HOOKED ON A HOUSE IN COWICHAN
Drawn to Cowichan by the fishing, couple finds their ‘beautiful oasis’ in a log home by the river Please call for a FREE Market Evaluation
Rob Williamson won two Georgie awards for his previous home in Tsawwassen. The Georgies are considered the première home-building awards in this province, and Williamson won for best renovation over $250,000 and best home office. But this time it’s different. He and his wife, Clare McLaren, bought a house four years ago on an acreage southeast of Lake Cowichan, and while they’ve poured their energy into renovating a barn and guest cottage, they’ve done little to the house except interior staging.
The massive log home was built in 2009 and, aside from repainting bathrooms and adding cabinets, the new owners have focused most of their attention on furnishings and creating a warm glow from a collection of vintage lights.
Williamson has long been interested in building and home design. His parents invested in an insurance plan for his university education, but when he turned 18, he had enough jobs to pay his way, so he bought land instead near Lake Winnipeg.
“I built my first cabin there, a 900-squarefoot place, and I went wind surfing.”
Later, he got into skiing and started a ski-based agency and his own snowboard business.
He doesn’t snowboard anymore — “I broke my neck once and have three-fused vertebra held with a titanium ladder” — but he loves to fish.
That’s where Cowichan comes in for the retired businessman.
“Our close friend Parker Jefferson moved here with his wife over 10 years ago from Deep Cove. We’re about 13 kilometres up river from them and I used to go over and visit, and fish.
“My dad got me into fly fishing and I’m now fishing 12 months a year, usually three days a week for three different species of trout. This year has been a colder winter, so I’m just home from fly fishing in the Bahamas.”
Williamson said the bones of the house were good, which is why he and his wife love it.
“The shell of a log home was here and it was finished inside and the floors were done, but it was almost like a spec home with plastic tiffany lamps from Home Depot.”
They couldn’t make a lot of changes — “because it’s a log house and you can’t take log walls out” — so they focused on lighting, with artfully chosen turn-of-the century lamps and antiques.
“Most of them came from Al Nowak, who owns Dragonfly Antique & Salvage in Ladner. He was my children’s high school math teacher and, in summer, he would load up his van and trailer and head to the Kootenays, where he would collect old antiques and salvage farm equipment,” said Williamson.
Extraordinary and unusual pieces lend a rare charm and historic appeal to every room.
For instance, two tall, matching standing lamps in the library are cordite holders from the Second World War.
Originally made in 1944 by the oldest leather company in England, the holders are cork-lined so they would not ignite when sparks landed near them, said Williamson, who found them on Craigslist for $150.
A galvanized jug now used as a candleholder by the fireplace came from the Antique Emporium in Chemainus.
Williamson found a steel lowboy dresser for the master bedroom at a store in Chicago. “I saw it online at Urban Remains. These things are very rare, so it was a real find, but I learned it had just been sold to a guy in Vancouver called Scott Landon. I found him at Scott Landon Antiques on Granville and bought it from him.”
Landon also helped the couple find pressed-tin ceiling panels and a circa-1902 harness oiler that he built into a lamp that now hangs between the dining room and fireplace. The one-metre-diametre galvanized tub was used for reconditioning massive padded-leather harnesses worn by workhorses. It hangs from a logging chain.
“We turned it upside down and made it into big chandelier. Each mid-century light fixture inside is from Crouse-Hinds, one of the oldest industrial lighting manufacturers in the U.S. and cost about $600. We have two more Crouse-Hinds hanging over the kitchen island.”
They now have a bit of a steam-punk vibe in their house, he says, adding that while they love all kinds of styles and could live in a modern home, too, they felt the log cabin suited the industrial look and vintage flair.
Because the owners couldn’t expand the kitchen, due to the solid log walls, they got creative and used an old workbench as an eating island. A moveable, commercial baking station made of galvanized steel was previously covered in peeling yellow paint. They stripped it, while keeping the original top, converted its old pullout flour bins into cupboards and use it as a sideboard.
They kept all the kitchen cabinets, but brightened the space by installing recycled-glass counters, reflected in the glass subway tile on the walls.
All the floors on the main level are original maple, made from trees felled and milled onsite down by the river.
Their almost three hectares of land — half pasture, half stream and forest — includes 200 metres of riverfront. While their log house is much smaller than their former 4,000-squarefoot home, they have restored a 700-square foot cabin near the water that doubles as a guesthouse.
Being conscious of their carbon footprint, the couple thought of geothermal heating, but decided it was too difficult and costly to retrofit into the home. So instead, they installed 38 solar panels on the house, barn and woodshed roofs, and an electric heat pump.
“Even on a pretty crummy, rainy February day, we create seven to eight kilowatts,” Williamson said, “and for several months of the year, we have zero hydro bills. We spent about $30,000 to do it and the payback will be about 30 years. We generate about $1,500 in savings every year and sell back to the grid.”
They spent about $20,000 on lighting, but say it was necessary because of the broad porch overhang, which makes the interiors darker than usual, despite the large windows.
“The lights make the interiors feel very warm and comforting,” said McLaren, who worked in the film business for 20 years making costumes, after earning a degree in fashion design and technology.
“We had no idea we’d end up owning a log cabin, but when we drove down the driveway, it felt like home, and we’ve had so much fun making it our own … finding little things.
“This place is our beautiful oasis and, although it feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, we are just five minutes from Tim Hortons,” she added with a chuckle.