People thought Emma Broomsgrove and her partner Garrett Fedorkiw were out of their minds nine years ago when they decided to buy a house on a Prince George street prone to flooding almost every year from the Fraser River spring runoff.
At the time they took possession of the house on Farrell Street overlooking Paddlewheel Park, their street was partially under water.
But Broomsgrove and Fedorkiw had a plan to raise the nearly 1,000 square-foot house off its foundation and put it on stilts nine feet above the flood plain – seven feet higher than where it originally rested when it was built in the 1950s. They hired a local contractor, Helix Foundation Systems, who dug down and, using steel beams, gradually picked the house up off its foundation. The $120,000 project was completed last spring after two weeks of construction. The couple spent a further $80,000 to renovate the inside of their now-waterproof house.
On Friday the city issued evacuation notices to the residents of Farrell Street to inform them they might have to leave on short notice with the river already at 9.2 metres, heading for an expected peak of between 9.6 and 9.8 metres. Broomsgrove and her King Charles Havanese dog Birdy have been watching from their deck as the river has steadily crept higher the past few days and part of their backyard is under water. But unlike her neighbours on the street, one of whom this week hired a plumber to move the furnace and hot water tank out of the basement and onto the main floor, she has no fear about her house getting flooded.
“This is the first year we don’t have to worry,” said Broomsgrove. “Usually it would be a mad dash moving things around and the water would come up to the floorboards but it never in the came in the house in the time we had it.
“We’ve been planning this for years and saving our pennies.”
The house is right next to the park and it has a million-dollar view but Broomsgrove said she and Fedorkiw paid about half of what a similar-sized house was selling for in 2012.
“We talked him down because it was under water,” Broomsgrove laughed. “When we bought the house the water was up to the road. It was ankle-deep in the driveway. Everybody thought we were idiots. It looked like a headache for most people but we could see the potential.
“We love everything about this area. We watch bears across the river, bald eagles – it’s like living in the country but we’re in town, it’s so amazing. We can walk to work downtown.”
Broomsgrove owns Wild Break Bake House, which is part of the Birch and Boar restaurant on George Street that Fedorkiw bought into as a part-owner two years ago.
Broomsgrove expects the river to peak by the end of the weekend and the peace and quiet will return to her neighbourhood when flood watchers have nothing unusual to pique their curiosity. The city has dumped sand and a stack of empty sandbags for residents to use to try to keep the water off their properties.
In the meantime, Birdy the dog will have her own water park to play in and Broomsgrove and Fedorkiw can watch the river flow from their home in the trees they now refer to as the Bird House.
