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The great room has a vaulted wood ceiling supported by two wood beam and includes a massive stone fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows, sitting and dining areas, as well as an open kitchen with a breakfast bar; it measures 40-by-70 feet. “Each of the five bedrooms are on the main level, with the east wing devoted to the primary bed- room suite, which has a fireplace, and the west wing completely set apart with its own family room,” Staniscia says. “That way there’s a separation of space along with the open gathering area.” An open loft tucked underneath the wood ceiling offers additional seating, an artist’s studio, and an office with a view of the creek and the great room below. The lower level includes a wide hallway with a wood shelf with a “live edge,” which refers to a natural edge rather than a smoothed or treated one. The hall leads into a 25-by-38-foot Adirondack room that functions as additional entertaining space and has walls of windows. “The owners traditionally host a big New Year’s Eve party in this house and entertain friends and family on the weekends,” Staniscia says. “This house is unusual with its extensive use of wood, which creates a timeless and relaxed quality.” WITH A MODERN TWIST Many people from out of state don’t realize that Georgia has mountains with big views, says Brian White, a real estate agent with Ansley Real Estate, a Christie’s International Real Estate Company, in Blue Ridge,

framed with wood, according to the National Association of Home Build- ers, few of them are as spectacular as the custom-designed log cabins built for people who are passionate about wood. Luxurious log cabins can be found in a variety of places, including some unexpected locations. LIVING IN SPLENDID ISOLATION While the nearly 6,000-square-foot log cabin in Mount Vernon, Oregon, offers a prime example of the crafts- manship that goes into building a residence with giant logs, the recre- ational ranch it rests on overlooks the Strawberry Mountains and valley and includes 3,650 acres with timber, creeks, ponds, a lake, and horse and cattle facilities. “I specialize in building log cabins, but this house is unusual,” says Storm Carpenter, who designed and built the house. “The owners contacted me in 2000 and it took nearly three years to build this. Every piece of wood in the house is handpicked and handscribed, which means the logs are sawed to fit together.” As Robert Watt, executor of the estate for the original owners, says, “You can’t take a dollar bill and fit it between the logs, it’s that airtight.” The original owners bought the land in Oregon and “thought the land deserved a unique log home,” Carpenter says. Huge logs are visible in every room in the house, including a massive wood mantel above the great-room fireplace. Every room features large windows to frame the woods and

A nearly 6,000-square-foot log cabin in Mount Vernon, Oregon, overlooks the Strawberry Mountains and includes 3,650 acres, spanning timber, creeks, ponds, a lake, and horse and cattle facilities.

diameter log in the primary bed- room has a scar from a decades-old lightning strike. “We took a lot of time to pick long straight logs first, which we don’t cut up in order to use those for the struc- ture of the house,” Carpenter says. “Then we get to know the logs and look for some with character.” Log cabins are usually constructed from milled wood with a diameter of 10 to 12 inches instead of the massive logs used in this house, Carpenter says. “The main staircase is constructed of Western Juniper, which is a gnarly wood with unusual shapes,” Carpenter says. INSPIRED BY THE GILDED AGE One of the Adirondack Mountains’ Gilded Age “log mansions,” the

mountain views to continue the connection with nature, while vaulted wood ceilings are overhead. The home has three bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a half bath- room, and a large second-level bonus room that the owners used for enter- taining and to accommodate multiple family members and guests. The property is listed at $6.995 million. “There’s lots of infrastructure that was designed so that this house can be self-sufficient, including even a heated garage and a back-up heating system,” says Mary Doyle, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker Bain in Bend, Oregon. “They thought of everything, even fire hydrants.” The logs are all harvested from standing dead trees that were killed by fire or other natural causes, Carpenter says. One 30-inch

former William Rockefeller estate, known as The Point, inspired the owners of a 9,153-square-foot log house in Plymouth, Vermont. “The owners stayed at The Point and enlisted Daniel Pratt, head of Robert Carl Williams Architects, to emulate the look and feel of that resort,” says Debra Staniscia, an associate broker with Four Seasons Sotheby's International Realty in Ludlow, Vermont. “The genius of this place is the feel of it. You walk into this grand space, but it’s so calming.” Dubbed “Serena Lodge,” this rustic yet luxurious wood home is part of the Hawk Resort community between Killington and Okemo and rests on 2.3 acres. The five-bedroom, six-bathroom house is listed for $4.85 million.

The owners of this property in Plymouth, Vermont, were inspired by the design of the former William Rockefeller estate known as The Point, which was one of the Gilded Age’s “log mansions.”

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