How We Provide Value
Excellent One-On-One Client Service and Wood Home Building Expertise
Building a new luxury home that you have always dreamed about can be a bit scary at the start. It's a big investment and needs to have expert design and engineering, the best materials, and professional leadership to bring it to life. Our firm brings all of that to discerning home buyers by offering Rand Soellner custom mountain designs; Town & Country luxury cedar home packages, engineering, and architecture; and Doug Sidell's construction project management and interior design professionals to work specifically with our clients throughout the entire building process. We are truly a vertically integrated luxury home builder that specializes in "trees to keys" and backs it up with a 20 year structural warranty. The center of our world is of course Town & Country Cedar Homes; the best custom-built, luxury wood homes throughout the progressive areas of America and the mountain regions of Japan. Because we focus on value first to our clients, we are constantly searching for the best ways possible to provide excellent client service and remain "positively peculiar." as several clients have stressed over the years. It is common for us to send degreed foresters to the swamps of Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada in search of the perfect cedar trees to fulfill a home buyers log accent goals on their new Town & Country Cedar Home overlooking the mountains, a trout stream, or lake. We realize the decision to build the most important family home in your life is not exactly a logical one, but more emotional and artistic. To help with this process we have a staff of building project managers, interior design professionals, structural engineers, and AIA licensed architects. Principals in each area work specifically for our clients to guide them throughout the progression of their new home from start to completion to ensure them that all the risks involved in the process have been eliminated and that they are getting the best, most structurally sound craftsman, cottage, or log-style home possible. Count on us for the best in all areas required to fulfill your dreams of building the most unique Town & Country Cedar Home!
Design-Build Expertise
Architect Rand Soellner of Cashiers, North Carolina as well as the AIA licensed architects and professional engineers at the Town & Country Cedar Homes headquarters in Petoskey, MI are the best at creating the most unique luxury homes. Each home has a 20 year structural warranty and is built with the best materials Mother Nature can produce: Northern White Cedar. While design starters are available to help you choose what design essentials you favor, each home is an exclusive expression of your own needs and tastes. Our architects and in-house interior design staff lead the progression personally; crafting individualized plans that orchestrate function and feel, while accentuating your homesite's unique topographical gradations. This force of innovative teamwork permeates our complete building process. Whether you have your own home plans, want to work with one of our architects, or choose our design professionals to help you fulfill your artistic, aesthetic and purpose-driven desires, our team has the expertise and passion to bring your dreams to life!
At any point in the construction process clients can come directly to us with any concerns, questions, thoughts, ideas, and additional desires. We are on the same side of the table as they are. There are no middlemen to get in the way of timely and efficient personal communication; we are the team that always keeps our clients informed, updated and very much in control of their own custom home-building project! The one thing to always remember is our homes are finished with 100% customized materials; no finish materials are purchased at the lumber yard. The siding, decking, flooring, trim work, tongue and grove paneling, and any other unique timbers or log accents desired are shipped directly to the client's homesite from the Town & Country mill in Boyne Falls, MI. As a result, our homes are truly one of kind and built with the best materials available!
Northern White Cedar - It's the best!
All our homes are built with Northern White Cedar grown in the upper Midwest and Canada. It is the natural insect and decay resistance of this species that has enabled Town & Country Cedar Homes to prove over 60 years that our homes are built to stand the test of time and last for generations. Due to these inherent characteristics of Northern White Cedar, home-owners will benefit from its use by having the least amount of preservative maintenance wood homes typically demand. The insulation factor of Northern White Cedar is among the highest of any wood, too - rated 1.4 R factor per inch - making the home more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Specifically, Northern White Cedar has a closed cell structure (contrary to pine species) that resembles the properties of "cork." This cell structure combined with the natural oils in the tree provides protection against internal mold and mildew which therefore repulses insects. As a result, in combination with proper kiln drying of the wood it will resist the absorption of moisture from the environment. The process of absorbing moisture from rain, humidity, snow, etc. and the resulting drying effect from wind and sun is a key component of "checking" and deterioration. Furthermore, the heartwood within Northern White Cedar will last for generations, sapwood easily decays and discolors. White Cedar has a minimal amount of sapwood (approximately ¾ inch on a 10 inch diameter log). Through our sawing, shaping and peeling processes at Town & Country Cedar Homes all sapwood is removed. It is the sapwood in the logs that is the reason why black discoloring/ blue staining occurs in log homes supplied from our competitors. Pine logs have a large sap ring that makes it almost impossible to remove and dictates annual maintenance. In addition, pine logs tend to bleed sap when exposed to sunlight that must be continuously removed and re-stained. This is why most people hear "log homes are too much work to maintain." Fortunately, this is not a problem with Town & Country Cedar Homes built with its kiln-dried, Northern White Cedar!
To further build our case for Northern White Cedar, we would like to add that due to its slow growth characteristics and tight growth rings it is dimensionally very stable. When kiln-dried properly, it will not twist, warp, or shrink. This helps to reduce or eliminate any additional checking after it has been applied to your luxury Town & Country Cedar Home. Contact us today at (704) 794-8740 or at if you have any other questions about the benefits of Northern White Cedar and how you as a potential home-owner will benefit from its natural decay resistance and toxicity to mold and mildew.
