Bullock & Company

Master Craftsmen of Fine Handcrafted Log Homes

Tall Trees -Video

QuickTime Player

TALL TREES………A TALL ORDER

Apart from being the singularly largest expenditure you'll ever make, building a house can pretty well guarantee to make you feel like you're seeing fire for the first time and in all likelihood, cause irreversible hair loss. I'm okay with the first part.

The story of Tall Trees begins about twenty years ago when my wife and I first decided to purchase a cottage on the magnificent shores of Georgian Bay. Known to most art lovers as the home of the Group of Seven painters, this is truly the Great White North at its' very best. In keeping with these wondrous surroundings, we couldn't think of any home more fitting then a hand hewn log home nestled among the pines on a rugged piece of Great Lakes' coastline. Unfortunately, we also couldn't think of how we could afford it. On that note, my wife slapped me into consciousness, and we settled on a lovely little Jefferson Log style home on three acres of land outside of Parry Sound, Ontario. As pre-fab log homes go, it was just fine, quaint and cozy and just right for a young family with small children. We spent the better part of 13 years in that cottage and watched our children grow and learn to appreciate the beauty and wonder that this part of Canada has to offer. No regrets, I assure you. Time has a way of changing many things though, most of all the size of your children and their ability to occupy space. We decided that having an eighteen-year-old boy sharing a room with a sixteen-year-old girl and of course all their weekend co-conspirators was becoming a little less then manageable, if not downright dangerous. With our financial act in order, we put our cottage on the market, sold it promptly and made the commitment to find just the right location to build the home of our dreams.

It took some thirteen months, five real estate agents, two provinces, three states and three or four thousand miles of highways, byways and endless cottage trails to find just the right piece of property. Wouldn't you know it; we finally found “the perfect spot” some twenty-five minutes from the very place we had left. Go figure. And so, this is where the tall order of finding just the right person to help design and build our dream home began.

We knew that we wanted a post and beam style of construction, but with a twist. We had always admired “stacked” log homes, but my wife and I both felt that we would tire of just the one wall surface of round pine throughout the house. We really wanted to be able to have options as far as color and textures were concerned and a pure log home would not offer us this. We also knew that unless the home was enormous in all dimensions, we were likely to feel like Hansel and Gretel, living under the weight of the heavy pine construction. The answer was simple………we thought. Find someone who could construct a post and beam frame using hardwood and softwood timbers. A timber frame constructed from trees in their natural state, minus the bark, and then joined with as little hardware employed as possible. We wanted all the irregularities and imperfections that come with that territory. The search began with our immersion into the world of log home building. You name it we tried it. From subscriptions to various log home periodicals, Internet searches, contractors references, weekend excursions to building sites and of course the cottage shows.

Ironically, we ultimately found that craftsman about one hour and fifteen minutes away from home, in New Lowell, Ontario. For the record, I'm pretty sure that he's the reason that New Lowell actually made it to a map of Southern Ontario in the first place. His name is Tim Bullock and he is most definitely one of a kind. Think Frank Lloyd Wright, meets Jimmy Buffett, meets Grizzly Adams. This is a man of unbelievable architectural vision who never seems phased by the toughest construction problem or complex engineering situation. At the same time, he always seems to exude just the right kind of confidence in the face extraordinary pressure. This pressure is otherwise known as, The Customer Panic Attack.” Not that I would know………well maybe just a little. Tim Bullock, the Prince of Pine, the Titan of Timber, the Lord of the Log, as we have affectionately dubbed him. Seriously though, he and his team are pretty amazing to see in motion, performing their craft. You're talking about a fellow that can hold a chainsaw in one hand and a micrometer in the other, balancing on a forty foot long pine span some thirty feet in the air while answering yet another one of my really, really, insightful questions, without loosing his footing or his cool. He basically whittled our house with a penknife. Well, almost anyway.

But I digress. Back to the beginning of our relationship with Bullock Log Homes and the designing and planning of our cottage. We presented ourselves to Tim at his office in New Lowell with some very basic sketches, a nutty idea and no shortage of enthusiasm. Tim embraced the project and immediately took the whole concept to task. With his associate and very skillful draftsperson Denise, they began the process of designing and laying out the plans for what we know now is a marvel of engineering and timber frame construction. I must admit, it took quite a bit of patience on Tim and Denise's part and a fair bit of rethinking on ours to come up with the final working drawings. Apparently, we were a little ambitious in our initial thoughts about space and requirements versus cost. Okay, we were a lot ambitious. Having said that, Tim and Denise were inspiring, intuitive and supportive. Their energy and enthusiasm, not to mention a keen sense of humor never wavered and I can tell you first hand that it was no small victory to arrive at the other side of this process with nervous system in tact. You might say I'm a little compulsive about the details. You might say that, but then I'd have to hurt you. You see, we went from a two story, “too many square feet to mention”, Adirondack lodge, to a perfectly proportioned, tastefully crafted, timber frame cottage that fit our needs and our pocketbook. With the drafting complete, the construction began almost immediately and we continued to work as a team with Tim and his crew every step of the way. Tim went off to select hardwood timbers for the posts of the frame and would call me to come up to his building site to check them out before they were dressed and milled for the joinery work that would follow. He was almost as excited about each timber that he selected, as I am when my new Snap-On catalogue arrives, but that's another story. The next time we saw those logs, they were works of art ready to be integrated into the support system of the house. Believe me, there was a lot of head scratching and “but how's” going on at this point. Tim just nodded and offered up one of his soon to be hundreds of “Don't worry, it's going to be perfect.” Then I'd start breathing again. We had meetings and phone calls and as much communication as we needed to maintain a consistent involvement in the process. Did I mention I was excited?

While the log frame was being fashioned at Tim's yard, our actual building site on the Bay was being readied. We hired friend and local contractor, Harold Blower of HB Contracting to work in concert with Tim and his company. Harold was to prepare the foundation and ultimately finish the house around the frame that Tim would erect. What an incredible process to be a part of.

Laying out and positioning the house on the land, blasting out rock to be able to accommodate the foundation and the basement, witnessing the earliest stages of construction and seeing the structure rising from the age-old granite below, made us giddy. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for days. In fact, I'm still wearing it. We would drive the two and one half hours from Toronto a couple of times a week just to have a glance before sunset and wonder what living here would be like. As it turned out, we couldn't have known how fantastic it would be.

Well, the day arrived when the foundation was ready, the timbers were prepared and the crane was in place to assist in assembling the frame on its' final resting place. Imagine, all this planning, cutting and calculation and these timbers were now going to be joined for the very first time. A pretty spectacular moment. I sat patiently for five days and watched each and every post and beam being lifted into position. Without a word of lie, it was absolutely breathtaking to see the workmanship, the care and concern and ultimately the magnificence of the collective effort, fully realized. It wasn't just me that was sitting there awestruck either. The entire crew, from the crane operator, to the local sub trades, friends, neighbors, everyone and anyone that had a chance to see this structure was just speechless. We could have charged admission to the boaters drifting by to gaze upon this masterpiece. Truly a work of art and a sight to behold. But the most remarkable thing about it was that although the timbers had never been joined and erected before this time, Tim Bullock never flinched or showed any sign that he had any doubts about it. He was nothing but confidence and cool. The frame went up without a hitch.

From this point forward was a kind of like a new beginning to the construction process. As days turned to weeks and weeks to months, we were swimming in a sea of details. Windows, doors, framing and baseboards, wiring, plumbing, heating systems, flooring and of course, every time saving appliance known to mankind. The good news was Tim was keeping up, stroke for stroke. He stayed tuned and waited for us to get through the nitty gritty and then jumped back in with both feet. He constructed the most beautiful staircases. Found just the right slabs of oak to install as mantles over the fireplaces. Finally, he and his crew crafted a series of twig and rail deck railings, which finished off the house in just the right fashion. Stunning.

Well, there you have it. All that was left to do and remains to be completed was collecting and assembling all the cherished furnishings and pieces that we have purchased, found, or personally crafted over the years. With pride, we fill our most beautiful home with only those items that hold meaning and memory. But the very best part, is that we know that for years to come and generations to follow, the house that Tim built, will be loved, enjoyed and filled with the one item we didn't have to build or find or purchase. Happiness.