HONESDALE, Pa., July 14, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Sleepy Honesdale, PA was home to a mini media frenzy on Thursday, as Estemerwalt Log Homes was featured on the morning news show of New York City's CW11. The live correspondence from Estemerwalt Log Homes, featuring the family owned and operated log home company, was hosted by reporter Larry Hoff, who has over a dozen years in front of the camera on New York television, and has carved out a reputation as a reporter who lives on the edge. In addition to the television crew, Editor Peter Becker from the local Wayne Independent newspaper was also there reporting on the excitement.
Estemerwalt Log Homes is a 5th generation family owned company with over 123 years experience in the lumber industry. Owner Kurt Propst & his daughter Elizabeth Reece were thrilled to have all the company in their mill. "It was great to have CW11 visit us so that we could really educate consumers about log homes," said Propst, "The end result of a log home is beautiful of course, but getting there is half the fun!"
CW11 came to Estemerwalt Log Homes to showcase the increasingly popular log home industry. Propst walked reporter Larry Hoff through several processes of milling a log home, which were featured in three different segments on the hour. The 6am segment explained how logs are brought into the mill room and loaded onto the infeed deck; at 7am, the segment showed viewers how the logs are cut to length, how log corners go through the mill and are cut to size. The last segment, at 8am, explained how logs are machined to have matching tongue and groove and then dipped in a mild preservative.
Log home popularity is rising exponentially, and there are more than 500,000 log homes in the United States today. Log homes account for 7% of the custom homebuilding market, and sales figures have more than doubled to $1.7 billion since 1995 -- no doubt driven by consumers' increasing demand for energy efficiency. Log homes are environmentally friendly, as wood's thermal mass characteristics often exceed energy efficiency code criteria. Estemerwalt Log Homes offers Eastern White Pine, which is one of the most durable wood species on the planet, naturally resistant to decay, UV damage and insects.
Reporter Larry Hoff seemed to enjoy the excitement and buzz (literally) of the mill, despite not being as risky of some of his other reports. "I may be the best known test dummy in NY," he says. Hoff has climbed 800 feet above the Verrazano Bridge to change light bulbs, hunted for alligators in the depths of the city's sewers, went two rounds with Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, and joined a crew of steeplejacks atop an 88-story skyscraper, descending 30 stories with them on a single rope.
Estemerwalt Log Homes, on the contrary, has never had any association whatsoever with alligators, and has not boxed with legends. However, to their credit, they've set the standard for excellence in log homes, and, for the past five generations, the Propst family has loved every minute of it. Perhaps now, Larry Hoff can add 'milled an Estemerwalt log home with Kurt Propst' to his resume.
Estemerwalt Log Homes creates one of the most comprehensive log home packages in the industry, which consists of everything needed to create the dried-in shell of the structure. Estemerwalt offers three log profiles: Milled-D, Round and Half Log. For more information on Estemerwalt Log Homes, please call 1.800.515.2060 or visit them online at www.estemerwalt.com.
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