Steve Rosewag always has been a farmer at heart.

So 14 years ago when he and his wife, Pam, began looking for some land to call their own, Steve took his trusting spouse -- who grew up in the communities between Baltimore and Towson -- far from the city and its suburbs.

Steve wanted the open space to raise their children in the same way his parents had raised him and his six siblings. That kind of family atmosphere -- much less any affordable acreage of decent size -- wasn't easily found.

The Rosewags looked at several older homes in southern Pennsylvania -- including a few houses that appeared well beyond repair, Pam said -- before coming upon 25 undeveloped acres in a far northwestern corner of Carroll County.

Steve had long dreamed of building a log cabin. But rather than the little cabin in the woods he originally envisioned, the Rosewags built a large cabin in the middle of vast farm fields on the edge of a tiny, nearly forgotten village called Harney.

It's the kind of place where folks throw up their hands in greeting to every vehicle that passes and farmers willingly lend tractors and other equipment to new neighbors such as Steve Rosewag.

The Rosewags' barn-style cabin with its gambrel roof lines sits back from a short gravel lane. From the deck in their back yard, the family can see the Catoctin Mountains. From their front porch, they look across a wide horizon dotted with silos, barns and cow pastures.

The Rosewags regularly partake of the "country air" -- though Pam and their daughters, Melissa, 12, and Amanda, 10, refrain from breathing deeply on the days dairymen empty the manure pits.

The family's closest neighbors are deer, raccoons, skunks and other wildlife that live in the nearby tree line. The homes of two-legged neighbors are just a stone's throw farther -- close enough for safety's sake, but not so close as to infringe on privacy.

There's enough room for Melissa and Amanda to romp with their year-old puppy, Hannah. Pam has flower beds and a bit of lawn to call her own. And Steve has the rest of the tillable acreage to raise hay in his spare time, just like his father.

In 1969, when Steve's parents brought their brood to a 14-acre farm in Glenelg, Interstate 795 wasn't built and Glenelg really seemed in the middle of nowhere to 12-year-old Steve, a boy accustomed to the more suburban environs of Montgomery County.

But Steve took to the change in scenery immediately. He and his siblings soon had a pet donkey. And Steve even raised a hog for 4-H one year -- a story that gets gales of giggles out of his daughters.

When he wasn't at work for the telephone company, where he was a longtime employee, Nicholas Rosewag, Steve's father, made his own hay and eventually started pitching in to help neighbors who were in a harvest bind. By the time all his boys were old enough to help, the elder Rosewag had a thriving custom hay business.

Steve uses some of his dad's original equipment. He does the field work between his cross-country runs as a tractor-trailer driver. Many of the bales are sold right off the farm to local horse owners.

It was his father, who has become an accomplished woodworker in retirement, and Steve's brother, Charlie, a carpenter, who helped Steve build the family's home.

The red pine logs, which came as part of a package deal from a company in New York, were delivered on the day Amanda was born in 1988. After Pam delivered the baby, Steve rushed to the property to meet with the banker financing their mortgage loan.

Steve contracted the jobs he and his two-man "crew" couldn't do efficiently, such as getting the exterior walls up. He, his dad and his brother then spent the next six months tackling the rest.

The result is a warm and welcoming home with an open floor plan that allows family members to feel as if they're together even when they're in different rooms.

"I didn't want all these little doorways," Pam said. "And it's good for entertaining because everybody's not stuffed in small rooms."

The front door opens to a small, slate-tiled foyer that leads to the eat-in kitchen. The rooms are not overly large, but 8-foot ceilings keep them from feeling cramped.

The table in the adjoining dining room stretches nearly to the front door when all the leaves are added for family gatherings and on holidays. A door at the far end of the table leads to the first-floor laundry room, a coat closet and down to the two-car garage.

To the right of the front entrance is the living room -- also built without walls that would separate it from the kitchen and foyer. Two dark green tufted chairs contrast nicely with the golden hue of the red pine logs. On an unseasonably warm December afternoon, Pam and the girls were decorating the family's Scotch pine Christmas tree.

A small hall off the living room leads back to a full bath, den and family room. The family room, with its brick fireplace, solid cherry mantel and exposed logs in the ceiling has a decidedly rustic feel. The room, which has no doors, can be reached on two sides.

The bedrooms upstairs are built under the eaves of the barn-styled roof. The girls' rooms are peppered with the usual teen posters, cheerleading trophies and youthful knickknacks. The master suite includes its own bath -- shower stall only -- and two deep closets as well as a double-hung window that catches spring and summer breezes.

The full bath in the hall has a skylight.

Steve wanted to add more skylights upstairs.

And he's still a bit regretful that he exchanged the stone fireplace in the plans for brick and the french doors for a less-expensive sliding glass door. But with a 2-year-old and a newborn to look after, there just wasn't the money for those kinds of extras when he and Pam were building their home, he said.

The kit -- which included the shingles and windows -- cost $42,000 in 1987. Acting as his own contractor and not including the value of the deck, which spans the rear of the home, Steve says he and Pam probably put $115,000 into the house. (And that's at 1988 values).

Except for those minor details -- and plans to eventually finish the full basement -- the Rosewags wouldn't change anything about their home.

"I don't have to pack up and go away to the hills to stay in a cabin," Steve said with a smile. "I'm in a cabin here at home."

Pub Date: 12/13/98