With my young Bride, we were living in a logging camp, the company town of Nimpkish, BC. As a junior employee I did not have the seniority or the pull to rate a company house so the only alternative for us was to buy a mobile home as I had enough pull to rate a trailer pad. We had a small 10' x 45' mobile home. I did not like the mobile as I felt it to be a fire trap. We were planning a family and we needed more room so decided to build our own drywalled modular unit. This is a picture from about 1958 of the sawmill at Telegraph Cove, BC where my father was the steam engineer. When the lumber was cut for our home, there were three differences. Father had long since retired and the steam plant had been replaced by two Gardener Diesels. In the early 70s, my oldest brother was now the mill foremen and he operated the second most modern piece of machinery in the mill - the 1915 planner. Now I had no training or real carpentry experience so some research was in order. We acquired two books and these provided the basis for the knowledge to proceed. During the winter shut down we toured several manufacturers of modular homes in the Okanagan Valley of BC. The difference between a mobile and a modular unit of that time period. The modular unit was drywall interior finish, was totally wood frame construction meeting CSA standards and with proper inspections, could be placed in most residential subdivisions. The mobile units were built to a much lower standard and were very restricted to where they could be inside of most municipalities. The start of construction. One of the challenges for this project was the needed inspection and we were outside of any inspection agency's jurisdiction. The town of Nimpkish was only linked to the outside world by 5 hours of logging road. Six hours away we found two inspectors that said they would have been happy to do the inspections but because of the 10 hours of driving they were not really interested. They did not know it but THEY were hooked. I told them that we had a small 4 seat Beechcraft aircraft and that the Steelhead were running in the Nimpkish River just at the end of the local runway. They did not catch any fish but were always excited to know when the next inspection was due! These are the only two pictures that I have of the construction that are not on slides. I mentioned before that my oldest brother was the mill foreman so I got really good lumber. The floor joist and headers are all #1 select old growth Douglas Fir. The lumber for the trusses and exterior walls are #2 and better but my order was all #1. The building's two sections were each 12' x 52'. The floor joists run the full 52' length of the building on 16" centers, with full bridging every 12'. To make the long walls stronger, they were constructed as box trusses; double outside trimmer joists and full length headers, with all horizontal plywood joints meeting on firestops. All laminations as well as all gussets on the trusses were not only nailed but a marine fungus resistant glue was used. Ardox spiral nails were used throughout and at lockup, one year was allowed for the green lumber to dry and I have found it is impossible to pull those nails out! Very strong. My father-in-law did the electrical and I pretty well did the rest of it with a lot of excellent advice from woodwidow. The total cost for construction was just over $14,000.00 in 1975 dollars. Why build it movable? We could not own the land and I knew that some day the camp would be shut down. The rent for the pad was $10 per month, which included electricity, garbage, sewer, water, no taxes and propane, and furnace oil at cost, but you were only allowed 11o volt appliances - no electric stoves or hot water tanks. Because of the voltage restrictions, we decided to go with a oil furnace and oil fired hot water. When we got to a small plumbing wholesaler in the big city, he suggested a boiler that would not only heat our home but would also provide our hot water with a very small footprint. My love of hot water heat and boilers was on!! Later the romance with wood gasifiction and storage systems was just a natural progression. 4 years after we moved in, the news came that the camp was going to close down. Pictured above was the start of the move. Moving day with lots of help and a really good crane operator and I know a good one when I see one! Placing the first half on a float ! Arriving at its new and permanent site in Port McNeill - 25 miles from Nimpkish. Not one crack or nail pop in the dry wall!! There is a part two to this but it is kind of up to you hoarders whether I post it.
Excellent Advice? more like grunt work! It was mostly fun, a great challenge and we both learned a lot along the way.
You got my vote for part 2! Great stuff Allan, and particularly neat for me since I cruised the inside on a fishing boat with a logger for a captain (part of the Brooks-Scanlon family) whose idea of tourism was to check out all the old camps on the way up. Really loving your stories!
I spent a lot of time in BC as a kid. We went there almost every summer in the mid 60's to 70's. Drove all over that province, and it is HUGE! It even rains more up there than it does here (hard as that is to fathom). I also remember trillions of mosquitos, catching a lot of fish (Salmon on the east side of Vancouver Is, and gobs of trout in a lot of lakes), Campbell River smoked salmon, and they said 'hydro' instead of electricity. They also said 'eh' all the time, but they did that in Alaska too, so it grew on us. I can easily drift into that accent with the local loggers around here. Post more stories!
It is very diverse in climate. North Central Coast is very wet, Victoria is very mild and lower rainfall, Dawson Creek - Fort St John is grain growing country, between Lilloet -Ashcroft is considered semi arid and the Okanagan Valley - a summer play ground! In the winter, world class skiing in many areas.
Yah, it is diverse. I have skied at Whistler, and been to Banff and Jasper, and up and down the coast. Its about like Oregon, with high rainfall on the coast and inland valleys, and dry inland.
Keep the stories coming!! Your knowledge and wisdom is always appreciated!! Plus you have some Great pics!!
The Okanagan has been my stomping grounds since I was a wee tyke. Thus the picture in the Who are you? thread. I always enjoy visiting the coast though, except when it rains for days and days on end.
