If you told a naughty Don Pflug to go and sit in a corner of his home, he'd be a difficult man to find.

Pflug and wife Jessie live at Stouffer Mill, a 12-sided home they run as a bed and breakfast near Minden, Ontario. Located in Haliburton County, which includes Algonquin Park, the area is known for its pristine lakes, rolling hillsides and kilometers of Canadian Shield. The post-and-beam house is situated on a 136-acre property with its own marked hiking and snowshoe trails, a beaver pond and a view of Halls Lake. Geometrically inclined types would call it a 'dodecagon'.

Accessed by its one-kilometer driveway, the house is named after original owner/builder Elgin Stouffer.

"The basic construction of the house is like a wagon wheel," says Pflug.

At the centre of the house is a 24-foot-high, eight-foot-diameter, 3/8-inch-thick steel tube. Twelve I-beams, the wheel's spokes, extend from the tube and rest on the basement walls to form the first floor, providing a 48-foot diameter. A second set of spokes rest on the perimeter posts of the house to support the roof. This is also the base for the rooftop observatory -- a smaller dodecagon.

The beams, including those of the second floor, extend an extra four feet beyond the perimeter of the exterior wall, to support two levels of decking.

Entering the home, you are greeted with a warm, wooded interior, partnered with an array of antiques. The steel tube hub is covered in field stone, avoiding a massive juxtaposition to the calming ambience.

A clockwise stroll to the living room takes you to another unique structure.

"It's an authentic, one-horse open sleigh," says Pflug.

Pflug creates coffee table sleighs in his basement-level furniture restoration shop, by removing the seating area of the sleigh and then crafting the coffee table top. He's sold several over the years, with clients in the U.S. and as far away as Japan.

A grand piano graces a back corner, and aged black-and-white photographs, one of a sugar shack and the other of a farm house, are framed above the couch. Pflug jokes that they look as if he'd clipped them from a calendar, but these garage-sale finds look right at home in the living room.

Between the living room and dining room is an 18-foot opening, with two storeys of 7 1/2-foot-high windows. Sliding doors open to the back of the house and access the portion of the deck that includes a 15' x 30' inset pool.

A backdrop in the dining room is the largest antique spinning wheel in the house. It is one of a number found throughout the home and is called a "walking wheel?. The room also features a 10-seat table crafted by Pflug. The table is flanked by cabinetry that displays antique china.

Adjacent to the dining room is the Pflug's personal bedroom and laundry room, which accesses a rear entranceway.

The kitchen features an island prep area that includes the stove and a collection of hanging pots and baskets. Two sets of sliding glass doors lead out to the deck and provide a view outside while you're working at the island.

The cabinetry has been painted brick red with roosters on each door.

Construction of the second level is as incredible as the first, because it is entirely suspended from the beams above. The beams on this floor connect at one end to the exterior perimeter's vertical posts, and on the other end, they are hung from the roof beams one floor above with 3/4-inch steel rods. Two of these rods are exposed, and from the main level you can see the nut that is threaded onto them on the underside of the floor beams.

The second floor, which is the bed and breakfast, is accessed via a staircase that wraps around the steel tube. The stairs were installed before the field stone was added to the tube's facade. Brackets were welded to the tube, and the steps were bolted to the brackets. At the bottom of each step, a threaded rod connects to the steel tube. If the stairs become loose, this allows them to be tightened.

The floor is horseshoe-shaped and overlooks the living and dining rooms below. Each of the three bedrooms has a private bathroom and walkout to the second-level deck. There are two public areas on either end of the horseshoe shape. The larger is a TV room complete with woodstove, and the smaller is a computer/music room.

A spiral staircase leading from the second-floor hallway to the rooftop observatory is encased inside the steel tube. The observatory is half of the home's diameter at 24 feet. It is enclosed by windows and features a hot tub that has been raised from the floor to provide a better view of Halls Lake and the surrounding forest.

The basement houses Pflug's furniture restoration company. It is reached via a staircase inside the steel tube, which is accessed from a doorway behind the main-floor fireplace. The basement has double garage doors and was originally built without partitions. Stouffer once told Pflug that when the house was built, he had his friends drive their cars into the basement to see how many it could fit. The answer? Twelve.

No longer a drive-in, the basement is now Pflug's hideaway.
"I call it my bunker," he says, "because it has a cement ceiling, walls and floor. I have three dehumidifiers going in the summer to fight the dampness."

Instead of playing literal hide-and-seek with Pflug, you can book a visit any time by clicking on www.stouffermill.com.
-Photography by Guy McCrum