BRaNCHING OUT
Impressive St-Jérôme log home grew just like the family that built it
The story about how this piècesur-pièce log home came to be built is a true epic tale of timing, good fortune and most of all — perseverance. It all started in the mid-1970s when Gaétan Ruel and his wife, Nicole, welcomed their third child. At the time, they were living in a beautiful modern mountainside home facing a ski hill in the Laurentians. But they were quite a distance away from schools, grocery stores and recreational centres and with only weekend residents as neighbours. They came to realize it was not the ideal place to raise children. So the couple decided to move to an area with closer amenities, buying a large 2,508-square-metre (27,000-square-foot) lot in a new housing development in Bellefeuille (now part of St-Jérôme). Earlier in the decade, Gaétan and Nicole had purchased an old log home, in parts and pieces, that was well over 100 years old. It was bought from a friend whose business was to buy and dismantle such houses in remote areas for later reassembly and sale. “It was just one big pile of various size logs, hatchet-marked beams and wooden planks all numbered and accompanied by a makeshift assembly plan that more or less just showed where the openings for the windows were,” says Gaétan Ruel. The couple’s initial thought had been to keep it stored and eventually reassemble it somewhere as a holiday getaway, but it now seemed a better idea to use it as a principal residence instead. Unfortunately, the 7.3 m x 7.9 m (24 ft x 26 ft) log home they had purchased was too small for a family of five. So the Ruels asked their friend to find them another to attach to the first one to serve as the living room/family room with space for a dining table. When they were ready to build their home, the problems started. The developer they bought the land from did not relish the idea of having a rustic log home standing next to his brand new modern brick, clapboard and aluminum siding constructions. In fact, the deed stipulated that all the houses be constructed with such materials only. The developer reasoned that since log homes demanded more maintenance to preserve the exterior wood, he feared that an owner could eventually become neglectful in the upkeep, thus diminishing the value of the surrounding homes. But the Ruels, who had hired an architect to draw up the detailed plans for the construction of their home, persisted and assured the developer that they had the time and means to properly care for their log home come hell or high water. After much discussion and insisting, the developer finally gave his approval.
Finding a contractor to rebuild the two homes as one residence and supervise the finishing touches — electricity, plumbing, internal partitions etc. — was easier to negotiate. Also luckily for the Ruels, the contractor’s father was a fine cabinetmaker, who in addition to making the kitchen cabinets, also made many of the fixed wooden elements, and some of the furniture for the house. At last, the Ruel family could move into their beautiful old-new log home. But once they settled in, it was still too small. So the following year, their resourceful friend found them a 3.6m x 3.6m (12 ft x 12 ft) former milk house from the 1920s that was used for storing milk and butter. The logs were similar and the Ruels had it rebuilt at the back of the family room as a solarium. In 1983, another log home from the 1800s was purchased from their friend and rebuilt as a stand-alone garage. But the saga didn’t stop there, for by 1986, their now older three children had started inviting friends over, once again making the home feel more and more crowded. So Gaétan and Nicole decided to have an extension built onto the left side for a living room and for their new upstairs bedroom, which would offer more privacy than the original ground-floor location that became the formal dining room. The wood for this extension was supplied, of course, by their friend who just so happened to have a complete log home in storage, and agreed to sell them just the pieces needed by the contractor they hired to complete this extension. Knowing its history makes it easy to identify the various components of the house that today measures 18.90 metres (62 feet) in length. The logs may be of different widths, and some may be crooked, but they all fit seamlessly together, showing great workmanship and attention to details by the various craftsmen the couple worked with over a span of about 12 years. The roofs are covered with thick handsplit cedar shingles from British Columbia. The circular paved alley gives the front of the house a majestic look, while the back is more rustic looking with a terrace and pergola, both covered with translucent Plexiglas. At dusk when the lights are turned on at the back of the house and inside, the reflection in the in-ground pool makes for a spectacular visual effect. The interior decor, rustic yet plush, suits the exterior to a T. In the family room, which is located in the second house purchased, hand-hewn beams that show hatchet marks span the width of the room, which is illuminated by a skylight in the 5.5 m (18 ft) high ceiling. The massive fieldstone fireplace is topped by a wooden beam almost 15.24 cm thick by 35.56 cm wide (6 inches x 14 inches). Above, the small mezzanine that was once accessible with a ladder was a favourite hiding place of the children. The ladder was eventually removed for fear of an accident. A beautiful collection of masks from around the world hangs on one wall. They were bought by the couple during their many travels and frame a colourful painting from Haiti. The canvas is actually a sugar sack, and the stamped name of the company is visible on the back. The French doors with etched glass panes lead into the solarium, which features comfortable seating furniture and thriving houseplants. In the kitchen, the yellow cabinets contrast nicely with the darker tones of the spice rack and buffet, put together by Gaétan Ruel himself with timber left over from the construction. The contractor made the table and benches in the breakfast nook, which was designed expressly to keep the energetic children sitting at the table. “Nicole and I would sit at the edges so they couldn’t dash off before finishing their meal first” explains Ruel. In the formal dining room, which used to be the couple’s bedroom, the elaborately carved table with matching chairs, dates from the early 20th century. It is made of walnut heartwood, that being the dense inner part of a tree trunk, which is the hardest timber). Here, like in the kitchen and in the solarium, the floor is covered with large ceramic tiles. The living room extension on the left side of the house is more modern in decor and also much brighter and airy with large windows and white walls. The painting hanging between two windows is by the Québécois artist Robert Boucher. It was commissioned to match the overall blue theme of the room. The floor is covered with a Chinese carpet made of silk. The spiral staircase leading to the second floor is a clever piece of design and engineering. Attached to a metal post, the steps can be loosened using a simple Allen key and stacked to one side, or entirely removed so that furniture can be hoisted upstairs. Even so, the emptied stairwell was too small when the king-sized bed and beautiful antique wardrobe had to be moved upstairs from the original ground-floor master bedroom. So the furniture was moved outside during the construction, lifted with a crane and deposited via the window inside the upstairs bedroom. “If we ever sell the house, we’ll have to dismantle them or leave them behind,” says Ruel. But the decision to sell won’t be made for years as the couple says they have no intention of moving for now. While the logs and beams of the framework are hidden in the master bedroom for a more unified and contemporary style, they are visible in the lower walls of the two guest bedrooms. This gives the larger bedroom a charming country look, emphasized by two landscape paintings and the straw hat on the pillow. The smaller bedroom would delight any child with its funny comforter on the single bed and quirky accessories. The bed frame on which the mattress rests is actually a wooden box. “The children would hide secret things inside of it. And we would just have to open the lid to find out what they were up to,” Ruel says with a laugh. Though they now have left the nest, the children will forever be part of the history of this warm and spacious home. It was, after all, for them that this log home was built.