PARADISE - True North Log Homes

PRE SENTING THE BE S T RE AL E S TATE AND COMMUNITIE S WORLDWIDE
FIND YOUR OWN
PARADISE
NEW ZEALAND'S BAY OF ISLANDS
GRAND CAYMAN l BRITISH COLUMBIA
Luxury Log & Timber Frame Homes
Great Game Rooms & Bars
What Will $2.5 Million Buy?
WHAT TO DO THIS WINTER
RIVIERA MAYA GOLF l LAKE PLACID SKIING
TURKS & CAICOS BEACHES
PLUS Austin l Park City l Seattle l Cape Cod l France l Kiawah Island
JANUARY ∕ FEBRUARY 2010
www.exceptionalproper tiesonline.com
A C U R T C O M E D I A P U B L I C AT I O N
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P R E S E N T I N G T H E B E S T R E A L E S TAT E A N D C O M M U N I T I E S WO R L DW I D E
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FEATURES
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WHERE TO GO —AND WHAT
TO DO —THIS WINTER
Six destinations for skiing, golf, sailing, flyfishing,
culinary adventure and hitting the beach
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BRITISH COLUMBIA
Canada’s most diverse province beckons vacation
home buyers
6
34
BAY OF ISLANDS
Serenity awaits in New Zealand’s Northland
CAYMAN ISLANDS
6 RELATIVE VALUES
The tropical allure of the Caribbean’s most affluent
country
46
What $2.5 million buys in Seattle,
Cape Cod, Kiawah Island, SC
and the south of France
GREEN, SPACIOUS & GORGEOUS
Log and timber frame homes take rustic to a new level
10 SELLING POINT
Game rooms and bars mean
big-time fun
54 REASONS TO
HAVE A HOME IN …
Austin, TX; Park City, UT; Naples,
FL; and Nevis, West Indies
72 CLOSING PAGE
Real estate sales in notable markets
72
C LO C K W I S E F RO M TO P : T R U E N O RT H LO G H O M E S ; DA N AC H AT Z ; M I C H A E L C O L AV I TA
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DEPARTMENTS
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Green,
&
Spacious
Gorgeous
Log and timber frame homes take rustic
to a whole new level. BY R . J . H A R D W I C K
WHEN IT CAME TIME FOR HIM TO RETIRE, David Kirsch had long
known exactly what kind of house he wanted.
“It had always been my dream to find a big, old barn, renovate it and turn it
into something special,” says Kirsch, a former contractor from South Carolina.
“What appealed to me most was all that wood and all that space.”
But after buying property in Montana’s scenic Gallatin Valley, Kirsch
and his wife, Vickie, enlisted the services of OakBridge Timber Framing,
happy result—a splendid 4,000-square-foot home with a 1,000-squarefoot guest apartment, made of oak with hammer-beam framing and dramatic, soaring ceilings. Talk about space. There’s more than enough room
for the Kirsch’s four rambunctious grandsons to roam around, and when it
comes time for entertaining, 18 people can sit around the dining room table.
T R U E N O RT H LO G H O M E S
an Ohio-based firm, to give their dream a thoroughly modern twist. The
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Left and right: Wrightman residence in Bracebridge, Ontario, by True North Homes
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GREEN, SPACIOUS AND GORGEOUS
“I joke and tell people it’s a big,
old barn. But what a barn,” says
Kirsch. “I wouldn’t trade it for
anything.”
Sentiments like that go a long
way toward explaining the growing popularity of log homes and
timber frame homes among those
seeking luxury residences, whether
as primary homes or vacation getaways. One thing for certain—
there’s no need to sacrifice creature
comforts when building a log or
timber frame home.
“Just because it’s a log home,
doesn’t mean it can’t have a modern theater or a wine tasting room
or an eight-car garage,” says Jay Parmeter, owner of
Wisconsin-based Golden Eagle Log Homes. “The stereotypical little log cabin has gone by the wayside.”
According to Jeremy Bertrand, executive director of
the Building Systems Councils of the National Association of Home Builders, log homes now account for
almost seven percent of all new custom home construction. For the most recent statistical year, that translated
to almost 27,000 new log homes in
the United States and Canada.
“And these aren’t your granddaddy’s log home by any stretch
of the imagination,” says Bertrand.
“People are coming to appreciate the concept of luxury in a
log home. Plus, the whole green
movement has really spurred the
popularity. Log homes were green
before green was cool.”
The demand for log and timber frame homes is not confined
to North America. Ontario-based
True North Log Homes, which
has been in business for nearly 25
years, has built homes in England,
Ireland, Mexico, Korea, Japan and the Bahamas.
“Asia might seem an unlikely place for a log home,
but there is a great following of people there who want a
truly North American product, something that is steeped
in heritage and delivers high quality,” says Rob Wrightman, chief executive officer of True North Log Homes.
“Log homes are also increasingly popular as vacation
homes in Caribbean countries, like the Bahamas, where
TO P : R I V E R B E N D / R A U T H P H OTO G R A P H I C ; B OT TO M : RO G E R WA D E P H OTO G R A P H Y © 2 0 0 9
Kirsch residence in Belgrade, Montana, by OakBridge Timber Framing.
Above: Formisano residence near Pearl Lake, Michigan, by Riverbend Timber Framing.
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GREEN, SPACIOUS AND GORGEOUS
building a house can often take
years thanks to the difficulty of
getting construction materials.
With a log home, everything can
be shipped at once as a package
and owners don’t have to wait forever to enjoy their island home.”
Energy efficiency is one of the
big draws of a log or timber frame
home. And builders have demonstrated innovation on a number of
fronts. True North, for example,
devised a spring-loaded “Log
Lock” system that draws the logs
tight as they shrink, keeping the
house well-sealed as it settles.
“All in all, innovation is what
drives our business,” says Wrightman. “While log homes have one foot in history, they
have the other foot planted in the future.”
Another plus mark on the green side of the ledger:
Log and timber frame homes don’t necessarily use more
wood in their construction than other homes.
“There’s really a lot less wood, in terms of total board
feet, that goes into one of our homes than in a stucco
or block house, once you figure in all the two-by-fours
that get hidden behind the walls,” says Johnny Miller,
of OakBridge Timber Framing, who began his building
career raising barns as part of his family’s Amish heritage. “And there’s no reason why one of our homes, if
properly maintained, shouldn’t last hundreds and hundreds of years. That’s what sustainability is all about.”
Environmental matters were high on the list of priorities for Bob Formisano and his wife, Joni, when it came
time to build a second home on Pearl Lake, near Traverse
City in northern Michigan. Their 6,200-square-foot
home, designed by Formisano, an architect, and built by
Michigan-based Riverbend Timber Framing, has won
a long list of notable awards for its energy efficiency,
including a Michigan Energy Grant. The five-bedroom,
four-and-a-half bath home used forest-salvaged inland
fir for the main timbers, along with walnut-stained oak
and cherry wood for the braces and pegs. The flooring
comes from sustainable maple farms in Canada. And
the timber frame is enclosed with structural insulated
panels to make it even more energy efficiency.
“While our goals were sustainability and green
design, we also wanted our home to showcase everything that a timber frame home can be. We built this to
be a generational home, a place that can be enjoyed for
century after century,” says Formisano. “The wood, the
color, the light—everything just comes together so that
when you walk in, the house just fits like your favorite
old sweater.”
That same desire to own a home that would offer a
generational retreat is what appealed to Steve Frantz
when he first walked into a 5,524-square-foot home in
Rinelander, WI, built by Golden Eagle Log Homes.
“When I was a child, my aunt and uncle had a vacation home in upper Wisconsin and spending summer
there was the best time of my life. Whenever I went
there the relaxation was automatic,” says Frantz, president of a Milwaukee manufacturing firm. “I walked
into this house and I stopped dead in my tracks and
said: ‘Holy cow, this is everything I remember. And
then some.’ I knew immediately that it was a home
where we could create everlasting memories.”
TO P : G O L D E N E AG L E LO G H O M E S ; B OT TO M : T R U E N O RT H LO G H O M E S
Wrightman residence in Bracebridge,
Ontario, by True North Homes
Frantz residence in Rhinelander,
Wisconsin, by Golden Eagle Log Homes
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