Are you planning a new home?

Have you considered all of your options from modular to stick, block to brick or log?

What about post-and-beam? Gotcha!

The origins of post-and beam construction date back thousands of years. The method allows for open floor plans with exceptional design flexibility because the posts and beams support most of the weight of the roof and interior without reliance on interior walls—should you desire them….

Lindal Cedar Homes is an industry leader, and one of Lindal’s top dealerships, Atlantic Custom Homes, is located in the Hudson River Valley.

Jan and Gregory Buhler built their own Lindal post-and-beam home in Garrison over five years ago, and say they fell in love with the process. The couple, he an aviation attorney and she a homemaker and volunteer, served as general contractors for the entire process. “We subbed out everything,” Gregory says. “We had a very difficult piece of property. We had to bring the road to it and blast, and had about 30 subcontractors. It was a very complicated process,” he says, adding he’s always been good at this sort of thing, but was laid up in the middle of the process following back surgery. So, “I was on site every day dealing with the 30 sub contractors,” says Jan.

And when it was completed, the couple loved their new home. “We live in the beautiful Hudson Valley, and I decided we should spend as much time here as possible rather than leaving every morning on the Lexington line of Metro North,” Gregory says, adding “It’s so beautiful here, I felt bad leaving every morning.” Their dreams of staying close to home came true a little over two years ago, when Atlantic Custom Homes’ John Johnston, the dealer who sold them their Lindal kit, was preparing to sell his business. Gregory left his law practice in lower Manhattan for a new career in custom homes.

Johnston started the business in 1983 and Atlantic Custom Homes has since been one of Lindal’s best dealerships, according to the Buhlers. Johnston stayed on for about eight months to co-manage the company and smooth the transition in ownership. During that period, his wife, Susan, worked with Jan on the advertising and marketing aspects of the business. “That was crucial. I wouldn’t have bought the business otherwise,” says Gregory.

“Johnston set up Atlantic Custom Homes to be a Lindal dealer,” says Gregory. “(Atlantic) has sold about 300 homes. We do the design work and sell a Lindal package: all of the wood for the structure, the windows the doors and other things. The technical term is pre-engineered post and beam,” he says, adding that “all of the material is shipped. It comes from western Canada. The quality of the wood we have is not obtainable locally. It’s quite dramatically better.”

But the service does not end with the sale of the package and the wood. “We have a database of contractors, general contractors, framers, plumbers and electricians, and refer customers to those people,” says Gregory. “We find they can save quite a bit of money if they do their own purchasing of cabinets and fixtures and things like that.”

At any given time, Atlantic Custom Homes may have over a dozen homes in some stage of work. “Some are being completed, others are being built, others are in the drawing stage,” says Gregory.

As president of the company, Gregory spends his time designing homes, handling logistics of orders and following up with customers. “If somebody comes in with a design or sketch, I’ll draw it for them on a computer or drafting board,” he says. “Lindal has these wonderful planning books. We like to encourage people to take an existing plan for a starting point.”

Standard plans result in houses from 700 to 8,500 square feet and up, although Gregory says that “there are Lindals being built in Russia in the 25,000 square-foot neighborhood.”

“We have houses going up in Pennsylvania along the Delaware River, a large house in Connecticut on a lake, in Schoharie County near Cobleskill, one on Long Island, several in Sullivan and Ulster County,” says Gregory, adding “We put a lot of miles on the car. It’s important for us to get out there and visit the job site periodically.”

“When all of the pieces of the house are delivered, Greg and I are there taking inventory as the wood comes off the truck,” says Jan. “We’re constantly involved in the process. We make sure that everything is delivered in good shape and in the right quantity.”

“We follow through with the contractor,” adds Gregory. “We follow up with any warranty claims. Lindal has a lifetime warranty on the structure. We don’t just stop at the time of delivery.”

Gregory Buhler completes presentation plans. They show floor plans and elevations, but they’re not designed for anyone to build from. These drawings go to Lindal for the creation of blueprints. Those come back for a local engineer’s approval.

“If a customer has an architect, that saves me the design time and we Lindal-ize the plans with post and beam,” says Gregory. “We can do post and beam in any style.”

“Post and beam allows you to do open floor plans, soaring high ceilings, high windows and other features that many architects might not consider,” he says. “We can do post and beam in any style.”

The couple says their customers are mostly baby boomers who have always dreamed about building a house. Their kids are through college, and it’s time to build that retirement home, lakeside home or ski home. Customers are a mix of second-home owners and those who will use their Lindal homes as a primary residence.

While Atlantic Custom Homes is an authorized log home dealer, it concentrates on selling the Lindal post and beam system, which Gregory feels is far superior to log construction. The cost is also less than log construction, and less than most custom stick built construction, he says. “The math that we use for the Lindal package is $60 to $75 per square foot. When finished, the Lindal home costs between $175 and $225 per square foot including the Lindal package,” he says.

Lindal homes have eight-inch-thick exterior walls and 14-inch-thick roofs. Beams that hold up those roofs extend out through the hose and hold up the eaves.

More windows are possible because the exterior walls aren’t supporting the weight of the structure, so large portions can be eliminated, according to the Buhlers. “In conventional buildings it’s very hard to do cathedral ceilings,” says Gregory. “If someone…is on a lake or looks out on some pretty woods, Lindal is going to be a much better choice for that.”

Not every customer of Atlantic Custom Homes wants to serve as general contractor, but for those who do, the Buhlers offer seminars throughout year. “People come in and get that training to (manage) the project themselves,” they couple says.

Atlantic Custom Homes also hosts open house events, where people can come in, look around, examine plan books and “smell the cedar,” according to Jan. “The siding and trim are cedar,” she says. “The posts and beams are fir,” he adds. “It’s a nice introduction and a very informal way to learn about Lindal homes,” says Jan.

“For somebody who wants to (manage) it, and they have quite a bit of money that way, with Lindal all of the parts come to the site,” says Gregory. “We recommend concrete contractors and site excavators…there are contractors who specialize in framing Lindals. They can come in and frame it and leave. Then you have a watertight shell with windows, doors, the roof and siding. We help people through the process and tell them where they can go for things like tile.”

As for turnaround, that can vary greatly. “If we’re going to be designing it, it will take as much time as you want it to,” says Gregory. “To place the order, that means you have a set of plans for you. I’ve also given you a price for what the Lindal is going to be. I’ve also gone out to see your property—we can’t design without seeing the land.”

With plan approval, the order is placed with Lindal and delivery of the parts is a minimum of 12 weeks away—often longer, according to Gregory.

From delivery to completion will take another six to nine months, generally. “It’s a custom house. People are making their choices of cabinets and things like that,” he says. “The framing, our part, takes just a matter of weeks.

“It’s all the customer’s choices,” adds Jan. “People have been dreaming about this, as Greg and I did,” she says. “We want to help people realize their dreams like we did.”

Atlantic Custom Homes’ primary territory is the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountain Region, although they have clients all over the world. “Last week someone came in who wants to build in Argentina,” says Gregory, adding “The dealership has built in seven foreign countries, and all over the United States, from North Carolina to Martha’s Vineyard….”

“The great thing about this is people can design with us and have their homes go somewhere else,” says Jan.

Atlantic Custom Homes’ next open house will be held on Saturday April 5, from 10 am to 5 pm, followed on April 6 with a home building seminar from 11 am to 1 pm.

Both will be held at Atlantic Custom Homes’ Lindal Cedar Homes display model, located at 2785 Route 9 in Cold Spring.

“The home building seminar will give you a realistic overview of the whole process of designing and your creating your dream home from acquiring the developing the land through the design phase, budgeting, construction and finishing,” says Jan. “The seminar is limited to 25 people and reservations are required.”

For an appointment or more information, call Atlantic Custom Homes toll free at 888 558 2636, or 845 265 2636. You can also e-mail ach@highlands.com or visit www.lindal.com/atlantic for additional photos of Atlantic Custom Homes’ designs and additional information about Lindal homes.