Lantzville Couple Transforms a Rustic Campground Into a Luxury Oceanside Oasis

HOTPROPERTIES Beachland Bliss Lantzville couple transforms a rustic campground into a luxury oceanside oasis

BY SEAN MCINTYRE | PHOTOS BY LANCE SULLIVAN AND GEOFF HOBSON

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30 boulevardmagazines.com | FALL 2018 “When we are at home, we want to feel like we are a part of what’s outside and take advantage of the natural light, especially in the wintertime when it gets gray and a little darker.” 32 boulevardmagazines.com | SUMMER 2018 HILE EVERYBODY loves a good day at the beach, research out of the University of New Brunswick Today, family suggests that spending time near the water helps people live longer, healthier lives. members need only This was the headline from the radio as I made my way to meet up with Nikki, Bryce and their two young get up from the W sons at their new waterfront home in Lantzville, a short drive north of Nanaimo. couch or kitchen If, as the research suggests, an occasional glimpse or mere whiff of the salt water can manifest positive outcomes, this family can look forward to plenty of table, slide open healthy living in the years to come. “We wanted to have something that took as much advantage of the waterfront the patio’s wide, as possible,” Nikki says. “This meant we wanted a wide house but not a deep house. When we are at home, we want to feel like we are a part of what’s outside accordion-style and take advantage of the natural light, especially in the wintertime when it gets gray and a little darker.” glass door and With views overlooking Nanoose Bay from every room in the house and the sound of waves echoing through the great room’s towering ceiling, there’s no walk down the escaping life near the water, and that suits the family just fine. At their previous ocean-view home a few kilometres down the coast in North finished concrete Nanaimo, the lure of the water was always near. However, their high-bank waterfront lot with a steep and rapidly eroding 200-foot path meant a trip to the rocky beach was an adventure best avoided. deck to find “We never realized that living on high-bank waterfront still made the ocean very inaccessible,” Bryce says. “So we ended up spending a lot of time looking at themselves at the the ocean without actually using the ocean or spending time on the beach.” Today, family members need only get up from the couch or kitchen table, ocean’s doorstep. slide open the patio’s wide glass door and walk down the finished concrete patio to find themselves at the ocean’s doorstep, where water sports, refreshing swims

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and long walks in either direction along the beach await. Touring the property on a hot and sunny August afternoon, I was surprised to learn that this stretch of Lantzville’s coastline was once dotted with summer cabins filled with visitors from Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. “I think at one point Lantzville was pretty separated from Nanaimo,” Bryce says. “Old-timers say Lantzville was the wild west, where people used to come through to hunt and fish, ...because home isand vacationers from Victoria and Vancouver would have little where your storycabins.” In keeping with the neighbourhood’s roots, the property was begins! long home to a seasonal vacation spot featuring three of those Home decor items and ideas, little cabins and a tenting area. The original house once served up-cycled furniture and furniture as the then-owners’ home and camp office. painting workshops. …because home Nikki and Bryce initially planned to live in the 300-square- Want to learn how to paint furniture?foot cabins for a few months as they worked with Ken Connolly, is where your co-owner and general manager of Pheasant Hill Homes, to renovate their funky, prayer-flag clad 1970s-era home/camp story begins! office, but it quickly became apparent that things weren’t as straightforward as they’d anticipated. As work on the renovation Home décor items and ideas, up-cycled progressed, Nicki, Bryce and the team that Ken oversaw on the furniture and furniture painting workshops. project quickly discovered their rustic home had some intriguing Come to our Country Chic Paint carpentry anomalies to match. class and we will teach you how! “You can honestly say about the house that was here before, Open Tue thru Sat 10am to 5pm Open Tuesday thru Saturday 10am to that5pm they don’t build things like they used to, and it’s a darned 193 Memorial Avenue, Parksville good thing they don’t,” says Ken. 250-586-0119193 Memorial ~ rthinteriors.com Avenue, Parksville 250-586-0119 With each new discovery and workaround, they began to FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK calculate the cost of starting from scratch versus continuing with

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PUBLICATION DATE: AUGUST 2018 SPECS: 4 UNIT REPRESENTATIVE: Brittany Pearce CONTACT: 250-240-6881 • [email protected] the renovations. As things grew more complicated, the choice eventually became clear. “As time went by and we kept running into new challenges, I was aware in the back of my mind that we were getting close to that line in the sand where it wasn’t going to be worth doing anything with what was here,” says Bryce. “We didn’t want to walk into a house that we knew was compromised on, and we know now that this is the place where we want to be.” Four months in the cosy backyard cabins morphed into more than a year as the family’s checklist of must-haves took shape. Though Ken is accustomed to working with his clients during the course of a build in person or online, having the owners on Exclusive lighting supplier & the property meant their input and questions were taken care of proud partner of Pheasant Hill Homes. throughout each step of the process. “Everyday I would come home from work and wander in to see what was new and it was always amazing to see them add the layers,” Bryce says. The new house occupies a similar footprint to the original building, but part of that footprint has been transformed into a water-side patio area. The home also sits at a slightly higher elevation than its predecessor so it can achieve better views and stand up to the winter storms that come racing up the Strait of Georgia. Though living in the property’s cabins taught the family a thing or two about co-existing within cramped quarters, they’re thrilled by the 10-fold increase in usable area. The open floor plan between the kitchen, eating and living areas means the family doesn’t easily get isolated from one another within the the leaders in lighting // mclarenlighting.com home, as is the case with some larger houses. A ground floor guest bedroom also doubles as a kids’ activity room thanks to

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boulevardmagazines.com | FALL 2018 35 the addition of a discreet Murphy bed. In-floor heating and passive solar exposure ensure a stable and comfortable temperature, no matter what the season. Coastal Indigenous- inspired art and nautical-themed accessories selected by Ashley Campbell from Nanaimo’s Studio AE Interior Design lend a refreshingly coastal feel to the house’s interior. Concrete and wood-inlaid flooring also make the living space incredibly easy to keep clean, something that’s important when dogs and kids are inevitably carrying bits of the beach into the house on a daily basis. “There’s a lot of traffic in and out, so we knew it would need to be a durable floor,” Nikki says. “I wanted it to be easy to maintain so we could just enjoy living here and not be cleaning all the time.” The result is a lifestyle in tune with their surroundings and no regrets for a family that was forced to contend with some major decisions at critical points during their project. When asked if she’d do anything differently during the build, Nikki confidently states she has no regrets. “That’s music to my ears,” says Ken. “One important thing as a builder is to always remember that it’s not your home. It’s the clients’ home, and you want them to love it every time they walk in, day after day, once

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