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A couple decided to build a timber frame, log, or custom home. They started by searching for land online and contacted a realtor. Their criteria included water access and affordability. They visited various lots and found one that was a bit steep but had a fantastic view. They wanted a walkout basement and a mix of modern and traditional log home design. They designed the house with lots of windows to take advantage of the view and passive heat from the sun. They faced challenges in finding the right lot and designing the layout but ultimately achieved their dream house. Okay, recording's starting, here we go. Hello, hello, hello. Hi, Jerry. How's everyone out there? How you doing, Nico? Good, good. How are you? I'm great, I'm great. We are live. We are live for our first of many to come chats, and I really appreciate your time, my friend, just to come on and teach me, teach us about the whole process. You're the man. You're the man who's done everything. We're going to talk today about land, right, the land search, we'll get into that, talking about the design, and then people are in for an exciting treat. This is our goal, you and I, based on our schedules, I know it won't always work out, but try to work out a weekly session here of just letting people know the whole process of building a timber frame, log, or custom home, and I really appreciate your time and experience here. Lots to learn. So, tell me, we're going to bring up, and I just want to, I know you're going to probably kill me after, but I just think today's worth preparing. I like teasing Nico, and this is his real accent, I love it, he's not inventing it in any way, this is a true French, lovely French accent, I'm envious, alright, so here we go. So, thanks my friend. So, what we're going to talk about first is the whole process, the land, the land that you and Irene had found. How did you, like, because everyone in my real estate background, everyone, you know, they can come up, and we'll talk about that, about the dream, the concept of, you know, what you were thinking for the home, but tell me about your journey, in terms of how you ended up finding this property, like, what was the... So, it all started early 2019, me and my wife, we decided that we wanted to build a house, we're ready, and so the first step was to find a, to find a property, so I was first looking online, onto some apps, where they show, like, the MLS lands, and then I got in contact with a realtor agent here in Peterborough, and then we, our, we had, our criteria was, we wanted to be close from the water, water access, or waterfront, we know with our budget, that was tricky, but we wanted to give it a shot, we knew we couldn't go into the very fancy lakes, but so we were more looking around the Rice Lake, or Sherman Lake, which were a bit more affordable. Right, so it all comes down to that, doesn't it, like, number one, that you and I would talk to our clients, well, when it comes to the home, what's your budget, but then this, yeah, we're talking about this, yeah, for land, appreciate that, so what could you fit, what was your criteria, your budget, and then what could fit that? Exactly, yeah, so yeah, with our budget, we knew our budget for our lot, so then we had our, or the list of lots we could visit, and then we just, we just went visit as many lots as we could, and there, that's where I'm glad I was with my wife, because me, I'm someone that, I get very excited with something, so each time I would see a lot, I wanted to buy it, like, I was like, That's like me as well, it's like, okay, looks good. Yeah, I was just so excited, I wanted to get going. So, Tom, so what was the other, with your wife, what was, what was she pointing out to you in your search that, Oh, yeah, so maybe I should discuss what you want to look when you're, when you're buying a lot, there's, like, quite a few things you want to check, you probably want to make sure it's buildable, like, you won't have an issue to build a house, so you can contact the township. Usually, your realtor agent will help you with that. I know that some lots, for example, have some restriction, depending on where they are. For example, the first one we've seen was on the Greenbelt, so very tricky to build there. Right. So that was the first criteria, yeah. Sorry, I was going to mention, because I was just going over that with one of my other associates the other day, we were talking a bit, you're building an envelope, like you're referring to, like, if, I mean, the land might look great, everything, excited about it, but then it might be, for what you want to build, they're saying, sorry, you can only build on this little, The docks and everything, you want to check, yeah, all the rules from the township for that particular lot, the setbacks, how much coverage you're able to build. So that was the main thing. And another big criteria, for my part, I thought it was to make sure there's good water. Sometimes it can be challenging on some lots to find water, or to have good quality water, and, yeah, so that was another criteria. A certain quantity, probably, yeah. Sorry, I was just going to, when you said about water, Nico, is that, how do you, like, how does that work out? Like, you like, okay, so say, for example, you find out from the planning or township set, everything's fine for your building envelope, right? This is a perfect piece of land, love it, the view is giving you that water access. But what would it mean, like, say, how did you confirm that it had, like, the right quality of water, the right, you know, when there's no water there? I want to speak to the neighbors, to where I was buying lots, I just asked the neighbors, how is the water, do you have any issues? And, yeah, that's how I found out from our lot we have now. Okay. It's a hill, so it was an old glacier, so I knew, like, all my neighbors have fantastic water, and so I knew it wasn't going to be an issue here. Great point, great point. You just, yeah, simplest to talk to the neighbors. Okay. So, yeah, you always want to, that's why we would do, so the first one we just saw, it was kind of a swamp, so, yeah, my wife didn't feel comfortable, and then, yeah, we visited a few more, but they were not water access, and, yeah, nothing very exciting. And then we found that lot, like you are showing on the picture here, and first when you see the lot, it's always kind of tricky to imagine what it would look like after, because it's usually kind of a forest, like it's hard to imagine with a house on it, but, yeah, so this lot was a bit steep. We knew it was a bit steep, but that was not something I was worried about. I've been working on a lot of projects with steep driveways. It adds a bit to the cost to do retaining walls and stuff like that, but we were prepared for that. But we knew, just by looking at that picture, that if you cut those little trees here, we would have a fantastic view, and that's what we have right now, and we're very happy with it. Right. I was going to say, and then people, if you wanted just to add to that, like, I mean, people can stay tuned for our ongoing episodes, but they also can refer to, do you mind if I give away your Instagram? Yeah, of course. Yeah. So it's our modern log home. It's a great read, just the whole process for Nico and Adrian. The steps, just, you can see the eventual product, but we're going to be talking here about it, bit step by step, so really appreciate your time, Nico. So there's the, okay, so you got the, here's the land, and then, let's see, and then you guys had an idea of the whole, what you're thinking. So tell me a bit about this. Tell us about your design. For those listening in, you won't be able to see this, so you can, in the reference to the link or the notes, go to my link on my YouTube channel, but here we go. For those that are seeing it live, here it is, or through video, we can see it's a nice layout. What's this? What would you call this? A timber frame? So it's a log home with timber frame. And the model, it's now called Northern Lights. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, so just to finish with a lot, we wanted a workout basement, right? So it means like when your basement is half open, so it's like open to the outside. And in order to do that, we needed a lot which was on a slope. So that's kind of why, when we saw that lot with the view, it made sense for the type of house we wanted. Right. You've got the wind, wind, you've got the water access, you've got the view, and you've got the slope. Exactly. And so we had already looked prior online of like some type of houses we like. The type of houses we really like were like kind of Scandinavian style, just with a lot of windows and like very modern inside. So yeah, we were trying to do a mix of like modern and traditional log homes. Right. Okay. So that's what we're going for. So because we had a view, right, we were going to take advantage of that view. We were facing south, so we're going to try to get to design it also with the sun to get as much as passive heat as we could from the sun. Right. The reason for all that glass or the windows. Yeah. So in here, we get a lot of sun, direct sun, because the sun is pretty low. So we get direct sun into our living rooms. And we can be like minus 40 outside, but just with the sun hitting our windows, it would be 20 degrees inside without the sun. Amazing. And in summer, we have a pretty big overhang, like more than four feet. And yeah, the sun in summer is much higher. So there is not direct sun. It's not coming right in, correct. That's amazing. So tell me, as you were designing this with the whole layout, were there any challenges for you? It's exciting to think about a plan, come up with the concept. Were there any challenges that you went, oh, shoot, now we can't do this or anything from that standpoint? Not really. So once we get the lot, I knew my setbacks, I knew how big of a house we could build. We had the design concept we wanted. We knew how many bedrooms and all of that we wanted. We knew we wanted the house split in two with the option of renting the basement as an Airbnb. Okay. So we gave all of that information to the designer from Discouraging Homes, Kate Jewell. And yeah, she designed an amazing house. And almost the first sketch was pretty much what we wanted. So I think two or three small revisions after that. And that was our dream house there. Yeah. Neat. That's exciting. And just that you referred to, Kate, we have an amazing design team, a whole group that helps all our clients here, that sits down, goes over the design, the concepts. I think as you've educated me and the team is that it's interesting. We have our models, I guess, really as a starting point, don't we, to show people what's out there. It really gets to get the creative juices flowing. What I'd say you've told me is that there's really probably, I'd say 99.9% of the end product is not what is in our plans. That's correct. Yeah. It ends up being... Yeah. Never done the two houses the same, like every customer has their own ideas and they want their own layout. So yeah. Right. Right. Which is, yeah, we just want to remind the public listening in or those watching that that's what we're proud of, is that we have that, not only the team, the design, but that it's not, hey, here's all we do, choose plan A, plan B, and then that's it, right? So that's what I really admire about what we do. And so we've got the design down. Oh, and that's the other thing, I guess, the key point, maybe that ties into the next part about the excavating. Because I know you refer to that in your Instagram, that it was a challenge there with some challenges and you're also looking at it, keeping in mind, of course, you've got your building envelope, but then you've got to remind yourself of, oh, yeah, we've got septic to allow for, we've got where we're putting the well. Was that what you're referring to here in this post there, Nico, of the challenges or was that related to the rock, all the rocks that we see there? I can't remember, I have to look with... I'm a bit ahead of you. I know that was a post. I've got the advantage of, yeah, but that was your August or in 2020, man, time goes by. It's now 2023, but it came around, let me see, we were saying, oh, maybe it was related to COVID. No, you're right. It was because of COVID. That was it. Okay. I didn't know if I was... That's what happens when you scan quickly. I thought it was maybe because of those rocks. I said, okay, it's COVID. I think, yeah, it was COVID as soon as we were starting. And then we were still able to get our permit somehow and then start our project. But yeah, we built our house during the beginning of COVID and moved in, it was still COVID, but that was the challenge. Yeah. So there's no, like excavating-wise, I mean, that must be exciting. On here, here we go. Yeah, it was great. The first time when I, as soon as they start digging the ground, it becomes very realistic. Okay. Cut the... I shouldn't say it's opening day. It's almost like, yeah, the big celebration, hey, we're breaking ground, the big digging the little silver shovel, right? For breaking ground. Exactly. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. And look at here, folks. I remember I was pretty much tired that day. You were a little kid going, were you the kid with the jeans like, hey, look at this view now we have. I know. I keep some trees. I know. Yeah. And as soon as you start cutting the trees and having all open, it's like, oh, wow. Okay. Now you start to envision way better where you're going to live and it's great. That's amazing. That's exciting. So, well, I think, what do you think that we maybe leave it at this point just to let people, you know, hey, if we talked about it all now, then there won't be another show. So that's to speak about. So what are we going to be talking about next? I'm going to give you a bit of a key, I'll scroll down here and see what we're going to be talking about next. I guess we're going to be talking about after the three weeks of excavating, just the prepping of the site for footings. That's the key. We're going to be getting into that on our next chat and then from the ground up, let people know every stage of the process. So, Nico, thanks so much. Everyone, if you have any questions, yeah, it's your dream home guy, Jon Carcer and Nico are our project manager and senior engineer here at Discovery. Really appreciate your time, Nico, and I know things, your schedule is crazy busy. So thanks for fitting me in and we'll try to be checking in or doing this post or I should say post slash podcast every week. So thanks for joining us, everyone. Don't hesitate to reach out to me and the various social links that you see, just direct message me, call me, email me and I'm glad to answer any of your questions and really appreciate your time, Nico. We'll look forward to chatting again. Thank you. Thanks again. Bye bye.
