Bonniebrook Renovation: Waterfront fishing cabin turned She-shed Extraordinaire

During the completion of my Certificate of Interior Design at BCIT, I was recruited to consult on a waterfront cabin renovation project on the beautiful Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada. My client, Sandi, had inherited the family cabin her father had built when she was a small child. 

The cabin was originally built to host family and friends during summer vacations. It had 3 small bedrooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen open to the living room and a wood stove. There was no laundry facility on site. Sandi, a retired teacher, was interested in recreating the former family cabin into her own personal beachfront sanctuary, a "she-shed" as she called it. 

Working in collaboration with Sunshine Coast artist and builder, Cody Chancellor (www.cody.chancellor.net), we designed a new modern layout for the cabin. We added a Mudroom/Laundry Room with washer and dryer, designed a Mistress Suite with walk-through closet and ensuite bathroom and opened up the Living Room area by removing a section of the central wall and putting in driftwood posts. We put heated ceramic tile flooring in the bathroom and kitchen and rearranged the kitchen appliances for better flow, resulting in a large central kitchen peninsula.

The project is being executed in phases, with Phase I completed Fall 2015 and Phase II in progress currently. As the project is still a "work-in-progress", the images here are a bit rough and unpolished, a construction zone essentially, but hopefully they will still give an adequate picture of the transformation and design direction. (I plan to update with photos once completion gets nearer)

In Phase I, we opened up the space by taking out a section of the central partition and replacing it with driftwood posts harvested from the beach.  

A section of the central wall was removed and driftwood posts put in place for load-bearing

Another shot of the above post from a different angle with a view to the kitchen beyond

We changed the circulation of the cottage to facilitate the creation of a large “Mistress Suite” with walk-through closet and a completely renovated dual function ensuite/main bathroom. The original small bathroom had a bathtub/shower insert. Sandi wanted to get rid of that and put in a custom, walk-in shower. We expanded the space in the bathroom by pushing the West partition 18" into an adjacent tiny bedroom (which became the Master walk-through closet) and created a corner vanity.

 Corner vanity with custom corner medicine cabinet, custom window with frosted glazing, and wall sconce lighting

With the additional space in the bathroom, Cody was able to add a small bench between the main door of the bathroom and the pocket door leading to the walk-through closet

Custom walk-in shower with flooring and design accents made of beach stones gathered by Sandi 

The kitchen was refurbished with in-floor heating under ceramic tiles, rearranging of appliances and work zones for better efficiency, and the refinishing of the peninsula with the addition of a large cedar slab counter top (also harvested from the immediate environment surrounding the cabin).

Tiling in progress in the kitchen and large cedar slab counter top

Another view of the cedar slab peninsula counter top sliced from a stump harvested on site - the gorgeous nature of the cedar grain adds rich colour and visual texture to the kitchen 

With the commencement of Phase II in Summer 2016, we are working towards completing the installation of engineered hardwood flooring throughout the remainder of the cabin and the removal of additional partitions to be replaced with simple custom sliding shoji screens (by Ryan McMillan of River Bank Design, www.riverbankdesign.ca) to add versatility and functionality to the newly expanded Living Room/Guest Room. (pictures to follow)

For Phase III, beginning in Fall 2016, I will be creating a completely new lighting plan for the She-shed, as well as replacing window treatments and completing the Mudroom.

I'm so excited about this project because I love working with creative, dynamic individuals (such as my client and collaborator) and witnessing stunning transformations of space and form.

Good Earth Builders - Cob Kitchen Project 2008-2011

About four years ago, I joined a group of individuals forming a natural building collective, inspired and mentored by the renowned Mud Girls Natural Building Collective of Lasqueti Island (http://mudgirls.wordpress.com/).

During my years working with the group, which came to be known as the Good Earth Builders Natural Building Collective, I had the opportunity to participate in a number of projects and workshops on the Sunshine Coast. Most of our projects were small (no more than 100 sq ft) because natural building is completely new to the building inspectors who adhere to the standard building codes and there are currently no standard natural building codes as of yet - any structure under 100 sq ft does not require building inspector approval. So, we built things like garden sheds, benches and cob ovens.

Building with cob can be a slow process which can take years to complete, depending on the size of the project, due to the fact that it is labour-intensive and here on the "Wet-Coast," we have a much shorter dry season in which to build. The following photos highlight one of the projects I was able to see through from start to finish at a local farm and retreat centre called Deer Crossing the Art Farm (or the Art Farm, as it was nicknamed). We were commissioned to build a cob kitchen space (separate from the main house) for the use of guests.



Getting Started

Most projects begin with the laying of foundations, structural columns and roof rafters, around which we will position the cob. Once that is done, we begin mixing cob - and LOT'S of it!! Cob is made up of a mixture of clay and sand (ideally found in the land on-site, or brought in from local sources nearby) and water and straw. Normally, people involved in larger projects will use technology such as a rototiller to mix large batches of cob, but because as a natural building collective, we are a hands-on bunch, we mix cob in smaller batches with our feet!

Laying Cob

We typically have teams of people mixing cob and teams of people laying cob to build up the walls of the structure and then at some point we switch so that everyone gets a chance to perform all the different roles. In the following photo, my partner, Nina, and I are working together to build up the wall equally on either side (inside and outside) of the structure. You can see in this photo that we are in the process of embedding a glass brick into the cob wall. Once the walls begin to get higher, we need to stand on scaffolding or straw bales to reach the top of the wall.

Nadi is sitting on one of our straw bale scaffolding units....

When we start getting really high up on the walls, it is more efficient for people down below to pass up the cob mixture to us. Sandy is "serving up a platter of cob" to the people on the scaffolding.

Once we have completed as much cob-building as we can in one dry season, we wrap up our building to weather the rainy winter season until spring when we can continue building again.

Cedar Shake Roof

The following dry season, we had the Mud Girls come and teach a workshop in making cedar shake roofing. In this way, we have a group of people learning how it is done, getting the practical, hands-on experience and a work party of many individuals to get it done. Everyone benefits! Below is a shot of the cob kitchen with the walls completed up to the rafters and the cedar shake roof completed.

Plastering

This is a shot of the kitchen from the back view. This picture also shows the building when it is finished being plastered. The plastering happened at the end of the second building season. Typically, natural plaster is composed of fine clay, sifted straw and sifted, fresh horse manure. Yes, we all wore GLOVES for plastering!

This picture shows the inside of the kitchen with the sunlight coming through the coloured glass we embedded in the cob during the wall building phase. It also shows the layer of coloured plaster we did on the inside walls.

Below is another interior shot showing the variance of colour and texture that is possible with natural plastering. For the interior plastering of this kitchen, we were very lucky to have the expertise of a local business owner, Keetah Bryant of Canadian Coastal Clayworks (http://www.canadiancoastalclayworks.ca/ - there are more photos of the Art Farm kitchen in Keetah's photo gallery on her site).

This photo also shows one of the common natural building techniques of making dry stack foundations (at the bottom of the wall). "Dry stack" refers to building without the use of a mortar. One of the advantages of using dry stack foundations is that because the rocks are not fixed in one position, they can easily shift in the event of an earthquake and remain stable.

Cob Flooring

Here we see a freshly laid cob floor in the kitchen and more detail on the dry stack foundation and it's aesthetic value to a completed building. The shelf beside the window was embedded into the wall during the cob-building phase, as was the window. Also, the wooden studs were embedded into the cob wall during building. They will be used later to affix a wooden bench to the cob wall.

Versatile and Sculptable Cob

Below are some photos of completed cob homes showing the possibilities for living in a natural structure made of earth.

cabin by Meka Bunch of Wolf Creek, Oregon

http://www.builditgreen.co.za/GoingGreen/EarthHouses.aspx

A Few Reasons Why I Love Cob

I love how sculptable cob is and I love that we make these buildings with our hands and feet in the earth. I love how beautiful and dynamic the finished product is and that we can build furniture (such as the seating areas in the two photos above) coming right out of the wall, so that the wall becomes an extension of our lifestyle and home decor in an artistic and highly unique way. I love that cob buildings in the British Isles have been standing (and housing people) for over 500 years.