Homes were due to be demolished in a new development but will become triplexes in their new life in Old Massett
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Glyn Lewis of Renewal Development has saved several houses in Metro Vancouver from demolition and relocated them up the coast.
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But there was a problem. In remote locations, there isn’t always the workers or materials to do renos at the other end.
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“If you want to upgrade the electrical, if you want to upgrade the windows in a really remote community, it can be really challenging,” he explains. “You don’t have Home Depot, you don’t have trades, you don’t have contractors. So it’s costly, it’s time-consuming and it’s challenging.”
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So Lewis has introduced a new wrinkle into his company’s house-moving: renovating houses before floating them up the coast.
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Sunrise
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Tuesday morning he unveiled two houses in Coquitlam that have been renovated and will be moved to a new home in Old Massett in Haida Gwaii. The news conference featured the singing group Urban Haidas, which performed the national anthem of the Haida Nation.
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Over the next few days, the two homes will be moved to the Fraser River waterfront. They will be joined by a third home from another location, loaded onto a barge and sailed to Haida Gwaii. The journey will take three days.
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In this case, the homes have been given new siding and windows, along with new metal roofing.
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“We modernized these three homes here in Coquitlam, where we have a good supply of products and trades and contractors,” said Lewis. “It’s much more cost-efficient. It’s much more of a kind of a complete, ready-to-move-in product.”
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Chief Coun. Donald Edgars of the Old Massett Village Council said there is a dire shortage of housing on Haida Gwaii.
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“I have about 450 people on-reserve, and we have about a 4,500-person membership in Old Massett,” said Edgars. “A lot of our membership want to move home, but there’s no land or houses for them. Indigenous Services Canada has committed to do 101 new lots for us in the spring, so that’ll give more of our people an opportunity to come home to build.”
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The homes on display were single-storey ranchers in the 500-block of Appian Way in Coquitlam. Eleven houses in the neighbourhood were assembled for a new development, and Anthem Properties has plans to build three, six-storey buildings with 440 rental units on the site.
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Coronation Park was a modest neighbourhood in Port Moody dotted with small bungalows built in the 1950s and early ’60s. But the arrival of the Inlet Centre SkyTrain Station at Ioco Road and Barnett Highway in 2016 brought redevelopment pressure.
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After 110 years of serving the community in Kitsilano, a little yellow schoolhouse is entering a new life serving the Squamish Nation on the North Shore.
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Lewis approached Anthem a year ago about moving the houses and the developer was receptive to the idea. Lewis provided a “site-clearing service” at the property, and selected two homes that were low enough to transport under things like wires and overpasses.
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“We look at the condition of the home, and we have to look at the movability of the home,” said Lewis. “A big part of the work that we have to do is measure the home before we select it. We have to look at the route. And these homes, we’ve confirmed that they’ll make it.”
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The properties in Old Massett will have one-storey basements, so the Coquitlam houses can be dropped on top and the finished house can be turned into a triplex.
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Coquitlam mayoral candidate Craig Hodge has championed house-moving. He estimates 2,500 houses get torn down per year in Metro, and hundreds are in good shape and could be moved.
