Our New Adventure Begins...

As fate would have it, we bought our lot
on our 25th wedding anniversary.

This posting will be a bit long.  We promise to make the rest shorter with more photos and less words.....

Last August 2017 we purchased property in Sointula, British Columbia, a village  located on Malcolm Island near Port McNeill on Vancouver Island.

Sointula, Malcolm Island. Looking north towards mainland BC.
Our property is on 2nd Avenue just up from that red roof.

Sointula, which means "Place of Harmony" in Finnish, was originally incorporated by the Finns in 1909.  The first hardy immigrants started the construction of what they hoped to be a utopian society in 1904.   Their concept was to make a society free of the three "P's".  No police, no priests, no politicians... Seems like a good plan to us. Unfortunately,  their new endeavours suffered problems and didn't last more than a few years.  Some left but those that stayed lived a good life with the abundance provided by Mother Nature.  The Finns became skilled boat builders and Tarkenon Shipyard still operates today.  Some hand logged the magnificent red cedars, abundant on the island, and others harvested the large schools of salmon which pass by every year.

Many Finnish families have remained on Malcolm Island over the last century, while the country feel of Sointula now attracts young families who don't want their kids growing up in a city.   We've already met a few retired 'newbies' like us who want a laid back lifestyle away from the noise and pollution of a city.  Though we're on an island, it doesn't feel remote. We have all that we need relatively close by.  On the island we have BC's oldest Co Op grocery store, hardware store and gas station.  There are yoga and exercise classes, an active Lion's Club, artists galore, a couple of restaurants, a hotel, many km of hiking trails, a museum, tennis courts, a large community hall, an active sr. citizens centre, K - 8 school, fire hall and small medical clinic.  There are two saw mills, a concrete plant, gravel pit, small woodworking shop, small farms including Canada's largest wasabi farm (did you know that 90% of the 'wasabi' you get with your sushi is actually dyed horseradish?), B&B's, crafts, beaches, and camping spots right on the water.

For over 18 years, while on our way north cruising, we've stopped at Sointula and are very happy to now be part of the community.  We're attracted to the amazing scenery, nature at our doorstep, snow capped mountains on Vancouver Island and getting to know the wonderful people who live here.  We'll post "Our Sointula" photos and short stories from time to time if you don't want to follow house building stuff.  We'll title them "Our Sointula" so you'll know.

View from the harbour.

We explored lots of beaches last summer and expect to do the same this year.

This little cement rowboat rests near the harbour.
Reminds me of Mom's clinker rowboat.

Tricia's Mom - Olive Lawson, in her clinker rowboat in Victoria in the 1990's.

We've been welcomed with open arms by our new neighbours and met over 60 locals in the first six weeks last summer.  In time we'll volunteer for events like Salmon Days, join yoga, and find time to explore and hike.  First, we'll build a house!

We thought we might start building a house in 2019 but we wanted to get going sooner.   The thought of moving back to land and not boating for a while is a big change after more than 25 years of cruising 30,000 - 40,000 miles between Alaska, Canada, the western US and Mexico.  On our sailboat Falcon VII we had so many great adventures.  Feel free to read about our three year cruise to Mexico and back to Victoria, BC at https://sail-falconvii.blogspot.com

In addition to all of our adventures, together  Jim and I tackled many big projects and improvements to Falcon VII.  But things change and by last summer we knew were ready for something different.  We just didn't know what that would look like...until we found the lot in Sointula on Malcolm Island.

That's us enjoying a sunny day eat the north end of Vancouver Island.

Two years ago we almost sold Falcon VII in Mexico but the deal fell through at the last minute.  In retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise because we would never have found our bit of paradise in Sointula if we had sold her.  At that time we were moving FROM Falcon VII but we didn't know what we were moving TO.  We imagined ourselves taking our backpacks off of Falcon VII and heading up the ramp towards ?????  Now that we've found this land, we are excited to be moving TO something -  our new adventures in house building.

Old house remnants and foundation would need to be removed.

We stayed in Sointula on Falcon VII at the harbour for 6 weeks while we terra formed our land. Five dump trucks full of debris, from the original house which had been demolished, were removed and enough trees were cut down to create a pretty big stack of firewood.

Our new house uses almost the same footprint as the old one.

Jim "Paul Bunion" Bowen cutting down alders by hand.

Firewood for our future Pacific Energy wood stove.

One of the many loads of refuse our new friend, Delwin, hauled away for us.

Six weeks later, we placed our secondhand 26' RV  in place.
This will be home for a few months until we can move into our house. 

The reason we purchased our land...what a view!

Over the winter Jim and I fine-tuned his design and began contacting trades, contractors and regional authorities to get things started.

Falcon VII's dinette became Jim's design centre.

Plans were fine-tuned four times until we were satisfied. 

We took advantage of design space while housesitting
at Shawinigan Lake in November.

Nice to have space to layout all the sets of copied plans.

Fast forward to now... As of April 12 we have relocated permanently to Sointula.  Since Falcon VII had a offer pending, we stayed in a great little cottage for two weeks then moved into the 26' RV for a few months while we start to build our new home.

Our two week home before moving to the RV.

View from the cottage looking at Rough Bay and Port McNeill.

And so it begins!  With the help of Delwin Nelson, who can make a bulldozer dance, and Chris Chateauvert, an ICF builder extraordinaire, who is building our house to lock up, we began with our first onsite meeting then excavation for our new house.  

Monday, Apr 16 was a day to contemplate our new adventure.
Taken from the new little deck we built beside the RV.

Anyone want an old fishnet or ten?  There was loads
of garbage and debris to sort and get rid of.

Delwin starts tearing out the old foundation and digging for hardpan.   That's an old boat engine to the left of Jim.

Adding and compacting gravel and levelling the building site only took a few days.

Footings in! Progress continues... 

We feel like a pair of eagles launching ourselves into the sky on a brand new adventure.

We'll do an update periodically and share lots of photos of Sointula.

Cheers
Jim and Tricia Bowen