Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -“I'm hoping that this summer at the Friday Market, we'll at least be able to have a prototype on a trailer. We’ll be able to pull an A-frame into the parking lot at Mansons, and people will be able to walk inside, sit in it and check it out. In terms of the refined prototype, that concept will be September.”

“We're working a little bit with Jason Andrews, who is so gracious with his time and expertise. He has really talked at length with us about the difference between really working on the prototyping versus jumping into trying to sell your product. There's such a high demand for an extra bedroom around.”

“I think we could be popping these out by June, but they would be rudimentary and so the goal at this point would be to have them for next summer (2024). So this is something that next spring, hopefully we will be able to be in a position where we have something that's been really tested, refined and repeatable.”

That was Jeramie Ellingsen talking about the next phase of Ellingsen Woods development.

Up until now, they have primarily been a manufacturer of boards. Her husband, Aaron Ellingsen, has ventured into kiln dried lumber, flooring and wood panels, but it has not yet provided him with the hoped for expansion into the value added market.

AE: “Jeramie has been really involved in developing the plan. We've worked on it together, but she has done a lot of the entering numbers into software and crunching things and then reaching out to talk to various people about whether it seems feasible and she doesn't technically work for the company at all. She's not compensated directly for any of the work that she does. Hopefully that will change.”

“When I think about creating or about moving my business in a direction that will be selling things off island, I am thinking very regionally. If I start here on Cortes and I could sell a few of these things on Cortes, then I'd very much like to be able to sell some things on Quadra Island. I would like to be able to sell some things to Campbell River and really, I don't think that in the next few years, trying to get any further than potentially maybe a little better reach into the Lower Mainland.”

“There are only 800 people on Cortes but if you can get onto Vancouver Island, then you're looking at a much, much larger market in a lot of communities. Many of them are places where tourism is a big deal.”

“We were looking around at options for things to do given the equipment that I have. Jeramie came upon this guy in California who's basically started designing structures and creating plans for structures and selling those packages online. He's done things from a small woodshed to an outhouse. His business is selling the plans for these and then creating step by step instructions on how to build the products,”

“We talked with him about using his designs and he said that he was more than happy. He's been selling lots of designs and has a suspicion that many people buy his designs and then don't have time to build the projects. We could just pay him on a time by time basis for a kit of materials that we can put together. We'd include his blueprints or his designs. He did put together a 50 page instruction booklet that tells you step by step, almost like IKEA or something.”