July 2011

The foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee are a long way from Wyoming, but those words helped set in motion the actual location for an Honest Abe log home, allowing Jack and Pam Hollifield to continue a family legacy.

The Hollifield’s plans for building an Honest Abe home in Wyoming were sidetracked when Pam’s father made that offer of a building spot, and the couple couldn’t refuse. It was about 1,200 miles from where they intended to build, but circumstances

dictated the change.

Jack’s first visit to the Honest Abe model in Crossville (TN) came in 2003. Retired from the military and TRW, he intended to do missionary work in Wyoming with friends he knew, and had plans to

“It’s Yours if You Want It.”

July 2011build his dream home there.

“Even after Jack and I were married in 2005, our plans to move to Wyoming remained the same,” she said.

Then came the news that prompted the change in location. Not long after they married, Pam’s father, Glenn Owen, became sick, and the couple decided they needed to stay in Tennessee to be close to him and her mother. Jack was flexible about the location of the land, but Pam still works as a nurse at the hospital in Sevierville. “So we started looking for mountain-view property in the area of Sevierville or Morristown, Tennessee,” said Pam.

Early in 2006, their search for land came to an abrupt halt. Pam’s father took her for a ride over the family farm, which had already been Owen property for two generations. “I have so many wonderful childhood memories of helping my grandfather tend the farm and taking care of the farm animals when I was a girl,” she said.

Mr. Owen had subdivided it into parcels of land and sold most of the property as a subdivision, but he saved some very special pieces of land. That day as they

drove around, he took Pam to the top of a hill. “I want to show you something,” he said, and showed her a view she really looked at for the first time. It was a view of the Smoky Mountains that just simply

took her breath away. “It’s yours if you want it,” her father said, and he offered her and Jack the land. “I wanted you and Jack to build your log home here,” he told his daughter.

Sold on Honest Abe“Jack said he wanted the home to be an Honest Abe from the very beginning, even when we thought we were going to move to Wyoming,” Pam said. A chinked-style log home has been a part of the Appalachian region for generations upon generations, and the Hollifields chose to honor that tradition. Honest Abe Log Home’s chinked-style was the original log profile of the company, and the couple had no hesitation in choosing it.

Early in the planning stages of their cabin, Pam came to Crossville to work with the direct sales person there,

Above: Jack & Pam Hollifield on the front porch of their Honest Abe Log Home. Below: The drive up to their modified Frontier model.

July 2011

Sharron Bilbrey. “Pam and I started with the Frontier D standard model, and we came up with a workable, efficient floor plan by combining ideas from other floor plans,” Bilbrey said. Pam said the approximate 1300 square-foot plan “was perfect for us,” and it wound up being built over a full basement.

Jack and Pam also decided an Honest Abe crew would do the dry-in, but they wanted to do the rest of the work themselves. “Jack proved to be very handy at doing different things, such as all the electric, plumbing, and trim work,” Pam said. “Except for a few stones at the very top, I even stacked the stone for the chimney,” Jack

commented.

The couple, along with Jack’s son, completed the finishing stages of the home, except for sheetrock and hardwood flooring. “Most impressive were Jack’s ideas for the trim work around the vents and ducts, above the patio door, and in the smaller spaces of

July 2011the home which proved to be both creative and functional,” Bilbrey said. “Jack and Pam even stained their home, both inside and out.”

Pam’s father lived long enough to see the foundation in place and the log package delivered, but passed in mid-2007 before the home was finished. Pam’s mother still lives just down the road in the family home, close enough for Jack and Pam to be there for her as needed.

“Jack and Pam have built a truly beautiful, special, and elegantly-simple, log home that her father and grandfather would be proud of, creating a legacy to be a part of the family farm,” Bilbrey said. “It’s a perfect fit for the surroundings, nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, just like it had always been there.”

Article By: Kevin Donaldson

Editors Note: Sharron Bilbrey, Salespersons for Honest Abe Log Homes contributed to the content of this story.

Photography By: Honest Abe Log Homes

Above: Exposed beams in the roof and ceilings add the perfect character to a log home, yet they can also create a challenge with duct work and trim. Jack creatively and worked in the bathroom fans, finding a stylish yet functional solution.

Above: Shelving above a large window in the dining room creates space for decorating and adds rustic appeal to the home. Left: Keeping with Appalachian tradition, the couple chose Honest Abe’s “Original Log” to build with. The system’s interior chinking can be seen, which meets an interior wall they chose to cover with sheet rock, add-ing a beautiful contrast.

July 2011

April 27, 2011. It’s likely a date Dewayne Hardy and family, and many others in north Alabama, will have etched in their minds forever.

That’s the day a series of tornadoes ripped through the area and other parts of the South, killing 131 people in Alabama and over 200 total in six states. The twister that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama gained nationwide attention, as the mile-wide storm killed 15 people, injured hundreds and leveled buildings and homes in the city of almost 100,000.

On that fateful day, Hardy and his father had reached the final stages of completing the inside finish work on a self-built log home, an Honest Abe Log Homes D-log model, for Dewayne and his family. The home is located on County Road 29, in Haile County, near Sawyerville and about 30 miles south of Tuscaloosa.

Hardy has a vivid recollection of the day’s events, and simply has this to say: “We were blessed and being watched over.”

He can say that because he and several members of his immediate family weathered the storm in the basement of the log home with no injury, and just minimal damage to the home, despite widespread devastation around it.

The storm that tore its way through the County 29 area was not the one that demolished much of Tuscaloosa, Hardy said. It was part of a second wave of storms that came by not long after.

Several members of the Hardy family live in the immediate area, including Dewayne’s parents. After the storms started to roll through the area, his wife and daughter, parents, and aunt and uncle all wound up in the basement of their nearly-completed home.

Storms came in wavesThe first wave of storms rolled through, and they were bad enough, but just a preview of a much worse one to come. “A lot of hail came and went, and I had never seen lightning like that,” Hardy said. “It looked like everything was OK and we sent out text messages to let everybody know we were alright.”

As the family went upstairs to look things over, though, Hardy said they saw an eerie sight. “Fog was rolling in from a nearby creek, from the opposite direction of the storm,” he said. “There was so much of it, and it was so thick that my dad thought a tree must have been struck by lightning and was on fire.”

Hardy also keeps a donkey and some cattle in a pen near the house, and he noticed their odd behavior, particularly

the donkey. “He had his ears peeled back and was acting real strange,” he said. “I was afraid something was wrong.”

It was, as the tornado then approached from the front side of the house. “The garage doors were banging so hard I thought they would be ripped off any minute,” Hardy said. “We got all the family headed back down the stairs, and while we were headed down, I had my hand on a steel support post. It was vibrating. That’s when I knew it was gonna be bad.”

Hardy said the noise was deafening, much like the “freight train” sensation described by so many. “I thought I would look up at any minute and see daylight, with the house, or at least the roof, just gone.”

Then there was a moment of calm. “We thought it was over, that it had passed on,” Hardy said. Some of the family headed upstairs again, but the storm wasn’t through. “It hit again,” he said, speculating that perhaps the house was in the eye of the storm for just a moment, and then the back side of the twister hit.

Alabama log home survives twister

Before: Taken during the construc-tion phase, notice the stand of trees

behind the home.

After: The tornado snapped a light pole in front of the home and de-

stroyed many of the trees behind it.

July 2011“Air was sucking through the basement, and our ears were popping like crazy,” Hardy said. “I fly a lot and had never experienced anything like this. We could hear things hitting the log walls above. It sounded like somebody was hitting them with a sledgehammer.”

When the second wave passed, everyone filed back upstairs to survey the damage. There was a heavily-wooded area down near the creek bank, and “all those trees were just gone,” Hardy said. “They were all sheared off about head-high. It didn’t matter if they were pines or hardwood.” Hardy described the trees remaining on the property as “jagged.”

Damage to log home minimalWhat about the home itself? “We had very minor damage compared to other houses around us,” Hardy said. “We had some dents in the logs where debris had hit the house and also hit the metal roof, but other than that, it was fine.”

There were lots of roofs gone on the other houses in the area, and Hardy said his father’s and grandmother’s homes both had significant damage. All that was left of a double-wide mobile home about 300 yards away from the Hardy’s home were the steps. In another strange turn of events, a man living in a single-wide mobile home in the same general area was picked up by the storm and carried

and deposited several hundred feet away in a field, and survived. “He had some serious injuries and has undergone some operations, but is going to make it,” Hardy said.

Officials later estimated this particular storm stayed on the ground for 71 miles.

“My dad and I had built everything from the ground up,” Hardy said, “everything except

the foundation, and we dug the footers for that.”

Hardy said the backgrounds of the father-son team helped them decide to build the home themselves.Hardy is an electrical engineer and his father is a civil engineer. They both grew up on the family farm, wielding a hammer to construct buildings and sheds on a regular basis, too. “I asked the folks at Honest Abe, ‘Do you think we can build it ourselves?’ They showed us everything we would need to do,

and it was a great learning process.

“I’m proud of it, and wouldn’t hesitate to build a log home again and would probably build it myself again,” Hardy said. The Hardys went the extra mile during the construction process, reinforcing the foundation and porch areas, and putting even more screws in the metal roofing than codes mandated. “When that storm was passing over, I was glad I had put all those extra screws in the roof,” Hardy said with a laugh. “A lot of people said what we were doing was overkill, but when the tornado hit, I didn’t think so.”

For the elder Hardy, it seems seeing may be believing. “My dad is thinking about building a log home now,” Dewayne said.

Hardy said Honest Abe manufacturing vice-president Jackie Cherry was a valuable, helpful resource for the building process. “Mr. Jackie is just a really nice guy, and helped us so much,” he said. Company officials walked the Hardys through the building process in an individual class.

The Hardys found out about Honest Abe through an internet search of log home companies, attended a log-raising at national headquarters in Moss, Tennessee, and bought direct from the company. “After we met all the folks at the log-raising, I couldn’t get my wife to talk about any other log home company,” Hardy said. “You just can’t beat Honest Abe.”

The family hopes to move into their new home later this summer.

Article by: Kevin DonaldsonEditors Note: Jackie Cherry, Vice President of Honest Abe Log Homes contributed to the content of this story.

Above: Standing across the road in front of their home

looking at what used to be their view of standing timber.

Above: Debris and steps are all that was left of the home of Dewayne’s

uncle, located 300 yards away.

July 2011

House of the Month: The Stanton

The Stanton is one of Honest Abe Log Home’s new floor plan options, but has deep seeded roots within the company. It is an adaptation from our Newport floor plan, one that has been available with Honest Abe for many years.

The new plan includes three bedrooms, two baths, a mud room and an open kitchen and great room area all within 1,620 square feet. The plan is largely identical to the Newport, except it includes a large gable on the front with windows. The front door is also off-set, allowing for easier furniture arrangement on the interior of the home.

July 2011

Customer: Mark & Debbie BakerLog Style: Round-Round LogCrew: Buncombe Mountain Log HomesSales Office: Cookeville, Tennessee - Ed White

WHERE ~The historical Paint Lick, KY is the location of Mark & Debbie Baker’s new log home. Obviously I had to look up how Paint Lick became “Paint Lick” and according to wikipedia, “it reputedly derived its name from settlers’ descriptions of the peeled tree trunks that served as a means of marking the salt licks along the creek by Native Americans…”. Now that my curiosity is satisfied we can move on to their beautiful house.

LAYOUT ~Early in 2010, the Bakers started working with Ed White (Cookeville Model Rep), on the design of their house. After a few revisions with Honest Abe’s Design Team, the Bakers had finished their masterpiece! A 32’x52’ custom house with a 8’x24’ bump-out on the front, attached garage on the side and a porch/deck wrapped around three-quarters of the house. Looking at their plan, you see a very spacious layout with the Great Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen attached. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths on the main level, a loft upstairs and a full basement underneath.

CHOICES ~For their log style they chose the 8x8 Round/Round System that is tied together in the corners with the Saddle notch and for the roof; trusses on the sides and Honest Abe’s patented Heavy Timber Roof in the center section. A great choice for Mark and Debbie was the decision to use I-joist (engineered wood joist) for their subfloor, this gave them longer spans between posts in the basement which in turn gave them more usable space.

PRESENT ~Around mid-May, Honest Abe’s crew (Darrell Elliott- Buncombe Mountain Log Homes) got started on the construction of the house and it is looking good! Check out their progress in these photos.

Article By: Josh Watson, Construction Coordinator for Honest Abe Log Homes.

Historical Paint Lick, KentuckyReceives New Log Home

July 2011

GrilledCabbage

1 Head of Cabbage1/4 Stick of Butter2 Tblsp Olive Oil1 Bell Pepper1 Small Sweet Onion1/2 tsp minced garlicFavorite Hot SauceSalt / Pepper

1. Wash cabbage thoroughly then cut the stem and core out from the bottom, leav-ing cabbage “whole”. 2. When coring, outer leaves will likely fall away. Place these to the side but do not dispose of them.

3. Place butter in the core, followed by minced garlic.4. Slice onion and bell pepper, place on the center. Sprinkle salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste. Drizzle on olive oil.5. Form a cup shape the size of your cabbage with heavy duty aluminum foil. Place the outer leaves of the cabbage on the bottom.6. Set cabbage on top of the leaves, then wrap thoroughly with aluminum foil, cre-ating a good seal with multiple sheets.7. Cooking time varies depending on size of cabbage, temperature of the grill, and gas v.s. coal heat. Generally 45 minutes to one hour will do.

Recipe By: Josh Beasley - Advertising & Marketing for Honest Abe Log Homes

With this grilled cabbage recipe, it’s not about the pre-sentation, it’s about taste! If your family likes cabbage, this is sure to be a hit during your Independence Day celebrations. Plus, it’s also simple!

Oven mitts are handy to have while preparing. Because cooking time can vary so much, the best way to tell if this is done without puncturing the foil is to squeeze it. You’ll know it’s ready as it gets soft.

July 2011