MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

94 ML BLUE WINTER 2019 words & photos :: Colin Field If you wanted to build a home in the town of the Blue Mountains, you couldn’t wish for a better property; this 100-acre parcel affords views into the Beaver Valley and down to Georgian Bay. And if you wanted to build an eco-home on said property, you couldn’t do better than hiring Ben Gabriel of Northland Ecohomes Limited to design and build it. “The clients came to me with some Pinterest clippings and more specific clippings, from a company called Mafco over in Kawartha, and that gave us the basic concept,” says Gabriel. “We do all our own design for our homes. We don’t take on any projects we don’t build. So we took some basic concept drawings and evolved them and finalized the layout, the floor plan and the ergonomics of what they wanted.” With an emphasis on an environmentally-friendly build, the 4000-square-foot, contemporary, sprawling ranch design features an Austrian Froling boiler. It uses a highly compressed pellet which burns slowly and efficiently. The custom-made hopper uses vacuum tubes to run pellets into the boiler when needed. “Apparently, filling this up once is enough to heat a house of this size, for the entire winter,” says Gabriel, “and the cost of these pellets is less than $1000.” ECO VALLEY Every detail counts in this sustainable home overlooking the Beaver Valley MOUNTAIN HOME