Most of you will have seen some of the details of our new cottage on Galiano Island, but this post will show you all the details of what we went through to get it there!

In following up from the last post, the cottage was manufactured on Vancouver Island in a small town called Chemainus. On Tuesday March 2nd, they drove the cottage from the factory to a barge in Ladysmith and loaded it for the trip to Galiano. Early in the morning (4:30 a.m.) on March 3rd, the team set out by barge for the 3-hour crossing. High tide was between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., and they had a small window to land the barge and offload the trucks.

A map of the journey our cottage took to get to Galiano. The factory is the red dot at the bottom.

Justine and I met the support crew from Galiano Excavating at the landing site at the north end of the island at around 7:00 a.m., about half an hour before the barge was due to arrive. We did not want to miss it! The single biggest challenge that we had with this project was getting the cottage onto the island. It is too big to arrive via BC Ferries, and strangely enough there are no commercial landing sites on all of Gaiano. We were again fortunate that Galiano Excavating has great contacts on the island. The north end of the island next to Dionisio Provincial Park is First Nations land. Galiano Excavating negotiated with them to allow us to land on the beach on their land, and we are very grateful that they allowed us to do so.

For the balance of this very long post I am just going to upload a series of photos and provide some commentary on the sequence of events that unfolded to get the cottage from the barge to our property.

Galiano Excavating provided a backhoe to help us at the landing site. Prior to the barge arriving he did a bit of clean up to clear tree branches and make the site a little better. We ended up really needing it…

Our landing beach. It isn’t much to look at.

Our first glimpse of the barge as it came into site.

Getting closer…

We were confused by the huge poles on the barge. As it turned out, they used them to anchor the barge in the ground once they hit land. They provide stabilization as they offload.

Nervously waiting

The barge eventually made its way into the bay

They sent in the small tender to scout out the landing site.

I do love the name of the small tender!

Barge being pulled by the larger tug.

The first real look at our cottage on the barge!

All three boats that delivered our cottage.

They sat offshore for quite a while getting organized. The waiting was tough!

Ramp down, they headed in to land.

Landed! Time to get the trucks off the barge.

Once the pilot and support trucks were off the barge it was time for the big truck and the cottage.

And it didn’t take long for the truck to get stuck. Once it was fully off the barge, it got stuck on the slick, muddy hill. It was a good thing we had the backhoe, or we were stuck. They chained it up and started pulling.

The turn at the top of the hill coming off the beach was the hardest part of the whole trip. The truck couldn’t make the turn; it was slippery and wet; and they needed to use the backhoe to basically pull it through. It’s amazing how powerful that little backhoe is!

While all this was going on, the barge pulled up the ramp and headed for home.

We were still trying to get the cottage around the first bend.

The backhoe helped tow the truck and cottage quite a ways up the lane to the main road.

About half way, the ground was solid enough that they were able to disconnect the backhoe and the truck was able to make it’s way on it’s own.

We finally made it out to the main road!

At this point we drove back to our property to wait for them to arrive. While this was going on, the other guys from Galiano Excavating were on site installing our septic system.

They installed the main tank up at the top, near the cottage.

They then dug a big trench down the steep part of the hill to the bottom of the property…

…where they put in the rest of the system. Done in a day.

OK, back to the main story…

Coming up Panorama Lane.

And it had arrived! All that was left was the tight turn onto our driveway.

They thought they could get the cottage onto the property with the truck…

But they were wrong and got stuck. Excavator to the rescue!

They used the excavator to get it around the tight bend in the driveway.

And to tow it into place.

The excavator made the process much easier.

And they used it to position it to be pushed onto the pad.

The pink spray paint is where they installed the seismic tie-downs. The guys in the background are using a long jackhammer to to drive “harpoons” 3’ into the ground for added stabilization.

Once in place, the cottage was pushed into its final position.

And settled into place. It’s still on the wheels at this stage.

The cottage in its final location, but still on wheels.

They disconnected the excavator and hooked it back up to their truck, which has it’s own hydraulic systems.

Once the initial blocks were in place, they were able to remove the wheels from the cottage.

Wheels off!

They then went through an elaborate process of raising and lowering each end until all the blocks were in place.

Eventually, all the blocking was in place and they lowered the cottage to its final resting place.

And done. All the prices of the trailer removed and detached from the truck.

On the inside, they had done a great job bracing all the appliances to ensure nothing moved during transit. Everything arrive in great shape!

And done! Our cottage delivered and installed. Now all the work is on us!

I hope you enjoyed all the pics. I’m also putting together a video of the whole process. That’s going to take a bit more time to get through, so I thought I’d get this up quickly. There is lots more to come, and if you want to see more of the inside, have a look at the previous post.