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COMPANY STORY
isson Company was founded not as the result of foresight, but of pleasant circumstance. In 1958, the family of Joe and JoAnn Sisson, hoping to someday build a small cabin for rest and relaxation, purchased a one-half-acre tract of land near Shallowford Bridge in the mountains of Georgia’s Fannin County.
By 1968 Joe, JoAnn, and their family were residing in Athens, Georgia, where Joe was pursuing graduate studies at the University of Georgia. Tiring of the confinement of student housing and the sight of imposing buildings in every direction, they decided that the time had come to build the cabin in the mountains they had envisioned ten years before. In a short time, Joe, JoAnn, Joe’s brother Jim and JoAnn’s mother and stepfather were busy building their rustic mountain getaway.
Once their cabin was completed, friends and acquaintances of the Sissons were soon joining them for visits to their new mountain home. Almost invariably, the visitors felt a great attraction to the area and would ask Joe and JoAnn to help them search for their own piece of land. Before long, the Sissons found themselves spending their spare time assisting in the erection of cabins on home sites they had helped to locate and purchase for friends.
One such friend, W.E. Griffin, from Valdosta, Georgia, having experienced locating a suitable tract for his planned vacation home, encouraged Joe and JoAnn to join him in the purchase of a 100 acre parcel in the Dial community of Fannin County. Their intent was to subdivide the land into lots of ideal size for weekend cabins.
The Dial property sold out quickly, but the business had just begun. Joe and JoAnn immediately started developing and selling home sites and cabins as a weekend-and-holiday endeavor. JoAnn spent weekdays doing bookkeeping and managing the business.
Over time, what had begun as an avocation gradually expanded to become an occupation. Joe, then a professor at Georgia State University, eventually resigned his post in order to give the business his complete attention.
When the family began focusing on the log home business as a full-time enterprise, much of the work was performed in what would by today’s standards be considered a primitive manner. Joe, Jim, and their children hand-peeled the outer layers of logs with draw-knives and axes. This labor-intensive method required time and considerable effort. Business growth soon mandated the establishment of a mill to produce the logs, beams and wood products needed for home construction.
Through the years, the mill expanded to become a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that produced a variety of quality building materials. In 1987, a subsidiary, Sisson, Dupont & Carder, Inc., was founded to oversee the milling, fabrication and home construction aspects of the operation.
From that first humble cabin in the shadow of Shallowford Bridge, Sisson Company has matured into a thriving business with sales around the country and around the world. Nevertheless, our focus remains on delivering the personal service only a conscientious family-operated business can provide.
Our Focus
Sisson Company is a log home builder and developer – not a real estate agency. Each parcel of land is selected carefully with our customers in mind. Respect for nature and the preservation of the North Georgia environment are top priorities. Beauty and variety are found in every Sisson community.
Sisson properties include the following utilities:
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Central water systems in each community
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Electrical service
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Telephone service
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Some include cable television service (where available)
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Septic tank
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Graveled driveway
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Landscaping with native plants
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Split-rail accent fence
Investment safeguards:
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Sisson communities are protected by common-sense environmental, architectural and lot size covenants.
Going Green
Going “Green” and building eco-friendly is more important than ever. More and more people are striving to create a lifestyle that is environmentally aware. The debate over climate change and global warming rage on, but no matter what your opinion we all agree the earth is a limited resource. These debates have forced the public to look at how we use our natural resources and provoked our society to buy responsibly and use renewable goods.
In the home industry manufacturers have been forced to offer “green” alternatives and eco-friendly building products. Log Homes are the original eco-friendly and sustainable product. Sisson Company only buys from companies that are involved in reforestation programs that guarantee the replenishment of harvested forests. nothing goes to waste in our Log Home manufacturing process. Every portion of our log is used. The Bark and scrap ends make mulch, the log itself is used for dimensional lumber and logs; the sawdust is used by farmers and many other industries for pet bedding. There is no portion of the tree unused.
Log Homes also offer help with your heating and cooling with the benefits of thermal mass. The mass of the wood timbers absorbs the heat in the home once it is heated and holds coolness once the home is cool. Unlike fiberglass insulation, the R-value of white pine wood increases with rising and lowering temperatures.
An additional benefit of log construction is that we greatly reduce the use of other products that may be toxic in your drywall and insulation. People with allergies and other health problems can guarantee healthier air quality in a natural material environment.
Log Homes were the answer to a sustainable solution given to us by our ancestor's hundreds of years ago. Now with a new awareness of our environment and planet, we can build as our families did centuries ago and build responsibly. Let the Sisson Company provide you with an eco-friendly, green dwelling to make yourself and your family at home.