Buying A Log Home Essay, Research Paper

Through a light mist I noticed a log structure that drew my attention. As I walked nearer the mist rose and cleared to reveal the home of my dreams, a log cabin. The price on this log home was reasonable enough for my income. The spacious cabin met the needed requirement for my future family. Its location on the outskirts of the city of Binghamton made it a perfect distance between home and work. A log home must meet the size, price, and location according to the buyers needs. The square footage of the cabin is determined by the size of the bottom floor. This is determined by the width of the house multiplied by the length of the house. First knowing the number of rooms on the bottom floor will help to establish this.

Firstly, the size of my house is determined by my needs. I have a family of four, including two children. My home includes one master bedroom and two other bedrooms for the kids. Additionally there are the two bathrooms in which one is for the guests and the other for family use. Of course there is also a kitchen, dining room, and living room. My other rooms include a den, an extra bedroom for guests, a recreational room for my kids, a computer room, and a room for my musical hobbies.

Also, I have a second floor and a basement. The master bedroom is usually on the second floor in log cabins, as it is in mine. This separates our room from the children s room. The basement keeps the washer, dryer and a few of the other household needs such as lawn mower and weedwacker.

Second, the price of my home met the needs of my families budget. My first concern is the overall cost of the cabin. The total cost is determined by the square footage of the home. I decided to use Otsego Log Homes as my realtor. According to their prices and the size, I paid about $22,400. The square footage is approximately 2,584 square feet (Otsego). Included in the total cost are the mortgage, down payment, and closing costs. A mortgage is a loan secured by the property or home that is bought (Coldwell Banker).

The first expense that I paid was the down payment. The down payment is the first payment of the mortgage. The larger the down payment, the less that I will have to borrow from the bank. Next I had to pay closing costs, which include the banks cost of surveying, well, septic, property taxes, house insurance, and appraisal (Otsego). A survey of the land measures the exact boundaries of the property. The well and septic connects the house to the water table and the septic drains the waste and water from the house. The taxes of the property must be paid upon closing of the house. The appraisal fee covers the estimate of a property s fair market value (Otsego).

The first long-term expense is the mortgage. There are two kinds of mortgages, principal mortgage and interest mortgage. The principle mortgage is the actual cost of the house, whereas the interest mortgage is the amount of interest that accumulates on the principal loan. The principal is the sum of money you borrowed to buy your home. To reduce the amount of money that is financed you can give the lender a down payment. Interest is what the lender charges you to use the money you borrowed (Oswego).

The second of long-term expenses are taxes. In considering my home I took into account the school, town, and county taxes that I would have to pay. The next expenses are flood, fire, and homeowners insurance. These are the three basic insurances for a home in which you can be reimbursed for damages from these. Flood insurance insures that if a flood damages your home you will receive money for some of the items that you have lost. Fire insurance insures that if your house is damaged because of fire you will receive compensation for some of what you lost. Homeowners insurance can include burglary, which you will receive money for the items that were taken.

The fourth and final of long term expenses is maintenance of the cabin. It is important to note that log homes are not maintenance free, though log home maintenance is no harder than the maintenance of a conventional home. My first concern was about preservation of the wood. The wood has to be sealed to remain the natural look intended. Resealing every two to five years resists decay of the wood. The wood joints usually are sealed with chinking, which is a mortar mixture, caulk, or foams (Cooper, 14). These joints should be checked every so often to keep the wood from decaying. I recommend resealing the whole house, either the inside or the outside, just so the tone of the color will match throughout. This will also help to control the insect problem. If plants are too close to you home, this can cause insects to be attracted to this location (Conrad, 56). Woodpiles should be moved away from the house to keep termites as far away as possible (Cooper, 14). You will also need a long driveway because no one builds a log home right on the street. The driveway will need to be touched up every 5 years or so because of cracking in the blacktop.

There are two styles of roofing you can use. The traditional roofing material is shingles. These usually have a warranty of twenty years and have to be replaced every so often depending on the location of your home. The other, which will last a lifetime, is metal. This is a real deal because it will definitely save you in the long run. There are no replacement costs because it lasts years beyond the average lifetime.

My final consideration was the location of my home. I chose a country setting with a lot of trees. A log cabin would look really strange next to the road in a city, wouldn t it? The size of my lot is big enough to have my pets able to run where needed. Property costs are more than in the city because I have much more land. Also, Binghamton is poorly industrialized and in order to bring in people they lower their property costs. In my overall price the property costs were not included.

It was important that my house be located near the conveniences I needed. My house is close enough to be able to reach work in a decent time. It is somewhat near a grocery store and other stores such as a mall. I researched the response time of the fire and police department in case they are needed and they were satisfactory. I also checked into how often the area is patrolled by an officer and it was adequate.

Another less important factor is the amenity. You can include a deck, which I have on my cabin, pool, Jacuzzi, or anything you want. Depending on what you add on, you can add a lot more to the cost of a home.

When the mist arose I knew that this was the log cabin I wanted and was going to buy. The size met what I was looking for. The location was perfect for the conveniences needed. And the price was well within what I wanted to pay.