A Rural Pennsylvania Homestead

"Nothing creates the ambiance of 'On Golden Pond' like a Ward Cedar Log Home."

This Pennsylvania home is situated on over 15 acres of field and forest adjacent to an 18-hole golf course and is the perfect setting for the active Ferguson family whose passions for enjoying their home are numerous.  Gardening, collecting Americana, hunting for antique décor items, including a wood stove-cum-floor lamp, or tinkering with a classic 1954 Ford tractor are all part of this family's lifestyle.

It starts with Northern White Cedar logs milled from the heartwood for the walls coupled with purlins, crafted from massive full-round, hand-peeled spruce timbers.  With its open floor plan and porch, one can almost expect the Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn characters to arrive any minute.  The environment is so appealing and so reminiscent of less stressful times that today, 95 percent of all Ward Cedar Log Homes are year-round residences.

In addition to its beauty, cedar is the natural choice from a practical point of view. Water is the enemy of wood, and Northern White Cedar offers the greatest security against moisture.  The finest cedar logs are first cut into rough sawn square timbers, or cants, that are slowly air dried for up to six months to properly balance moisture content with the environment.  The result is a building material of remarkable stability that resists shrinking and warping.