Second Nature

A young family builds their all-natural vacation retreat in the lush forests of Ohio’s Hocking Hills.

- Donna Peak

There’s nothing artificial about Andrea and Kyle Hanson’s log home. From the minute you turn onto their long, gravel drive, shielded by a canopy of sugar maples and hickory, and you see the house perfectly nestled among the trees, you can tell … if it’s not found in nature, you won’t find it here.

“We love the outdoors,” Andrea says. “We have 80 acres here, and most of it is wooded. We love to hike or take our four-wheelers out along the trails. We also have a shooting pavilion, and we love going down there with our kids, Sadie and Parker. It’s very contained and safe. Anything we can do outside, we just love it.”

Ohio’s Hocking Hills certainly provides everything that Kyle and Andrea were looking for. Only an hour’s drive from their primary home in Columbus, the region is replete with rolling hills, waterfalls, caverns, old-growth forests and lush vegetation.

“When we thought of building our house in the Hocking Hills, we thought, ‘Ah — we can do a log home!’” says Andrea. “Kyle and I like natural elements; even in our house in Columbus, everything is very earthy, with stone and wood. So to have a house totally made out of logs is just perfect.”

The Hocking Hills is a bit of an undiscovered gem in the Buckeye State, but Sarah Claypool, of family-owned-and-operated developer Jubach Log Homes, knows it well. Her family has been coming here since the 1970s and has designed, manufactured and built log homes in this area since 2002.