Jim Hazlewood is a loose cannon.

The 53-year-old British Columbia builder considers that a compliment. He loves being original, somewhat left of centre, and definitely not conservative.

He says you'd have to be a loose cannon to consider taking on a sundeck project that consists of more than 4,000-square-feet of cedar decking and a series of stairways and landings that spill over a cliff and drop 45 feet to the ocean below. The structure includes a gazebo halfway down the cliff, and is currently being expanded to include a ramp at the bottom.

Hazlewood is co-owner of the property on Lasqueti Island, in the Georgia Straits. He has 30 years' experience as a builder, and designed and built the deck between other jobs. But he says that without the help of a lot of other loose cannons -- and some conservatives, too -- he never would have been able to finish the project.

Former owners Dave Robbins and Rob Hayes purchased the property in the late 1970s. With 380 feet of shoreline and panoramic ocean views, the property is spectacular, but the young owners could only afford to build a small shack with no running water or amenities. Once they had families, they decided to build a new home on the site. Sadly, with the house about three-quarters finished, Robbins died.

Hazlewood first saw the property in the summer of 2001, when Hayes hired him to do some finishing work on the 2,000-square-foot house. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a river rock fireplace and a soaring 20-foot ceiling, but no deck. Hazlewood contacted his notary Daryl McLane, a former carpenter, and suggested they purchase the property.

"I said, if we put a sundeck system out here for all of the conservatives.... and then, for all the loose cannons, threw a sundeck that goes over this cliff and down to the ocean, what would you think about that?" says Hazlewood. "He said, 'Can you handle that?' And I said, 'I can do anything.'" 

Together, they purchased the property in August 2002. "After we bought the place and started building the sundeck, the locals came out and thought we were nuts," he says. "I put the joisting out there, and it didn't have any cedar on top yet, just the underneath part. It looked like a spider web.... We were designing the deck as we built it, much to the amazement of the locals. They inspired us with their disbelief.

"My wife, Valentina, was a great encouragement as well. She helped with all aspects of the project from the initial purchase, to ideas, design advice and painting. Her input added a much broader perspective to our work."

While planning the design, Hazlewood was careful to preserve a growth of virgin fir trees that are home to two eagle nests. He also designed the deck so it would wrap around an Arbutus tree.

"I wanted to take out some of the cedar trees so we could mill them up and get the wood back," he says. "One of the local saw millers, Don MacDonald, showed up with his chain saw and skidder, and took them to his mill where his sawyer, Jacob King, sawed them into 2X4s. Then he delivered them back to the site." There wasn't enough cedar from the site to handle the entire project, so more was brought in from other places.

Work on the initial three-tiered top deck, about 3,000-square-feet worth, went fairly quickly, says Hazlewood. "Putting up the foundations was pretty easy; it's just posts and pads. The joisting always goes pretty quickly. When you build a deck, you get a lot of glamour for your work." The doubting locals agreed the project was a success. Then Hazlewood told them he was going over the cliff.

He started working from the top, using scaffolding to build down the stairs. "Your friends are always the people who are going to give you the roughest time," says Hazlewood. "I had four guys with me, and I'm on the top of the scaffolding and holding these big beams and saying, what do you think? And not one of those guys would come up to the top of the scaffolding. They said it was too dangerous, but I managed to pull it off."

But despite their reluctance to climb to the top of 30-foot scaffolding, Hazlewood says his crew of Daryl Ball, Wes Mann, and Tim and Brian (who are shy about providing their last names), were an integral part of the project. Credit also goes to Rocky, whose job was sanding all the sundecks.

Todd Hildred performed another important facet of the job. "He was the excavator operator," says Hazlewood. "He's phenomenal. There are people who would never do what he does with his machine, and without him I couldn't have created a lot of this deck because I would not have been able to get in there."

Hazlewood says there was originally a small path leading down to the ocean "and then a 10-foot drop into the water below. He turned all that into a nice graded road."

But perhaps the biggest loose cannon of all was Captain Aurelle, who used his boat, the Argent, to transport all the building materials to Lasqueti Island from Vancouver Island, about eight miles away. "He's one of the most outrageous people I've ever met," says Hazlewood. "He has a big pirate flag on his boat. His first mate is a dog named Buck. Together, Aurelle and Buck have become a notorious duo around here."

Although he designed as the project progressed, Hazlewood knew that the deck needed to connect with the site as closely as possible. In several places on the way down to the ocean, one side of the stairs butts directly on the rock face so visitors can touch the smooth rock surface. Wherever possible, he filled in the railings with tempered glass to take advantage of the fantastic views.

There are several landings along the way for visitors to rest and enjoy the vista. There's also a gazebo halfway down the cliff. "I thought I had to have something spectacular on that level, or I'd never get anyone on it."

Hazlewood says that once his labour costs are included, the sundeck system cost $75,000 to $80,000.

He's now offering the property for sale, at a cost of $1.5 million, and it comes with a unique home warranty. Hazlewood will provide the buyer with 100 per cent total maintenance on the house and property. He says the owners will never have to worry about repair bills, painting, gardening or even cleaning for as long as they own the house.

His dream is that musicians, who can fly in to the property undetected and spend their time in the private and restful yet dazzling location, will purchase the home. It's the perfect retreat for any loose cannon.
-Photography by John Yanyshyn, July/August 2003