Mountain Stream Blog
News, notes, updates & more.
Dining Al Fresco
The concept of open air dining is brought to log and timber home living in a variety of designs. The traditional American picnic has met its match with today’s concepts of dining in the fresh air. Gone are the days of a cooler filled with Tupperware encased foods to...
Home Offices…creating a space just for you
by Molly Cooper, Design Coordinator for Cooper & Co By now you realize you either have an awesome home office, or it is the most unfriendly, blah space you’ve ever had to set in for eight straight hours, or you're like me and have your operation set up on the...
5 Popular Plans
If you have been dreaming of living in a log home since being a child, a log cabin kit can provide you with a really simple way to achieve your dream home. All Honest Abe log home kits come with everything you need to build your log cabin, they are completely...
Designing an Original Floor Plan
Gather all those scraps of paper, drawings on napkins, clippings from magazines and ideas floating in your head, and let Mountain Stream Log Homes and Honest Abe Log Homes create a plan for the new log or timber frame home that you’ve dreamed about. We've guided...
Great Room Planning
Over the last 40 years Honest Abe, for which Mountain Stream Log Homes is an independent dealer, has designed and manufactured thousands of log and timber frame homes that feature a great room. Great rooms are great by both definitions of the word. Not only are they...
An All Custom Home
Many of our clients at Mountain Stream Log and Timberframe Homes come to us with a vision of the home of their dreams, but no actual architectural plans. The fact that we are an exclusive dealer for Honest Abe Log Homes means that you can just gather all those scraps...
Take Charge of Your Water with a Rain Garden
A Rain Garden is a landscape depression that can be filled with moisture-loving plants. Hidden beneath the pretty plants is a natural storm water treatment system that allows 30% more water to infiltrate into the ground. This reduces the amount of water from flowing...
Help for a Flooded Home
Log homes are actually more durable than traditional homes and are more likely to survive natural disasters, including flooding. The clean-up and repair of a log home after flooding is also much easier if you follow these steps provided by Perma-Chink. INTERIOR 1)...
Window Choices Shed Light on Your Dream Home
An age-old comment about log homes is how “dark” they are on the inside, but this is something that does not have to be true anymore. Beyond the overall structure of the house, the windows are the single most important way to make a creative statement about your new...
Designing a Dual Use Space in a Downsized Home
Use Every Foot of Space Wisely For most people retirement and downsizing means a real change in approaches to daily activities. The things that were “must haves” when children were still at home are not only less important but may not be needed at all in a downsized...
When you close a door, options open
The idea of a log home often conjures visions of a house perched majestically on a mountain ridge or alongside a placid lake. Most of us picture a large, restful deck overlooking scenic vistas and nestled in a lush forest. When we think about walking into the log...
Illinois Castle Rock Log Home
This 1,700 square foot log home by Mountain Stream Log Homes is created from an Honest Abe Log Homes Castle Rock Plan. The full basement has a walkout facing the lake. It's located in a Central Illinois farming community near Jacksonville, Illinois.
Timber Frame – Modified Madison Plan
This timber frame under construction by Mountain Stream Log Homes is created from an Honest Abe Log Homes Madison Plan. It is approximately 1,700 square feet with a full basement and is located in a beautiful area, Cumberland Cove, near Monterey, Tennessee. The...
Aging in Place in Your Forever Home
Some 70% of seniors spend the rest of their life in the place they celebrated their 65th birthday. Think about that for a minute. It means that the log or timber frame home that you are planning to build will most likely be the home you live in for the rest of your...
Honest Abe Living
Honest Abe Living magazine, an in-house publication of Honest Abe Log homes, is a free online, interactive magazine. “We believe that designing the magazine in an interactive format offers readers a richer experience,” said Honest Abe President Josh Beasley. Beasley...
Designing a Modern Farmhouse Kitchen
“Modern farmhouse at its best.” At the grand opening of the new 10” Round log home of Nick and April Patterson, those words were among the many used to describe this dream kitchen. From top to bottom this kitchen is unique, with different colors and textures, but in...