Ron and Alison Bolt
RETIRING IN STYLE

With an opportunity to take an early retirement from the Department of Defense where she and Ron both enjoyed long careers, Alison began researching log home companies from the couple’s Maryland residence. She scoured the Internet, read magazines feverishly and attended several log home shows. At one of those shows she met Bob McCarthy, northeast regional sales manager for Hartland, Vermont-based Real Log Homes, a manufacturer of more than 400 log homes per year.

“When I met Alison, she already knew what she wanted and was about to choose a company,” Bob says. “I asked her if she would come up and visit with us before making her final decision, and she did.”

That visit made all the difference. Real Log’s headquarters was close to the building site, a factor that saved the couple thousands in log-hauling costs.

“We were in such close contact with the staff at Real Log that I felt like they were right around the corner, even though I was in Maryland during most of the construction,” Alison says.

Bob introduced Alison and Ron to Mark Elliot, a Real Log builder-dealer who’s been erecting log homes for 18 years, and construction got underway— but not before Mother Nature joined the crew without an invitation.

Next: MAKING THEIR MARK