Kolar Hybrid Timber Frame
A Timber Frame porch with a custom-made wooden entry door welcomes guests to the Tom and Melinda Kolar’s lake cabin
This Florida couple finds peaceful respite in a hybrid log and timber home on the shores of Tennessee’s Douglas Lake. Melinda is originally from Hendersonville, North Carolina and since leaving she has missed the changing of the seasons that occur there. When Tom and Melinda’s two children both enrolled in Tennessee colleges (son at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and daughter at Carson Newman University) the Kolars decided to look for some property, ideally between the two college towns. They wanted to build a family get-together home for holidays and summers.
“What it came down to,” says Tom, “is yes we definitely, went around to a lot of log and timber home builders in the region.” The Kolar’s wanted a rustic-style wooden home, not a conventional stick-frame and drywall house. Tom says “Hearthstone was hands down the most professional, and equally important, least pushy of all the companies we met with. They presented their product and building options in a knowledgeable, streamlined manner and escorted us to some of the custom homes they had built nearby. Hearthstone didn’t have to sell us on their product, the craftsmanship spoke for itself.”
“We specialize in contracting for out of town clients who need a certain degree of total project management,” says Hearthstone’s Jobe Leonard. “Our design, accounting, construction, and subcontracting services make us unique from other log and timber home producers in the immediate vicinity,” says Leonard.
The Kolars aimed to create a family-friendly livable outdoor space that would flow easily from interior to exterior. They chose a large hand-hewn 6”x14” log profile married with a two-story Eastern White Pine Timber Frame. The overall process for building the Kolar home went very smoothly. After a two-to-three-month design process, the foundation construction was started.
The Kolar’s really appreciated the streamlined fashion in which the project unfolded.
Melinda furnished the lake house with a mix of antiques and rustic furniture from nearby towns such as Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Now, their family enjoys spending time here during all four seasons. Melinda and Tom say there is one thing they are certain of: If another wood home project is in the picture, they have their log and timber company already figured out.
