Ecolog Cottage Cowichan Valley

Egbert lives in Germany and dreamed of building a vacation home for several years. He first saw our Ecolog home in Central Saanich during a Canada trip in 2012. It must have been “love at first sight” for both Canada (or more specific Vancouver Island) and for Ecolog homes.

In 2014 he found a building lot in the Cowichan Valley and started developing the lot by building a septic system and getting hydro and water hooked up to an RV. Now he had his own place to stay when visiting the country, and started a more detailed planning process to build his own Ecolog home.

He got in touch with Randy Churchill, the same timberframe builder who built the barn style Ecolog home in Courtenay a year earlier.

Egbert liked the look-and-feel of Ecolog homes and that they are primarily made of wood – grown right in the Cowichan Valley where he planned to build.

After doing a lot of research and looking at several Ecolog homes from previous customers Egbert decided on a floor plan for his upcoming Ecolog home. Detailed planning together with Egbert and Randy started end of 2015, and the building process started beginning of 2016.

In September 2016 the home was ready for Egbert to move in. He is excited to spend lots of holidays with his family in “the valley”. Despite being his “family cottage” he is also planning to rent out the Ecolog home when he is back in Germany.

His home is available for “test living” at times when he is not on site. If you are interested you can get in contact with Egbert by contacting us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

26'x40' Barn Style Ecolog Home Vancouver Island

Early spring 2013 a client wanted to build his dream home and decided to build an Ecolog home. After several months of planning, he decided on the floor plan and style of home he wanted to build: An Ecolog Home with 26'x40' footprint and a Gambrel style roof (also called "Barn style" roof).

This is the first Ecolog home with such a roof - we were all very curious as to how it would look. In May 2013 we started creating the detailed blueprints. The 3D model, created as part of the design process, confirmed that the combination of the Ecolog walls and a Gambrel roof looks fantastic.

In addition to the main house a garage was built as a similar looking Ecolog building. To keep the height of this secondary building in line with municipal laws, the garage roof was designed as a standard 6:12 pitched truss roof.

In September 2013 the construction crew was assembled and they started to build. The owner selected Randy Churchill, an experienced timberframe builder, as his main contractor. 

Randy and his team are very skilled in working with all types of wood. The Ecolog kit was first delivered to their timberframe shop. There, they pre-processed all timbers to minimize the assembly time at the construction site. Using this approach, the garage walls were assembled on site in just over 1 day. 

Construction of the larger main house, of course, took longer. In December 2013 the home was close to "lockup stage", and all framing was done. For the main house they added many design details like the post/beam connections in traditional tenon/mortise style.

This home is also a nice example for an energy efficient design. First projections of Christi Sacht, the energy advisor for this project, showed that the home may get an Energuide Rating of 82 - 83 (final numbers to be determined later after the blower door test). Such a high rating will qualify the owner to receive special rebates for highly energy efficient homes, but more importantly this will save him thousands of dollar in heating costs in years to come.

24'x32' Ecolog Home in Saskatoon

Dan was our first customer to purchase an Ecolog kit in Saskatchewan. Having bought a nice acreage on the outskirts of Saskatoon, he was looking for the ideal log home to suit his property, when he came across Ecolog Homes. Dan loved the simplicity of the construction and the charming look of the square timber walls.

Based on a 24'x32' sample plan, we jointly developed his personal floor plan to best fit his needs.

In December of 2011, Dan signed the contract to purchase his Ecolog home. Over the winter we created the detailed, engineer-approved construction blueprints.
In June of 2012, the Ecolog kit was shipped on a Super B truck from Vancouver Island to Saskatoon.

Dan hired a log home builder to erect the kit. Initially, all went well, but when an early winter hit, with lots of snow, the home could not be finished in 2012. Unfortunately, the builder did not show up in 2013 and Dan ended up doing a lot of the finishing work himself. We think Dan has done a fantastic job - just check out the nice river rock at the foundation, which he installed himself !

One special feature in Dan's home is the unique use of the 2"x6" tongue & grove Douglas Fir boards as a finished floor on the main level. We normally use this material for roof sheathing and to create the loft ceiling. I was somewhat concerned that the "select tight knot" quality of these boards would be a bit too rustic. However, I am pleased to have heard from Dan, in a recent email that, "Those floors look absolutely fantastic. When the sunlight hits them - oh man - pictures do not do them justice."

This page shows some 3D pictures and section views, which we created at the early design stage. It's interesting to compare these to some images of the (nearly) finished log home.