By John Allaire J ohn Boys admits that log homes and working with wood has become a complete and all-consuming obsession. And not just building beautiful structures, but also in devel- oping methods and hybrid technologies through strategic partnerships to build beautiful wood cre- ations. How did you get started in log home building? Take us back to the beginning. The beginning! I grew up in Ottawa and went to Trent University in Peterborough. Igot a degree in Economics and Computer Science. But my summer job while I was at university was building a stone building for some friends of mine south of Montreal in the Eastern Townships. When we finished the stone walls after three summers worth of work, we didn’t know what to do next. We had a vague idea that there needed to be some kind of a timber roof on there. But we didn’t know how to make it or attach it. During some down time, I saw an ad for the Allan Mackie School of Log Building in Prince George. On a whim, I signed up for the course, and when I finished, the instructor offered me a job. I didn’t really even know there was such thing as a career in log building. My intention on taking the course was to figure out how to put a timber roof on the stone house we had built in Quebec. I quit a really good-paying job in the oil field for a really poor-paying job in the log building industry and I really never looked back. This was way back in 1984. How long has Nicola Logworks been around? 1989. We started in Merritt, BC. Actually, we came to Merritt to help a friend of mine build some log houses and I met a girl! And that was it. I never really left. Ah, there’s a girl in every story! So, there are some very compelling pictures of your work on your website. What were your first structures like? When we started in the late 80s, almost 100% of what we built went to Japan. A niche market was created at that time for handcrafted log homes So we left the stone house for a while and I got a job out west in the oil fields. And now Ingrid is my partner in the business.
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APRIL 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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