After 30 years in Craig Bay, a local resident moved more than 100 km south to the San Juan Islands on Wednesday. Not a big move for most people, but this resident was a house.
"Over 30 years ago my parents built a house on the waterfront south of Parksville," said Bill Rempel.
"They had trees from the property milled on-site and for the most part this lumber was used to complete the house," he said explaining they did much of the work themselves and used true 2" x 10" floor joists, unlike smaller modern ones.
Both 83, his parents Ruth-Marie and Bill Sr., sold the house recently and moved to Qualicum Beach and the new owner sold the house to build a new one on the waterfront Craig Bay property.
"The house was built to an amazing standard," Rempel said. "It was built so solid there was integrity in the structure that's rare today."
Moved by Nickel Brothers, Rempel said he assumed the move was only worth it because they were able to load it directly onto a barge and ship it down the Georgia Strait to another waterfront property in Washington State.
He said there were more than 100 people watching the careful passage through Dodd Narrows south of Nanaimo, which they had to carefully time for high tide, meaning they did the last part of the move in the dark.