Paddling to De Courcy Island

 It was a peaceful day here weather-wise and Wednesday had been spent applying rather toxic basement oil paint, so I decided to get out of the reno house and paddle out to De Courcy Island. 

I left from the Cedar boat ramp, which is the closest launch spot that is freely accessible to De Courcy.

Cedar boat launch - note the amazing quantity of drift logs on the beach - there were hundreds also floating just off the coast

I paddled across to the north end of Link Island, passing Round island on the way. Link island links De Courcy to its more northerly neighbour - Mudge Island.

Tiny houses on Round Island off Cedar. The water today was lovely and clear

Link Island sandstone formations

More 'modern art' in the bluffs on the west side of Link Island

Paddling down Link Island, you come to a gap where, at least at this tide, I was able to pass between Link and De Courcy islands. I stopped to admire a beautiful stout little wooden launch at a property in the gap.

Amity is a lovely wooden boat that appears to be used to get to and from this waterfront house. Everything is off grid on De Courcy and there is no ferry. I could hear a wind generator running above on a tower poking out of the trees

I paddled down the east side of De Courcy, passing through an oyster lease area inside of Long Island and coming ashore on the float at Pirate's Cove - a place I usual sail to

Boats near Pirates Cove

I walked around De Courcy and met a number of the locals, several of whom are spending time out here because it is less limiting with the Covid restrictions than being in Vancouver or Nanaimo. The island is home to an eclectic mix - several of whom 'discovered' the island while cruising on their sailboats. Some residents I met came here in the 1960's and 70's as children on their parent's boats.  

Around 3pm I headed back to Cedar, making a circuit of De Courcy by paddling up its west side. This island, like Gabriola, Galiano, and Valdes, has some lovely sandstone erosion on its west side.

These formations almost look like writing

In places there are quite spectacular cliffs and overhangs

More lovely textures and colours as the sun peeked through the clouds

I see a vulture carved in the rock

I had the ocean to myself on the return trip, except for one larger RIB that was heading up through Dodd Narrows.

A refreshed slightly retro kitchen

The kitchen was probably the most solid room in the house. It had a worn but functional countertop, well built cupboards that had been repainted but were chipped and scratched, and original floor tiles with some staining. The Formica backsplash was in perfect condition. I was initially quite tempted to leave the counter and backsplash in place and repaint the cabinets. I thought I would tile over the existing tiles with stick on equivalents. 

Original kitchen in MLS listing photo - countertop is same colour as backsplash but damaged in one place where someone used it as a chopping board. Walls and ceiling are same colour as cabinets. Floor tiles are a speckled white with some serious staining where the old fridge was located.

The first job was to update the electrical. There was only one socket on the counter and it turned out that the other circuits had brittle insulation that fell off when I tried to replace the sockets. I installed two 20 amp counter circuits that will allow four appliances to run simultaneously and replaced the existing 15 amp one with a ground fault circuit to code. I ran new wire to the fridge socket because the old had become dangerous as well as to the ironing board plug and to a socket where the stove will go. I installed new light fixtures saved by a friend from their old cottage in Brentwood Bay.

'New' light fixture

Retro fixture over the sink replaced a fluorescent tube light 

I wanted the kitchen to look like a 1950's kitchen so with the help of friends I picked out what I thought would be an authentic green colour for the cabinets. Around this time I decided to hire my friend Lorne to help speed things along by prepping the house for painting.

Lorne did a great job of cleaning up the old kitchen

Trying out a sample colour.

After painting the ceiling white and the walls a light beige/grey, I bought a small tin of sample paint and applied it to the cabinets.

New cabinet colour and proposed tile sample

In a fit of enthusiasm I applied the sample to a large number of doors, not realizing that the paint would not stick properly to the old (probably oil based) paint. Doing this was useful because it made me realize the colour was not the best idea, but it took me half the afternoon to scrub off the old paint so I could put on a suitable primer before repainting.

The paint peeled off when scraped with a finger nail or rubbed with a wet cloth - Ughh.

I ended up mixing a bit of the green paint with a white kitchen and bath paint I had bought for the ceiling. I hope you will agree that the resulting ivory goes well with the beige/grey walls.

Plan B - doors are now painted ivory and walls and frames are grey/beige. I eventually painted the panels above the window ivory too. Note the Formica backsplash has been removed to add the new circuits. 

The next job was to tile the floors. I decided against using stick on tiles on the grounds of cost and longevity. It was actually cheaper to install the same porcelain tiles I had used in the bathroom, which run about a dollar a square foot. Of course the labour is greater and one has to purchase mortar to set the tile and grout, but the mortar costs $15 for a very large bag and I already had grout from various other projects. It took a couple of days to tile and grout the floor. The 1950s curves made for some tricky cutting and none of the walls were quite at 90 degrees to the others so there was a lot of careful measurement and cutting needed.

Cutting around a heat register and the curved wall

Tiling job done - I used a darker grout mix than in the bathroom for variety. Note the Formica counters and sink have been removed.

After the floor tiles were in and the grout set, I decided to tackle replacing the counters. I pried off the old Formica, which was not easy because it was very well glued to the plywood. I used a heat gun and spatula to work it off. I would have left it in place, but I wanted to reuse the aluminum trim and this was not tall enough to handle the extra thickness.

I chose a black Formica and used metal shears for the rough cutting.

This oscillating multi-tool blade was used to trim the Formica because I do not have a suitable router bit. It worked fine but took a bit longer than a router or laminate trimmer would have. You can see the wet contact cement applied to the plywood counter. 

Trimming the installed counters

Counter installed and original aluminum trim reinstalled along edges - Oops- forgot about the sink...

Sink cutout done and sink trim ring installed. This sink (original from 1950) is attached very differently from a modern one and clips onto the trim ring from underneath.

Old sink cleaned up and back in place - Note large subway tiles ready to be installed.

The final kitchen project was the subway tiles. I went with 4 by 16 inch white tiles like those that I had used in a previous backsplash job. I used a dark grout to make them pop because I did not install a line of accent tile this time.

Tiles going on - if you look carefully you will see I screwed up around the socket and light switch and made the tile cut-out too wide. I had to re-do 4 tiles after I thought I had finished the job because the socket and switch have to sit on top of the tile.

Job done

The final kitchen does not look startlingly different from when we bought the place but it is a bit cleaner looking and hopefully will hold up well with the tile floor and new counter.

Update - one month later - The Formica lifted in a few places after I installed it. I thought I would need to remove the top and re-glue it, but discovered that an iron applied at low heat with a couple of layers of paper between it and the surface re-activated the glue and a bit of pressure allowed me to re-adhere the spots that had lifted.

A Christmas Cruise

The renovations are going fairly well but I needed a break, so decided on a week long sailing cruise up to Jedediah Island over Christmas. This island, which is north of Nanaimo and immediately across the Sabine Channel from Texada island is a provincial park. It is home to herds of sheep and goats and has some lovely hiking trails and a varied terrain of old pastures, rocky bluffs and many small bays.

I stopped on the way there and back at De Courcy island.

Under way just north of Maple Bay

The paper mill at Crofton

Crofton after the recent snowfall. The house I am renovating is under one of those little white roofs near the right side of the frame.

A peaceful anchorage at Pirates Cove on De Courcy island.  This cove is usually packed in the summer season. The mountains in the background are near Vancouver

One of the lovely lots on De Courcy Island

The video above is taken just north of Nanaimo rolling north to Jedediah with a following SE breeze.

Goats - these guys are hard to photograph, scattering as soon as they spot you. The video below gives a better idea.  

Farm house on Jedediah 

The island was purchased to become a park from its owners about 25 years ago. Daniel Culver's estate paid about 1/4 of the 4 million dollar + price tag.

Swamp Angel at anchor in Deep Bay at the north end of the island. This anchorage is peaceful even in near gale force SE winds

Make and Break one cylinder engine found near the farmhouse

A good name for this open air diner

The diner itself

I spent nearly 4 days on Jedediah, trying half way through to leave but getting my butt kicked back into the anchorage by high winds and unpleasant seas. I must have spent nearly 20 hours walking the trails and exploring goat and sheep tracks. I climbed to the highest point (Mt. Gibraltar) via three routes and found some stands of old growth firs and cedars I had not seen on any of my previous visits. 

Jedediah has a fine population of mosses

The goats and sheep appear to leave the moss alone although they eat pretty much everything else

These mosses are like miniature trees

And these mosses remind me of tiny ferns

Panorama from Mt. Gibralter looking at Lasqueti to the west with Bull Island in the way

Bathroom Updates

Picture from realtor's website - everything looks OK from this angle

The bathroom in the house on Joan avenue does not look too bad in the realtor's picture, but when we looked at things up close, we quickly saw rot in the floor from leaking galvanized iron toilet supply line, a wet wall behind the sink from the same issue with rusty galvanized pipes in the walls, damaged plaster and paint, a badly cracked marble vanity top, and flooring clearly past its best-by date. The room is small and the lamps on either side of the mirror also projected too far out from the wall. There was no electrical outlet in the room.

On the positive side, the cast iron tub is salvageable with some elbow grease to repair damage from a sliding shower door and the tub surround while a bit yellowed is also in decent shape. The window is newer and functional although missing some trim.

Yummy looking toilet flange and rotted flooring - note also the galvanized iron pipe on the far right

The vanity was quite attractive but the marble top had 4 large cracks in it and the cold water faucet was broken, so out it came 

The first thing was to remove the old vanity and old fashioned 4 gallon a flush toilet. This and tearing up the vinyl flooring exposed a broken cast iron toilet flange and considerable rot in the douglas fir flooring. The plaster was wet behind the sink from leaks in the supply lines. 

First I tackled the floor issues and toilet plumbing, removing the baseboards and rotted flooring and screwing and gluing down 3/4 inch plywood patches. I cut off the old cast iron flange and installed a costly but effective toilet flange that has a tapered, screw threaded base and rubber gasket. When you screw this down into the old lead pipe, the rubber expands and seals the gap. I had to cut back the plastic flange a bit because the lead pipe was not straight. I shut off the water and used an angle grinder to cut the old galvanized piping away in the basement.

Patch and a fancy new renovation flange that has an expanding  rubber gasket that seals against the old lead pipe.  

Next job was to install a new supply line. I initially brazed a copper to Pex adapter but my joints weren't any good as I could not get the solder to adhere to the brass fitting for some reason so I resorted to sharkbite fittings that are expensive but very simple and reliable requiring no soldering.

New toilet supply line

Supply line in place - you can see I have also started plaster repairs

The sink supply lines were next, and were a bit tricky to get in place as they come up through the walls and make a right angle bend. I had to open up quite a bit of wall to remove the old pipes and install the new ones. I used Pex plastic lines and a tool that installs what look like tiny hose clamps - very reliable crimped fittings.

Sink supply lines

  

  

Wall plaster repairs in progress - lots of fiberglass tape, drywall compound and pieces of drywall to patch

Painting was next - I picked a light blue grey from a paint collection at Home Hardware

Painted walls

New lights arrived in the mail from Home Depot. I kept the old medicine cabinet and repainted the inside. Note also the GFI electrical outlet added below the left light.

Before I could put back in the toilet, I had to install flooring. I chose Turkish porcelain tile because this was the least expensive and hardest wearing option. Less than a dollar a square foot, the total cost for installation including buying a tile cutter was under a hundred dollars. I already had some grout and a tile saw and angle grinder...

Flooring laid and freshly grouted

The toilet was a low flush Toto that, along with the vanity, I found for free on UsedCowichan.com. The owners were upgrading to a higher seated toilet and putting in granite counters. 

Happy to have a toilet back - it is a long walk down the hill to the public washrooms in the senior's center.

The next job was to install the freebie vanity and a sink I bought from an old home in Victoria. The sink was 18 inches deep and the vanity about 22. There was also a heat vent that I did not want to cover, so I had to do a lot of cutting and patching back together of the vanity in order to make things work. It took about half a day just for this, not even hooking up the plumbing.

New customized vanity and porcelain sink - note cut out at bottom right to allow heat vent to work

Drain pipes don't line up - I had to extend the drain tailpiece and cut back the plastic and other pipes

Today I finished off the under-sink plumbing, which required an extender to lengthen the sink drain tailpiece. I still need to paint and reinstall baseboards and make up new baseboards for the closet and where the old ones were damaged or missing. I also had to replace the hot water tank, when the old one leaked after I turned back on the water supply (it was a truly venerable tank). The house pressure reducing valve also required replacing.