“You know when you fall in love with something and you’re like, ‘I gotta have it?’”
That’s how Lynn Clark says she came to own one of the Cowichan Valley’s finest heritage estates.
The Calgary resident’s parents have lived in the region for 17 years and she’d taken to making monthly trips to the Island to see them.
Looking for rentals, Clark and her husband Allen Brown were searching the MLS.ca site when they stumbled upon Woodcote — a sprawling lakefront estate on Maple Bay Road.
The 15-acre property looks like a movie set, with a manicured lawn and lush rhododendron garden flowing from the foot of the 113-year-old home’s back porch steps. An old growth fir forest and 100-year-old barn hug the property from the east while to the north a span of pasture ends with a dock at the edge of Quamichan Lake. Across the lake, farm homes and fields dot the rolling hills.
It looks like a dream. And for Clark, it has been.
Just not one with too much forethought.
“I’d say this buy was an impulse,” she admitted. “My husband and I wanted to retire but this is not what we were thinking for retirement. We were thinking of downsizing, but we saw this and just fell in love.”
So, she devised a plan.
“We’re making it into a bed and breakfast. More like a high-end retreat — adults only — for a romantic getaway or anniversaries. I was thinking of also doing some elopement packages,” she said.
So, after taking possession on Aug. 1, Clark got to work converting the 4,000 square-foot residence into Maple Bay Manor: the region’s newest getaway, while her husband toils away at work in Calgary, still making the trek back and forth when he’s able.
“We’ve totally renovated it,” she said of their new home.
The upstairs now boasts three generously sized guests rooms, all featuring ensuites and spectacular views.
While Clark has renamed the home “Maple Bay Manor”, one of the guest rooms will retain the Woodcote name in honour of its history.
The hosts’ bedroom is on the main floor and they’ll wake to a view that looks like it’s from a landscape painter’s imagination.
The new interior is all Clark’s imagination, however.
A designer by trade, the project is right in her wheelhouse as evidenced by the ease with which she directed the various tradespeople buzzing about the property last week.
“I’ve done all the colours in the house light so that your main viewpoint, the whole concept, is looking out at nature,” she said of the French country theme.
Light streams in from all angles, a real bonus for a house of such advanced age.
The removal of the butler’s quarters shrank the home by about 800 square feet, but it had become overgrown by ivy with roots as thick as a fist in some places.
The associated vermin weren’t Clark’s cup of tea, having come from a rat-less Calgary.
“I joke that I’m a city girl gone country,” she said. “I’ve learned how to drive a tractor. I’ve learned how to back up a trailer. I’ve learned about septic system fields. I’ve learned about all sorts of things I never thought I’d ever learn.”
The property once had a pool but the previous owners had converted it into a pond several years ago. Clark has been busy draining it to see what she’s got to work with.
“We’re cleaning it out right now. We’re putting in a new filtration system, because you couldn’t see into it,” she explained. “I was fishing out little ducklings that had fallen in the other day,” she said with a chuckle. “Like I said, city girl gone country.”
Aside from the duckling rescue, she’s seen eagles and a family of brown horned owls on the property.
“We go for a walk and it’s like you discover something new every time,” she said as nature hummed on around her in the backyard. “My favourite is just to be quiet and listen.”
The gardens are well known to plant lovers in Cowichan and beyond.
Originally owned by Peter and Pat Stone, the rhododendron garden features somewhere between 300 and 900 rhododendrons depending who you ask.
“It’s a huge garden,” Clark said. “The Stones did a lot of work on them. It would have been interesting to see it in its day.”
Formerly a fixture on the annual Cowichan Valley Garden Tour, it’s been a few years since the home was featured. This year it’s back on the list, though the rhododendrons have mostly already bloomed.
“May was the best time to see them,” Clark said. “We’re not going to have much colour but I think a lot of people appreciate the plants more than anything else.”
The greenery and general ambience are enough to pull in a crowd, but the view from the back porch overlooking the garden and lake is what sealed the deal for her.
“This is why we bought the property,” she said as she meandered through the dining room and onto the large deck.
The stunning vista sprawls out for miles.
“I’m going to spend a lot of time looking at that,” she said. “When my husband and I finish this come June 17, we’re going to sit here and have a vacation in our house. We really couldn’t have done any better. It is such a special piece of property.”
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The 23rd annual Cowichan Valley Garden Tour is a fundraiser for Cowichan Family Life.
On Sunday, June 4 from 10 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. participants can take their time exploring six beautiful gardens in the region at their own pace: three around Mill Bay, two around Maple Bay and one close to Quamichan Lake.
Tickets ($20) are available at Third Addition Gifts &Toys in Mill Bay, Dinter Nursery, Buckerfields, Volume One Books and the Family Life Thrift Store in Duncan.