tradition
Using hand tools, traditional methods, and innovative joints, we select the most effective and functional matings for each project. Our projects are all hand drawn, and we finish all of our frames with hand tools.
a meditation
Some folks have to 'go' to work. We walk 30 steps across our yard to get to our shop, where we breathe in the sappy delicious scent of pine, and 'play' in the shop. It never feels like work, but rather, a practise...of patience, skill, and the honouring of ancient craft.
custom stairs
Denis is a master of figuring out creative solutions for stairs, especially in tight spaces. From formal to funky, traditional to winders, we can build you elegant stairs.
shelter...by hand
Denis Drouin and Tina Therrien have collectively been building with natural materials for a few decades.
We love finding creative solutions for your building needs. Our first priority is not to build anything new at all...if you have a building that can be renovated, that's our first choice, and if not, we work with clients to try to build the smallest possible building with locally sourced materials.
Our work schedule blends with our homesteading chores: tending to our forest, our gardens, and our chickens. Work and play, it's all the same to us.
chop wood, carry water
We absolutely love what we do. We work mindfully, with integrity, and without a lot of overhead in our 'Ma & Pa' timber frame shop.
Denis, a former train dispatcher, perpetual artist, and seasoned builder, brings an eye to detail, much skill, and an abundance of enthusiasm to the table. Denis heads up the shop, creating the drawings, doing lay-out, and most of the machining. When he has spare time, you'll find him playing old time tunes, building forts, or whittling wood. Just 'cuz.
Please feel free to contact us to talk about timber framing, or natural building. We are available to consult on straw bale, clay ovens, tadelakt, plaster, and more.
Tina, a former teacher-turned-straw bale builder, headed up Camel's Back Construction for well over a decade, and with her crew, built straw homes in Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and even in Haiti. She loves chiselling out mortises, hand planing frames, and crane raising days. In the interim, she gardens, bakes bread, and tinkers with herbal remedies.
