About Nanaimo Area, BC

In January, the BC government announced that as of the 31 March 2009, home inspectors will need to be licensed. BC is the first province in Canada to license home inspectors to better protect buyers & ensure qualified inspections.

In January, one of my girlfriends signed me up for a facebook running group, a group of 6 of us that have been through the good times and the bad during our 20 year friendship (and I’m young). How could I resist joining these friends when I looked and saw the picture of the girls running a race in heels, I knew this was going to be fun and another one of our group adventures.

Three of us live close enough to join the Running Room in Nanaimo together, close means I’ll hop on the ferry once a week and that one of us drives 1 hour to get there. The training we get at the Running Room is definitely worth the effort, we listen to the informative speakers and learn effective and safe ways to run, apparently not in heels! We finished our last group hill run last night, there is nothing like the pressure of a whistle to get you moving up and down the hill 16 times and of course your running with about 30 others. Next week we start our speed training, and we will continue until we complete the Vancouver BMO half-marathon on May 3rd.

There are lots of trails and roads on Gabriola that offer great training potential, I prefer to stick to the trails when I can as I love the adventure of turning down a new path and find it easier on the body. Gabriola Lands and Trails Trust (GALTT) has a website that is an excellent resource for Island trails and has a trails map http://www.galtt.ca/ .

3210 Quennell Road, Nanaimo, BC is the most expensive non-waterfront single family home ever listed in Nanaimo. The home is 8000 square feet which also makes it one of the largest homes ever listed in Nanaimo.

To view additional photos - Nanaimo Luxury Homes

A spectacular 9100+ square foot, secluded, luxury estate nestled on 24.21 acres on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Crafted by award-winning, Palladian Developments and three years in the making, this exclusive property is truly in a class of its own. Custom-built with the best of everything, the primary residence boasts meticulous craftsmanship and custom detailing both inside and out.

Featuring a salt-water pool kept warm by a heat pump, six-person hot tub, cedar-lined sauna, custom rubber-floored exercise room and gaming room, this dream property will meet all your desires and more. The over-sized gourmet kitchen boasts custom black rough-edged granite countertops, cherry cabinetry and top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances most chefs will only dream of. There is a 6 ft. stainless steel hood with warming lights over the 6 burner Viking range, 24" griddle and twin ovens. The dishwasher is a twin drawer Fisher & Paykel, the washer and dryer are top of the line Kitchen Aid.

Just off the kitchen, through French doors, you will find a covered patio on which to enjoy your morning cappuccino or evening glass of port. The massive custom Rumford granite fireplace is a work of art in stone by local stone mason; David Johnstone. The hickory floors give off a warm glow when the sunlight hits them through the six-foot custom fir-framed Loewen windows. The home has 10-foot ceilings downstairs and up to 14-foot vaulted ceilings throughout the great room and upper level. The master bedroom and en-suite are gorgeous and spacious. The six-piece en-suite has a spa-like ambience with a two-person soaker tub, heated slate floors, separate water closet, twin pedestal sinks and cherry cabinetry. Thick glass surrounds the six-foot shower enclosure complete with his and her twin showerheads. The 13 x 7 foot walk-in closet is every woman's dream. The home is topped with a 50-year, 28-gauge steel roof. Most of the lighting fixtures in the home are hand-forged from Hubbardton Forge in Vermont. The plumbing fixtures are from Grohe.

Over the years several homes to Gabriola have come as reclaimed homes from various areas. As real estate values have soared in parts of the Province, the land value is so great in some cases that it affords home owners the opportunity to build new. But with all the “green” and recycling initiatives, the idea of relocating homes, instead of demolishing them, has had a strong appeal.

Many of our relocated homes to the island have come from the mainland, via a barge, allowing a home to be relocated a greater distance than by trucking it. It’s quite the site to see from the shores of the island, a home floating past, and coming into Descanso Bay, where it is then put on a truck and delivered to a property, usually in the middle of the night.

Kate Emmings of the Islands Trust Fund was on Gabriola this weekend, to provide information on, “The Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program,” which offers an incentive for island landowners to protect natural & geological features of your property while reducing taxes.

Through the program NAPTEP, an island landowner can receive up to 65% property tax exemption on the portion of land of their property which is protected through covenants.

Properties that are eligible may include; relatively undisturbed natural area that is a good example of an important ecosystem, important natural area that provides key habitat to rare native plant or animal species, or naturally occurring special geological features.

A conservation covenant is an agreement between the landowner and conservancy group, in this case the Islands Trust Fund, which sets out specific restrictions or requirements that the landowner will uphold to ensure conservation of the covenanted portion of the land forever. Because these covenants are registered on title, they will be passed along to future homeowners in perpetuity, so once you’re in the program, there is no turning back.

On the Islands Trust Fund website at: http://www.islandstrustfund.bc.ca/, one can obtain information on the program, along with an application guide to calculating some of the costs & benefits of the program. The application deadline is 1 April 2009, in order to see possible property tax relief in 2010.

***There may be legal & potential tax implications – so each applicant is advised to seek independent legal & accounting advice.