Hahn Home
The Vision

One man's log home stands as testament to the power of having a dream-and fulfilling it just in time.

As seen in the 2008 October issue of Log Home Living

Story by: Nicole Sweeney Etter
Photography by: James Ray Spahn
Styling by: Colleen Macomber
General Contractor and Log Dealer: Winebrenner Log Homes & Construction, Inc.
Log Package By: REAL LOG HOMES®

For more than 40 years, Brad Hahn talked about his dream log home. But when the fantasy finally took shape on Snow Lake in Indiana, Brad was diagnosed with a bone marrow disease. He had two seasons to enjoy his dream before he passed away.

" It was his mission to do this," says his wife, Phyllis. " It's a beautiful place, and I love it, but it was his dream. He wanted it so badly."

Brad was an avid fisherman, and a lake home was the perfect retreat from the family's automotive lift business in Aurora, Illinois. The Hahns' first lake home was an Indiana cottage so tiny that friends nicknamed it " the one by one." When they outgrew that space, they chose Real Log Homes (and local dealer Winebrenner Log Homes and Construction) for the upgrade to logs.

And upgrade they did. The family sometimes refers to the new home as their " cottage," but the term doesn't begin to capture the 6,400-square-foot, three-story gem built from hand-peeled Eastern white pine logs. " Sometimes in a large home you can lose the warmth and homey feeling, but not here," says general contractor Mona Winebrenner. Even the expansive great room feels cozy.

In true dream-home fashion, everything in the house was custom built. " It was wonderful to work on," Mona says. " Brad and Phyllis put their trust in us and let us run with it. When there was a decision to be made, they made it quickly. They knew what they wanted, and they knew they wanted quality. That's what they got. They never tried to take short cuts."

With three children and four grandchildren, Phyllis and Brad wanted to make sure the house could serve as a getaway for the whole family. " There's a lot of places to cozy up and read or relax," Phyllis says. Brad's favorite spot was his den, home to one leather chair, a TV and his books. He made a point of the one chair. " Do you realize that there's no one who can come in here and bother me?" he liked to joke.

Even though Brad only got to experience his log home for a few short months, his spirit still permeates the space-and his dream persists. He and Phyllis never got to move into the lake house fulltime, but it's like home, Phyllis says. " Not only for our kids, but for our grandkids, too."