The North Coast House on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast is a striking example of how DEN's modern cabin plans can be transformed into a one-of-a-kind retreat. Built from the Barnhouse Plus design, this custom home blends the functionality of a short-term rental business with the warmth of a family getaway. With its covered deck, expansive windows, and lakeside setting, the project shows how thoughtful cabin design creates a seamless connection between indoor comfort and the coastal rainforest landscape.
For Ben and Katey, first-time homebuilders and new STR operators, choosing DEN meant starting with a clear, professional set of plans and a strong design foundation. By leveraging a proven design process, the couple avoided common pitfalls and invested with confidence, knowing their project could be completed on time and within budget.
Now complete, the North Coast House demonstrates the versatility of modern cabin plans for real-world use: a lakeside cabin retreat that doubles as a high-ROI rental property. Whether you're exploring barnhouse plans, considering a modern cabin on the Sunshine Coast BC, or researching DEN reviews before your first build, this story illustrates how design, planning, and execution come together to create a truly unique home.
Find North Coast House's Instagram here.
Garden Bay Project Overview: From DEN Barnhouse Plans to a Modern Cabin on the Coast
Mike: Let's just start with some basic context questions. Who are you? What DEN design did you base your project off of, and where did you do it and when did you start? Give us some background.
Ben: Great question. I'm Ben.
Katey: I'm Katey.
Ben: We did the Barnhouse Plus design. We started the process just under two years ago. We bought a plot of land in an area called Garden Bay, British Columbia — about three hours outside of Vancouver, in a region called the Sunshine Coast. It's part of the mainland, but you have to take the ferry to get here, which is quite cool. Kind of breaks up the drive with a little 40-minute ferry ride.
It's an area that is very remote, full of trees. This property is really nestled right between a lake and the ocean. We're about a five-minute walk to a lake. We're about a ten-minute walk to the Pacific Ocean. Pretty cool, pretty unique environment. We bought the land in February 2022, sat on it, then built in 2023. It took a year to do it.
Custom Barnhouse Plus Timeline: One Year from Cabin Plans to Finished DEN Cabin in Garden Bay, BC
Mike: Awesome. You guys heavily customized this design, right?
Customizing DEN Barnhouse Plans: Covered Decks, Wraparound Design & Coastal Cabin Living
Ben: We did, yeah.
Mike: Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that process and how the DEN plans enabled you to start with a vision and then make it your own.
Ben: So I think the cool thing for us about the DEN plans was that neither one of us have a design or architecture background in any way. But it was so easy for us to understand. We kind of knew what we wanted, and I think using the DEN plans as a really strong foundation — it would have been great to do it as-is. We just wanted to make a few customizations.
The biggest one we did: because we're in British Columbia, in the middle of essentially a coastal rainforest, it pours rain here all the time. So one of the things we wanted to do was create a covered deck — an entryway for people to come into the house where they'd have a place to drop their bags, sit outside in the rain if it was raining. For the fireplace we have a spot where we can actually stack and dry firewood, all without need to leave the front deck — 'cause there are bears around here as well, which is important context.
We also extended the deck into a wraparound deck on three sides. Because of the covered deck, we ended up flipping the orientation of the living room versus the dining room, just to maximize the view on our side and the flow through the kitchen. It was really easy to do with the plans — we worked with a local draftsman to get that done and modified.
Mike: Oh, that's awesome. We're an American company, and we do get some amount of interest from Canadians in various markets — Quebecois, Nova Scotia. Believe it or not, you guys are like the first Canadian project that I've interviewed. This is momentous for sure.
Mike: Was there anything you guys needed to do to adapt the designs for Canadian building requirements?
Adapting Modern Cabin Plans to Canadian Building Codes: Seismic Standards, Radiant Floors & Fireplace Rules
Ben: So I think the main one for us is that we're in BC, which has some of the strictest seismic codes in the world for building — because of earthquakes and the ring of fire. We combined that with a poured foundation with radiant floor heating, so that we could actually — it gets cold here, it was snowing out here last night — we actually did the radiant floor heating just as a nice little perk for people when they come in. They take off their shoes, the floors are warm, and the whole house is heated by the floor. It's a really nice touch. It's something all of our guests really love.
Ben: The other thing that's kind of funny and interesting is that Canada has the world's strictest fireplace codes. We wanted a very specific stove from Copenhagen, from a brand called Morsø, and we ended up having to get a different one than we wanted because you can't have one with glass on the sides in Canada — it's very strict.
Mike: And which brand did you end up going with?
Ben: It's the same brand, Morsø — the 6143, with the log store underneath.
Mike: I have a Morsø stove too. Do you chop your own wood?
Heating a Modern Cabin: Firewood Sourcing, Short Logs & Morsø Wood Stove Efficiency
Ben: We have to. As part of the build, we obviously had to fell a few trees in the area. This property is totally surrounded by trees and we were very mindful — we wanna leave the big ones, the big beautiful boys. We still have a bunch outside that we have to split down and take down. But we do end up buying firewood. We have to get pretty short firewood because the Morsøs are pretty tight.
Ben: Our local hardware store, funnily enough, sells bundles of 2x4s that are cut and they're almost a perfect length. $7 for a bundle of like 20.
Katey: It's not sustainable. Not —
Ben: The math is not math-in', but it's so handy. They literally fit exactly into the stove.
From Inspiration to Reality: Building a Custom Barnhouse Plus with Scandinavian Modern Vibes
Mike: Why did you guys decide to build something instead of just buying something on the market?
Katey: On our first date, we were talking about how we had this shared love for modern, simple, clean lines — Scandinavian-inspired homes. And then Ben was like, 'there's actually a house I would love — it's black, it's modern, it's in Kitsilano.' A couple drinks, maybe a bottle of wine later, the hours had passed, and we were like, 'let's go find this house.' So we ended up going for a huge neighborhood walk and sure enough at maybe midnight, yeah, we walked by the house and we both knew. And so from there, that was always the inspiration — we wanna build something very similar where it's modern, it's sleek, it's clean lines, it's Scandinavian vibes.
Ben: Yeah. At the earlier times we did make offers on a few houses. I described the house-buying process as like, you're looking for jeans and you're like, 'wow, it's a perfect pair of jeans.' And you turn it around, there's like a bedazzled eagle on one cheek. So much of it is good, and then there's just one or two choices that are kind of fundamental to the house that are just not what you want. And you'd end up buying a house, and maybe it'd be cheaper, but you'd end up having to do so much work that it ends up being closer to just building anyway.
Katey: Never quite right.
Ben: Never quite right. The other thing is that this area has nothing like a DEN house in the area — especially not anything like this on the Airbnb or the short-term rental market. So there's an awesome opportunity to just really stand out from the pack and create something unique.
Design Inspiration: Scandinavian Modern Cabins, Studio Campos & Nature-Inspired DEN Homes
Mike: One more DEN design question. Are there any other architects or designers that you really like and draw inspiration from?
Ben: There's this amazing firm in Vancouver called Studio Campos — quite high end, they do such beautiful stuff. Kind of feels very similar to DEN, kind of an interesting scale. What they do a cool job of — and one thing that was always important to us, and one of the things we really loved about DEN — is having a place that blends into nature, into the surroundings really well.
You can't see the house from the road, even when the lights are on. It just feels like it's so much part of the environment. Even the materials we used — all wood from the local area — and the way the finishes of the hot tub and the way it's cut into the rock outside: we really wanted the house to blend into nature. And I think Studio Campos do a good job of that too, as well as DEN.
Finding the Right Builder: Local Expertise, DEN Plans & Modern Cabin Construction in BC
Mike: Maybe tell us also a little bit about how you guys found your builder and how your set of plans helped establish a good relationship with them in terms of collaboration and pricing.
Ben: We got a referral from our real estate agent. She was awesome — a true local. She had been with us through the journey of making offers on a few houses, and she was always kind of like, 'I think you just wanna build.' So we eventually just switched to focusing on land. And then she made the recommendation: there's one group of guys you gotta talk to, and it's these guys.
They're an awesome local company, born and raised here. And really experienced in milling and finishing of timber as well, which is really cool. We have some really nice interesting touches of local wood adapted to things like our bathroom vanities and floating shelves.
Ben: Neither one of us had any build experience — negative, any build experience. So we also just wanted a company we felt supported by and could trust on telling us what's what. With some of the bigger, more formal traditional build companies out here, maybe we wouldn't have gotten that kind of white-glove service in terms of advice, in terms of someone you could just pick up the phone and call all the time. So it was a relatively small crew, small company. But yeah, really helpful.
Katey: One thing that was almost just like the confirmation that they were right for us: before we closed on the property, we called them and they came up and did a walkthrough of the land. The owner walked the land with us and was like, 'this is what I would consider. If you build here, you'd have to blast that much rock — it'll cost X amount.' So we just felt like we were considered from the jump.
Ben: You just hear horror stories of people who buy a piece of land and don't really do the proper research of how to build on that land and then they can't. There was also a minimum square footage we had to bump the plan up to. It was really great to work with builders who knew and understood that and could modify the plans based on that.
Ben: When we did that walk of the parcel, yeah, we had already shared the provisional plans with them. They were fired up by it. They were super excited. I think this has become a bit of a showpiece for them in their portfolio. Their style is quite a little bit different — a lot of their work is more organic, blended into the natural environment. Even the owner's house is kinda like a hobbit hole — built into the hill. It's quite cool.
Katey: They helped us place the build, being like, 'if it's this orientation, consider the way that the sun rises and sets' — they were so helpful. 'We probably wanna avoid this section because there's so much rock.' Even like, 'you might be able to keep that tree, 'cause that's like a showcase tree.'
Ben: Even the one thing we always love — one of our favorite features of the house that was their idea: the driveway bends in when you come into the property. So you can never see the house from the road. What that creates is this amazing 'wow' moment when you turn the corner — especially for an Airbnb. You want that. 'Oh my God, this is the place we're staying at.' And every single time we've been up here, we still have that bit of like, 'oh, damn, this is so good.'
Mike: Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the design world they call that the welcome sequence.
Ben: The welcome sequence. That's it. They nailed it.
Mike: That's awesome. Question for Katey — what is your favorite part of the house?
Katey: I mean, there's a few. I would say it's the overall feeling that I get when I drive up. I just instantly feel calm. But if I have to pick a lane: I love the kitchen. We have no upper shelves — just an island. It's well equipped. We call it the chef's kitchen.
Katey: We love to cook. There's a window above the sink, so when you're washing dishes, you can see a little birch tree haven, which is awesome. But honestly — my final answer: the windows. I love how open and vast it is. No matter where you are in the house, you can see just the beautiful landscape.
Ben: The number of birds and deer and bears we've seen was crazy.
Katey: You get to watch wildlife from the couch. Which was really cool.
Highs and Lows of Building North Coast House: Modern Cabin Progress, Costs & 5-Star Airbnb Reviews
Mike: Let's do a high point, low point. What was the most fun you had on the project? And then what was the Houston-we-have-a-problem moment?
Ben: I would say the high point throughout the process was just — the building process is so slow and then insanely fast. The foundation and stuff took forever. But what was really the high point for me was coming back when the walls were up, and then you come back and the drywall is up, and then you come back and the windows are in. It just started to feel like, 'oh my God, this is really getting real.'
I think the low point was, to be honest, the price of things sometimes. When you'd get the big biweekly construction bill and you'd be like, 'okay, gotta pay this now.' Building up here, because we are so remote, is expensive. Even like, we have to drive in our construction workers every single day. Everything has to be trucked in. It was a pretty expensive process. The finished product is definitely worth it. But while you're going through that, you're kind of reconciling: 'Wow, this is so amazing and beautiful' — and then here's the bill for it.
Katey: You think it's going to be this thing, but then it's always going to cost a bit more. Every decision costs.
Katey: One last thing. I think it's just so cool to see the strength of our partnership. When we were trying to get it ready for our photographer to come and take shots of the house. I've never been so tired and stressed in my life, but it was like — the house is done. We were kicking the contractors out of the house being like, 'we gotta go. Like, we gotta start cleaning!' But in that moment I was like, 'wow, like, two years later, here we are.' That might've been my most proud and excited moment.
Ben: Another cool one: Katey had this really cool idea to get a pretty popular artist in BC who does these amazing landscape prints. She actually came to the house, did a piece inspired by the house. It's monstrous. Inspired by the place and the environment and the build.
Mike: You guys can maybe confirm this for me — I saw that you have a flawless 5.0 review record on Airbnb?
Ben: We're flawless super hosts.
Mike: That is amazing. Congratulations. Tell us a little bit about how that's going for you and what guests are saying about the place.
DEN Reviews & Hosting Insights: How a Sunshine Coast Cabin Became an Airbnb Favorite
Katey: We've been property managing it ourselves. That's the way we wanted it — we wanted to hear feedback, to be like, 'what can we do better for you? How can we elevate the space even further?' It's been full-on because we have full-time jobs, and added 'property manager' to the resume this year. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. I also gave myself a self-proclaimed title of Chief Vibe Officer — just really leaning in.
Ben: I think people are blown away by this space on Airbnb. That's the feedback we get all the time. We obviously have really nice photos done and videos taken, and then people get here and they have that welcome sequence and they're just completely astounded. What's pretty impressive is we've only been on Airbnb for less than six months and we've had three repeat guests already. Even to the point where we've had a last-minute cancellation, and guests who came before would have booked it within 15 minutes of the cancellation.
"People just love it. This place represents like a dream for so many people of what they want to have for themselves." — Ben
Mike: That's awesome. If you had a friend who wanted to pursue a project like this with DEN, what advice would you give them?
Ben: My two would be: one — figure out your budget in more detail. I was a little loosey-goosey at the front with budgeting and I wish I was a bit more buttoned up. And second — know what's important to you and know what's not. There are certain things we would not sacrifice, and certain things where we were like, 'okay, you know what, we could go a little bit less high end with this finish because we wanna save something for over here.' That balance is really important.
"Don't scrimp out on the things that people touch — the tactile feel of a space. We have really beautiful doorknobs, amazing poles in the kitchen. That adds to the overall feel of the space." — Ben
Katey: I'd say one last one: reach out to people that have been through the process to ask them questions. You don't know what to ask before you're in it. But just all along the way — not being scared to ask for help or ask questions. DEN does such a great job at supporting fellow DEN builders through the process. Leaning in and not being scared to ask for help is my biggest piece of advice.
Ben: For sure. The number of people who've asked about DEN and just been so impressed by the design and the consideration of every piece of this place has been pretty impressive. We would 100% do it all the same way again. We would easily do another one — we would. This piece of land is zoned for two dwellings and we're already talking about how do we get the next one on the lot.
Katey: The goal is that we're North Coast House, so we need a little bit more access to capital so we can build South Coast House, East Coast House, Southwest Coast House. We can take DEN global. We could do it.
Build your own coastal retreat — the same plans Ben and Katey used for North Coast House.
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