With a brand new year, there comes a brand new list of trends from the world of home design. If you’re designing, building, or remodeling a home in 2025, here are a few trends that will have real staying power for the rest of the decade (and beyond). Several well-worn trends like staunch minimalism and wall-to-wall “millennial gray” color palette have run their course, but there are lots of great and BOLD interior trends that have taken the design world by storm over the last year. Our interior design expert, Kourtnie Clark Whitmore has compiled a list of a few of those trends, along with ways to incorporate them into your custom log or timber frame home.
Custom Log & Timber Frame Home Pricing
Determining The Turnkey Cost of Your Custom-Built Home
In general, log cabin homes and timber frame homes are typically niche areas of construction and tend to cost somewhat more (generally 10% and up) than a comparable, high quality, custom “stick-built” home with the same level of finishes, amenities, and design complexities. Many variables can affect the finished, move-in-ready cost of your home, including the location of your home, the contractor you choose, finish levels, design complexity, local building codes, appliances, quality of materials, etc… The cost of Beaver Mountain’s home package is only a portion of the finished expenses, and determining a ballpark estimate requires an in-depth conversation about your project and vision.
Featured Home: Wayfarer Lodge
Our team recently had the pleasure of catching up with two Beaver Mountain clients who built the gorgeous Wayfarer Lodge back in 2014. Nestled amongst the Catskill Mountains, The Wayfarer Lodge takes our classic Lodge floor plan and gives it a modern twist. Owners Dean and John split their time between Upstate NY and Florida and wanted a perfectly tailored log home that would be a summertime oasis when they needed to beat the tropical heat. This custom log home is truly a work of art both inside and out!
Timber Components for Contractors
When you think of Beaver Mountain, the first thing that most likely pops into your mind is our custom crafted full-home projects, but did you know that we offer a wide selection of timber components for builders too? From exterior details like trusses, corners, and siding to interior details like accent beams and custom staircases; we can provide the one-of-a-kind handcrafted timber components for whatever your building project requires. Let Beaver Mountain be your go-to trusted source for high quality and perfectly crafted timbers for every project.
Featured Home: Owl’s Club
Nestled on a beautiful spring-fed lake in New York’s Catskills region, the Owl’s Club is a cedar log home that is truly a work of art. Fun Fact: The name Owl’s Club takes inspiration from an actual club that was once a gathering place for locals! We love it when clients add a touch of history to their homes to make them even more special.
Custom Home Building Timelines
Designing and building a custom home doesn’t have to be daunting. With clear communication and realistic expectations, the process is quite simple once it’s looked at step by step. At Beaver Mountain, we strive to ensure that our clients have an enjoyable experience and clear picture of the entire design and build process before we even start their home build project. Here is a helpful timeline to put things into perspective. On average, we tell our clients that it typically takes 8 to 12 months for a 2000 square foot home to be completed. With that in mind, let’s dive into the steps that take us through those months so you can visualize what goes into a fully custom-crafted log or timber frame home.
Smart Home Tech for Your Custom Home
Did you know that when you design a custom crafted wood home with Beaver Mountain, you also have the opportunity to incorporate Smart Home technology into your custom home? While it might seem overwhelming, Smart Home tech doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some basic principles and ideas that will help you decide if adding Smart Home devices to your home build project is a good fit for you and your family.
Home Design for Retiring-In-Place
Are you dreaming of retiring to a gorgeous custom crafted home surrounded by breathtaking views and the relaxing atmosphere of nature all around you? Perhaps you have a family cabin on a beloved piece of property and would like to transform the space into a one-of-a-kind wood home. When it comes to designing the dream home for your golden years, there are a few things to consider ensuring you’ll be happy and comfortable for many years to come.
Reduce your wood home maintenance with these tips!
When you move into your custom crafted log or timber home, the last thing you want to worry about is filling your precious free time with home maintenance projects. There are several details that can be incorporated into the design of your log home in order to minimize the amount of maintenance your home will need. We had the opportunity to chat with Beaver Mountain’s own Drew Prochazka, Vice President of Business Development, to share his personal experience of log home maintenance. According to Drew, “While it’s true that log homes require a certain type of maintenance, there’s no such thing as a maintenance free home”. Even conventionally built homes require regular maintenance to last for years. As someone who has lived in a Beaver Mountain log home for two decades and has worked within the log home industry for the past 21 years, Drew knows a thing or two about taking care of a log home.
Welcoming 2024 with Gratitude & Excitement!
It may sound cliche, but 2023 went by in the blink of an eye. Looking back over the last year, we have so much to be thankful for as a company. Our incredible team was able to deliver high quality log & timber frame homes to each of our new clients while also strengthening our partnerships with countless industry professionals and past clients as well. These partnerships are the lifeblood of our company and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them.
Renovations & Home Additions
One sure thing about life is that it’s always changing. The home you designed 20 years ago to fit your family’s needs might be feeling a bit cramped and in need of a larger great room or apartment-space above a garage. Sometimes even the most beloved homes are still the perfect size decades later, but just need some sprucing up to give you more space outside. Perhaps you’ve found the perfect property, but it has an older house on site that needs some remodeling. Whatever the reason, Beaver Mountain is here to help turn your home project ideas into the renovations & home additions of your dreams.
Micro-luxuries to Enhance Your Home Design
First impressions in our personal lives are always important, but what about the first impression that our homes make? Your home is a reflection of your life, your story and the details tell everyone who steps through the doors about you. Making thoughtful decisions about form, functionality, and personality speak volumes. Whether you’re in the process of designing your log or timber frame home with Beaver Mountain, or if you’ve been enjoying the rustic beauty of your home for decades, you might be looking for a little interior design inspiration. One way that you can incorporate some modern flair into your interior design is by utilizing micro-luxuries throughout the rooms of your home to show off your personality and style without breaking the bank.
Building Site Specific Design
The dream of owning a custom designed log or timber frame home is also a dream of being surrounded by a natural landscape that you love and basking in the panoramic views around you. Whether that’s majestic mountains, a gleaming lake, or a serene forest- enjoying the natural world is all a part of the draw to log home living.
NYS Bans Gas Hookups in New Builds
In early May 2023, NY Governor Hochul announced that NY State has begun making strides towards becoming the first state in the country to eliminate all fossil fuel equipment in new construction starting in 2026. Under this mandate, all new homes built by 2026 must be fully electric and can no longer include propane or natural gas fueled heating systems or appliances. While there is still a good deal of information we do not know at this time, Beaver Mountain wants to share with clients what we do know so far and the ways it could impact the future of new construction projects.
We love our local Communities!
Being involved in the local communities has always been important to us. If you travel around Hancock or Deposit you’ll see many Beaver Mountain buildings, including the Hancock Chehocton Historical Association, Hancock’s Nature Center, Town Square, Little League dugouts, Deposit & Hancock Welcome Centers just to name a few!
Tips for Designing Your Outdoor Spaces
One of the most important components of the home design and build process is factoring in landscaping and hardscaping to your property. We had the pleasure of chatting with Kyle Palmer from Palmer Contracting and Hardscaping to discuss why those are an important part of the process for homeowners to consider. Kyle is an expert in his field and offered some great insight into the process to help us better understand the application and functionality of both.
Log Homes vs Timber Frame Homes
Log vs Timber Frame: What’s the difference?
Designing and building your custom home is an investment in the future for you and your family. Such a well-thought-out decision deserves to be one that you are happy with forever. Careful planning goes into every detail of your custom-designed home for months or even years. For you, there is something beautifully artistic about the intricate detail and noticeable craftsmanship of a house made from white pine or red cedar.
Creating a Great Room Vision Board
Creating a vision board (also referred to as a mood board) is a great way to start your log or timber frame home design planning. These visual representations of your taste will help us have a clear direction before we start to design your home. These boards can be as simple as a Pinterest page account or as complex as a notebook filled with sketches, notes and printouts. You can check out our Gallery and Floorplan pages, Instagram or Facebook for lots of Beaver Mountain home inspiration. The sky’s the limit!
Sustainable Building
Sustainability is top of mind for everyone these days. For Beaver Mountain log homes, it is not a trend; sustainable building is what we’ve done from the start. Going above and beyond building codes is important to us, not only to provide our customers excellence in service, but also because in doing so, we are honoring environmental and sustainable practices that matter to us personally and leaves a legacy for our children for years to come.
When you choose Beaver Mountain log homes, we understand that you are looking for a home in which to enjoy nature. The very essence of our log homes combines luxury living with the great outdoors. But we take this environmental benefit further with sustainable practices in waste reduction, high performance heating options, and we offer solutions for solar energy and off grid living.
One of the 20 Best Custom Home Builders
We’re proud to be included in the Top 20 Best Custom Home Builders in Upstate NY by Home Builder Digest! They highlighted our Country Cubco custom built home, a ski lodge in the Catskill Mountains of New York designed to host friends and family. The Country Cubco Timber Home is a perfect home for entertaining, with a large open concept living space, dining for 12 and a large wraparound deck that is accessible from the beautiful French doors in the living room. A wall of windows lets in natural light and passive solar heating in the winter months. During the summer, simply open the doors to feel the mountain breezes. A double sided fireplace is an unusual, but beautiful, feature. One side opens to the living room, the other to outdoor living room under a porch. The area is designed to allow you to enjoy 3 season outdoor living and has been a very popular design option lately. To see the entire Country Cubco gallery and floor plan, click here!
Enjoy the holidays! Tips to make your home holiday ready!
It’s hard to believe that we’re staring down the last few weeks of 2021 already! Sometimes these holiday weeks can feel a bit overwhelming with visitors, baking, cooking and decorating, so here are some of our favorite tips and tools to help make it easier! We want you to enjoy the holidays!
Invest in a large cutting board.
If you’re like most people, your cutting board could probably use an upgrade! Not only is a large board great for meal prep, but it’s perfect for carving meats, or charcuterie! Catskill Woodworks has some beautiful hand made boards that you might not want to ever put away! They also can teach you how to take care of your wood with oils, making sure it’s something you’ll love for years. (These also make perfect gifts and can be customized!)
3D tour of Camp Kozakis
For the full 3D tour that you can walk through virtually, visit Camp Kozakis on Matterport.
Edgewood Acres Timber Home Tour
Father’s Day Gift Ideas
With Father’s Day just around the corner, we thought it might be fun to round up some of our team’s favorite gift ideas! We know how hard our guys are to shop for (although we must add that a design consultation with us for a custom log home would be a fabulous gift!)
For the coffee lover:
Upstate Coffee Roasters is one of our favorite small coffee companies! They’re located in Gloversville, NY and have some great hand roasted beans. You can’t go wrong with their Cayuga Lake artisan blend, or if you like something lighter, try their Lake George single origin bean!
Log Home Interior Design Trends
We’ve seen some interesting trends lately in log home interior design as our clients are creating their homes! Here’s a few of our favorites…
Mixing Bold Patterns
Using Primary Colors
Wallpaper & Murals
Cottagecore
Comfort is Key!
Let’s take a look at those in depth!
Mixing Bold Patterns
Bold patterns are a great way to give your home some personality! You can go for a floral or maybe a geometric pattern to give any room that “pop”. But in 2021, we’ve seen clients mixing those patterns together! You can choose a common color palette, then mix and match to your heart’s content!
Future-Proofing Your Home
Here in the Catskills, we’ve seen a huge rise in the numbers of people building their dream vacation homes. They rent them while they’re not using them, with the long term goal of having it as a retirement home. If that’s something you’re thinking of, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Tips for an Eco-Friendly Home
Many of our clients are looking to include eco-friendly, green features into their homes. As you’re planning your new custom home (or just getting ideas for your current home), here are a few tips and ideas to reduce your carbon footprint and stay healthier in the process!
Kitchen
Use natural cleaning products. Vinegar, baking soda, rubbing alcohol make a fantastic window and glass cleaner. Lemon juice can help remove stains from countertops (and is fantastic as an adhesive remover too!) Baking soda freshens up carpets. Not only are these all extremely effective, they are cheap and almost always at hand! Vinegar and a bit of dish soap is also quite effective as a weed killer. A great option especially if you have pets or small children around.
Outdoor Kitchen & Living Pavilion
We thought you might like a sneak peek into what goes into building a Timber Frame Outdoor Kitchen. Part 1 covers delivery, Part 2 includes the first part of construction. Next up will be stonework, the fireplace and finishing the roof, then part 4 will be the finished project. Enjoy!
Kitchen Design Tips: Part 2
Last time we started talking to Carol from Northeast Cabinet Center about ways to increase your storage and keep your kitchen organized. (Click here to read that post!) Today she’s back and has some more tips for us!
Drawers
Roll out drawers are a really easy way to access everything in your cabinets and come in several widths. These are very helpful in the kitchen to pull your appliances, pots/pans, etc. out for an easy access. No more crawling on your hands and knees retrieving an item in the back of the cabinet. They also aid in keeping a better inventory of your supplies since the items are readily available with an easy glide out drawer.
Kitchen Design Tips: Part 1
When you’re designing a kitchen, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming. Countertop choices, cabinet colors, design and layout – it’s a lot! To help make it easier for you, we asked Carol from Northeast Cabinet Center in Hawley PA for some tips and ideas! There’s a lot of great content, so we’re going to break it up into 2 blog posts.
Summer Favorite Recipes!
Summer is officially here and we’re ready to grill! If you’re like us, you’re looking for a few new recipes to try out, so we thought we’d share a few of our favorites!
First up is Blackend Grilled Salmon with Mango Avocado Salsa. This is a tried and true hit with all ages! It’s best if you can plan ahead and make the salsa a few hours before cooking to let the flavors all meld together. We made this over the weekend and it was delicious!
Reopening Information
Beginning Monday, June 1st 2020, Beaver Mountain Log & Cedar Homes will be open. The Model Homes & Design Center will be open by appointment only. Please call JoAnn at 607-467-2700 or email info@beavermtn.com to get in touch with one of our Sales Consultants and schedule a meeting.
Our Sales/Design team has moved the Hancock, NY offices to our Deposit, NY manufacturing facility (just 6 miles down Route 17). There are a few reasons for this move and it is something we have been planning for years, but the recent temporary closures made it possible. This will help our team members all collaborate more effectively, and will also make the safety plans put in place by NYS easier to facilitate.
Drystack & Production 3D Tour
Classic Lodge Walkthrough now live!
We just finished a new walkthrough guided tour of our Classic Lodge and we’re excited to share it with you. We hope you enjoy!
3D Model Homes & Design Center Tours
We are very excited about our interactive 3D tours! We’re working on creating a permanent home for them, but for now, we’ll put them here. Enjoy!
Design Center virtual walk-through
Classic Lodge virtual walk-through
Cedar Ridge virtual walk-through
Log & Timber Homes are Naturally “Green”
There is a lot of buzz right now about living “green”. It stresses being conscious of the world around us and practicing environmentalism, such as recycling and using paper instead of plastic. The mindset can also be applied to building homes. In fact, Beaver Mountain has been committed to being green long before it became popular and incorporated this approach into every aspect of the home building project.
Family Activities: Kitchen Scrap Gardening
At Beaver Mountain, we’re all about family! In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing some family-friendly activities to add a little cheer and color to your days. If you’re stuck home with the kids right now, why not try your collective hand at growing veggies? Some of your favorites can actually regrow from a small piece of the original. Kitchen Scrap Gardening is easy, fun, and – as each day brings new growth – gives everyone something to look forward to! If you include the kids in every step along the way, they’ll understand and enjoy the process even more.
Don’t Forget the Landscaping
With thoughts of spring and building your new Log or Timber Framed home, keep in mind that the exterior landscaping is just as important as your interior décor. For as much time that you put into figuring out your style for the inside of your home, the outside is the first impression everyone will see when pulling into the driveway. First impressions are lasting impressions.
What Are You Waiting For?
Undoubtedly you might think that just because there is snow on the ground and the temperatures are frigid, you can’t begin to build your dream home. This is so far from the truth! Realistically, while the weather and ground conditions are not ideal in the northeast, it’s the perfect time to lay the ground work and begin the process of building. Here are some of the reasons why:
Let Furniture Set The Stage For Your Log Home
Let Furniture Set the Stage in Your New Log Home
Story By: Pellham D.W. DeGroot
Guest Commentary by Log Home Living
There’s no shortage of information about building a log home, whether you’re cutting down your own trees or stacking pre-cut logs. But precious little tells how to furnish a log home. Most people wind up OK, or at least think they do, but some regard furnishing a log home as an impossible mission.
No wonder, even if you are blessed with taste and confidence, few people have any experience with log homes, even those who have done and re-done other kinds of homes many times, even a few pros, Logs pose challenges.
There’s the wood, obviously. But because logs represent more than just a place to live, furniture has to go beyond form and function to convey who the owners are and how they live in their log home. That means worrying less about a stated theme – Southwestern, art deco, rococo, French Country, Victorian, etc. – and more about setting feelings: casual, comfortable, rugged, outdoorsy, down-homey.
Faith vs. Fact
There really is no best wood for a log home
By Jim Cooper
A sure way to enliven a gathering of log-home enthusiast the superiority of inferiority of a particular species of wood. It’s like tossing a gauntlet into a gathering of knights. You’re almost guaranteed that someone will rise to your challenge. Wood species provokes probably more heated discussion than any other aspect of log homes.
Attention to details can keep your project on budget
By Jim Cooper
A builder recently presented a bid for a log home to customers who had already purchased a package and had blueprints in hand. They had sold their home to buy land and were temporarily renting in anticipation of their new home. In their enthusiasm, they overlooked on factor: construction cost. After presenting his bid, the builder was stunned to find a $100,000 gap between it and his customer’s expectations.
What is Custom Crafted?
The term “Custom Crafted” means “made to the specifications of an individual customer”. In today’s world, having your custom crafted, luxury log dream designed to meet your wants and needs has come a long ways from the days of “kit” log homes. This is not to say that there still companies out there that still produce a cookie cutter home.
Best Log Home Award
Beaver Mountain Log Homes is selected as one of the Best Homes of 2018!
Log Home Living, a magazine devoted to log homes, conducted a vote by their log home enthusiast readers to select the top homes of 2018. Selecting from dozens of companies homes, the voters selected the Mountain View as one of the Best Homes of 2018. It will be featured in their Best Log and Timber Homes special issue.
Determining the Cost of Your New Home
The geographical location of where you intend to build your log cabin home, cedar home or timber frame home effects the labor rates for builders and subcontractors (carpenters, plumbers, electricians, masons, painters, etc). Your builders and subcontractors level of expertise and craftsmanship will also have a direct effect on the turnkey cost of your log home.
Not all logs are created equal!
FAQ?
What sets one log home manufacturer apart from the others?
Among a variety of differences, one of the most important is the quality of the logs used to build your log home. In plain English: NOT ALL LOGS ARE CREATED EQUAL. Some logs, even of the same wood species, can suffer from structural defects, cosmetic blemishes, decay, or insect infestation. These irregularities and log damage could prove devastating to the structural integrity of your new home, not to mention its beauty.
The Process Of Designing Dreams
by: Murray Arnott, AIBD
Guest Commentary by Custom Wood Home Architects and Designers
How do you get from the inkling of an idea to a great home? As they say, it ain’t easy, but the end result is worth it. Clients come to designers and architects with ideas on napkins, scraps of paper, or on the backs of maps or parking tickets (it happens — people driving past a home with a feature they’d like to incorporate scramble for anything to write on). Then we must do a certain amount of digging before the actual digging begins. We not only consider structure, supports, and seismic issues — we play the role of psychologist, teacher, and occasionally mediator between competing visions of different family members.
Why Build your Log Home with Eastern White Pine?
Strikingly beautiful and surprisingly affordable, Eastern White Pine is highly regarded in the building industry for projects that require a high quality appearance, durability, and stability.
Eastern White Pine performs extraordinarily well when compared to other pine species like Southern Yellow Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Ponderosa Pine, and Western White Pine. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wood Products Laboratory, it has the least amount of radial shrinkage of any wood species used as an engineering material and is rated moderate in decay resistance. The low shrinkage rate means that log homes constructed of Eastern White Pine will be stronger and more durable.
Beaver Mountain Newsletters
Here’s where you can download PDFs of our newsletters and get inspiration to help you design your own custom log home.
