Our Rooms
Our Restaurant
Our Location
Our Surroundings
What's New

What's New at the Lodge

Rates

We have kept our room rates the same this year, in spite of increased costs of transportation, fuel and food! Ask us about low-season or long-term rates, for the winter visitor or work crews committing to an extended period.

Improvements

Last year we focused on beautifying the grounds and the building exterior. We feel that we made some huge improvements, but it's always an ongoing project, and we sometimes seem to take a step backwards as we move forwards. For example,

In the late fall, we removed the old garage doors downstairs, replacing them with a large picture window, double French doors, and outside access to the drying room. This adds lots more light to the games area and downstairs lounge, but we haven't yet replaced all the siding on the outside of the building.	before after
Over the winter, we upgraded the electrical service to the building. This required us to build a new electrical cabin near the driveway, and dig up the lawn to lay the new cable to the main building. Once the weather improves, we'll have to finish the cabin and repair the damage to the lawn.
Downstairs, we updated the plumbing to let us install an extra laundry area for guests. We lost one bedroom, but changed some of the rooms to make space for future bunk beds to restore the lost capacity.
Upstairs, we are upgrading the bathroom area to improve the facilities and layout, and to add more storage areas for the lodge. (We've taken out the huge old men's washroom and replaced it with a full bathroom plus a staff washroom. Another inconvenient bathroom is being converted to kitchen storage.)

Plans for this year - a Restaurant!

• Since September, 2007, Jill has been doing chef training at North Island College in Campbell River. This lets us plan even better menus and meals for our work crews, but it is mainly preparing for our newest plan:
• We are preparing to open a licensed restaurant, for guests and the general public, by July 2008. We will be featuring fresh ingredients and local produce (whenever possible), paired with a selection of British Columbia wines and beers. Our goal is to provide a relaxed atmosphere where you can enjoy a delicious leisurely multi-course meal with your friends.
  Having the restaurant upstairs, we will need to expand the upstairs dining area so that we can accommodate both more formal and more casual dining. We plan to build a self-catering kitchen downstairs so that hostellers or work groups can prepare their own food without the confusion of being in the restaurant area.

Future plans

• Although most of our guests appreciate our casual "home away from home" atmosphere, there are those who would prefer a more traditional hotel setting with ensuite bathrooms. We plan to turn the large upstairs dorm room into such a suite. If this proves successful, we will rework most of the upstairs bedrooms into rooms with ensuite bathrooms, while leaving the downstairs as our hostelling area.