settling in
Posted: June 11, 2012 Filed under: balcony, cooking in the caboose, design, small space living, the final stages | Tags: balcony, bathroom, bedroom, built in cabinets, cooking, gojee, laneway house vancouver, plants, recipes, shrimp quesadilla with kale, small space edible garden, small space living, smallworks, vintage 1 CommentIt’s hard to believe it’s been almost a month since we moved in. Time flies when you’re having fun as they say. It’s been so amazing living in our pint-sized house so far. It’s so bright, new and cozy. We feel so lucky to be in here. The first couple of days, we felt like we were staying in someone else’s beautiful new place and would have to leave soon! It’s feeling much more like our own now, with our personal touches around the house. I thought I’d give a virtual tour of what we’ve done with the place. Look for captions in the slideshow for descriptions. Friends who have visited have told us we’ve done a great job balancing modern and traditional design and created a cozy, liveable place. I think I have to agree with that! Thank you, Smallworks, for helping us design such a beautiful new home.
So, what’s next? Well, we’re waiting on our custom adjustable coffee/dining table, which is being designed and built by a talented friend of ours, Dave Myers. We look forward to sharing the final product with you!
In the meantime, one of the things we’ve been enjoying most is using our new fancy kitchen. One of our favourite websites to get recipe ideas from these days is Gojee. It sources out some of the best food blogs around the internet and organizes them in an attractive, easy to use website and smart phone application.
Tonight’s meal makes use of our garden kale: Shrimp Quesadillas with Kale. Yum! Click the image to visit the recipe. Until next time!
paint it black
Posted: April 14, 2012 Filed under: balcony, design, the final stages | Tags: balcony, cedar, composite decking material, DIY, dunbar, exterior, fence, fence staining, garden, home, IKEA, IKEA applaro, IKEA solvinden, industrial spool table, laneway house vancouver, patio, patio furniture, plants, small space edible garden, small space furniture, wood, yard Leave a commentThe finishing touches are happening all around us these days, some of which we have been involved with as well – that is, fence staining. We’ve had several compliments from passers by about our new fence, and I think it’s for good reason.
The landscaper got creative and suggested the spacing between panels, with the thinner piece in between. We’re all quite happy with it, although staining between those gaps could have been a little more fun. It’s all done now except for two sections and the gates which still have to be installed. We went with a natural cedar stain to keep the natural beauty of the wood. Another pretty addition to the garden is the re-location of my parents’ egyptian iron gates which my dad fastened to the fence in the shared patio area, which will eventually have a vine of some sort creeping along it.
Moving on, I had a DIY project last weekend, prettying up an industrial spool which you may recall from a blog post many moons ago:
I decided, with the help of my mom’s suggestion, to stain it black to go with our black accents on the laneway house. Also, there is a lot of natural wood colour around already so a contrast is nice. I didn’t want to lose the character of the old, distressed wood though, so I went to General Paints and found a semi-transparent wood stain that I got tinted with black. I have to say I’m pretty proud of this:
There’s just the right amount of wood grain and flaws showing, and the black reminds me of the treated wood you see in old industrial areas along the water, like the former canneries and old docks in Steveston.
This spool will reside on our balcony as a table/seat. Perfect for late afternoon martinis or summertime mojitos and a book or good friends…ahh. Only a couple of more weeks until it’s reality! Here’s a photo with the composite decking material that was recently installed. I blogged about it more a few weeks ago. It looks pretty much like real wood!
Speaking of books, I’ve purchased a fabulous one titled Sugar Snaps and Strawberries by Andrea Bellamy, a Vancouver gardener, writer and blogger at Heavy Petal.
As you can see I was already enjoying the spool table with a cocktail yesterday afternoon in the early spring sunshine after work yesterday. We’d really like to have a predominantly, or completely, edible balcony garden, starting this year – although we’ll be a little late to start in the season so we’ll have to consider that when we plant things. Next year I hope to be into it full force though, starting seedlings indoors in the garage before spring. Bellamy’s book is perfect for beginners or those who know a bit about gardening but not much about edibles. It’s well written, has gorgeous photography and Bellamy’s passion for gardening and edibles is contagious. She discusses both balcony and small space gardens – containers to garden beds. I’m kind of obsessed because of this book!
Some more finishing touches around the laneway house include our black painted doors, which are nearly finished (the trim still needs to be done).
I’m a sucker for black and red.. and cedar is the cherry on top. Now, let’s go through the door and check out our new appliances! Wow, I never thought there would be a day when I would become excited about appliances. It’s okay, I still get ID’d at the liquor store so that’s what counts, right?
 Lined up here is an LG refrigerator which is narrow and tall, which come standard with Smallworks’ home designs since they fit perfectly into smaller kitchens. It’s quite lovely inside too, with the bottom being the freezer that has separate drawers to keep things organized. Next in line, a dual fuel Fisher-Paykel oven which we splurged on because we love to cook, and this will make it more enjoyable. There’s a warming drawer with moisture control on the bottom too. Finally, there is the drawer dishwasher, also by Fisher-Paykel. It’s a lot bigger than it looks! Another great space-efficient feature that Smallworks uses as a standard fixture in their home designs. We don’t have a dishwasher in our current place so I think we might be looking forward to using it more than the fancy range at first!
To wrap things up, I wanted to share another crafty project I’m finishing up this weekend. I have some reasonably unattractive IKEA folding chairs that I’ve had for years. I also had heaps of pretty IKEA fabric left over from our wedding. Put the two together and you get this:
The fabric happens to match our colour scheme in the laneway house, so it’ll be nice to cover up those basic chairs when we’re entertaining. Plus, it makes them more comfortable. IKEA has its fair share of low-quality furnishings which are fine for temporary living (which I am pretty well trying to avoid now) but I still find it’s great for things like fabric and home accents. Really, who can resist their funky series of outdoor solar powered lights?
We’re also getting our patio furniture there, something they have great small-space options for, namely this ÄPPLARÖ gateleg folding table that can have both leaves dropped to make the storing size only 8 inches wide by approximately 30 inches long.
Alright, I think that’s enough for today!! I had some catching up to do. Thanks for sticking with me! Next week the flooring goes in upstairs, and minor touch-ups will be done before we sign off and are ready to move in. Have a great weekend! I hope it’s as sunny wherever you are as it is here today.
the paper boy is one step ahead of us
Posted: March 30, 2012 Filed under: gardening, the final stages | Tags: hardscaping, landscaping, laneway house vancouver, paperboy, yard Leave a commentI got home today and was poking around the outside of our little house, and noticed this:
Huh… I guess we’re getting papers (and junk mail) now. Well, there is an address on the house and I suppose that shows how finished the place is looking! Imagine getting papers before moving into your house. I’m sure we’re not the first ones to encounter this, but I was mildly amused by it today.
There was heaps of work done today as well. Our current entrance into the basement suite is no longer a trench! It felt strange to unlock the door and not be waist-level with the door-knob anymore. I almost struggled with it, it was so foreign. Even before the trench was there, it was a bizarre steep drop from the pathway that we had to have make-shift stairs on, so it’s a massive improvement now. The old pavers from the former garden patio were also used here, as with the backside of the laneway house.
Perhaps I should remind you what it looked like before:
Yep. Amazing.
In the front of my parents house, there has been some new additions. Trees have been moved (again) and one provides much needed privacy and a buffer against the dining room windows.
This is going to be so pretty with more garden around it!
I peeked in the window of our laneway house today and saw that the floor is now shiny. I’m not sure if I just didn’t notice it before, or if it was recently made that way – but it looks awesome! Again.. no pictures until I can go inside again on Monday.
Happy weekend everyone!
keep out!
Posted: March 29, 2012 Filed under: construction, gardening, the final stages | Tags: exterior, garden, landscaping, laneway house vancouver, replanting, sewer line, yard 2 Comments
 As you can see, our floor has been done! We’re going with a mid-grey matte finish polish on our concrete floor. No photos for now..We’ve got to wait a few days before we can go inside again. After that, appliances can come in, which is going to make things look pretty finished downstairs.
We’re at an estimated 3 weeks until completion now. It’s crazy to think we only started in December. It’s felt both long and short at the same time. These last 3 weeks will probably feel like the longest! So close now…
Since Monday, we’ve had a lot of ruckus around the place with sewer and water lines being connected by the city. The machinery they bring in makes you realize why it costs so much. Three days later, we’re all connected. We’re very happy that the city added more crews to take on the huge list of connections. Our timing couldn’t have been better, as they added crews soon after we were put on the waiting list. It was the difference between waiting for 3 weeks, or waiting for as long as 18, which would have been pretty depressing. It just reveals how much construction is going on in this city. Dunbar street alone is incredibly chopped up right now, with entire sewer lines being replaced, and curbs, sidewalks and road paving being redone. It’s a little crazy around here, and here we are adding to it with our own construction.
Moving on, my Mom has already been doing a lovely job prettying up the place. Plants are moving out of ‘temporary storage’ (a.k.a. pile of dirt on the boulevard/pots on my parents’ deck) and into the new garden beds set up by the landscapers.
These guys have done a quality job and we’ve been anxious to see their work on the front yard now that the sewer line is done! Yesterday we were at this daunting stage:
And today I came home from work to this:
And this!
My mom has always wanted a more winding path leading up to the house in the front, so this was the opportunity to do it. I think it’s going to look quite lovely when everything is planted and the fence is in.
Here are a few more shots of things recently finished or in progress around here:
The recently finished garden bed in front of our laneway house, ready for new plants under the little birch tree. Our address numbers are on now too!
Pavers just went in for our entrance to the front door. Looking pretty!
Why the colour difference in pavers? We wanted to reuse the old pavers from the former garden patio, both to save money, and not have to use more new materials. This side of the house will not really be seen much so it worked out well.
This maple was bought by my parents in memory of my late grandmother. It’s had a tough time during construction, and these trees don’t like to be moved. Unfortunately it was unavoidable. Hopefully it proves to be resilient and continues to grow.
That about sums things up for now. We’re so close I can taste it!
when sewage becomes exciting
Posted: March 23, 2012 Filed under: construction, design, small space living | Tags: bathroom, bedroom, built in cabinets, dunbar, industrial, interior design, laneway house vancouver, patio, smallworks, upstairs, wood Leave a comment
Yup, that there is a no stopping sign. What makes it so exciting? It means our sewer and water lines are being connected very soon!
Perhaps the only time a person could be so excited about sewage is a time such as this. It marks the last big, noisy and messy part of the project. Hurray!
Moving on from sewer talk, things are looking beautiful indoors. We were able to take a peek recently so I snapped a few shots.
Here we have wrought iron spindles with oak railings, and our custom entertainment cabinetry on the right, made from alder. Alder is a very plentiful local wood, so we feel pretty good about our choice, both from an aesthetic view and more sustainable one!
The left side of our kitchen. We decided on alder cabinetry on the bottom, and white with glass on the top, to make the space feel a little taller and more open on top. I am especially fond of our farmhouse sink.
We decided we liked the clean look of subway tiles. It also goes well with our semi-industrial look.
Our custom built-in corner couch, with storage drawers and a hatch on one side to stow spare folding chairs. Also made of alder. Upholstered seat arrives soon!
A better look at our entertainment unit. The hole in the centre will feature our fish tank.
Our shower tiling detail. I saw something like this on Houzz.com and really loved it, so this is our version of it. I also blogged about it way back in the early months of our project. I really liked the ‘waterfall’ feel that the orientation of the tiles gives. Quite happy with this! Sorry for the poor photo.. there wasn’ t much light in there at the time.
And now, for my favourite thing:
I have a thing for exposed beams. These were put in after the drywall, and have oak cladding. Super pleased with this! It’ll make our bedroom so cozy. At the back of the room there, we have a window seat and storage built in to maximize the space and not have to worry about finding furniture to fit in. We’ll be using basket or similar to store things on those shelves. A bookshelf is going in on the right as well.
This is becoming a long post. I also want to share what’s going on outside though. Things are looking much better these days!
We’ve gone from this:
To this!
The patio has a few garden beds lining it, one along our house on the left there, another on the right by my parents’ back stairs, and then another one against the fence (not visible) which will have a 20 foot tall tree for extra greenery and privacy. Things aren’t looking green now obviously, but I think it’s going to be a very pretty and useable little courtyard for all of us.
Things will be ‘back to normal’ before we know it.. Spring is starting to show it’s lovely buds and we’re feeling our new beginning is just around the corner!
Smallworks continues to be fabulous and we couldn’t recommend them enough if you’re considering building with them.
The Caboose
Posted: March 2, 2012 Filed under: balcony, design | Tags: balcony, design, dunbar, exterior, laneway house vancouver, smallworks, vancouver sun 1 CommentYep, it’s been a little while. I’m starting to lose momentum on this blog stuff, but we’ve also been pretty busy. We just had a wonderful extended weekend in Rossland, BC with friends. Lots of fluffy powder for snowboarding and cross-country skiing. I’d never been there before – it was beautiful! And Rossland is a lovely little mountain town.
View from the window out to Rossland
Snowy shadows on the edge of Nancy Green Lake
Back in Vancouver, the outside of the laneway house is looking awesome. All that’s left is the siding on the inside of the balcony, and the composite decking material. When my uncle saw the house the other day, he said it reminded him of a train – and we concluded it was The Caboose. We all thought that was very clever and amusing, and I think we’re going to stick with it. How could we resist naming our cute little red house? Yeah, we’re dorks.
Our little red caboose
Do you see the likeness? heehee
I’ve mentioned the composite decking in an older post, but I didn’t have the manufacturer’s name. It’s called Moisture Shield and it’s an environmentally friendly product made from 95% pre- and post-consumer recycled content, including construction debris, grocery bags, plastic milk jugs, and more. It’s then treated to look like wood – and it’s pretty convincing!
An example image from Moisture Shield's gallery
They also make deck tiles and fencing. It’s supposed to look good for up to 25 years which is great. Less maintenance is always a bonus, especially if we can help the environment too!
During my time of silence on the blog, we also had our 2 paragraphs of fame in the Vancouver Sun Weekend Extra a couple of weekends ago, exploring the question of whether laneway housing is an affordable housing solution. The journalist somehow got it in her head that I’m a “visual artistic director” which made me chuckle. Sure, I’ll take it.
Our photo in the paper
So what’s next? We’re getting electricity today! The drywall is up and the primer is on the walls. We’re supposed to have the sewer connected within three weeks as well, which is a huge relief because the city sewer crews have been backed up (no pun intended) with waits of up to 18 weeks. They recently added crews to work on weekends and try to get through the huge heap of connection requests on the waiting list. Vancouver is a busy growing city!
Thanks for reading – more to come on the interior finishing soon!
dig dig dig dig dig dig
Posted: January 31, 2012 Filed under: construction, site preparation | Tags: 1876, 1907, history, laneway house vancouver, sewer line, trench, vancouver, vintage medicine bottle 2 CommentsAnother mud-puddle day in the trenches! (As I sit here warm and dry indoors). Our corner of Dunbar holds a striking resemblance to Vimy Ridge.
We even lacked flush-able toilets this morning! That was interesting. But all this is in the name of progress. We’re very close to having the sewer line trench coming up to the main street. Then it’s up to the City to connect us. Fingers crossed it doesn’t take a ‘coon’s age for them to go down their list to get to us.
The old-things/antiques nerd in me that has been showing up more prominently these days was very excited to see what the guys found in the muck this morning.
lydia e. pinkham's vegetable compound, patented in 1876
It didn’t take long to find out that this empty bottle of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound is likely around 100 years old. Who knows what the story is behind this little gem, and how and why it landed 10 feet underground on the property, but I think it’s a pretty neat little souvenir to have on display in the new house to remember the days and days of digging, and how far things have come (both in our little world of the laneway house, and the world of medicine for that matter!) Lydia Pinkham died in 1883 and never saw the full success of her medicinal empire, but her Vegetable Compound made the family fortune, grossing $300, 000 annually by her death and peaking in 1925 to $3.8 million.
An interesting and rather frightening side note: the same year as the Vegetable Compound was patented, a prominent American physician was urging the removal of healthy ovaries as a treatment for menstrual cramps. Yikes!! I’d rather go with the Lydia’s medicine “for the female discomforts” thank you. I think it can go without saying that I’m glad to be living in 2012…
Well, enough about history I suppose. Back to the present: The roof is on, the windows and doors are in, and the electrical and plumbing will be going in shortly as well. Excitement abounds in our little corner of the world! More photos to come soon.
In keeping with the theme of history, I thought I’d share this video passed on to me the other day. It’s footage from 1907, going through the streets of downtown Vancouver. Probably around the same time that Lydia E. Pinkham’s bottle landed on our little street corner and got buried. Pretty neat.
Thanks for following us!
the rain rain rain came down down down
Posted: January 24, 2012 Filed under: construction | Tags: construction, exterior design, laneway house vancouver, smallworks Leave a commentPerhaps some of you know this classic Disney Winnie the Pooh Song. It jumped into my head today as I stared out the window at the torrential downpour from our basement suite. It’s been like this all day. I used to work in landscaping, so I can sort of empathize with the guys working outside on the laneway house as it pours down with rain. It’s pretty amazing to see what can still be accomplished in this kind of weather though. I suppose it’s still better than freezing rain and snow we had earlier this month (which thankfully I never had to experience during my spring/summer stint as a landscaper!)
The framing is nearly complete, so we’re getting a good sense of what the place is going to look like! It’s kind of crazy seeing this little house right next to my parents’ house now. We’ll be able to wave at each other through our kitchen windows. As close as that sounds, there is actually a fair bit of space between the two homes, where a lovely patio and garden beds will no doubt reside one things are finished.
the front of the house, looking across the street.
In the photo above you can sort of begin to see the front design. The builders are starting to put in the hip-roof that surrounds our balcony. The opening peaking over the edge is our balcony doorway. We’ve got a nice big window in the front and our front door is on the right there. Since we’re a corner lot, we can have the entrance off the side street instead of the lane which gives us a great opportunity to have some nice curb appeal!
This is the side facing the lane.
In the photo above we have the lane-side view. Garage door on the left, living room window on the right, and the bathroom dormer on the top. Those pre-fab walls really make the house take shape in what feels like the blink of an eye. Smallworks builds most of the house offsite and then puts it together like a big puzzle, to ensure the weather doesn’t have it’s way with the exposed structure for too long.
The messy work is still going on at the side of my parents’ house with the sewer line trench getting deeper and longer and no doubt muddier during this rain storm. The excavators were quite amused to find that we still have a steel water pipe (which haven’t been used for decades) going into the house. Turns out we need to get it replaced due to it’s ancientness and corrosion, so the house is without water for a few hours today in order to install a shiny new water pipe. Things sure get interesting once you start digging!
our basement suite door usually exits here.. not so much right now.
As you can see from the photo above ,the trench goes right against the side of the house, and currently blocks our exit from the basement suite. I haven’t had to come home through my parents’ Â front door after a weekend night of being out until 3 a.m. since I was 18 years old.. it’s a bit of a flash back to say the least.
I will wrap things up with a slideshow of progress over the last week or so. I think the photos probably illustrate how Smallworks really is a well oiled machine… and a very pleasant and friendly one at that!
darn that flying time…
Posted: January 12, 2012 Filed under: complications, construction, site preparation | Tags: construction, dunbar, laneway house vancouver, site preparation, smallworks, yard Leave a commentOkay, it’s been far too long since our last update. Between a computer keyboard breaking (not at ALL because of me being clumsy and spilling water on it), Christmas holidays, and being sick through the new year, it’s been tough to find time or feel motivated to write something. Today was particularly exciting though, because the walls are going up! So… no more being lazy. Time to share some stuff.
Everything has been going well, except for a *minor* issue of the main house on the lot being old, and the soil around it very loose and weak. As the excavators were digging along south side of the house for the sewer line, they found it was probably risky to just fill it in normally, since the old foundation and weak soil wasn’t going to be so good for keeping the house stable. Things would start slipping over time. An unfortunate slight increase in the budget that couldn’t be avoided. My parents would rather not have their house start leaning like the Tower of Pisa for some reason. To remedy this, some concrete reinforcement will be put in place before filling in with the usual stuff.
To summarize what’s happened since the last post, It seems best to share photos rather than describe. The following are highlights from December before the holidays.
Initial digging of the foundation pit.
Taking down the hedges to make way for the sewer line.
The beginnings of framing for the foundation.
Digging the sewer line trench.
Bringing in more wood for the framing.
Pouring the concrete into the foundation framing.
There’s a lot more that I’ll put in a separate post. I shall leave you with our silly Christmas joke. Gotta pretty up the front yard somehow, right?
pint-sized house 