Diane Gribbin and Sean Collins’ eco-friendly house is now the subject of a short documentary.
Living in a treehouse may seem like a life for Lost Boys, but one couple is making this fiction a reality in the Ottawa Valley.
Diane Gribbin and Sean Collins are almost done their “cordwood” house, a two-storey circular home in Wakefield made with an eco-friendly blend of reclaimed wood and mortar.
The Ottawa couple’s unique home is now the centre of a short documentary titled Grown-Up Treehouse that will be screened at the Visions of Living Lightly video festival on April 4 at the National Library and Archives.
The festival, new this year, is part of environmentalist David Chernushenko’s “Living Lightly” project, which encourages Canadians to lighten their impact on the Earth.
The festival is accepting short video submissions showcasing green living until March 18.
Chernushenko says the films must have a positive message.
“What’s important is that it not focus on the problems,” he says. “We want to celebrate the good things and inspire others to act as well.”
The treehouse documentary was made by amateur filmmaker and Centretown resident Jennifer Davies, an environmental scientist with Health Canada.
The five-minute film demonstrates how Gribbin and Collins came up with the supplies – and the gumption – to take on such a life-changing project.
The house uses reclaimed lumber from old barns, mills and other buildings across the Ottawa valley. These beams and logs create a cordwood house, where the walls are made of wood and mortar. Debarked lumber is cut into rounds like carrots and set in mortar, creating a wooden polka-dot effect on the outside of the house.
But the unique aesthetic is not the only cool aspect of the building.
“It’s a single building style, it’s all natural materials, it’s breathable, it’s very forgiving and it’s easy,” Gribbin explains in the documentary.
The style also creates a 16-sided house, which ends up looking perfectly circular, making it very economical.
“When every surface creates a curve like that, you get more square footage for the amount of building materials,” Gribbin says, adding the theory is applied in igloos, teepees, yurts, and beaver lodges.
Gribbin and Collins have incorporated all sorts of other green and sustainable endeavours into their new home as well.
Second-hand solar panels and a gently used wind turbine will provide most of their power, while an architect’s overstocked windows, formerly headed for the garbage, will shed some light in their treetop home. Old wine bottles and glass office cubes snatched from the trash will provide additional light.
The reclaimed lumber is the house’s most sustainable aspect. Collins told Davies some of the building’s beams lived as trees for 200 years, were part of a barn for 150, and will now stand in their home for another 100.
Davies says she hopes her documentary will help Ottawa residents feel inspired to make changes in their own lives, too.
“(The house is) more extreme than some people would want to do, but there are all kinds of little things you can take encouragement from,” she says. “Fix your mind on your ultimate goal and make steps towards that.”
The entries will be screened with Chernushenko’s full-length film, Be the Change.
Prizes will be awarded to the best filmmakers under and over 25.
Viewers will also vote for an “audience choice” award.
While Ottawa filmmakers tune up their video cameras, Gribbin and Collins are also preparing for hard labour this spring to finish their house.
Despite the work, Gribbin doesn’t seem to mind.
“I’ve gotten to a certain point in my life that I need to figure out what is the best way to live my ethics,” she says in the film. “This is our experiment, we can learn a lot from it, and it’s infinite what you can do on your own.”