To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

New York is famous for a lot of things. The Adirondack Mountains being one of them. In fact the name Adirondack has even evolved into design and even a lifestyle. And nothing screams Adirondack style louder than a log home.

"It takes you back," said Skip Holton, Moosehead Cedar Log Homes Rep. "It takes you back to nature. It's a much simpler way of living."

Now, I know what you're thinking. A log home? Is it really practical? Isn't log construction better suited to a seasonal cabin or cottage? Hundreds of years ago, sure. Not so today. For the eco-minded folks out there, it doesn't get any greener and it'll last a lifetime and beyond.

"If you keep a roof over these houses they'll last forever," said Holton. "It's solid timber. As long as you don't get water going into the house all the time or you have a bad roof, this building is going to be here long after we're all gone."

As far as the construction process goes there aren't any significant advantages or disadvantages to building a log home over a traditional stick-built home. Staying warm isn't an issue either. In fact, you'll probably save some money on you heating bill.

Holton said, "It's the principal of thermal match. You heat the wood, it stays warm. It's like a campfire. You have a campfire and throw logs on it during the day and tomorrow morning that wood is still warm. Same principal here."

If one of your concerns is about the home being too dark or maybe the interior is a little too rustic, one of the options you have is putting up Sheetrock just like you would in any other home.

Holton said, "You can take any of your interior walls and apply a drywall, put on wallpaper, you can paint them. That, married with the wood...nothing looks out of place. Nothing is mismatched. It's a marriage of the wallboard and the wood."

As I've said, these are not your great-great-grandfather's frontier America log cabins. The process is modernized and the construction is strong and sound.

Holton said, "All of our logs are pre-cut and numbered. We construct a first-floor system and then we set our logs up on that system. It's a double tongue and groove. It has a gasket and calking on the outside tongues. It's secured with screws."

As Holton described it, log homes become heirlooms. Something to be passed on from generation to generation.