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Call (361) 425-8927
info@bearridgelogcabin.com

     
     
     

HISTORY
Our first visit to Cloudcroft was in 2004. We had recently moved to El Paso from Oregon and had heard that Cloudcroft, just a short drive away, had forests like we enjoyed in Oregon. We decided to take a camping trip with our one-year old boy and our dog. After a great campfire cookout, we called it a night. At about 2:00 am, we heard our dog barking and opened the tent to quiet her. Instead we found ourselves face to face with a large black bear. (They seem even larger when you are laying on the ground looking up at them). We managed to scare the bear away, but I found myself a little uncomfortable spending another night sleeping with just tent fabric between the bears and myself. We went into town the next day to look for a rental cabin. While we were waiting for the cabin, we drove around Cloudcroft and completely fell in love with the village and the forest. We saw some property for sale that backed into the National Forest and bought it the same day. A year later we began construction on a log home and named it Bear Ridge Log Home. We had the bear paw carvings included in the design in memory of our bear.


What is a handcrafted log home?
A handcrafted log home is a home built with full round logs using many handheld tools such as axes, chisels and scribers. It captures the authenticity of log homes built many years ago. Log homes usually fall into two categories, milled (or manufactured) and Handcrafted. With a milled homes mechanized high-speed woodworking machinery are used to precut uniform logs. The logs are usually no more than 8 in. in diameter and 12 ft. long. With a handcrafted log home logs will vary in size and shape and are limited only by the trees. Bear Ridge log home is a Handcrafted log home built by three expert carvers at Pioneer Log Homes. It uses an average of 16 in diameter logs some over 35 ft long, and integrates many of the unique characteristics of the logs in the home. The artistic logs, benches, front arch, and bear paws were part of the creative woodworking skill of the carvers. There is no other home designed like it.


Construction of Bear Ridge Log Cabin
Construction of Bear Ridge Log home, began in the summer of 2005 and was completed in spring of 2006. We cleared the land and prepared the foundation while the log home was being carefully carved and built in Canada. In October of 2005, the logs were transported down on two 65 ft trailers and reconstructed with a crane in two days. Four of the trees that were cleared from our property were also included in the home. Below are a few pictures of the reconstruction.


What are the square wood blocks in the house for?
A handcrafted log home will shrink and settle as it finishes the drying process (approximately 3 inches in three years.) Every few months we adjust the logs to allow for the house to settle. Behind the wood blocks are the settling jacks. The entire house has been specially designed (including windows, doors, cabinets, fireplace, and loft) to allow the logs to settle. The extra space above the trim, doors, and windows will shrink in the next few years to almost nothing as the house settles.


Pictures
Click image to enlarge.

     

FOOTPRINTS OF THE BEAR
THIS CABIN WAS NAMED AFTER
CONSTRUCTION OF BEAR
RIDGE LOG CABIN Begins
 
     
     
     
     
     
   
Wood Blocks for
adjusting house
   

 

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ゥ 2006 Bear Ridge Log Cabin. All rights reserved. Layout & Design Rob Roberts Productions.