Planning for Our Home Begins

The single biggest project on our to-do list for White Tree Farm is building our home there. Robin and I have spent a lot of time thinking it about since we purchased the property.

We’ve been big fans of Dwell magazine for a number of years now and from their Twitter feeds I’ve discovered a number of Canadian architects, including Superkul and Solares.

Another company that caught our eye was BONE Structure, a Montreal-based company that has been expanding rapidly into the rest of Canada, including Ontario, BC and Alberta. From their website:

The BONE Structure® steel construction technology combines the advantages of a post-and-beam structure with an integrated energy efficient solution for the thermal envelope.

BONE Structure Homes are Net Zero Energy Ready and can easily reach LEED or PassivHaus Certifications.

The lead photo is from an open house BONE Structure hosted in Mulmur, Ontario. Robin and I attended the open house and were impressed with the entire concept. This particular house is about twice the size of what Robin and I have in mind, but the off-grid, energy-efficient design and the high quality construction caught our eye. BONE Structure more than met the requirements we laid out in our manifesto for White Tree Farm:

We will look to minimize our energy footprint as well, looking at concepts like net-zero housing and renewables.

Wherever possible, we will build using natural building materials and methods that are beautiful, non-toxic and have a minimum impact on the environment.

We will emphasize quality instead of quantity.
We will target for simplicity in what we own and how we live. The things in our lives should be both beautiful and useful.

In September, we attended one of their information sessions in Toronto to talk with the company personnel about our plans.  We soon after signed a contract to start the design process.

What’s Next

Right now we are in the first concept phase. We expect to spend some time in this phase to ensure the house is what we need as the center of White Tree Farm.

More to come!