Private Residence, Canmore, Alberta
To help guarantee the look they wanted, the Renauds also chose Canmore-based Sterling Timber Frame Homes as their builder. Ron Renaud describes the company as one of the few doing timber-frame building in the area, and president Norman Flann says his specialty is custom homes.
“I had a reference from someone and it worked out very well,” says Renaud. “He was a quick study.”
Flann describes Jenkins as a wonderful architect and easy to work with, but says the project is fairly typical of what he does.
“I specialize in custom timber-frame homes of truly stately size and manner,” he says. “I’m typically involved in a lot of the design of the home, working with architects and designers and also working with interior designers as far as products their clients are looking for.”
He adds that a home of this scope also takes an average of 18 months, and he only takes on two or three projects each year.
“My job is to facilitate my clients, give them the best value for their dollar, and take care of everything that needs to be done,” he says.
Because of the importance of the stone in the project, Flann opted to recommend a local mason who had already done several jobs for him – Jasper Browning of Boulderworks Ltd. – to the Renauds as a sub.
“He’s quite a craftsman himself, and he takes pride in coming up with different styles and unique features,” says Flann. “This job involved a lot of ashlar work, but he decided the patterns that would look good and we concurred on that.”
“He’s a young guy and very capable,” says Renaud of the mason, who spent the better part of eight months on the job.
KEEPING IT BALANCED
For his part, Browning is a big fan of Rundlestone. He appreciates that it’s the dominant stone in the area, and has been used for historic projects such as the Banff Springs Hotel.
Geologists estimate the sedimentary stone, a limestone/shale hybrid, dates back some 245 million years. Colors are primarily in the black and brown range, with small amounts of gray and white.
Browning says stones in the lighter range of the color palette tend to contain more limestone and are harder, while those at the darker end of the spectrum contain more coal and tend to be brittle.