Every day our home gets a little closer to being finished. Now that we have the outside covered, we can’t believe how many people stop and stare. We don’t even have the front deck completed or the landscaping done, and our home has become a traffic bottleneck.
Whether folks are walking, cycling, or driving, inevitably they hit the brakes and stare. We’ve also heard many interesting conversations right outside our door. Little did we know when we began this project, we were creating something that would spark debate and potentially cause accidents.
As a writer, I am adjusting to all of the attention. I’m used to creating art in my office then sending it out in the world. Comfortable with my writing getting all of the attention. When I remember that our home is a visible testament to the creative and dynamic relationship that I have with Kevin, I adjust and smile.
Here are the first pics of the front of the house. More to come as we complete the front deck, the awning, and the landscaping!
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Tags: change, comfort, communication, creativity, decisions, design, home, home renovation, house, journey, modern, modern home, project, Relationship, renovation
…we have stairs! Inside. Outside. Beautiful stairs!
Anyone who has come by the house recently can attest to the scary experience of walking up and down our makeshift staircase (with no railings). We’re still waiting on the railings, but we do have stairs. And Kevin is one proud papa. He has dreamed of these stairs since the beginning of the project…and they are becoming a reality.
First, we had the outside set (for the back door):
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Then the inside set, going three full stories:
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Tags: creativity, design, home, home renovation, modern, patience, project, reno, renovation, stairs
This renovation has pushed the boundaries on many levels. A unique roofline. Parallam beams in the back extension. Windows three times the size of our neighbours’ glass. Every time we took on one of those elements, we all cast a few ‘Hail Marys’ for it to work out.
In that vein, we decided not only to use concrete counters but to build them ourselves. Of course, we enlisted the expertise of Ken and a new team member, Michael Undem, to make sure the project was well-planned and tested. The project was still, however, a bit of a gamble. We had at least one backup plan in place in case it all went terribly wrong.
Luckily, after debating the concrete colour, pouring samples, building the mold, biting our nails, lifting six hundred pounds of counter onto the base cabinets, and filing down the edges…we have a counter! It still has to cure for a few more days before we can seal it, but the final product looks amazing. We couldn’t be more proud.
As I’ve learned over and over, the risk of the outcome is often worth the stress of the journey.
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Tags: cement, challenge, concrete, contractor, counter, creativity, decisions, design, home renovation, kitchen, modern, project, renovation
Several little corners of the house are expanding. Not from the Vancouver rain (that would be scary). But from the rapid progress on our home.
Our little house has been action-packed this week. Every room is filled with materials and workers and changes. One of the key areas changing every day is the kitchen. We’ve seen the IKEA cabinets go in, the stove get installed, and the dishwasher should be ready today.
Meanwhile, we’re pouring samples of our concrete counters. The mold for the counter takes up most of the living room – patiently awaiting the final pour. Once the counter is in, we’ll finish the sink and get the tile installed. So many pieces to one little puzzle.
Here are a few shots of the kitchen progress. Before you think we were crazy enough to install blue cabinets, let me assure you that the colour is only the protective cover (and will be removed at the end):
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Tags: activities, concrete, counter, home renovation, ikea, kitchen, renovation
After months of digging mud, pouring cement, fixing the roof, working with custom angles, handling window size adjustments, and booking more inspections than you can count, we’re finally getting to the fun stuff.
Now we decide where the fireplace goes. And see the house with bamboo flooring and wool carpet. We’re figuring out how to unite the TV area and the livingroom with fir beams and we’re ordering cool barn door hardware. We’re even watching the parallam beams pop as the guys clearcoat them, sand them down, and clearcoat them again.
In honour of all the changes, I’m posting a sampling of photos…and will be sure to take more tomorrow as Kevin and I toast Christmas in our home. What a gift.
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Tags: creativity, decisions, design, floors, home, home renovation, journey, modern, modern home, original, renovation
My humble apologies for neglecting the blog. As those in our life know, this project has been a loooong process. I moved out of the house when we got our demolition permits back in February. And Kevin moved out a few weeks later. Yes. Eleven months ago.
Many, many events have transpired in eleven months. So if you thought we were joking when we called this site, “Reno Your Life” — think again. Not even we had any idea how deeply appropriate that phrase would be.
My pregnant friends (and I have many this year) have joked that we were giving birth to a house. Only this baby was more like a baby elephant in gestation time. And effort. Kevin and I definitely feel like exhausted new parents. But now that our house is getting closer and closer to completion, we also have a wee bit of that new parent glow.
There will be many pics to come (I promise) but today, I will focus on flooring. I’m excited to say, we are in the final stages of installing our bamboo floors — on the main level — and carpet on the upstairs level. The mancave (basement) flooring is simple concrete right now.
Here are a few pics of the glorious flooring installation:
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We’ve hit the stage in the project where so many things are happening at once. Drainage tile, structural inspections, internal plumbing, lighting, and drum roll please — the windows!
If you take a look at our design video, you’ll understand why I am so excited. A large portion of the front and back of the house is glass. We can afford this design luxury in the Pacific Northwest because a) we want to maximize the light coming in and b) we’re not too concerned about the house overheating. If we were building a modern home in Phoenix? Very different story.
There have been a few bumps along the way with the windows. Mostly because of the size. Even though the ordering process was smooth, it seems the reality of manufacturing such large windows didn’t quite sink in for our window provider until, well, they were manufacturing them. Needless to say, that caused some delays in the delivery time (and the blog posts).
We now have the majority of the windows installed in the back extension and the front windows arrive in a few days. Before the window installation, the house looked like a big plywood box. Lots of work was happening on the inside, but most folks only see the shell when they pass by. Now, with half the windows in, the true design is shining through – and it’s stunning.
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Tags: challenge, decisions, home renovation, house, journey, modern, original, project, renovation
As Kevin and I began the search for another sublet this week, I decided it’s time to share some hard-earned honesty on the blog. Renos are incredibly stressful.
Now. Before you roll your eyes and accuse me of stating the obvious, I need to reiterate: renos are i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y stressful. In fact, I believe they roll some of the most stressful events in life into one very long, very out-of-your-control experience.
Stressor Number One: Moving
Thanks to a sympathetic friend, I recently discovered that moving is the third most stressful event we endure in life. Only death and divorce are more stressful. So calculate all that separation anxiety and confusion and uprooting that comes with moving and multiply it by, oh, about 7-10 times. In my circles, we call that hell. Or, as my more optimistic friends say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Stressor Number Two: Shopping
I know most women love shopping. I don’t. I hate it. Compound that with having to shop not only for housewares, but for the entire structure of a house. With someone you probably disagree with about style. Then throw in budget. Yup. Recipe for tension. Money (not sex) is the top reason couples fight. We’ve had to remind ourselves over and over of the big picture on this project. Otherwise, you go crazy.
Stressor Number Three: Normal Life
Life, in general, is stressful. Deadlines at work. Friends upset about something you said. Family issues. Driving in traffic on a Monday. It makes us all tense. Now throw in going to sleep somewhere unfamiliar, not knowing where anything is (probably in a box or bag somewhere), and the fact that you have to make a million additional stressful decisions in your spare time. Talk about the tipping point.
So. To all of my friends – thank you for being so understanding. And to anyone planning a renovation, remember — as wonderful as it all looks now, you will need a core of steel and barrels of patience. This adventure will test your mettle in ways you could never have predicted. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Challenges exist for a reason. Just remember you chose this one.
Tags: challenge, change, communication, decisions, flexible, ikea, journey, patience, project, renovation, stress
Our friends often wonder how Kevin and I stay sane through this renovation. Especially this week, because we’ve moved into temporary housing/ sublet number six. As I’ve mentioned, we owe a lot of our stamina to road trips (packing up a car on a daily basis) and a heavy dose of denial. Or what we affectionately call, “making lemonade.”
Truth be told, you only make it through this kind of renovation if you:
a) Have someone to complain to who won’t judge you (mojitos are great listeners);
b) Adopt a dedicated stress-relief regime (ours was cycling 250-300 km each week);
c) Take a glass half-full approach to everything.
The last one is especially important. For example, the gypsy-lifestyle glamour of moving wore off pretty damn fast. And before you say, “Well, I did it in university…” Stop and think about how little you owned in university. Yeah. It sucked, but it was simple.
Our latest glass half-full approach is to sleep around before we get married. Nooooo…not in skeezy nightclubs. Once the house is done, we’re effectively married to the place, the neighbourhood, even the beams. It’s a done deal. Our crazy subletting in different Vancouver locations is our way of sleeping around before the wedding.
Some sublets have a brief honeymoon period, some were a bad idea from the start, and some are just heavenly. Like our latest option with a gorgeous ocean view.
Once we’re married, we just won’t have that possibility again – unless we spend major dough on a vacation. And I think we’ve blown the holiday budget for a while.
Tags: challenge, change, comfort, creativity, decisions, home, home renovation, journey, Relationship, renovation
Renovations are a steady learning process. Not just in communication, project management, and patience… but also in new ways of building. You’d be amazed at the volume of research Kevin has done since we started. Yet there is always something that pops up along the way to pose another option.
Parallam was just such a surprise. We had originally planned to do our posts, beams, and stairs in fir. But after meeting with the engineer, we discovered we would need to cut up all the beams and position them very precisely to be able to handle the load we required for our windows.
It also meant we would be cutting down additional trees to build our beams. Every reno uses a lot of natural (and once-were-natural) materials but we wanted to keep the additional waste to a minimum. Miraculously, parallam allowed us to have beautiful, strong, recycled beams. All in one product.
Parallel strand lumber, or parallam, is made by long strands of wood bound together with a strong adhesive. The beams are extraordinarily strong because defects found in a natural tree are eliminated in manufacturing. By using parallam for external beams, we don’t need to cut down old growth trees to gain the same size and strength. The material is also less prone to warping, shrinking, bowing, and splitting.
When the beams went up, we were surprised by how beautiful they were. So we decided to use the same material for our stairs. And because of the sheer strength of parallam, we can use thinner steps. Meaning less wood consumed for a three-floor staircase. Beauty – and environmental innovation – in action!
Tags: beams, change, contractor, decisions, design, flexible, home, home renovation, journey, materials, modern, project, renovation