70 LOG HOMES ILLUSTRATED

Class ActA Montana log builder creates the ultimate dream home

S t o r y b y R o l a n d S w e e t • P h o t o s b y H e i d i A . M a r t y • S t y l i n g b y J a i m i e M e n d o z a

The larch and lodgepole pinehome enjoys a preeminentsetting on northwestMontana’s Flathead Lake. This view from the dockshows the house and extensive landscaping, especially the rockwork thatwas necessary to build up theshoreline, which used to be a12-foot drop-off. Three roofpeaks and extensive covereddecks enhance the profile.One hundred landscape lights, all computer controlled, dramatize the log work.

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f you’ve wondered about buying a log home foryourself, imagine designing and building one for

someone else. Log homes are such personal resi-dences—about 90 percent of them are customplans—that it’s difficult to think what to do to makeone appealing to a potential but as yet unknownbuyer. To make the project especially challenging,consider creating this spec home to attract someone

willing to pay $5.9 million.That’s the asking price for this handcrafted log home

on Flathead Lake in northwest Montana. OrlanSorensen, who designed and built the home, says theonly way to justify that price tag is by anticipatingeverything that a buyer could ever wish for. That’s whythe house comes completely furnished and is equippedwith the latest smart-house technology.

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Orlan, who has been building loghomes for more than 25 years, says hisfirst step was finding the right loca-tion. He first saw the property onFlathead Lake in February 1999. Itwas owned by the family of the

founder of Kalispell, Charles Conrad, whospent his summers there, but over the yearshad fallen into disrepair. The property had ahigh asking price but no takers because ithad a run-down house already on it.“Nobody seemed to realize that all you hadto do was tear down the house,” Orlan says.

The lot comprised 4.5 acres, with 2acres on the lake and 606 feet of frontageon Conrad Point with a breath-taking view

Left: Sculptor Eric Thorsen created thebronze bear and cutthroat trout especially to fit the mantel log.

A 23-1/2-foot ceiling punctuates thegreat room, and custom windowsframe the view of the lake and theSwan Mountains in the distance. The furniture adds to the feeling ofcomfort. The ledge-stone fireplace features a mantel showcasing a bronzebear and cutthroat trout sculpted byBig Fork artist Eric Thorsen. The trout motif continues in the chandelier by Roc Corbett.

The impressive entryfeatures soaringcolumns of 16-inchdiameter standing-deadpine supported on stonepiers. The door wasmade using 150-year-old wood from aChicago distillery.

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of the lake and the Swan Mountains in the distance. It had its ownsheltered bay with a dock. “It was,” Orlan says, “a dandy pieceof property.”

After buying the property and demolishing the old house,Orlan began considering a plan for the new home. “I was justtrying to hit the market with a design that the public wanted,” hesays. “I know I’ve got one of the best properties on the lake. Iwant to make it so no one can come in and pick this place apart.I tried to make it so 80 to 85 percent of the people comingthrough will imagine themselves living in it.

To get the proper inspiration, Orlan moved into an old guesthouse still standing on the property and looked upon the settingwhile drawing the plans. He liked the view so much that he stayedthere throughout construction, then tore the guest house down.

His main aims were to create a good flow through the house,make it a larger home but make it warm. “This has been a bigthing,” Orlan notes. “People have said this is a large home butthey don’t feel overwhelmed. They feel comfortable.”

Opposite: The kitchen isoutfitted for the profes-sional chef: commercialgas range, warmingoven, two cooking ovens,two dishwashers and awall faucet for fillinglarge pots. Orlan custom-designed all the cabi-netry, down to the doorhardware.

Above: The lower-levelsports bar features anantique ice cream dippingmachine and custom cabinetry.

Right: The cozy diningroom features a formalsetting, relaxed some-what by the ornate hand-wrought chandelier byRoc Corbett.

The informal family room,located off the kitchen, hasits own fireplace and a lakeview. The oversized leatherfurniture enhances thecomfortable mood.

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He also strove to make the house interesting and evenfun by adding features that keep people entertained whenthey aren’t out on the lake or the natural areas on the prop-erty. Two prime examples are a home theater and a sportsbar. “In this price range you had to have all the goodies,”he says.

Orlan installed a Vantage lightingsystem, which uses a computer to adjust theinterior and exterior lighting according towhatever mood the owner desires. There’seven a sensor in the ceiling that will boostthe lights during the day if a cloud comesover. “If you get out of bed at night—and itadjusts for Daylight Saving Time—theminute you step on the carpet, it lights theway along the floor to the bathroom. Lights are pro-grammed to come on gradually rather than at 100 percentintensity immediately. And you can reprogram the com-puter to create any arrangement or intensity you want.”

The home also enjoys a whole-house sound system, as

well as a top-of-the-line security system with even a sensorfor the wine room. “Sometimes at night if you’re out on thelake and get lost, you can use your cell phone to dial upyour house and make the lights blink,” Orlan notes.

The four-bedroom home comprises 4,056 square feet onthe lower level, 4,056 square feet on themain level and a 468-square-foot loft. Thelayout is angled so that you don’t see fromone end of the house to the other all at oncebut experience it going from one area to theother. Its wide hallways are perfect forhanging pictures, creating an art corridor.

Construction began in August 2000.Orlan started building log homes in 1976.His grandfather homesteaded in Sydney,

Montana, and was a builder, as was Orlan’s father.Intending to be an architect, Orlan instead graduated with adegree in business administration. He worked in businessbut started building log homes on the side.

After completing a cabin for himself and a house in

The aim was to create a goodflow through thehouse and make

it warm.

Above: Tempered glass displays an etched design by the staircaserailing at the main entry. Fiber-optic lighting with a color wheel in the basement creates a captivating effect.

Left: The office, located adjacentto the master bedroom, mixeswood and stone artfully.

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Great Falls, he noticed lots of inter-est in log homes but few logbuilders, so he decided to make thathis career. “I got in on the start of aboom,” Orlan says, noting the den-sity of log builders and log-homeproducers in western Montanatoday.

Lincoln buys its logs, mostlylarch and lodgepole pine, alreadypeeled, from private landowners,then air-dries them and trucks themto job sites to fit them and erect theshell. “We only build a home once,”Orlan says, noting that most hand-crafters build the shell in their yard,then take it apart, move the logs tothe site and re-erect them. “We findit’s quicker and allows for more flex-ibility if the owners change theirmind at the last minute.”

Orlan also claims his building methodeliminates settling problems. “We don’tallow for any settling,” he says. “Wedon’t have any jacks in the house, all thewindows and doors are sealed, and thereare never any adjustments.”

The larch and lodegpole logs usedfor the Conrad Point house average11 inches thick with coped ends.They’re planed top and bottom tocontrol checking.

After finishing the home in fall2001, Orlan worked with Interiors byCatherine to furnish it completely,down to the bathroom towels. “Buyinga house is such an emotional experi-ence,” he notes, “and the furniture isabout half of it. You have to have goodquality furnishings that fit the house.”The trouble, he explains, is that it usu-ally takes about nine months to furnisha home after it’s finished, “so if it isn’tfurnished, people see it, they want it,then they find out they have to waitnine months before they can move in,and they leave.”

Orlan also started landscaping thehome while construction was underway, again so that the buyer wouldn’thave to wait for the lawn, trees andplants. He recalls, “I had the guyinstalling the lawn sprinklers keephounding me, insisting, ‘You just can’t

This guest bedroom, one of three, enjoysa ledge-stone fireplace and rustic furnitureto remind visitors of the rugged Montanasurroundings.

be building a house and landscaping it.’ I said ithad to be done, so I got someone else and said ifwe have to dig it up or we break something, I’llpay you and we’ll fix it.”

Orlan felt it was essential to tie elementstogether. The exterior lighting features brasssconces with pine cone themes cut intothem, for instance. The theme recurs in thecustom-made furniture, such as the masterbed headboard and dining room hutch.There’s also a rope detail in all the cabi-netry, tile and base molding.

Such attention to detail creates a housewith stories to tell. The doors, for instance,were made from 150-year-old vertical grainfir taken from the keg racks at the Seagramdistillery in Chicago. “I had all the doorscustom made in Big Fork, but when the woodarrived, the people almost sent it backbecause it was all full of holes and notches,”Orlan says. “We figured out to plug the holeswith dowels and filled the notches. Imprintsfrom the metal plates holding wood togetheradded interesting character.”

The doors turned out so well that Orlanstarted using vertical grain fir for all the trimwork and cabinetry. The wood floors are circle-sawn fir and larch. Much of the furniture wasbought to tie in with this wood work.

The price tag includes more than the home.There’s the beautiful scenery of the RockyMountains, not to mention fishing, skiing, golfand boating on the lake. Plus the area has itsown airport.

While construction was under way, Orlanrecalls that all the neighbors were eager to seethe place. He says, “They told me, ‘We’re soglad that you took the property and didn’tmess it up with something ostentatious thatnever fit the environment. You took the pointthat we really loved and now it’s better than itever was.’”

To him, such praise is icing on the cake.“Designing and building this house was anopportunity to do what I wanted, and I didn’tspare any expense,” he says. “I feel that it’sgoing to make a hit.”

RESOURCESLog Producer, Designer & Builder:Lincoln Log Homes Inc., P.O. Box 236,Lakeside MT 5992, (406) 756-1484.

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Above: The luxurious master bath features radiantfloor heating below the warm tile.

Right: The master bedroom is the picture of comfortable repose with well-appointed furnishingsthat fit the scale of the large wall logs.

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