Many who come to the Timber House ask how it came to be, when it was built and who built it.   The conception and creation of the Timber House is a good story that bears re-telling.  Writing this history is a project I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while, and since today is the twelfth anniversary of the day we moved into the newly constructed Timber House, its high time!

There’s an emotional connection some visitors seem to make with the Timber House when they walk inside.  I think its key to the success of the Timber House as a Country Inn.   Quite a few visitors are inspired enough to choose it as a venue for an important moment in their lives: a wedding service or reception; an engagement; a family reunion; a gathering of friends; or a romantic sojourn.  Many come back for repeat visits.

There’s something compelling about Timber Frame structures that seems to evoke an emotional response.  For me, the soaring, open spaces inspire a sense of possibility.  I feel peaceful and secure when I look at the sturdy beams and rafters.  There are also feelings of connection, familiarity and belonging.  I think these might flow from primal memories and associations triggered by the sight of this most-traditional of housing structures.  Even twelve years later, when I walk into the building, there is a fresh pine scent that inspires a sense of well-being.

The Timber House property is quite beautiful.  I’ve had some tie to the land here since I was about 3 years old and there’s no single place I’d rather be.  With my mom and dad, I talked often about the idea of opening a bed and breakfast as a means of creating a business to provide a living and a way to come and live here.  I am an engineer by training and my mom enjoyed a lifelong passion for architecture and home design.  This led, quite inevitably, to mom and I sketching out numerous designs for a building, including the one we finally built.

Like many worthwhile adventures, the Timber House was more dream than solid business idea.  Long after the heavy equipment was slinging timbers and the hammers started swinging, I still had no idea what it would cost to construct and only a sketchy notion of how to complete it.  To describe its construction and completion as an all-consuming endeavour is an insult to understatement.

My father and I built the Timber House with a lot of help from a great cast of characters.  I was the general contractor and did the build plans and engineering with Normerica, a Toronto area company who also supplied the timbers for the post and beam frame.  Through some beneficial providence, I met Larry Orde, an extraordinary post and beam home-builder who came with his crew to put up the timber-frame and stayed on to complete many other tasks we could never have done without him.

Dad and I carpentered, plumbed, electrified, installed, painted and generally did anything we couldn’t afford to pay someone else to do.   Dad did more than any single person to get the Timber House built.  (Thanks Dad!).  We had help from many friends and family members.  Thanks, Uncle Stan, Glenn Vugts, Carl..!   My dad and a fine carpenter and gentleman by the name of Wolf Freudenberg worked for over a year to construct the interior walls, cabinets, stairs and the myriad other items that go into completing a building of this scale.

Quite simply, its a bit of a miracle we were able to get the Timber House built!

The details of the construction project are best conveyed with pictures:

Start of Clearing Oct 1996

A stand of Ash trees had to be cut down to locate the Timber House.  We used the Ash wood for trim throughout the building.  Much of the rest of it graces the floor of Carmen and Bernie’s 150 year old farmhouse located 1500 feet to the north of the Timber House.

And the pouring begins! (December 19th, 1996)

Nothing spells stress like trying to pour cement on December 19th in a snow storm during a cold snap.  We raced to nearby farms to get hay bales to protect the concrete as it set.

The Frame Goes Up: As it appeared from the road. (January 21st, 1997)

At this point, Larry Orde and his crew were raising timber frame ‘bents’ by hand and tying them in with areas of the building that were conventionally framed.

Cold but sunny! Getting ready for the rafters. (Late January 1997)

After a few weeks, a very large crane became a permanent resident, helping to lift the higher beams and rafters into place.

The Roof Goes On! R40 Insulation - 10" Styrofoam Sandwich on tongue and groove Cedar planks. (February 1997)

Larry Orde and his crew stayed on the job to construct the roof ’system’.  This high tech update of a traditional timber frame house roof offers R40 insulation, and provides a visually stunning cathedral roof on the inside.  Planning is everything with Timber Frames:  All electrical wiring for ceiling light fixtures and fans had to be run before the roof system was completed.  This involved some quick thinking, as we thought we had lots of time to think about this later!

Windows and doors go on. (February 20th, 1997)

The extraordinarily expensive crane proved its worth when windows and doors were installed, often 30 feet or more above the ground!

Inside the Timber House Timber Frame (Early March, 1997)

Cold work!  The gaping 16 foot wide and 12 foot high garage door opening let in lots of cold air.  The snow and ice on the inside melted when the spring weather arrived, necessitating a two week period of beam and rafter scrubbing to remove mildew!

How cold was it? (March 1997)

The winter shoreline in front of the Timber House.  A colder, sunnier winter is hard to imagine.  It was a beautiful, invigorating time!

To make a long story a bit shorter, we moved into the Timber House on October 7th, 1997.   There was one working light bulb, one sink and one toilet.  They were each in completely different parts of the building!  Since that point, there have been two extensive renovations and several smaller ones:

• The addition of a commercial kitchen infrastructure, including walk-in cooler refrigeration in a small addition to the side of the main building
• The addition of 1500 square feet via third floor dormers in 2003 to accommodate four new guest rooms.  (In addition to the original four guest rooms on the main floor.)
• The construction of another 700 square feet of third floor loft space and another set of stairs to create a new third-floor office, and renovation of the second floor to create a three bedroom apartment, and a ninth guest room on the second floor in 2007
• The ‘commercialization’ of the upstairs area with numerous upgrades to meet ‘hotel-grade’ building code construction, fire safety and accessibility standards in 2007

Its been busy.

Timber House (May 2006)

The Timber House logo was created by Phil Abbott in 2006.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this history of the creation of the Timber House.

Cheers!

Dave

Dave Dingle, October 7th, 2009

Timber House Country Inn