Custom homebuilder Igor Krapchatov bought the wooded lot in 2020 to build an experimental vacation property.Mitchell Hubble/Modern Movement Creative Inc./Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
1739 Trapper’s Trail Rd., Dudley, Ont.
Asking Price: $5.95-million
Taxes: N/A
Lot Size: 1.99 acres
Agents: David Bemman, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
Deep in the woods near Halliburton there’s a house that wants to completely reframe the way you think about straw.
In the nursery rhyme about the wolf that likes to do radical remodels with his breath and the little pigs that experimented with different building typologies, straw gets perhaps the worst reviews: the wolf blows it down with no trouble, even easier than the house made of sticks. But if you ask Igor Krapchatov, who built his house on Miskwabi Lake largely out of prefabricated straw panels, straw is in. Straw is hot. You want some straw.
“I build any type of house in Canada: I build concrete, log cabin, I build conventional framing and timber frame. … I was always dreaming about something natural,” said Igor Krapchatov, a Toronto-area custom-home builder who bought the land for his experimental vacation property in 2020. “Instead of trying with customers, I try myself. I fly to Lithuania and check houses to understand how they work; it was my dream.”
The home, built to Passive House energy standards, can stay a constant 18 degrees Celcius inside without any heating sources turned on, even when it’s minus 30 outside.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
The panels are from a company called EcoCocon, (originally based in Lithuania, now headquartered in Slovakia) which has its primary market in Europe where straw buildings are a popular option everywhere from England to Belarus. EcoCocon’s panels are designed to provide the kind of thermal insulation needed to meet the Passive House standard in cold climates. The passive house movement seeks to create homes that require as little external energy as possible to heat or cool, and according to Mr. Krapchatov even when it was minus 30 degrees outside in recent winters, the inside of the house stayed a constant 18 degrees without any heating sources turned on.
That wasn’t all he experimented with. He used sheep’s wool for insulation in the attic. He used cork to insulate the second floor (which is not completely finished). And he used trees cut down on site for features around the house. He and his wife tried so many new technologies that they call the country home House 2050, which is how far into the future he believes it will take for the average Canadian home to have that kind of thermal performance (not least because it costs a lot more than current industry standard building techniques).
“People are not ready yet for that, this is a pilot project. In 2050 there will be open minds for it; it’s hard to accept right now,” he said.
The seven-bedroom, almost 10,000-square-foot home is spread over three storeys and has such high-end features as Japanese automated toilets and automated blinds.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
The house today
Mr. Krapchatov’s agent, David Bemman, likes to joke that this a house with no door, which is only partly true. As you trundle past the automated gate, you’ll see there’s no traditional front door; the main access is at the back of the long two-car garage. There are two doors to the interior in this space to minimize the amount of heat lost to the outdoors. It also seemed more practical to Mr. Krapchatov for folks driving up from the city to cruise right into what is admittedly a very nice garage with a wood-panelled ceiling, built-in storage cabinets and large windows over polished concrete.
Despite the passive-house goals and natural materials, this structure is no low-budget eco-yurt: it’s a seven-bedroom. almost 10,000-square-foot home with high-end features and finishes (Japanese automated toilets and automated blinds and it’s ready to have solar panels installed) spread over three storeys. There are exterior doors, but onto deep patios, decks and balconies. The generous shading on all of these outdoor spaces keeps the summer sun from overheating the house, but in the winter, reflected solar energy can find its way in to help keep things in balance.
It’s evident from the doorways and windows that the EcoCocon panels are thick and beefy. The prefab panels were in place less than a week after they arrived. The rest of the house took a little more time to finish (indeed, some parts of the second floor are still not complete).
Most of the house is lit using power-sipping LED light strips (another experiment of Mr. Krapchatov’s) boosted by a few mainly decorative light fixtures. Floors, walls and ceilings are often panelled in wood in different shades; sometimes the walls have stone cladding and sometimes the straw panels are exposed to show them off.
The kitchen is at the back of the main level with a long island of white cabinetry under a slate-coloured, white-veined stone countertop augmented by a wall of upper and lower cabinets tucked away opposite the sliding doors to the deck.
In the primary bedroom, the feature-wall/headboard above the bed is made from split cedar logs from B.C. left over from another log cabin project.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
Heating is provided by an in-floor system, but in the kitchen, a narrow space-age-looking wood-burning fireplace offers a little rustic charm and a cherry glow when lit.
The primary suite is on the main floor with an unusual parquet floor pattern (blocky tiles of hardwood with wavy edges that draw the eye as they fit seamlessly together) under a feature-wall/headboard above the bed made from split cedar logs from B.C. left over from a log cabin project completed for another client.
A doorway cutting through a wall of wood-panelled storage closets leads to the ensuite bathroom that’s gleaming white and silver with basket weave marble tile that covers the floor.
A second bedroom on this level doubles as an office and also features another split-log wall over a bed platform that appears to float on air.
The lower level is built directly on top of a rock outcropping.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
The unfinished upper level has a hot tub the size of an AirStream trailer in what is to be a spalike setting complete with a wood-fired sauna.
The house isn’t right on the water, it’s in the woods, but there is a jetty for water access.
Materials matter
The lower level is built directly on top of a rock outcropping. The stone is a natural heat sink, keeping the room cool. That helps with the wine cellar, which anchors the space.
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