High above Nederland, Colo., on Hurricane Hill, furious winds bend branches of trees and send tumbleweeds rolling across fields. Snow and ice blanket every surface.

But inside a 3,600-square-foot log home, all is calm. The huge amber-colored logs are tightly braided; nothing groans under the stress. No windows rattle. No cold air sneaks through.

Jan and Fred Johnson are equally relaxed about the situation.

“What I like about this place is that you feel isolated,” Jan says. “When you look out the back and you see across the mountains, it’s endless, all that distance,” she says of the huge valley below.

“This place is such a stark contrast from our city life,” she says.

City life isn’t bad for these two Texas natives. At 58, Fred, a retired businessman, and Jan live in a 9,000-square-foot home near Dallas that has been featured in an interior design magazine.

But after years of Colorado visits, the couple began yearning for a rustic retreat where their two grown daughters, Kristy and Karen, a son-in-law, grandchildren and they could get together. They imagined a natural, hand-hewn log home that would welcome them during holidays and a few weeks in the summer.

While searching for a perfect site, a realtor introduced the Johnsons to Tad and Kimberly Horning, who have built more than 15 hand-crafted area log homes.

“People who love log homes tend to be drawn toward irregularity because logs are a natural form of sculpture,” Tad Horning says. “We aren’t talking about a Lincoln Log home where every piece is milled to be uniform.”

Instead, he uses logs from standing trees that have died of old age in western pine forests. These naturally hardened logs taper from the trunk to the top and must be marked and hand-carved to fit together, following traditions that started in Scandinavia hundreds of years ago.

The Hornings helped the Johnsons locate a rugged lot above Nederland. The Hornings then selected 90 well-seasoned Engleman spruce logs from a sales yard in Utah. Each log was 50 feet long and about 22 inches in diameter at the stump end.

After the logs were shipped to the Hornings’ assembly yard near Boulder, Colo., Tad Horning and five employees began fitting the timbers together. Each piece was notched with a chainsaw, then smoothed by hand and fit together.

Once the walls and roof beams were assembled, Horning and his crew numbered every piece, took the home apart and hauled the logs to the mountain site on three flatbed trailers. The next step was to rebuild the entire home on top of a foundation, adding the metal roof, windows and other details. In all, the home took 14 months to build.

Because of the visual strength of natural log walls, the Johnsons covered the floors with equally bold hickory polished to a high shine. Then their interior designer, Jill Eagleston, chose a foundation of creamy neutrals and dark woods, layering in complementary reds and greens in forest tones.

Pine kitchen cabinets are painted an antiqued gray-green. The sink countertop is covered with creamy granite streaked with rusts and golds. The adjacent cooking island is topped with burgundy granite; window and door trim is honey-colored fir.

The dining area is fitted into a bay of windows and holds dark wood chairs with slipcovered seats. The table is dark, distressed wood. Against one wall is a tall burgundy hutch for storage.

The living room looks out over the expansive valley. Comfortable seating circles a square coffee table loaded with books and magazines. Near the wood-burning fireplace are two additional chairs and a blanket-draped ottoman where Jan likes to read.

The master suite and guest rooms also are furnished in rustic textures and natural hues, but the open living area on the main floor is where most people linger.

“We were lucky enough to build a piece of art, because it is so unique,” Fred says. “There have been some challenges. But getting snowed in — our friends would say, ‘This is great.’ “