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The DesRoches: Page 2

Ray and Maureen DesRoches outside the home into which they have put so much of themselves.

Ray continues the story of construction: Being friends of everybody who was helping, I couldn't bark out orders, so I had George, a good friend, be the foreman. He wore a T-shirt with "Boss George" printed on it. He told everybody to get to work, and he ran a tight ship. The crew worked 12-hour days.

"In one weekend, we erected all the walls, two trusses, and all the purlins, except in the bedroom area. After the big weekend, George and I stayed another week, and we finished the purlins and the roof," Ray says.

In the following months Ray finished the interior of their new log home. "I did some things a little differently. There were some old barn boards lying around and I used them as accent wood. I used red pine from our land for all the floors -- our grown children helped lay it down." Although the inside wasn't completely finished by winter, the home was ready for winter occupancy that fall.

The kitchen is especially interesting. Ray hired a man to build the kitchen cabinets, which are made of butternut wood. "They are completely handmade," Ray says. "The joinery is all done with pegs; without glue or nails. The man used no power tools. Even the big oak counter is hand planed." Ray laid the kitchen floor himself.

The wood stove heats the home. Note the old barn board walls.

The home is exceptionally energy efficient. The wood stove, with three logs burning all day, keeps the house between 70 and 72 degrees Ray notes.

In summer, the home is cool. You come in and swear it is air-conditioned. A lot of credit goes to the roof system. It utilizes a sandwich design that allows heat to escape so the home doesn't warm up in hot weather.

The four-bedroom home is located on 86 acres at the end of a town road. Ray asserts there are countless thousands more acres of unpopulated forest surrounding their land. That is, unpopulated by people, but most definitely well inhabited by wildlife. "I counted 46 turkeys in our yard in September," Maureen enthusiastically claims, "Deer are common, bear occasional. Moose are around."

Ray and Maureen established residency in Vermont on January 2, l991, having retired the previous November. "It has been perfect, I wouldn't change it for anything," says Ray confidently.

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