Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993 TAG: 9302070188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RUSTY DENNEN THE FREE LANCE-STAR
DATELINE: STAFFORD (AP) LENGTH: Medium
VIRGINIA LOG CABIN GOES TO JAPAN
First it was bluegrass music.Now the Japanese are warming up to another Virginia cultural icon: the log cabin.
This latest melding of East and West came about two years ago, when B&H Millwork in Stafford began looking to export its custom-made log homes.
Sandy Helms, who runs the company with partner James Berry, said it started with a phone call to the Virginia Port Authority in Norfolk.
The authority operates an electronic bulletin board for exporters and importers through the World Trade Center Network.
Within weeks after placing a note on the bulletin board, "We got eight to 10 inquiries," Helms said. "We were really surprised."
One came from an export agent in Mobile, Ala., Helms said, "and he put us in touch with the guys in Japan."
The guys in Japan turned out to be Minehara Design Office in Nagasaki, a city on the nation's southeastern coast. The company is a building contractor and was looking for something different to offer a customer.
The house will go up in a suburb, but it won't exactly be the traditional American cabin in the pines, Helms said. "Visually, the front part of the house will look like a pagoda." Other design features were added because of Japan's frequent earthquakes.
Minehara sent the floor plan and B&H designed it.
It's taken two years to nail down the deal. Two weeks ago, B&H workers loaded a flatbed truck with the logs and beams for the 1,800-square-foot structure.
The house, along with other construction materials to finish it, were to be loaded onto two shipping containers in Norfolk for the 30-day journey to Japan.
Helms will be on hand to help with the construction.
The house will be built on a half-acre, a huge lot by Japanese standards. Helms said he does not know how much it will cost the buyer, but the tab for shipping alone will be about $9,000.
This is just the beginning for B&H: Minehara has agreed to buy a second log structure destined to be an office building.
B&H got into the business in 1971. Berry eventually quit his job operating a sawmill and Helms gave up his job as a nuclear engineer for the Army to cash in on the growing popularity of log homes.
The company uses northern white cedar logs from Maine and Canada; the exposed beams and rafters are spruce or white pine.
Why send a log house to Japan of all places? American country culture is chic, from bourbon to bluegrass.
"The guy from the Minehara design office is president of the Nagasaki Country Music Society . . . He brings in name performers like Dolly Parton," said Helms, who has had two visits so far from Minehara representatives.