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. |