Cabin on Hornby Island

We now have a cabin! The truth is that it started as an outhouse, but became too pretty. Its now a cabin, and the outhouse will wait until the next trip where there'll be an extension built onto the back and a deck built out front.

It all started with an epic trip to pick up the truck on Friday morning. When I got to the rental company, the number on my driver's license was worn off and they wouldn't rent the truck to me. I had ridden my bike over to the north shore to pick up the truck, so had to ride up the hill to the fine folks at the Dept of Motor Vehicles to get a new license. That actually went fairly quickly and I was able to get back home and meet Tom and Iain around 10:30, to load the truck.


Five of us left Friday afternoon to catch the 3PM ferry to Vancouver Island. We got to our property on Hornby around 7 and unloaded the truck. Tom, Iain, Russell, Rachelle and myself made short work of it all and in less than an hour we had a pile of wood on the ground and all the power tools and bikes stashed in the trailer ready for the next day. The beach was calling so we packed some beers and headed down.

Saturday morning we went for breakfast at Jan's, and shortly after fired up the saws and screw guns. We got the floor on, the walls built, and the windows in before we ran out of light. Sunday we covered the roof and then the 3 boys had to catch the ferries back to the mainland. I finished the details like roofing, building a door, and installing the battons over then next 3 days. There was no wood left over.

I took a picture every half hour or so and made a timelapse movie of the whole affair. Click here to see it but be patient as its a 16mb file.

It was a ton of fun building with these guys. Each person had great input into the construction and the finished shed is vastly superiour to what I would have turned out. Its so nice to have 3 other viewpoints when coming up against a problem. There was lots of laughing and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.

After the 3 guys left, Rachelle and I stuck around for a few extra days since the neighboors so kindly offered us their gorgeous Japanese style home. I spent most of the time finishing the project, but was able to get out to sample some the amazing Hornby single track moutain bike riding, had a few swims in the ocean, and some walks on the beach near our place. The picture below is that beach.


I've got to thank Jules and Ian, who live on Hornby for letting us crash at their place on Friday night. They've also bent over backwards to help us out where ever they can including introducing us to as many interesting people as you can shake a stick at.

Lisa and her sister Carmelina gave us the use of their amazing house for as long as we needed it. It sure was nice having a bathroom and a comfy bed every night after working all day!

Especially, HUGE thanks go to Russell, Iain, and Tom who were tireless builders. They all gave up their weekend to come help me out and I really really appreciate it.