In early 2004, my wife and I decided that South Florida was getting too busy for us. In June 2004, we started looking for property in and around Live Oak or McAplin, Florida, as I was familiar with area. We saw a perfect 5.5 acre track that was all wooded that would be perfect for a log home setting in McAlpin.

We checked on log homes and after several months of “interviewing” various companies, we decided on Suwannee River Log Homes. We found that Suwannee Log Homes has an excellent staff willing to help us design our home. Through some hard work, they provided us with exactly what we wanted. We also found it appealing that Suwannee Log Homes is located only ten minutes from our “New” future home site.

Suwannee River Log Homes put us in touch with Jay Wetzel, one of the local salesmen, and because we wanted a quality log home builder, he got us in touch with Joe Whitaker of JoJac Enterprises. When first speaking with Joe, we found that he was a very busy man. He did not have an opening until September of 2005. So we continued searching for someone who could start sooner. After many phone calls to other contractors, we found they did not have the experience that Joe had and although the cost was a factor, we decided not to compromise “quick service” for “quality.”

We called Joe back and begged J him to fit us in. Two weeks later we received a call saying he would try to fit us in for February. We instantly sent him a deposit before he changed his mind. Due to delays on a home he was building in Oklahoma - weather, material shortage and laborers - he called to let us know our starting date would be set back a bit. I am a contractor and understand delays and told Joe that as soon as he was able to get to our home would be fine. We met with Joe and his crew April 10th, and they were on the job bright and early the 11th. We are now looking forward to the day we can move in.

We choose the Manatee model, however, we’ve made some changes with the help of Joe's suggestions. We eliminated the utility room and we are closing in the back portion of the porch for that purpose. This gives us 3.5 ft. more of great room space. We also added 2 feet more to the upstairs bath to allow for a shower and Jacuzzi. Our home will have 3 bedrooms, 2 -1/2 baths with the 1/2 bath being in the utility room. We are going with forest green standing seam roof system. Our log home will total 3081 square feet with 1364 square feet on the first floor, 813 square feet on the second floor and 904 square feet of porch area.

We are having Gracie’s brother, Jim, from Pennsylvania custom-build the kitchen, bath and utility cabinets in oak. He is also making a replica of her grandmother’s "waterfall" vanity for the downstairs front guest room. We added French exterior doors to the back bedroom (previously the den in the plans), opening onto the back yard to have a view of the pool and provide an additional back entrance.