Herzog D-Log Home

The guest bedroom of this cedar log home has touches of the past with furniture that once belanged to Jean's great-parents.

It wouldn't surprise you to see a sleek, 30- foot sailboat in the side yard, mounted on a trailer, ready for the short drive east to the Gulf of Mexico.

But what really surprises you is when you learn that there are no cattle, no longhorns, and no sailboats at this house, because this is not a center of activity like a lot of Texas homes. This house is a "refuge," as one occupant puts it; "a place to relax and unwind," says the other.

There's another unique feature about this 3,300-square-foot house -- it's a log home -- the only log home in the area.

When Norbert and Jean Herzog moved into their new home near the end of 1995, they knew pretty much where everything would go. For years, the couple had visualized, then plotted, the exact dimensions and layout of their home. Basically, all local builder Mac McMinn had to do was follow their plans.

The Herzogs knew, for example, they wanted lots of porch to allow them to stroll around their house and enjoy the best view of the land and sky -- especially the ever- changing Texas sky. So they built 2,200 square feet of cedar wood porch around the entire house, "with room enough for a lot of rocking chairs," quips Norbert.

They knew Jean wanted to pursue her weaving hobby, so they planned a comfortable room just off the living room for her four-foot loom. Jean calls it the "loom room.

They knew the sweltering Texas summers could bring oppressive heat so they installed plenty of ceiling fans to move the air -- even one over the hammock on the porch at the back of the house.

"We put in a bunch of them fans," says McMinn, "maybe twenty-some."

Most of all, the Herzogs knew that this house -- their first log home -- would pro vide them the "casual" and "comfortable" atmosphere, to use Norbert's words, they both needed to far-remove themselves from their intense professional work.

Jean administers a brain injury program at the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at the Texas Medical Center in Houston.

"The 'Brain Injury Program,"' Jean explains, "is an acute rehabilitation program for individuals who have suffered brain injuries of various sorts. The bulk of the patients in my program have suffered traumatic brain injury -- from car wrecks, for example -- and another portion of our patients have had strokes."

Norbert is on the faculty of the University of Texas Department of Pathology and a research scientist of many diseases, including cancer.

Both have Ph.D. degrees and are dedicated professionals who work long hours, so it's little wonder they planned their home as a refuge and chose a log home to set the stage.

"I think what prompted the log home," says Norbert, "was that so much of our lives is very structured and busy and we wanted our home to be comfortable and yet a casual place to be, a place to relax and unwind.

You won't find Western Red Cedar milled D-Logs that look any nicer than these. Rough sawn timbers and trim provide a pleasing rustic contrast to the more finely milled logs on the Herzog's home.

"Seeing log homes and being in them in Bed and Breakfasts reconfirmed the notion that not only was it the look but also the atmosphere we liked."

Norbert and Jean are Texas transplants. Both grew up in San Mateo, south of San Francisco near California's Pacific Coast. After receiving undergraduate and masters degrees from UCLA and California State University, they enrolled in the doctoral pro gram at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1979, their first year at the University of Texas, the teenage sweethearts were married. Their plan was to return to California once they received their doctoral degrees, to be near both sets of parents, including Jean's father, who was ill at the time.

Another element of their plan was to build a house. "Norbert and I have been together since we were 15 and probably when we were 16 we started thinking about building a house," recalls Jean.

They did build a house, but in Texas, not California. Circumstances surrounding Norbert's post-doctoral fellowship led them briefly back to California, then permanently back to Texas.

Once they decided to build a log home in the Lone Star State, they looked at several manufacturers before deciding on Glu-Lam Log, Inc., of Victor, Montana.

The company was recommended by their builder, McMinn, who owns Spring Custom Log homes, in nearby Spring, Texas, and has built more than 300 houses in the past 15 years using Glu-Lam logs exclusively.

Glu-Lam-Log produces various-sized logs by laminating, or gluing, boards together. The company claims the laminated logs resist shrinking, warping, and cracking.

While their log home dream was only a vision, the Herzogs began to put it on paper -- or, more realistically, on a computer program. "We just played around on the computer," says Norbert, and the layout for their log home became reality.

"Once the architect got our [computer] program," Jean recounts proudly, "he only changed three things: the two triangular

windows in the peaks and one linen closet. Otherwise, everything is exactly like we planned it."

The ten and a half acres of land the Herzogs purchased was once used for cattle grazing and rice growing. Through research, they learned that clay soil held water and was not the ideal foundation for a house.

"There's a problem in this part of the country with houses splitting because of the movement -- foundations crack," Jean explains. So the Herzogs decided to build their house on concrete piers.

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Norbert tells of their initial building problem: "The first thing we ran into was convincing people that we wanted to build the house up off the ground. Most people around here build flat slab foundations. I've had a little bit of construction experience and looking at the land and knowing what happens here, we insisted on having it built on a pier foundation." It had to be engineered and it had to meet the local building codes. "We poured concrete blocks for piers," recounts builder McMinn. "Down about three feet."

How many piers?

"Lord, I'd have to count," McMinn went on. We're talkin' a bunch of 'em. Probably 200. We put 'em six feet apart."

Then, explains Norbert, there are two courses of treated lumber on top of the piers. "They criss-cross one another so we end up being well over three feet off the ground. You could park a freight train on it now."

Construction, including the unique foundation, and "a lot of bad weather," according to McMinn, took a little less than a year.

Thirteen courses of 6-by-8-inch red cedar logs went up according to the Herzogs design. Their house has the shape of a large bird facing toward the back with its wings spread. The "head and main body" is their 20-by-30-foot living room with 14-to-I 6-foot cathedral peaks.

The "tail" is their dining room at the

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front of the house. A huge, free-standing fireplace that opens into the living room makes up most of the wall between the living and dining rooms.

The "left wing" is the Herzog's master bedroom and study. The "right wing" is the kitchen, laundry, and guest bedrooms. A second flagstone fireplace opens into both the study and master bedroom in the left wing of the house.

And all around are windows and doors leading out to the porch, solidly constructed with 2-by-6-inch rafters, 2-by-4-inch rails, and 4-by-6-inch posts -- all treated cedar.

McMinn dispelled any question about the strength of the flooring in a house built on piers. "We put down two layers of three- quarter tongue-and-groove wood, and then, we put the hardwood floor on top of that. So it's stro-o-ng," he emphasized, with a pure Texas drawl.

The Herzogs chose a variety of floor coverings including carpeting in bedrooms and tile in the bathrooms and kitchen.

But the house does not lack the appearance of a log home. Red cedar logs form interior walls and Colorado Aspen is fit tongue-and-groove into the ceilings. Neatly trimmed molding gives the wood a perfect finished look. Even the wiring and duct work for the electric heating and central air conditioning are well hidden in trusses above the ceiling with ceiling vents for outlets.

Insulation above the ceiling and the composition shingles on one-half to three-quarter-inch decking help retain heat in cold weather and help cool the home's interior during days when temperatures reach near 100 degrees. McMinn says the R-factor of the logs on the outside walls is about R-30, which provides lateral insulation as well.

Because of Jean's work with many people confined to wheelchairs, the Herzogs made their home wheelchair accessible, including a ramp leading up to the front porch. The door ways are extra wide and the spacious rooms allow plenty of visiting without actually rubbing elbows. As Jean tells it, "I had my pro gram [for brain-injured patients] retreat here. We got 42 people in with no problem. And they were all spread around on the porch."

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Practical? Yes. But the Herzogs didn't overlook the personal things that put one's own brand on their home. Like the custom oak cabinets in the kitchen that surround a well-maintained, old O'Keefe and Merritt gas range that once belonged to Jean's mother. Or the Jacuzzi-tub in the master bath. And you can't overlook simple pleasures, like the hammock on the porch which Norbert says, chuckling, is his favorite place to be when he's home.

The Herzogs even planned plenty of room in the laundry area for Norbert's long-standing home brewing hobby

The Herzogs share their spacious home with their two dogs: Kiana, an 11-year-old female wolf-shepherd-husky combination that weighs about 85 pounds, and a large nine-year-old male aptly named Bear.

"Bear," says Jean, "is part chow and part traveling salesman."

Texans have a reputation for doing things big, and the Herzogs' home fits the image:

3,300 square feet of living space, 2,200 square feet of wrap-around porch, and a 1,000-square-foot, three-car garage, all on nearly 11 acres of land.

But it isn't size only that makes this home so satisfying to its owners. With professional lives that demand much of their time and attention, the Herzogs crave the atmosphere their log home provides. It's as if the stage turns and attention to microscopic details at work is replaced by romping with two big dogs, relaxing in a hot tub, or sleeping in a swaying hammock.

"We designed it and put a lot of thought into it," reflects Jean. "There is honestly nothing that I can think of that I would change."

It's obvious that the log home ambiance they visualized for so many years has settled deep into the hearts of these Texans.