Back to the future with a view to the past
In preparing the site we’ll be building on, we’ve had to take many trees down both for the house site itself but also to garner a little view to Lambert Channel and Denman and Vancouver Islands to the West. We are not on the waterfront, but just across a lane from waterfront properties.
The good news is, the waterfront property in front of us is my family’s who have owned it since 1965 and is the house we’re living in until our’s is finished. Back then, it was an open field with just a few tall firs and some smaller cedars, firs, maples and arbutus near the shore.
Over the last 45 years, did things ever change. The photo below is different angle but you get the idea.
My parent’s built a small cabin in 1966 with a view looking west. We could see most of the beach and then out to the water and islands in the distance. Slowly—or not so slowly—trees started to grow and the view over the years gradually disappeared until one time in the mid 1990s there was no view at all.
Dan Hamilton at work
Various attempts have been made to fight back the brush, but it’s costly and/or a lot of work to deal with all the mess that ensues. Carrying branches to the beach to burn or sawing up the fallen trees takes a lot of time. In most cases this was done largely by my dad, George.
I think he may love the trees that block the view so much partly because he knows the work and expense in removing them and it’s usually been him dealing with it so maybe, just maybe, he’d rather just leave them standing than deal with them. Can’t really blame him.
All these years have passed and it was time to clear so that the million-dollar view and the taxes paid for it, really was a million-dollar view and not to one of a tree farm.
Enter Dan Hamilton and his crew from Whiskey Jack Tree Service. Dan is a faller but also an arborist so he knows about trees and their health. We’ve learned a lot about the health of trees and what causes problems as well as marvelling at the tree climbing and falling.
The view, I’m happy to say, has come back. I feel like a six year old kid again standing on the deck of the cabin looking at the spectacular vista. With just a couple more trees to go, they will be finished on the waterfront lot and will then complete the house site work.
We’re looking forward and back today.
You can see a more complete set of images from this whole process on Flickr.
Reviewing the house site and talking dirty sewage
L-R: Darren Bond, Ron McMurtrie, Dave Colley, Michael McNamara, Tim Wyndham
Ok, sewage talk isn’t very interesting, but it’s sure important.
In the following video you can see the area that has been cleared so far and where a culvert will be installed to bring vehicles into the lot to work on excavation and other clearing.
The architect (Michael McNamara), builder (Tim Wyndham) showed up to discuss the house placement and septic/sewage issues with the environmental engineer (Ron McMurtrie) and Dave Colley who will be installing the system and field as well as the driveway.
To see some photos on Flickr, click here.
See this post for the most recent tentative house plan.
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube.
Let the clearing begin
Dan Hamilton and Nick from Whiskey Jack Tree Service showed up to start taking down the trees on the lot. The first job was to take some out so a culvert could be put through as well as begin the process of clearing a “view” to the ocean.
You can see a series of photos on Flickr but the video below (click here if you can’t see it) shows some of the trees they strategically brought down in a ditch and on the front part of the lot. Next week, the portions that were bucked up into sizes suitable for milling will be stacked and the rest dealt with.
After that, more clearing will be done on the actual location of the house. Finally, a number of trees on the family waterfront lot will be cleared creating a view corridor to Lamber Channel, Denman and Vancouver Islands to the West.
Groundswell
By Darren Bond
It’s August 2010 now and we’ve seen some concrete steps on the property. Up at the back, there’s orange tape wrapped around trees. Coloured tape is always a good sign that things are happening.
The placement for the septic field seems pretty much established. This is a critical component to be ironed out before the house plans can start.
Now, the well placement will happen. Tim Wyndham, the construction side of Blue Sky Design, will arrange for this to happen. Apparently there’s an eighty-odd year-old lady from Denman that can do this, but the lot is a bit too steep and unstable for her. We’ll have to settle on someone else.
Given where the tall green grass grows at the bottom of the lot, I’m guessing that this won’t be a difficult decision, but who knows. Also, this would put it fairly close to the existing well for the summer home just across the lane.
With these milestones completed, the land can be cleared! Tim thinks that the best time for this is October. It allows for Michael McNamara to do the site plan – just the placement of everything but no concrete design, yet – and before the winter rains come.
Boy, will things ever look different out there. And, there’s no turning back.
Post script: the well witching happened and, as expected, the well will go where the tall green grass is growing at the corner of the lot far away from the septic field.
I Have Always Wanted To Live In My Own House
By John McLachlan
In my post Ten Romantic Reasons For Living Out Beyond the seventh reason I gave was that I’d always wanted my own house.
I grew up in a house in the suburbs. I liked it. It had a great back yard that included a creek and a forested area. I would play for hours there. When I grew up I started living in condos which have been, in general, quite good but my fondness for them is coming to an end.
One thing I don’t like about living in a condominium is the communal aspect. Even in nicer buildings it’s amazing to see how some people treat their (our) property. Also, it seems like eventually, things get run down and it’s not so easy to get consensus for repair. Other issues include sound from other suites and the general din of living in an urban setting.
This may sound like I’m contradicting my headline for this post, but for years, I’ve never had the desire to have a house of my own. The primary reasons have been that I didn’t want to care for a house (a lot more is involved than in an apartment) and I didn’t want to live in a suburb where most houses are. Additional reasons are that it is extremely difficult to get a house design I like in a neighbourhood I like in a price range that I like.
I have however, always wanted to have a house designed with custom features and built from scratch. I’ve rolled this idea around in my head for years but always gave up on it due to cost and location.
The situation has changed. Due to a shift in priorities as a result of age, for one thing, and the ability to now work from a more remote area—for both me and my partner, Darren—and the gift my parents gave to us of a piece of property they bought back in 1969, it’s now possible.
Essentially, we’re ready.
We will be building a small but unique house designed by local architect Michael McNamara that will fit in with the landscape, be quite “green” and be built by his building partner, Tim Wyndham whom I’ve known since I was a child.
Once we’ve moved in, it will be an adjustment for us to be looking after a house. We won’t be able to simply shut the door and go away, but I think it’s going to be worth having something we love living in as we are living out beyond.
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Image above is of Darren Bond looking at a doll’s house designed by our architect, Michael McNamara for a fundraiser on Hornby Island, British Columbia in 2010.
Down the Drain
Testing the soil for how well it accepts water
By John McLachlan
One of the most critical types of waste to get rid of is, well, human waste. Getting rid of human waste is a challenge on a small island with a delicate ecosystem. Over the years the rules and regulations around how a household can do this have changed considerably.
It used to be you’d dig a hole and stick a sewage pipe coming from your house into a wooden box. That was it. It all worked fine when there were hardly any other residents nearby but when more people came to build and live, it wasn’t such a good idea having this sort of by-product leaching into the soil and getting mixed-up in the ground.
On our property we need to take care of the entire start to end process. We have to get the water from the ground, pump it through our house system and then deal with it as waste afterwards returning it to the ground.
Depending on the structure of the land and the soil type and drainage, varying degrees of sewage systems are required. If you are a real keener and want a good overview of how septic systems work, visit this site provided by Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation.
We are in the process of determining which level of system we will need. It’s looking like something between a level 2 and 3. The higher the level, the more expensive. The very basic level is where sewage goes to a septic tank letting what settles, settle and letting what rises, rise with what’s in the middle flowing out into the soil. Ah, if life were that easy.
The task at hand.
I’ll get into more detail on the system we end up using when we get to that phase, but for right now, we have to find a place on the property that is at least 100 feet from any other well (or the well that we’d like to put in) and that has some soil that can handle the waste water that will come its way.
It appears that running a line along the side of the slope behind where the house is likely to go could be best. Dave Colley who will be putting the septic system in came by today to map out some options and do some tests of how well the ground can handle water.
He used a core tool to dig into the soil about a foot and then placed a tube and cylinder full of water into the hole. He did this a couple of times emptying the water into the hole and seeing how long it took for the soil to take the water.
In this video Dave is timing the water at various levels as it drains into the ground.
The soil in this area is quite clay-like with shale once you dig down about a foot. The tests went fairly well, though it’s not the best soil, it will likely do the job (so to speak). The area itself has some half-decent sized Douglas Firs around it with a ground cover of Oregon Grape. Once the septic field goes in, no structures or paths can go over it. Allowing oxygen to get through the soil is important so stamping down on the soil in that area is not a good idea.
This is the first step in our long process of building a house. Knowing placement of the septic field and well will allow the architect to know for certain where the location of the house can go.
Soon, the design will begin.
Visiting Our Architect
Darren on the deck of a cabin designed by Blue Sky Design (Michael McNamara) and built by Tim Wyndham and crew on Hornby Island.
A quick video update below about our visit with Michael McNamara, the architect for our house. We met him at a cabin he designed and which, is about finished on Hornby Island before heading to his studio. The photos are of the 1,800 square foot cabin on a beautiful point looking on to the Gulf of Georgia.
Some of the ceiling detail in a cabin on Hornby Island designed by Michael McNamara.
Water and poop are pressing issues
Yesterday we met with Michael, the architect, and Tim, the builder, to go over high-level topics such as process, timeline, and budget, and to stomp around the property for them to get a sense of what it’s like. (John described it well as a bit of an amphitheatre shape.)
It will be a month or so before Michael can start on the design but we’re meeting him tomorrow to begin the process of capturing our initial thoughts and visions of how we want to live. He then starts to envision the home in context with the land.
Tim can’t get started for another year because he’s finishing up a current project and starting right away on another. In a way, of course, it would be nice to start earlier (and we are renting in the meantime) but there are less glamorous details to work out anyway that just don’t happen over night.
Before we can pick out the stone flooring (I’m getting ahead of myself), there is the infrastructure to think about. It turns out that water and poop are pressing issues.
On an island, one needs to dig a well and keep your fingers crossed. They will bring in a witcher (sp?) who will douse (sp?) to find the best spot for the well. Who knew that such ancient ways are still employed. I recall this once as a kid with our family friend, Bill Waite, twisting the old willow branch in his hands and walking around the back yard to see where it would suddenly pull itself downward, aching to reach the water.
In addition to the well, we think having a 12,000-odd gallon cistern, as recommended, is a good idea. Using rough math, this would provide about three months worth of supply. Having a green roof is great at filtering rain water before it drains down to the cistern. Makes sense.
Regarding number two, you don’t have the old-style septic box (like we used to have) under the lawn where the grass grows greener and higher than anywhere else. No, you need to have a fancy treatment system that keeps the surrounding environment healthy. Interesting rural rule: your septic and water systems can’t be closer than 100 feet. And this applies to the neighbour’s systems, as well. Makes sense.
Oh, well, I see the bank account draining already, but what did I expect.
Prior to all of this, the land needs to be cleared. Although it was just an open field forty years ago, it’s a bit of a rat’s nest of trees right now. If you haven’t checked out John’s video today, it’ll give you a pretty good sense of it. The thinking is that we can get it cleared and there may be enough wood to have a movable mill brought in to process the wood. There’s way too much for firewood and, besides, where would it go?
So, lots of prep work to do, and knowing that these take a lot longer than you ever imagined, we want to get that started right away and have it done over the next number of months.
My sister, Holly, opined that, after the Shrine Circus came through Nelson in the 1960s, I could work as the poop-picker behind the elephants. It’s not so far off.
