November 22, 2017

It used to be the bookstore, between GARDENING and COOKING. Here was found the analog version of googling “log home floorplans” – LOG HOME LIVING, LOG CABIN HOMES, COUNTRY’S BEST LOG HOMES, TIMBER FRAME HOMES and at least a dozen different titles of log home floorplans compilations. This was a monthly ritual for would-be clients, foraging for log home floorplans, as well as a quick glance over at the ARCHITECTURE isle to see if anyone had released a new guide to building custom log homes or a new photo portfolio on refined rustic decorating, but floorplans were king. Every client had stacks of these magazines, tear outs and back-of-cocktail-napkin sketches in a box. Fast forward a decade or two and a typical starting place for clients is at home, on the couch in pajamas, latte’ in one hand, ipad in the other, searching phrases like “luxury log home floorplans”, “timber frame homes” and “White Cedar log homes” (the astute ones…). The venue has changed, but the game is the same. Log home floorplans are saved, shared and edited and re-edited with digital red lines and virtual sticky notes. No more three ring binders; it’s in the cloud now.

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November 15, 2017

As an experienced big-game hunter, Tom Winkel probably doesn’t get lost in the woods too often. So, one might argue that when he and his wife, Carol, made a navigational error and stumbled upon a Town + Country Cedar Homes model in northern Michigan, something was drawing them to it. Once they stopped and toured the house, they knew. This would be their new home.

The couple worked with Town + Country to build a hunting lodge, Winkaway Woods, on 1,000 acres of private hunting and recreational land. The 6,200-square-foot home features a log wall system, crafted from custom-milled Northern White Cedar logs. This structure is beautiful and practical. The Northern White Cedar lends rustic, natural beauty along with durability, is easy to maintain and the T + C system adds energy efficiency. Read more

November 8, 2017

Interior design is all about how we experience spaces. It’s a powerful, essential part of our daily lives and affects how we live, work, play, and even heal. Comfortable homes, functional spaces, feeling – not the space, but how one feels in it…

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November 1, 2017

For Lore and John Wagner, deciding where to build their vacation home – a roughly 2,700-square-foot European-inspired timber cottage surrounded by beautifully rugged landscape and sand dunes – was easy. The two Michigan natives had spent considerable time vacationing in the Great Lakes region. Over time they not only fell deeper in love with the area but also decided that they wanted to call it home, at least part of the year.

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October 25, 2017

Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, various shades of red, yellow, purple, black, orange, pink, magenta, blue and brown. It only happens once a year and only lasts a few fleeting weeks. Add some deep blue skies and a back drop of one of our homes…

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