Island TimberFrame Ltd specializes in design and build of custom timber frame homes, timber components, including trellises, curved braces, gazebos, custom stairs, railings and interior and exterior doors. The specialty construction company is also very competitive with Glulam structures. Established in 2001, Island TimberFrame now boasts 12,000 sq ft. covered work space on two acres of land, which allows the Vancouver Island company to complete projects in a controlled environment. Custom S4S planing to 24 inches wide can be done on our computer-controlled planer. Island TimberFrame and its 20 employees are proud to produce long lasting, quality products made in Canada. We have excellent relationships with contractors, architects, designers and engineers throughout Vancouver Island, BC and the rest of Canada.

Excerpted from the Times Colonist

Nutmeg Homes has been building Insulated Concrete Forms homes in the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island since 1999. These custom home builders strive to continually improve their product.
Energy efficient and eco-friendly, an ICF home by Nutmeg Homes uses up to 40% less energy than the average new home in B.C.
Insulated Concrete Forms or ICFs are hollow foam blocks or panels, which are stacked to form the walls of the home. The forms are filled with steel-reinforced concrete to create a solid structure. The resulting walls offer solid construction that provides a draft-free, quiet, healthy and comfortable living environment. NUtmeg Hoems is also exploring the optiosn for building Living Roofs for residential homes in B.C., after the successful completion of a green roof on a Comox Valley commercial building.
For more information on Nutmeg Homes and their ICF construction process, visit their website.

Having already successfully sold out of all phase one and two revenue-generating vacation hotel suites, the owners and developers of Victoria’s Oak Bay Beach Hotel have just launched phase three – rewarding the first 10 buyers with a whale of an investment return.
The first 10 buyers of the new, 25-unit phase of Vancouver Island vacation suites are guaranteed a 3.9 per cent annual return of their investment – nearly doubling the hotel’s typical 2 per cent triple-net return rate on vacation hotel suites.
The phase three units range from $379,000 to $1.1 million and include studios, junior suites and one-bedroom suites, measuring between 450 and 750 square feet.
The new Oak Bay Beach Hotel vacation suites come fully furnished and are available in a variety of floor plans and layouts. Owners do not have to pay expenses typically associated with vacation properties (such as strata fees, maintenance expenses and property taxes) and have personal access to their suite for up to four months per calendar year.
“Purchasing one of these condos is an excellent investment move, considering the superior construction quality and oceanfront location,” said Brad Neufeld, director of sales for the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. “If you purchased a 750-square-foot downtown condo in Victoria, you’d be lucky to get an average annualreturn of 2 per cent, factoring all the extra costs that come along with traditional real estate investment properties.”
Upon opening in May 2012, the luxury Oceanside hotel will contain a total of 20 private residences and 100 combination vacation suites and hotel rooms; a full-service spa and seaside mineral pools; a cozy pub, gourmet restaurant and dinner theatre program; and round-the-clock butler, concierge and valet services.
The $52M rebuild project first broke ground in 2009, three years after the hotel’s 80-year-old namesake was deemed beyond repair.
In addition to becoming Victoria’s first luxury hotel and spa with private residences, the hotel is also being built to LEED Gold Certified standards.
For more information about purchasing a vacation hotel suite at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, visit  www.oakbaycondos.com or call 1-800-668-7758.