Even before Andy and Darlene Schaefer were married in 1979, they knew they wanted to buy a wooded lot and live in a log home that they had built themselves.
"I couldn't imagine not being a part of building it," Mrs. Schaefer ,, said. "If you have a builder come in, you don't get the satisfaction of doing this or the memories. We have a story to tell about everything in this house."
As renters in Baltimore County, they spent several years searching for property. They studied log home catalogs, did research on dozens of manufacturers and traveled to Washington for a log home building seminar.
"Sometimes we wondered if we would ever have this," she said, gazing around the rustic great room of the 1 1/2 -story Cape Cod log home that she and her husband built in Pylesville -- a rural community in northern Harford county. "It took us 10 years to get here."
In 1984, they bought a three-acre parcel for $21,000. Three years later, with the help of dozens of friends, they spent two days unloading trucks filled with northern white cedar logs.
"I have that on film," she said. "People would line up to get a log off the truck. That was a real special time."
They purchased a log home kit for $56,000 from Ward Log Homes of Houlton, Maine. Items such as windows, foundation, plumbing and electrical added about $70,000 to the price.
"I carried every log in this house," Mrs. Schaefer said.
Stacks of photos offer glimpses of weekdays when she worked on the house while the children were at school; evenings when Mr. Schaefer, a 37-year-old steamfitter, drove to the property to work after a day on the job; weekends of labor from daybreak until dark. Sometimes they would camp at the site overnight.
Their daughters, Amanda and Candice, now 13 and 10, were part of the construction crew, carrying logs and hammering nails.
"The children had the same dream of being here that we did," said Mrs. Schaefer, 36. "They worked and gave up a lot."
The family laid their first log in the spring of 1988 -- a photo on the mantel shows the smiling couple as they pounded the first spike.
"We knew it was going to be a lot of work when we started," she said. "At times we became overwhelmed. But we finished because of the drive and determination we both have."
There's still a bit of work to be done: exterior stonework, a master bath to finish, an upper floor to transform into an office and guest/sewing room.
Future projects include a deck, a hot tub, a pool, a garage and a pole barn where Mr. Schaefer can work on his 1967 Mustang.
But all of that construction can wait. On this wintry day, a toasty blaze is crackling in the quarry stone fireplace.
"We're kind of homebodies," Mrs. Schaefer said. "We like things cozy. We're not out to impress."
She made the swag of dried flowers that hangs over the mantel, the curtains and a quilted wall hanging that draws the eye upward to the vaulted ceiling with its exposed beams and trusses.
Custom furnishings add to the charm: a Shaker-style china closet, pottery lamps, kitchen canisters, cabinets of solid oak, a tin-punch chandelier.
"We made the dream come true," she said. "We built the house ourselves and I like everything to be made for the house. I want everything inside it to be special."