My experience (may not help on sq. ft. costs)
I am sure my experience is not the norm but here goes:
We owned about 100 A. that was my grandfather’s tobacco farm. I had an old farmhouse at the site to live in ( in addition to our real home about 170 mi. away) during construction which may have saved quite a bit. We had talked about a log home or a conventional second home for about 25 years and becoming familiar with the maintenance and other issues mentioned above had just about decided to go the stick built route. Then ebay changed our lives. A Midwestern woman had put a deposit down with a NC log home company that refused to credit a refund to her estate when she died before construction could begin. They would credit the deposit toward another builder so the deposit was put up for auction on ebay. I called my wife at work and she agreed we should put in a low-ball offer and I guess because few are comfortable buying a home (or a pile of logs) on ebay WE WON. After about six months dealing with lawyers for the estate and the log company we finally ageerd to pay the estate and just about double that amount to the log company to buy a larger floor plan (from about 2000 sq. ft. to almost 4000 sq ft.,1400 ft of the increase being a full size concrete wall basement) and to cover kit price increasers .At that stage the completed price worked out to about 10 times the log kit price. But this is what we ended up with:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/log_cabin
The unfinished basement and land clearing added about $30.000 including four 6 in X 12 in. X 50 ft, steel beams. The floor over the basement to put the logs on about $15.000. Log construction including labor and materials for metal roof , 2nd floor floor, interior walls, windows, doors, stairs, porch and 2 decks , floor treatments ( hardwood, slate, and tile), massive amounts of custom (mostly cedar) interior trim, and kitchen cabinets. almost $100,000.00. Kitchen appliances and granite, $5,000.00. High SEER heat pumps and back up furnace in 3 zones $25,000.00. Plumbing including tubs and sinks $15,000.00. Electricity is somewhat high because of having to deal with logs and a back-up generator $20,000.00. Well and septic system, $10,000.00. Road improvements (.5 mi.) $5,000.00. Furniture and wall hangings (almost ½ at auction) $20,000.00 (We are continuing to upgrade stuff).Rough total over log cost $245,000.00 Plus a lot of my labor and a lot of driving. I am not a finish carpenter but I have decided to call any of my carpentry errors rustic. Guess you could add farm pickup, tractor, and big mower.
In spite of this it appraised higher than my investment in a depressed housing market.
I don’t know if I would have started if I had known how long completion would take (1.5-2 years) but it is a great getaway and grandkids have already claimed rooms and seem to enjoy the room both inside and outside (city kids) I would be happy to answer any additional questions but again I am not sure how typical my project is.
Yours, Jim