The area south of Algonquin Park near
Bancroft, Ontario is becoming something of a showcase for alternative types of housing
construction. For instance, there's the Potter Earthship made from recycled tires that was featured in
Natural Life Issue 45, a new straw bale home, and this unique 16-sided cordwood stackwall
home that's also a thriving Bed & Breakfast.
Bernice
and David (otherwise known as Bunny and Bear) designed and built this 38-foot diameter,
two-story, almost-round home in 1995 after taking a weekend course in stackwall building
from New York state expert Rob Roy at his Earthwood Building School. Bunny designed the house,
produced the working drawings, and did most of the woodworking. A local contractor erected
a skeleton of posts, beams, joists, subfloor, roof trusses, roof boards, and
shingles.
The couple, with the help of their son and assorted visitors,
spent from June through October cutting over 40 face-cords of 19-inch dried cedar logs,
then mixing 200 bags of lime and 165 bags of Portland cement and stuffing it between the
logs as they were stacked to form the walls. Lime (to keep the bugs out) and sawdust (for
insulation) went into the insulating space between the five inches of cement at each end
of the logs. The 18-inch thick walls provide an R-value of close to 30, and the roof is
R-45.
The structure, which has 18 windows and seven doors, was dubbed
Hutchnden House. It has a wooden walkway leading from the driveway to the second
storey front door and continuing all the way around the house. On the ground level, there
are two guest rooms, an office and a woodworking shop. The guest room doors open onto a
one-acre pond, fully stocked with rainbow trout, which B & B guests are encouraged to
catch.
2003 Update: Since this article
was published in Natural Life magazine in 1997, the Frasers have
retired and sold the house and B&B, although they are
still willing to respond to questions about cordwood building at
dasfraser@sympatico.ca.
The B&B is now known as "The Gathering Place on Golden Ponds."
Learn More
Earthwood Building School
Cordwood Building: The State of the Art by Rob Roy (New Society Publishers, 2003)
Cordwood Masonry Houses: A Practical Guide for the
Owner-Builder (Sterling Publishing, 1980)
Wendy Priesnitz is the Editor of
Natural Life Magazine. She is has also authored nine books.
