Current News | News Archive

Worth Their Wait
Kentucky Couple's Dream Pays off in Long Run

Story by Linda Vaccariello • Photos by Jim Battles

Reprinted with permission of the author. The original article appeared in Log Home Living, September, 2000.

The combination of wood and stone are the most striking features of the Schuckmanns' log home.

Folks who have never built a house before are often surprised to learn that it may take a year or more before they're happily settling into their new home. For Vickie and Giles Schuckmann, the wait was a bit longer. It took 20 years for their dream of building a log home to become a reality. But, both say, the wait paid off greatly.

In the late 1970s, the couple visited a home show, saw their first log house and knew right then that it was what they wanted someday when they had the resources to do it. That someday finally came in December of 1998, when they moved into a 4,000-square-foot, full log home on 40 secluded acres in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. "It's only the second house we've ever owned and the first one we've ever built," Vickie says. And it truly is their dream home. "We don't plan to build again," she says with a laugh.

Northeastern Log Homes of Kenduskeag, Maine, the same company that built the very first log home the couple ever saw, produced the Schuckmann house.

"We did look at other manufacturers," Vickie says. "But we really liked the quality of the product that Northeastern made, and we liked the floorplans. They were also willing to customize a design that would work for us."

In the spring of 1997, eager to get started on their house, Vickie and Giles went looking for land. They found the beautiful 40-acre rural parcel in an area that firefighters had used for training-an area that already had city water, thanks to the fire department.

The site, a former farm, included a house as well as a barn. The couple didn't really want the existing house, but they realized having it would allow them to live on the property while their new log home was being built.

A bedroom, ensconced in wood, is the picture of cozy comfort.

The couple worked with Northeastern's Louisville representative, Dan Weintraub, as they began three years ago to plan for their house. After 20 years of thinking about it, they already knew some of the features they wanted. "We definitely wanted a natural look," Giles says. "That first log home we saw had some drywall finishes inside. But right away we said, 'No, a log house should be wood throughout.'"

Click here to continue the story