To Do It All Again...
Log Home Living - July 2009
They say hindsight is 20/20, but for Sal and Denise Campagna,
it's more like 4,100 - square feet, that is. That's the size
of their current two-bedroom, three-bath log beauty, and a space
that suits them much better than their previous log home, which
sits just a few miles down the road.
They loved their original cabin, but grew out of it over time as
their family expanded. "People would ask us, 'Well, if you
had it to do all over again, what would you do differently"" says
Denise.
After racking up a long wish list (which included
grandchildren-friendly spaces for four kids who weren't yet born
when their first log home was built), she and Sal finally just
said, "Let's do it!"
And so they did.
Taking the lessons learned from their initial log-home-building
experience, the Campagnas designed what they consider to be the
perfect space, one that offers an airy floor plan, expansive
stretches of gorgeous white pine log walls and sweeping views of
their 10-acre Lawrence, Michigan, property. And much of the
credit, they say, goes to their log provider, Expedition Log
Homes.
Themselves dealers for Expedition, Sal and Denise selected the
Wisconsin-based company's Maplecreek floor plan both for its good
looks and its flexibility.
"We eliminated one bedroom on the main level and made our guest
bedroom into a suite," says Sal, describing some of the
modifications he and Denise made to the original plan. "The
model also didn't have an attached garage, so we added one."
What the model did have, though, was an extremely
energy-efficient half-log-system, a hallmark of Expedition homes
and a boon in Michigan, which can be brutally cold or hot depending
on the season.
"It truly is a half-log home," not a veneer, says Jan Koepsell,
a company owner. "And because the logs are all handcrafted
with a drawknife, it gives it an authentic finish." Not to
mention limitless décor options (thanks to the use of drywall in
various rooms) and a spectacular look overall.
With the open floor plan that was missing from the Campagnas'
original log home, an octagonal sunroom, a soaring, 21-foot-tall
great room and a fully finished, grandkid-proof basement, Sal and
Denise finally have the stunner they'd always wanted.
"When we built our first house, we were novices, so we were
coming at the process very idealistically," says Denise. "But
now we know more, so we took that knowledge and used it to get what
we wanted."
And knowledge, after all, is power.
