We bought a Fixer Upper!!!!

A couple weeks ago we were invited to visit my brother and sister in-law on Saturna Island . They  had purchased a tiny cabin on half an acre and spent nearly every weekend there during the summer. 

 We were delighted to have an invitation to  visit an island I had  previously never heard of. 

Apparently,  it is the most easterly of the gulf islands and is surrounded on three sides by the Canadian and US border. It has a permanent population of about 350 people, although that number increases significantly in the summer. It is about 31 square kilometres in size and approximately half of it is in the Gulf Islands Natural Park Reserve. 

Getting to Saturna was not easy. It felt like we obstructed at every turn. We had planned to drive to Sannich after church on Sunday but then had to wait until the late afternoon when Nate was asked to police a violent protest.  We completely missed our ferry from Sannich after significant traffic on the Malahat held us up. Thankfully my brother and his wife live downtown Victoria so we crashed at their house for the night. Our eldest spent a majority of the night coughing so we didn't sleep terribly well and missed our ferry the following morning. We were horrified when we found out that the next ferry wasn't until four pm. Gah!!!!

  Thankfully, Victoria is a pretty awesome place to kill time so we went to the beach and then enjoyed some delicious tacos from Tacofino.

When we finally arrived in Saturna, we realized that we did not have the address for Nic and Jill's cabin and that we had forgotten their number at home.  We could not call my parents for their number because Nate's battery was dead and we couldn't use the pay phone on the island because we didn't know their new number. 

 Thankfully Nathaniel had looked at Saturna Island on google earth when my brother was thinking about purchasing the  property  so he had a rough idea of where it was. Needless to say, but we pretty much just drove around until we spotted their sweet daughter selling cupcakes on the side of the road. Phew!

My ever ingenious brother had rigged up something for rinsing filthy children off. (The house on the other side of the fence is the one we purchased)

The Island was smothered in smoke during our time there  but decided to drive to the top of the mountain anyway as we had been told that a population of feral goats lived there. 

We also explored a couple beaches

A short drive from Nic and Jill's cabin was this was a gorgeous place called East Point. It looks like something you would find on the East Coast of Canada.  

One day we were siting around eating breakfast when Jill, my brother's wife, causally mentioned that the property next door was for sale. She joked that we should buy it so that she could run it as a bed and breakfast and use the oven for baking her incredible cupcakes. Seriously, they are DELICIOUS!Out of curiosity we peeked in the windows and snooped around the property. When the realtor showed up later that day to install the "for sale sign", he gave us a tour of the house and its various outbuildings. My brother brought over his cordless drill and happily investigated the crawlspace and the pumphouse.

We headed for home the next day but spent the next week mulling over the pros and cons of buying a vacation property. In the end we decided to ask my parents if they wanted to invest with us. To our surprise they did and we made an offer. We got it for 40, 000 less than the asking price!

 Honestly, it is a time capsule from the 1970s. The main house is a little under 700 square feet and the guest house is just over 100 square feet. It sits on half an acre and is located on the East side of the island. It's ugly, in desperate need of a new roof,  and shrouded in salal but it is going to be beautiful when we are through with it. 

Don't you just love the artwork and furniture fabric? (insert sarcasm)

We plan to rip out those dated shelves and replace it with built in bunks.

Something like this perhaps

I love this color scheme but I look forward to hearing my mom's vision for the place. She has great taste. 

We are planning on moving the woodstove against the wall so that we can open up the kitchen area. 

Yes, its ugly and dated but I have loads of vision for this space!!! I just hope some of those antiquated appliances work. 

The boys are going to have a ton of fun sawing down all the dead trees on the property. I envision a lot of bonfires. 

We plan on building a deck to connect the two homes with a lovely pergola like structure to hang twinkly lights on. A picnic table or hot tub would be perfect in this space. 

Our very own outhouse!

I look forward to the cousins building lots of precious memoires together.