Chelsea

Pencil pusher turned designer making mark in Chelsea

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Trevor Greenway
editor@lowdownonline.com

At the height of her career in governance policies, Kate Wightman kept asking herself what she wanted to be when she grew up. 

The Chelsea-based interior designer had been at the helm of governance and administration at CBC, working long hours, travelling frequently and grinding away at her busy government job, when she realized that “something’s got to give.”

“I’ve always kind of wondered, ‘What do I want to do when I grow up?’” said Wightman, who was enduring a difficult divorce, navigating a teenager through COVID and travelling “constantly” for her job.

“I left the government, drove seven-and-a-half hours to Timmons, Ont., bought a vintage camper trailer, hauled it home and spent two months with my dad gutting it and renovating it and ran it as a pop-up shop in Chelsea,” she explained.

The pop-up shop was the gateway to her new career as an interior designer, as she was curating vintage products, showcasing local artisans and helping customers with home design. This is when she was approached by a customer to redesign an Airbnb rental, and she immediately jumped at the opportunity. 

“It was a blast,” said Wightman. “I loved just having a bit more time to chit chat with people being in a creative realm, as opposed to, you know, the hectic job that I had in government.”

That was nearly three years ago, and now business at her Kiosk Route 105 shop is ringing off the hook. 

“I do absolutely no advertising – it’s all word of mouth and repeat clients,” added Wightman. “[Our firm] always got a list of a half dozen projects on the go at any given time and leads in the pipeline. And we just keep ourselves as busy as we kind of want to be.”

Wightman, who was clear that she’s not an accredited interior designer, said that her lack of accreditation actually works in her and her clients’ favour, as she is about “half the price.”. But even more than this, Wightman’s entire philosophy around design is using what’s already there and discouraging her clients to buy a new couch or dresser when it’s not necessary. 

Wightman said she believes that most homeowners have great things – mementos, collectables, antiques – but don’t know how to showcase them well or arrange them in a way that provides flow. She said the most common design flaw she sees in Hills homes is “a lack of intention.”

“When you move into a home, you’re bringing your existing stuff, and then you’re trying to put that wherever it fits in the home,” said Wightman. “And then you go, ‘Okay, I need a new couch to fit this space.’ You’ll go and find the couch to fit the space, but you’re not looking at the picture as a whole. You’re not saying, ‘What do I already have that could do this? How can we rejig it to work with other items in your home?’”

Wightman spoke a lot about the difference between a house and a home, and said that, while both are “form and function,” a home takes on a more emotional and personal feeling than just having a roof over your head. She said residents should feel their shoulders drop in relief when they arrive home, and the space should be a “refuge” from their busy lives. 

“I think ambiance is hugely important in a home, so things like lighting, flow of your furniture, plants and making sure that your home includes your own personality,” she said. “Where we work our magic really is working with what is already existing. We can keep projects to a really low budget because we can either revamp, reuse or repurpose existing items to improve flow and improve the aesthetics of someone’s home.”

Wightman’s Kiosk offers styling and staging services, custom decor solutions and full home renovations. 

The switch in careers has done more than light the creative fire in her soul, she said, it has allowed her to be a mom again. 

“I’m at a point now where I can pick and choose the job and the clients that interest me, and I have time for my family…,” said Wightman. “I have time for a new relationship. I can get back into cooking and baking and all that kind of stuff.”Prospective clients can meet with Wightman by appointment through her www.spacesbykiosk.com website, or you can visit her pop-up shop near Bougie Doozy Candle on Old Chelsea Road.

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If you build it, they will come

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

By Trevor Greenway

‘Field of Dreams’ may not be Tyler Langfield’s favourite movie, but he certainly believes in the “If you build it, they will come” mantra. 

On hot summer days, Langfield and his wife Stephanie Seddon’s Chelsea backyard is full of neighbourhood kids. 

They’re not watching Netflix; they’re not on their phones; they’re not scrolling on social media. They’re skateboarding. 

“When we have the kids over here…it’s a cool vibe,” said Langfield, standing on a half-pipe skateboarding ramp that he built himself during COVID. “Our neighbours come over; there’s a couple of boys next door, and they come over. They use it, but it gets everyone together, chilling.”

Langfield is a skateboarder himself and grew up, like other skaters, skating at places where he wasn’t supposed to be: city parks, courthouse staircases and any place where there would be a good “gap” to clear or a rail to grind. This was until cities and towns started building skateparks, like Wakefield did in 2013. 

Langfield could always be found at a local skatepark somewhere until COVID hit in 2019. During the pandemic, he wasn’t allowed to skate anywhere publicly. Impatient for government restrictions to ease, he brought the skatepark to the community. 

“At the time, my kids were pretty young, but I wanted to get them into skating,” said Langfield. “Literally, the minute [the pandemic] happened, I planned on doing this, and I reached out to a company in Montreal who manufactures the top sheet.” 

That “top sheet” he referred to is called Pure Surface, which is 27 layers of kraft paper laminated and glued together to create a smooth, gripping surface that is durable. And while it’s not cheap  – $210 per sheet – seeing his kids and neighbourhood friends rock a kickflip is all worth it, according to Langfield. 

“They spend a lot of time out here,” added Seddon. “Especially right now, with the beautiful weather, it’s amazing. Our eldest loves it, and it gets our youngest out here to try a bit harder.”

Langfield is aware that not everyone can build a $12,000 skatepark in their backyard, but if you ask Chelsea resident Brad Stewart, who has been dubbed “the king of freecycle,” you don’t have to break the bank to convert your backyard into a summer paradise. 

Stewart said he was paying attention to the Steamwhistle acquisition of Beau’s in 2022 and realized that the new owners were scrapping the yearly, epic Oktoberfest, and with it, their big skateboarding demonstration. He reached out and scored the half-pipe for just $800. 

“They were looking at burning it all,” said Stewart about a pile of wood and ramps that he will soon piece together for his own backyard skateboard halfpipe. The skateboard half-pipe is just one feature of Stewart’s impressive backyard that boasts a large above-ground pool, hot tub, trapeze line and trampoline – most of which he either scored for free or heavily discounted on Facebook Marketplace. 

Stewart’s pool – 29 feet by 15 feet – was scooped for free after a neighbour was looking to get rid of it before they sold their house. All he needed to do was disassemble it himself, move it to his house and reassemble it. He spent $400 on a new liner and a few hundred on chemicals to get it up and running. 

“It was an older pool, so it needed some TLC,” said Stewart, explaining that wooden pools of this size can cost between $10,000 and $20,000. 

When winter rolls around, Stewart’s pool acts as a polar dip for the kids going back and forth into a hot tub. 

Similarly, in winter Langfield converts his front porch into a snowboard run, and his backyard is just as busy when the snow hits. 

The hot tub was another major score for Stewart, who scooped it off Facebook Marketplace for just $600. Again, all he had to do was move it. 

Stewart offered up some tips for residents buying off Facebook Marketplace. 

“Know what you want and make sure that you jump on stuff early,” said Stewart. “And don’t be paranoid,” he explained, noting that sometimes buyers are weary of scammers.  Stewart also urged those looking for deals to set up Facebook Marketplace alerts so that they can be first to show interest in a product. And, he added, if you know it’s a good deal, “don’t haggle” for a lower price. 

“No matter what good deal you give people, they still will ask for $100 bucks off and that’s not cool,” he said. “Because you could have been selling it for $2,000.”

Stewart also recommended getting to know local repair people, as discounted items often need a piece here or an extra part there, and knowing who can fix things locally will save a lot of time and money. 

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Ditch the second car, Communauto is here

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , , ,

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

After close to four years of planning and negotiating, Chelsea and La Pêche residents will have a new option to get around the Hills.

And they won’t even have to pay for gas. 

The Outaouais’ regional counsel on the environment and sustainable development, CREDDO, has partnered with both municipalities to bring a fleet of 16 Communauto hybrid cars to the region. Twelve of them will be stationed in Chelsea, with the remaining four spread out throughout La Pêche. 

It’s an initiative that CREDDO president Benoit Delage said he hopes will change residents’ car-centric habits. 

“If we want to build a centre village, we can’t have a sea of parking,” said Delage, referring to Chelsea. 

He explained that the project is in collaboration with four Chelsea developers: Cargo, Multivesco, DACM Investments Inc. and In Harmony Developments, which will host the cars in their parking lots for the public to use. 

With the developers on board, Chelsea changed its urban planning bylaw to bring the minimum number of parking spots per unit for new developments from two, to just one. In the process, it has eliminated several “heat islands” that would have been spread out over Chelsea’s centre village, explained Delage. A heat island is an urban area that experiences hotter than average temperatures than outlying areas due to infrastructure.

Benoit said that the municipality will have 150 fewer parking spots in the village because of the project.

“Can you imagine what the difference will be for what will be our centre village without that parking?” asked Delage. “It’s more trees, it’s more space for people.”

According to CREDDO, 79 per cent of greenhouse gasses in places like Chelsea and La Pêche come from transportation, and the organization said it is confident the addition of 16 community hybrid cars will bring that number down. The organization said it also hopes that the car-sharing initiative will entice residents to ditch their second family car, which will create less impact on the environment and help residents save money. 

“It costs residents $12,000 per year to own a car,” said Delage, referring to maintenance costs, insurance, gas and other repairs. With Communauto, residents can sign up for a number of various membership packages from as low $0 per month and $12.75 per hour, or up to $30 per month, which will allow residents to use the cars for just $2.75 per hour. And users won’t have to pay for gas. The packages are built to cover the cost of gas through membership fees. Each car will have a Communauto credit card for users to fill up when they need to. But all the cars are hybrid – 12 Prius’ and two RAV4 SUVs. 

Chelsea Mayor Pierre Guénard said the project presents a “decisive turning point for our municipality.”

“This project is perfectly in line with our environmental values, offering Chelsea residents a transportation solution that complements active mobility and Transcollines services,” said Guénard. “Through this initiative, we are creating a more integrated transportation network, helping to reduce our carbon footprint.”

The project relied on $500,000 worth of funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ green fund, with Chelsea chipping in $75,000 and La Pêche contributing another $25,000. The four developers also chipped in a total of $300,000, according to CREDDO. 

The vehicles will be available in November and will be parked at the four developments above, as well as at town hall in Chelsea. Two cars will be located somewhere in Masham, and CREDDO said it hopes to station two more in Wakefield. 

Residents can take advantage of $45 off of certain membership packages using the promo code:  HORIZONS online at: www.communauto.com

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Gatineau River not swimmable at three sites

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

By Trevor Greenway

Local Journalism Initiative

The Aug. 26 Friends of the Gatineau River (FOG) tests show three sites from Wakefield to Chelsea that are not recommended for swimming. 

After a lab error during previous month’s testing of the Gatineau River, data now shows two concerning spots in La Pêche and another near the Alonzo Wright Bridge in Chelsea, where all recreational activities should be avoided, according to FOG. Several pieces of data were missing from the initial sample. 

FOG announced on its Facebook page that all three sites are not recommended for swimming. 

On FOG’s map of the test sites, one point near the Alonzo Wright Bridge has a red dot over it, with the tests reading more than 1,000 fecal coliforms per 100 millilitres. Standards for “good” or “excellent” readings are between 0 and 100 fecal coliforms per 100 millilitres. 

“So there should have been a no swim advisory actually issued,” said a FOG director, who wished to remain anonymous. “Whenever there’s a red dot, it means no swimming.”

A second site in south Chelsea at Mill Road is reading as “good,” but that area has been a constant concern for FOG, as historical data shows sites south of Chelsea’s sewage treatment plant have consistently yielded poorer results than most other river sites throughout the Hills. 

Last year’s tests showed the area around Alonzo as “mediocre” with tests showing between 101 and 200 fecal coliforms per 100 millilitres. In 2022, the Alonzo site was showing “good” results, however the Mill Road site at that time was “very poor” with fecal coliforms hitting over 1,000 per 100 millilitres. 

FOG said it can’t conclusively link Chelsea’s sewage treatment plant to increased bacteria in that area, but it remains a theory for the river advocacy group and something it will continue to monitor. 

The FOG director was adamant about including the missing data, as they feel that much of the attention is given to the river upstream from the Chelsea Dam, as that’s where most of the popular swimming holes are and where most of the motorboats and paddlers are. However, they said with new people moving into the area, it’s important to ensure residents are clear about the quality of the river. 

While much of the river has favourable results that are either “excellent” or “good,” two sites in La Pêche consistently show higher levels of bacteria: The McLinton Creek and near the entrance of the La Pêche River. Both have been deemed not recommended for swimming by FOG. 

FOG director Stephen Ferguson alluded to the fact that the bacteria could be coming from beaver dams upstream. Another FOG director also noted that there are two horse farms and a cattle farm above McLinton Creek, and FOG believes that could be part of why the fecal levels are so high.  

There was also the question around the septic treatment plant on top of Chemin de la Vallée-de-Wakefield and whether or not its effluent was contaminating sites in the village. However Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux confirmed that the exit pipe is near Kaffé 1870, which is downstream from McLinton and the La Pêche River sites.  

With global warming bringing more intense storms and rain to the region, FOG is now starting to test the river after rain events – 24 and 48 hours after a storm – to see how runoff from the roads and forests above the river affects its quality. 

FOG wants to be clear that its boating safety campaign, in which the organization is trying to lower the speed limit for motorboats on the Gatineau River, is not only about safety but also about preserving and protecting the river. FOG says that boat wakes are the top contributor to shoreline erosion, and legislation to slow boats down will both save lives and protect the river’s shoreline. 

What can you do to protect the river?

FOG has a section on its website where residents can gather information on how to be a steward of the river and how to limit our impact on the river

Eliminate household toxins

FOG encourages riverfront residents to refrain from using household toxins like herbicides, pesticides and exfoliating cosmetics, as they promote algae growth, affect animal biodiversity and can be found in the fish that residents catch and eat from the river. 

Maintain good septic systems

FOG encourages residents to “use healthy products” like biodegradable detergents and solutions that can break down in your system. 

Residents should also save water as much as they can, as increased consumption of water speeds up the circulation of the tank and stops the separation of sludge and scum. 

FOG also recommends keeping septic systems away from sheds and swimming pools to promote air circulation. 

Shoreline regulations

FOG also wants to remind residents of the shoreline regulations, as it is against municipal bylaws to cut vegetation within 15 metres of the shoreline. Permits are required for all docks on the Gatineau River and private boat launches are prohibited. 

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