My name is Hermann Thoene, and as you can see on my LinkedIn profile, I have spent a significant time of my “professional life” in the computer industry. For various reasons (maybe I’ll write about that some day in a more personal blog) I had to do something new and different – and that turned out to be manufacturing and building log homes. My family and friends were quite stunned, and during the first months nobody really thought that I was serious about this new business.
Why would somebody with no background or experience in construction want to start a new company manufacturing and building log homes??? And all that during the most difficult economic times, where especially the construction industry has been hit hardest!
I was always fascinated by log homes. To me they are very natural buildings, where you can still smell and feel nature. Most of the material in a log home is wood – a very natural and renewable material. When I first told my friends in Germany that I was planning to move to Canada, many thought (in a more or less serious way) that most Canadians live in the woods, trap animals and live in log homes. Of course I was a bit disappointed after moving to British Columbia in 2000, to see that this is not totally true – but my interest and fascination with log homes remained.
In the summer of 2008 I once again visited my friend Peter Schleifenbaum in Haliburton, Ontario. He manages Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve – a company with many diverse business areas. If you live in Ontario or visit Ontario, I strongly recommend that you check out the many interesting attractions available at Haliburton Forest. It’s worth more then one visit for sure…
Peter developed the EcoLog concept about 10 years ago, when he was looking for ways to create high value products based on wood from his certified sustainable forest. Haliburton County is the most famous cottage country with prestine forests and hundreds of lakes, and many people from all over Ontario enjoy cottage life in the Haliburton region. Peter wanted to address the cottage market, and took old pioneer building methods and tweeked them to fit modern building standards and regulations. The result were EcoLog building kits, which were soon loved by many customers. Very much to Peters surprise, most of the customers wanted pretty big building instead of small and cosy cottages. The reason was that many people not only wanted to use their “cottage” for weekends or vacation, but were building it big enough to be used as their retirement residence. Over the last 10 years Peter and his company have sold more then 100 EcoLog homes of various sizes, and the charming “EcoLog look” is so popular in Haliburton county that people even start imitating it by putting “fake EcoLog siding” on their homes.
But now back to my visit to Ontario in 2008: That summer Peter told me about the background of EcoLog, and about the success as a business. I had a chance to look at several homes and was fascinated from the beatiful natural look, and from the simplicity of the building concept. We discussed if these homes could be a similar “hit” on the West Coast, as I had never seen any similar homes in BC. Peter offered me the chance to use his ideas and concepts to build a simlar business in British Columbia.
In October 2008 I started with some market research to find out what BC people think about these homes. I presented EcoLog homes at a home show, talked to many interested people, and built a website where I collected more feedback from interested potential customers. The feedback was very positive. People loved the charming look and atmosphere. That gave me enough confidence to decide that it’s time for EcoLog homes to “go West”. I started looking for suppliers, potential business partners and many different trades people. I visited Peter a few more times to learn all the details about EcoLog homes. I looked at many existing homes in Ontario, talked to builders and spent some time on construction sites to see how these homes are erected.
I’m very conscious about our environment, and I like to build and sell “eco friendly” homes. Therefore I like to “go local” wherever possible. I formed a partnership with a sawmill on Vancouver Island to provide the timber from locally grown trees. I built a network of reliable local trades people to provide the necessary materials, and to help me and my future customers build EcoLog homes. Our production process and facilities are ready now, and soon we will start putting our first “west coast” EcoLog home kit together. This kit will be used to build our future show home in Saanich, BC.
The building process for this home will be documented through a series of blog posts on this site… Stay tuned !