LEWES LAKE It's like a giant wooden constructor set, each piece cut and fit together with intricate joints, precision-carved to fit just right and held together by pieces of doweling the size of broom handles.

The mammoth puzzle-pieces don't make a toy though. They make Bruce Downie's new home, a 2,000-square-foot timber frame masterpiece perched on a small hill near Lewes Lake.

Downie had considered getting a log home built but changed his mind when he learned about timber frame construction.

'It was more what I wanted the quality and character,' the parks and resources consultant said in an interview Wednesday.

Timber framing is a centuries-old construction craft that uses large posts and beams instead of the smaller timber of conventional light frame construction. Rather than a 2 x 4 stud every 16 inches, there may be an 8 x 8 post every 20 feet.

The result is a lot of open space and the ability to re-arrange the floor plan in future years without the fear of upsetting load-bearing walls.

When the house is completed, the interior of the frame is left exposed, so the residents can always see the meticulous effort that resides in the skeleton of their home.

Exterior walls can be filled with huge windows or insulated blocks, covered with prefabricated insulated panels or filled with mortar.

'I just really like the idea of it,' says Downie.

Downie worked with Hans Winter of Nordic Spirit Timberworks to design the house, sending plans back and forth from Winter's hometown of Rossland, B.C., and Tanzania, Africa, where Downie was working.

Winter and his crew cut trees from Glacier Creek, near Rossland, and cured the timber for four months before milling it into the 180 precision pieces needed.

When the posts and beams with their complicated joints were finally finished, the whole project was shipped to Whitehorse. It only took a couple of days to raise the house.

Because many of the posts and beams are quite large, it would be difficult to find suitable timber so far north, said Winter, a passionate ambassador for timber frame construction.

'It's a piece of art,' he said, explaining that the $200-per-square-foot cost of building a timber frame house was offset by its beauty and energy savings.

'We really think it's a good way to build, a proper way to build.'

Winter talks about a house having a soul. Later, when the Star photographer notices an evergreen bough rising from the top of the house, Winter explained it was a pagan tradition.

'To pay homage to where the material came from,' he said.

And while the homes may be expensive and require large pieces of wood, Winter said, they are still ecological.

'It's really sustainable because we are building houses that are going to last for a hundred years.'

Winter believes timber frame homes can stand for as long as 300 years and remain in good condition. That's what led to a revival of the technique, he said.

After near-extinction, timber frame builders began to re-emerge in the '60s and '70s when timber frame houses that were 300 years old were being repaired.

'A lot of buildings were getting restored, but in a modern Band-aid way,' explained Winter.

Eventually some of the repair guys said, Hey, let's do it better, the way it was done originally,' and the craft was reborn.

Although timber frame construction is still a rarity, there are now about 2,000 timber framers in North America, said Winter.

And business is good. Along with every other tradesperson, timber framers are in high demand.

Winter's company has worked all over North America, from Texas to California and all over Canada.

Because of the relative obscurity of the trade, those who do it are generally happy to teach it, said Winter.

The Timber Framers Guild is a non-profit educational association dedicated to preserving and developing timber framing talent.

'It's about sharing knowledge,' said Winter, who is also a member.

'I like teaching, but find I learn a lot more from the young guys.'

Sometimes, he'll tell one of his apprentices to do something and the younger man will say, Hey, what if we do it this way?' Winter said that often when he thinks about it, he realizes the younger framer has a good idea.

'They see it from a different way, you know,' he said.

Winter and his crew will finish installing windows and insulated wall panels over the next two weeks.