Stepping through the front door and into the home of Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, you can feel a slight tremor, like a mild earthquake.But the gentle shudder is nothing more than a natural movement caused by the surge of water in Westbay Marine Village — something that’s part of daily life aboard a float home in the winter.
“We get wind here sometimes, but very little motion,” said Barb, who explains that’s due to the protected waters in this small bay, located opposite Victoria’s Inner Harbour.
“You get the best sleep of your life in a house like this. It’s the original waterbed,” she joked. “And we never have to go anywhere to see the fireworks.”
She and her husband, Dennis, once lived upon the land, but they believe they must have been sailors in their past lives “because when we moved here we felt we were in seventh heaven.”
They have a runabout moored just outside, literally two paces from the door, and Dennis frequently brings home fresh halibut, crab or salmon for dinner. Al fresco dining and cooking is one of their favourite pastimes, thanks to their multiple decks.
“I fish at Constance Bank, or Oak Bay, or Pedder Bay, but the biggest salmon I ever caught was 32 pounds, right off the breakwater here,” said the civil engineer.
This exciting water world opened up for them after their children left home, when the couple found that maintaining their former house and garden was absorbing far too much of their free time. They decided to move, but first developed some criteria for their next home: It had to be new, or nearly new, with either water views or waterfront. They wanted to stay in the same general area and their new home had to be ultra light maintenance.
They found everything they wanted and more in their marine environment — and designed the float home themselves, with the help of Dan Boot. It was constructed at Point Hope Shipyard on a submersible barge. The house sits on a base of concrete filled with Styrofoam and the whole structure, once finished, was towed to their dock, then the barge was submerged and the home floated off.
The marina has several different sized water lots, which is why a visitor to the marine village can see 20 homes of varying sizes.
Theirs was the third float home to be moored at the marina, and their space is at the end of a dock where they enjoy unobstructed views.
In addition to the prime location, their home also has one of the largest water lots, at 1,000 square feet. They were allowed to build three storeys tall, but the upper-floor living space is smaller because it includes a large deck.
“Our former house was 2,700 square feet and had a ton of storage because there was also a crawl space. So we really did have to downsize,” she said of the 2,300-square-foot home they built in 2005.
“In a house like this you also become very conscious of what you bring down to the end of the dock,” she added with a chuckle. “You tend to plan a little more carefully for trips to get groceries.”
It’s a fair stroll from the parking lot, through a locked gate and down to their front door — and the marine environment is always on the move. Owners and visitors must navigate along sometimes-slippery and dynamic docks that can shift, depending on the weather. The homes move less than the docks, of course, because of their mass and the Desjardins’ weighs in at 80 tonnes. It is also stabilized by several piles. “We have one on each corner and in the middle,” said the engineer.
The couple’s former home on the Gorge Waterway had a Spanish flavour and they have always loved those warm Mediterranean tones.
“When we looked at coming here we thought we would break out of that, but we just seemed to gravitate back to the bright, hot colours again,” said Barb, and even on a dull day the bright, saturated hues add to the zesty atmosphere.
They acknowledge it was a huge change for them both, but after looking at a show home they were enchanted with the idea and wanted to try it out, so Mark Lindholm, who operates the marina for Lindholm Land, suggested they spend a weekend in his floating bed and breakfast, called the Pink Dishrack.
“It was the most gorgeous summer weekend you could imagine and after that we were in. We’ve had absolutely no regrets. Dennis gave our lawnmower to a neighbour in a second, and bought a 19-foot boat.”
When he goes out on the boat he often drops her off on the far side of the harbour, at Fisherman’s Wharf, and she spends an hour or so walking home, doing errands along the way. “It’s a very healthy lifestyle being here,” said Barb, who is a physiotherapist.
She explained when living in a house, with a large garden, people tend to get bogged down with chores around the property, but here they head out every day.
“It really is a different life. You have nature right in front of you — birds, seals, otters and we had a brown pelican swing by last year — and almost zero maintenance. Once a year we clean the windows with a pressure washer, from the boat. That’s about it.”
They do have a garden, but it’s minute and comprises a slice of water by the front door, filled with multi-coloured anemones and other sea creatures.
The home’s exterior is entirely clad in metal siding that never needs paint, and the only problem initially was the flat roof where gulls used to drop shells there to open them. It’s wired now so there are no more “bombs going off.”
Everything is built into the docks, from sewer and cable to gas lines, and she says everyone in the marina is environmentally conscious, and friendly.
When it came to designing their home, the couple drew up their general ideas and passed their drawings to designer Boot.
“He took our square plan and turned in on an angle, so we ended up with a lovely staircase on the corner — a kind of lighthouse with a skylight at the top,” said Barb.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom home has three storeys and three decks, each with its own barbecue, so Dennis can fire one of them up no matter where the wind is coming from. One is gas, one is propane and one is charcoal, for different flavours, too.
The middle floor has two decks and above that is the largest, a 300-square-foot one off the master bedroom.
“We wanted to make sure we could still entertain, and we’ve had as many as 35 out there.” Even in winter they can sit outside, partly thanks to Barb’s mother who passed down her collection of old fur coats.
“I didn’t kill the animals and I figure I might as well make use of them,” said the pragmatic Barb, who moved here with Dennis from Ontario in 1989.
He likes the fact they can lock the door and go away on holidays for weeks on end. “The beauty of this neighbourhood is everybody looks after everybody. In our old house you’d pull in the driveway and never talk to a neighbour. Here, we walk by each other every day, but we also have lots of privacy, views that are to die for and nature all around.”
They have no regrets about living in a water world, except perhaps getting the morning paper.
“At our previous house I could go out in my jammies,” said Barb. “Here I don’t do that, but there are positives. For instance, as I walk down the dock in the morning I often pass a heron who stands right there, just feet away.”