Building Green on Orcas

It was a wild idea, born of the frustration of high building costs and a desire to recycle and reuse. We had been tossing it around for years. We kept looking for the right piece of land and the right house. The land had to be here on Orcas and the house would come by barge from Canada. You also had to be able to get the house down the road and our roads are narrow and winding, with many overhanging trees. So the house had to be narrow. NO, we did not want a prefab!  NO, we did not want a manufactured home! We wanted to save a quality, stick-built home that was "in the path of progress" and slated for destruction. We were going to recycle a whole house!

 Nickle Brothers in Victoria was our resource.  Over the years we had made friends of Jeremy Nickles and Jim Connley, looking at houses that were to be 'scrape-off's'. Jim and I shared a love of old homes that had good bones and charm, wood floors and framing made of fir that would only be used as trim today. Ken was looking for something a bit more practical, and would require less work.

Then we found the land! It was level, sunny and it was just one mile to a potential barge site and town. There were huge old Big Leaf Maples. There were Cedar trees that were three feet across, Black Willow, Red Alder, English Holly and many beautiful straight Douglas Firs. The land had the most beautiful well drained soil, black with fertility, perfect for gardens that so many Orcas Islanders want.  There were natural meadows, ready for a horse of your own.

We chartered a small plane and flew to Sidney were Jim picked us up. He had two homes there that he said would fit our needs, narrow enough to go down the road and just one story, as so many of our buyers wanted a home all on one level. They were twin houses, in good shape and Ken thought they would be perfect for our project. Then Jim took us over to a little stucco cottage. It was not hard to imagine it on the moors of Ireland, built in 1910.

It had glass door knobs. 

                                                 It had real plaster and lathe walls!

It had old oak floors-in great condtion!

It had old fashioned wood windows!

It had the right look for an Island Home.

I could see it already...

 on it's barge coming to it's new home on Orcas!  Well, if we were going to get two homes, why not three??

Ken thought it was a good plan!

Talk about saving the trees!

With a one thousand square foot home we would save one hundred trees!  With three homes we'd save three hundred trees! Wow, that felt like a good thing to do.