1 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
Jackie and Kenny Reynolds
2 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
The back of the home features large porches and an outdoor living area.
3 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
The driveway portico features a chandelier -- complete with Red Ryder BB gun embellishments -- handcrafted by Kenny.
4 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
A 750-year-old western red cedar "character log" is a focal point of the first floor's open layout.
5 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
Western red cedar logs provide both artistic form and structural function in the couple's 7,500-square-foot home.
6 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
Jackie decorated the second-floor Florida room in colors and patterns that evoke a tranquil, beachy feel.
7 of 7
Photo by Joshua Lindau
A massive eagle sculpture, which Kenny and Jackie named "Sean" in honor of the artist who created it.
It’s the first thing you notice upon entering the home of Kenny and Jackie Reynolds: this massive hunk of wood. It’s magnificent and magnetic, tempting you to run your hand across its gnarls and undulations, as Jackie is doing now. “This tree was around before Columbus discovered America,” she marvels. Indeed, the genesis of the western red cedar tree from which this log came predates the explorer’s arrival in the New World by a couple of centuries.
This “character log,” as the piece is called by the house’s craftsmen, arrived in one of 11 timber-filled tractor-trailers that journeyed 1,600 miles from the small Canadian city of Williams Lake, British Columbia, to the couple’s 400-acre farm near Bowling Green. “It all started in a bar over beer—on a napkin,” Kenny says of the house-planning process that began about four years ago, when he and Jackie traveled to Canada to meet with the team from Pioneer Log Homes. The couple had seen the company’s display booth at a home and timber show in Nashville.
“The next thing you know, we’re in Canada, sitting across from them, scratching our heads,” Kenny says with a laugh. Approximately three years later, in December 2012, Kenny and Jackie had completed their dream home.
Seated beneath the numerous large, artfully jutting logs of the main living area’s vaulted ceiling, Kenny finds on his DVR the recorded show Timber Kings and hits the play button. As he and his wife chuckle and share personal remembrances about the structure-building stars of this reality show—the very people from Pioneer Log Homes who constructed their house—it’s apparent that the entire process of creating their 7,500-square-foot (not including the extensive porches) abode, and the friends they made as a result, are just as precious to them as their beautiful finished product.
“They’re really good people,” says Kenny of their construction team-turned-TV stars. “Everybody that worked on [the home] enjoyed doing it.”
“They cared,” adds Jackie.
Both contractors themselves—Kenny is a 33-year employee of Scotty’s Construction, and Jackie is the owner of Contractors Corporation—the couple, who met on a blind date and have been married 22 years, was very hands-on with everything from designing to building the house. They did all the foundation work to ready their home site for the Pioneer Log Homes team, which assembled the house, log by log, in Williams Lake and then deconstructed it so the logs could make the trek to Kentucky. It took about a year and a half to reconstruct the home at its permanent site on a hill overlooking Bowling Green.
“We wanted something different, not like everyone else,” says Jackie. “We wanted it to be us.”
The “us” is evident in thoughtful touches throughout the large, yet surprisingly cozy, cabin. A saddle stand Kenny made by hand welcomes visitors in the home’s entryway. Photos of the couple’s four (soon to be five) grandchildren adorn the sofa table. A Florida room on the second floor and its adjoining porch—with metalwork details including dolphins, pelicans and an egret—reflect Jackie’s love for the beach. Tiny rocking chairs in the main living area are at the ready for the kiddos, as are the two bunk-bedded bedrooms, large outdoor playhouse, fish-stocked pond and saltwater swimming pool.
Simultaneously grandiose and snug, Kenny and Jackie’s domicile is, like the 750-plus-year-old feature log that visually anchors it, inviting and full of character. “Bring your boots and come on in,” says Jackie.