'It's affordable housing': Couple moves historic home from Esquimalt to Sooke

In a housing crisis, B.C. residents have been needing to think outside the box, and that’s exactly what a Sooke couple has done.

As a crew from structural moving company Nickel Bros slowly removes two steel beams holding up a yellow house in Sooke, Mandalena Lewis and her partner Dave Dick are about to start over.

"It’s a pretty big day for us today," said Lewis. "It’s a feeling of coming home after having your home destroyed."

Their home was, in fact, destroyed by a devastating fire in 2021.

"It was literally like six months after we purchased the house out here," said Lewis.

"It was probably one of the worst things we’ve gone through," said Dick.

The couple had insurance on their home, and after the fire it was time to make a decision, rebuild or get creative.

The couple chose to get creative.

"That’s when we said, 'Hey, yellow house or bust,'" said Lewis.

In 2018, the couple moved to Vancouver Island from the B.C. mainland. They rented a 127-year old yellow house in Esquimalt.

"It was cool," said Dick.

"We were absolutely in love with it," said Lewis.

The yellow house was slated to be demolished to make way for a new condo development.

"Mandalena was like, 'What if we tried to save a house and move it?'" said Dick. "We didn’t even know that the process existed yet."

After months of negotiations with various levels of government and the condo developer, that yellow house was finally gifted to them. It was a process the couple describes as extremely frustrating.

"Getting people to try to understand what we were trying to do with it," said Dick.

"We had to put pressure on building inspectors to understand their own rules about moving these homes in," said Lewis.

The Capital Regional District says almost half of what ends up at the Hartland Landfill is construction waste, mainly wood.

The yellow house has now been moved to the couple's property in Sooke, sparing it from the landfill.

"It’s affordable housing," said Lewis.

A NEW PASSION

The couple has now launched a business called Renegade Homes to help others save existing homes from being scrapped.

"You can get into a detached home for the price of a condo," said Dick.

The business will help people navigate the process of moving a home to a new location, cutting through the municipal red tape.

A lot of work still needs to be done on the 127-year-old home before the couple can officially move in by June.

The couple estimates that once it’s all said and done, they will have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by repurposing the home instead of building new.

"I still feel in this moment that we’re in Esquimalt," said Lewis, standing inside the house with the windows boarded-up.

The last time Lewis looked out the window, she was gazing at the streets of Esquimalt.

"Oh my gosh, you can see the lighthouse," said Lewis as she removed a board and looked out the window for the first time in the home's new location.

It is a whole new view where the two intend to once again make that yellow house their home. 

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