Upon arriving back in Canada after several years of living abroad, we knew the Rocky Mountains would play a significant role in our lives. Having spent so much time that first year traveling throughout Alberta and BC, we came upon Golden, mainly due to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Skiing and snowboarding had quickly become favourite family activities and once pointed downhill at that resort, we understood that Golden and the adventures offered there would forever alter our lives. But, where to start?

After months of searching, land was found, purchased and a whole new set of adventures began.

In the beginning, we cleared only enough land to park our RV. We spent that first summer exploring and dreaming and making plans for the Bunkie and what the future may hold. Over the course of a couple of months, more plans were made, adjusted and adjusted again as everyone had opinions about what we would build on the property. Luckily, David had the knowledge of the steps needed to move forward, but where to find the time to start as we were all leading very busy lives; working and volunteering, driving kids to and from activities, finishing renovations on our main home and just trying to breathe through it all. 

And then COVID...everything just stopped.

Here we go...

The Blue Bunkie started off as a plan to build our kids a place of their own so they wouldn't have to spend all their time in the RV. They were getting bigger and the beds in the back of the RV were not. That plan was adjusted quickly, and we added a loft, a kitchen, a bathroom, electrical, etc. to the plans as we thought it would be a great place to spend winter weekends and not have to winterize the RV. A saw mill was purchased and trees that were dangerous to the property or dead-standing were felled. We spent a full weekend putting the mill together and over the next few weeks, hauled and milled the lumber needed to build the foundation of the Blue Bunkie.

In September and October of 2020, the shell of the cabin started to take shape. David was working on it constantly as the rest of us were at home, navigating online schooling and trying to figure out life in the COVID era. With little more than his personal tools, a generator and the knowledge of how to move forward, he milled, sanded, sawed and nailed nearly every board to build our sweet little cabin. The rest of the family would pitch in on weekends and holidays, or as time allowed. We used recycled siding taken from an old garage, windows someone had replaced and an old wood stove to help complete the build. Even as we were finishing this cabin, ideas about having a larger place on the property began to take shape, and before we knew it, the dream grew and we were clearing land for Spruce Hollow.

 

Spring 2023

Spruce Hollow Lodge Becomes Reality

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In April of 2023 we started the process of securing funding for the building of the main cabin. Anyone who has been approved for a construction mortgage will understand that it's a process and it can take a while. While this was underway, plans were being finalized with our builder, Surefit Timber Cabins, for​ the custom design we ultimately decided upon. In July, Pierre from Bang Bang Contracting arrived with his crew and installed our ICF foundation quickly and efficiently. Once we had the foundation installed, my brother Jesse, from J & G Contracting, and his family arrived from Newfoundland to help building the floor and other structural components that were needed in place before the main cabin arrived. Working in conjunction with us, Jesse pushed us through the intense heat and mosquitos of that summer and before long we had a floor that could take the weight of the cabin in place. From there, the Surefit crew were onsite erecting the timber frame cabin we had purchased. We had assembled a crew of various trades-people that were on task and wasted no time in putting everything in place.

 

And then the sanding started. So. Much. Sanding. Our little handheld orbital sander was working overtime until all the rough lumber was smooth. When we had the beautiful main floor walls in place, we needed the upper floor framed in and then a roof. Once again, Jesse was on a plane from Newfoundland and working in tandem with Shamrock Mountain Building and ourselves, the walls and windows were framed in on the second floor and the roof started to take shape. We really were moving quite quickly for being weekend warriors! We were quite proud of ourselves for our progress and were thinking we would be ready to spend the Christmas of 2023 in our new mountain cabin. Then a snowstorm in early October dumped over 30cm on our build site! Time and patience from our Shamrock crew prevailed as they, and David, worked to melt snow safely to finish our roof and second floor. Hours of melting and remelting. Eventually, they had metal on the roof and we were safe from the wet weather, but we had no windows or doors to completely seal the structure. We had started the process of ordering windows in July of 2023, as soon as we had finalized our plans with Surefit. Estimates for the windows then became lost, passed on to random people and eventually just unaccounted for. The window company finally received our order on the 29th of September, 2 months exactly from when we accepted the quote from the supplier. Weeks and months began passing with little progress on the cabin. Several emails and calls to the window supplier were yielding little in the way of results as delay after delay occurred. There would be no celebrating Christmas in our new cabin this year. Finally, at the end of January we got the call...the windows were on their way! Jesse was once again called back to help oversee delivery and install and get us moving forward.  He continued framing the interior with a help from us, and generally just got the project moving forward again.

 

In the midst of everything else that was getting done, the chinking had to be started. What is chinking? It is those lines between the logs that help seal the gaps. Logs often don't fit uniformly and they are in motion as the weather changes, contracting and expanding with temperature and moisture levels. Chinking is a flexible seal that grows and shrinks with the logs so that we don't have any holes in our walls. We didn't have a clue what chinking was before we started, and to be honest if we did, we would have likely went with a whole other plan for our home.  Hats off to those folks out there who do this on the regular, you deserve some kind of reward. It is likely the most tedious and underwhelming job. Hours and hours, days and days of chinking! Thank goodness for audiobooks and cold beer!

 

Fast forward to July 2024 and the cabin had really started taking shape. Our fantastic tradespeople; electrician Trevor Trotter, our plumber Mike Fitzpatrick, along with Parky's Heating and Cooling for HVAC and wood stove install, as well as Kicking Horse Water Services for the well, had all been through on numerous occasions.  Lawrence, the owner/operator from Pederson and Sons Excavating was back and forth as needed to dig trenches for well and septic lines, landscaping and pretty much anything else that required heavy equipment. He was always quick, efficient and economical. The vast majority of our trades were incredible to work with and kept up with the roller coaster of a schedule that we had them on. Jesse had been back twice more to push us towards completion, working days and days, accomplishing more in his time than we could hope to as we were working only on the weekends. We would be remiss if we didn't mention our incredible sister, Karen. If she wasn't slogging through whatever she could help with on the build site, she was at our main house ensuring everything ran smoothly during the times when our kids schedules prevented them from being with us. She has saved us on more than one occasion and our lives would have been much more complicated without her and her selflessness.

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August came and went in a blur as we worked as much as we could to finish the house. Holidays, weekends and time that would normally be spent at the lake or creek were all invested in Spruce Hollow. All the little pieces of trim and the custom wainscotting were laboured over and installed by David. Staining, more sanding,  and all the details that customized our house to our specifications were being added little by little. So much of this house has been so very time consuming and, definitely a labor of love and stubbornness. Everything that goes into a log home is a process. Every piece of board on the interior has been chosen by us, installed by us (or Jesse); sawed, nailed and sanded by us; chinked and stained by us. The learning curve and the will to see this project through has been massive.  

 

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With the arrival of winter again, we saw the true finished character of Spruce Hollow Lodge take shape. It's almost as if the cabin was telling us how it wanted to be shown off. The original thoughts of what we thought the end product would look like has been adjusted and adjusted again. As we find inspiration in the lines and natural beauty of the wood and land, we've realized that Spruce Hollow had its own plans and we just needed to listen. Never would I have thought to put a black kitchen in any house, but the drama of the black and the custom live-edge countertops and shelving just seemed right for this space. The coziness of having a dark staircase and the mood of all the wood stains, purple-heart vanities and shelving playing off each other created a character that we couldn't have truly envisioned at the start. 

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Jesse returned to us again, but this time to also help with the Blue Bunkie.  Over the course of the past couple of months, Bang Bang Contracting completed an ICF foundation for the Bunkie to rest on. Pederson's Contracting proceeded to carefully move our little cabin up the road and place it on it's new home next to the main cabin. During the move (a very stressful process for David, as his heart and soul is in that cabin) only minor damages occurred, but they needed to be dealt with before the cold and snow really set in. New floor joists replaced damaged ones, new decks and various other projects were completed, along with hauling out the original kitchen out to make room for a new design that maximized the space we had. The bathroom saw new paneling and the bedroom received a new hatch to the basement for future development. 

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January 2025 

We are ready to share Spruce Hollow Lodge! Over the Christmas holidays, we pushed through the final details and are now ready to share our passion project with you! December saw us arrange and rearrange furniture, filling shelves and cleaning up the messes we made. Having lived in the space for a few weeks,, we have, hopefully been able to anticipate the needs of those who choose to spend their time at our mountain home. We have tried to think of everything, but of course we would love feedback on how to improve. This is a learning curve for us and we will strive to improve as we move forward.

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A huge thank you to anyone who have helped us on our journey. Whether your family or friends that have sweated it out with us, contractors that fit us into already tight schedules or people sharing their encouragement with kind words and support from afar, we couldn't have gotten there without you. We are beyond grateful to each and every one of you. 

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We are absolutely in love with Spruce Hollow, the town of Golden and the people there. We hope that you will find your own joy as you visit and explore what makes it all so special.

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Thrill-Chill-Repeat...

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It's more than a part of our logo, it's the reason for Spruce Hollow Lodge and the Blue Bunkie.

 Get out there and find your adventure, the mountains are calling you home.

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