURTESY JIM BARNA LOG SYSTEMS

• One or two people can build a handcrafted log home, log cabin, house, lodge, or cottage from logs, and do it quickly, easily and inexpensively, using simple hand-tools that will fit in a car trunk. In fact, it is often possible to build very beautiful log homes without a mortgage (and without log home kits).

• Log homes are no longer the simple abodes of our early ancestors. Log cabins have grown up to become full-size family residences, second homes, luxury mansions, and cozy vacation cottages.

• Primary residences, not second homes, are increasingly making up the bulk of the log home business — roughly 80 to 90 percent — according to area log home builders, dealers and manufacturers. That’s a decided shift seen in the last decade, they say.

• Log homes nationwide make up a $4.1 billion industry that has seen sales volume nearly double in less than a decade, according to the Log Home Living Institute in Virginia.

• There are two categories of log homes: handcrafted and milled log homes. A handcrafted log home is just that; logs are peeled by hand, notched by hand, and in many cases, each log is scribed to fit exactly on top of another log. A milled log home will feature logs that are uniform in shape, and the logs will be cut to fit together, such as with a tongue-and-groove or Swedish cope, so that they stack easily and evenly. There is a big price difference between a handcrafted and a milled log home because of the intense labor required to construct a handcrafted home and the larger diameter logs that are normally used. The vast majority of homes built today are milled log homes.

• Logs tend to absorb heat and hold it longer than traditional walls. Logs will actually absorb heat from the interior of the house (or from the sun, if facing south), and when the temperature drops at night, the walls will generate that heat back into the house until the temperatures equalize. They take longer to warm up, and stay warm much longer. Conversely, they stay cooler in the summertime.

Proving how dramatic log designs can be, this columned configuration makes a grand approach to this charming entrance. PHOTO COURTESY JIM BARNA LOG SYSTEMS

• There are more than 300 companies that offer log home kits and packages.

• Most log homes will cost in a range of 10% to 30% more than a typical spec home of the same size.

• Some possible problems buyers encounter in planning and building their log homes are: financing difficulties (banks often don't understand log homes), construction delays (for a variety of reasons), poor work quality (because of poor contractors and builders), cost overruns (primarily due to poor planning or mid-course changes to plans). www.loghomeadvisor.com