Renovations in Parksville

Parksville draws retirees and seasonal owners, and its housing reflects that: single-level ranchers, patio homes, and subdivisions built through the 1980s and 1990s close to the beach. Much of the work here is about comfort and access — bathrooms that are safer to use, kitchens with better reach and lighting, and exteriors that hold up to salt air and winter rain.

The ranchers and patio homes here were built quickly and in numbers, so the layouts repeat and so do the problems: a bathroom fitted around a tub nobody can step into any more, a kitchen lit by one ceiling fixture, and trim on the seaward side that has taken twenty winters of salt and rain. The shell is sound; it no longer suits how the house is used.