Design schematics - Round 2

On Tuesday, Kris and I met once again with Bruce and Ian over at the new digs. In our stinky, dark, and dilapidated living room, we went over the new round of designs which had been developed off of the feedback from round one. Here are the new versions - let us know what you think of them....

Our general preference was 4.3, though we still had a bunch of points of feedback....

So - on Friday we're slated to have another round of things with an additional version that has a galley like kitchen (like Option 1 above) combined with most of the feel of 4.3. We'll see how that goes and take it from there. In the meantime, I'm trying to nail down some numbers on the Hazmat info, which I'll post this weekend.

Preliminary designs and edits

So as you're probably gathering from the array of posts, there's been a lot happening over the past few weeks while I've had radio silence on my blog. Perhaps most significantly have been the first couple of rounds of designs from Bruce Carscadden Architects (BCA). After giving some input to both Ian and Bruce (rough primary instructions were: minimize cost, maximize light/storage/space, have an indoor/outdoor seamless transition, and keep the feel modern yet natural), they generated three initial layouts (or schematic design).

So....

...What do you think? I'll fill you in on our thoughts soon...

Toronto Design Scene: who knew?

A special travel-edition of my blog from the past few days in TO. Who knew that my home of nigh-ten years is all grown up? When I left Toronto a little over three years ago, it definitely had some solid roots in the design scene: institutions like OCAD have ensured that. But with the building boom of the past decade, it would seem like things have shifted into the mainstream. From the completion of the Liebskind-inspired ROM and the Gehry-driven AGO to Mississauga's (I know...MISSISSAUGA!?!) "Marilyn Munrow Towers" I've been impressed with the world-class architectural additions of late. But perhaps even more impressive is the emergence of the interior and industrial design scene throughout the city.

For the past few years, there's been a publication called Design Lines - almost like a free, quarterly, Toronto-specific design mag that also doubles as a great reference guide for shopping in the city. They identify various design-hubs in the city (Queen E/W, King E/W, the Junction, Ave-Dav, Caledonia) and provide brief reviews, hours, etc. Gotta admit to being jealous that Van doesn't have an equivalent (the Make it Local publication isn't quite the same - though still good).

So - highlights/fave stores:
1) Mjolk (pronounced Mi-yelk, and meaning...go figure..."Milk" in Swedish) - it's a Scandinavian-inspired higher-end design shop. The interior falls somewhere between a gallery, a sauna (without the heat - its got a lot of wood), and a gift shop, and the products range from furniture to kitchen utensils and jewelry. Saw an awesome set of tongs and a very cool built-in drain rack.


Choice items: 

Scissors/kitchen tool

Sori Yanagi Perforated tongs

Hand hammered Yukihira Pot

2) Made - a Canadian-design store that has more interior furnishings (lights, chairs, credenzas - aka ground-level cabinets with legs, etc.) Some very cool stuff and the owners were lovely. In particular - have a look in their catalogue at the credenza by Heidi Earnshaw, the live-edge side tables by Deanne Lehtinen, the lamps by Propellor Design, and the pendant lamp by Rob Southcott.

3) Stylegarage - another Canadian company that's sort of like a high-end version of Nood (or a higher-high end version of Ikea). Great design: clean, simple, modern, natural, and sustainable...that's what I'm all about!



Lots of neat stuff, but we thought we might be able to steal the concrete table idea...





And again....was going to post more here, but decided that more frequent was better than more comprehensive! So, that's it for now.

The up days and down days

The past week has been a mixed bag entirely on the house front. I had the initial energy audit/assessment last week ($168, due to a $150 subsidy from the gov't) which I used Energywise Solutions. In a nutshell it was probably one of the best dollars spent thus far. He did a pretty quick tour of the place, took some basic measurements, looked at materials (windows, walls, insulation, etc.) and then did a blower test (seal the house, suck out the air and then see how long it takes to balance - which tells you how much air is leaking in). It took about an hour in all, and he then sent me a report later that night. The good news: I'm eligible for many thousands of dollars in subsidies. The bad news: to receive them, I have to have the building envelope in place by March 31st, which is going to be VERY tight according to our timelines.

Over the weekend, Kris and I went to the Vancouver Home Show which was interesting, but not mind blowing. Did get a bunch of options for everything from heat recovery ventilator systems, to sheds, to countertops, toilets, and so forth. Here are some of the ones we're thinking of:

1) Modern Shed: Shed, gear storage, guest room, office...all in a very cool shell. Not sure what size we'd do (probably below the non-permit size of 107 sq.ft) - or even if we can do it - but it's definitely appealing!

Example of a a "Modern Shed" shed. Hey baby - nice clerestory windows...

2) Eco by Consentino: pretty awesome countertop surface - green, durable, looks great...but a bit pricey. We'll see if we can swing it in the end....

White Diamond is our choice of colours

3) Dual Flush Siphonic Water Toilet / Fresca Dorado Elongated Toilet: We're desperately in search of a pimpin' dual-flush toilet that doesn't have nasty areas to clean. Here are our faves thus far...


4) Lighting: I quite like the Le Klint lamps (stylish and affordable), but there are lots of options on that front. My other lighting of choice includes this Nuevo Asparagus lamp and the classic Poulsen lamp

Le Klint

Nuevo Asparagus

And the classic Poulsen Artichoke (don't ask me why they want to name them after vegetables)

I could go on, but I'm several weeks behind in posting, so that will do for now...

Hazardous Materials Testing - A

So - just got back from the haz-mat testing at the new place. It was not the best thing ever. We used Alara Environmental Health and Safety - who gave us the best quote in the end (or so it seemed). That said, Steven Seewald (the president) was actually the one who did the testing and he was really pleasant and despite the extra costs, think that he did what he had to. It wasn't him, so much as the owners who created this monstrosity of a mish-mash of materials (that and probably overly zealous rules by the Workers Compensation Board)


The testing ran $900 over. Ugh. Give your thanks to small Italian men who like to patch over shit over, and over, and over again...resulting in a zillion samples. The original quote from Alara was for $595 (including 7 samples) + $45/sample + HST. I started to grow a bit concerned when he started taking samples like they were going out of style. I'm guessing the final bill will be close to $1500. Ouch.

The bad news:

A) $900 extra (~25 samples, vs. an estimated 7. The guy explained it - it's largely due to WCB. Understandable (and the guy was really nice about it), but frustrating.

B) Lots of possible asbestos (linoleum shit EVERYWHERE...and so freakin' random...e.g., part of the living room has it?!)

C) Sounds like demolition is going to be even more expensive than I'd guessed...but I guess we'll wait and see.

The "good" news:
A) I think the flooring "might" be able to be refinished...which at least saves us a bit of money.

B) There are no issues in the basement (hallelujah!).

C) We got a Home Depot gift card (amount unknown) in the mail from the RBC mortgage broker - who didn't even issue our mortgage...how odd... (so make that $880 over)

D) We got a city of Vancouver survey worth $10 in the mail as well (now down to $870!!!)

E) The guy saved us another $100 by opting out of two tests that he felt pretty confident on. 

F) I don't have to pay for more testing...well...except for the energy audit...

G) I realized that I can circumvent the fact that nobody takes credit cards by using credit card cheques...

Welcome to the world of house ownership. And now I'm off to drink.

Design inspirations

A quick update (read little amounts of text) and a bunch of pictures - because they're more fun than my words.

So - updates
1) Have booked the hazmat testing, which happens tomorrow. Guessing it will cost us about $800 all in...let's just hope that there's as little asbestos as possible (fingers crossed everyone!). Should have the results back in about a week or two.
2) Have also booked a household energy audit/assessment. This is a requirement before you start into any kind of renovation in order to be eligible for the fed/prov ecoENERGY rebate program. The bad news is that it costs more, the good news being that it's subsidized ($150 off, so will cost $168 in total), and should make us eligible for a bunch of savings (I'm guessing a few thousand dollars).
3) We managed to score our neighbours old tub, which I'm pretty excited about. It's a nice jacuzzi-style tub (see below) and saves us a few hundred bucks. It will likely go in the upstairs bathroom.

Our new jacuzzi tub! Note - think we might need to change the faucet...

Also scored the following from our neighbour (current, but soon moving), Susan.

Fancy (ok, not so fancy) red wheelbarrow!

A pretty cool bench for the garden (yup, some refinishing required)

And another little cabinet that might turn out nicely with some love.

4) We've now sent over our initial ideas to Ian, so he and Bruce (our architects for those of you who can't keep the cast straight) will be drafting up initial schematic designs (3 options), as well as a schedule for us to have a look at a week from now (October 18th). With our ideas, we sent over a bunch of pictures to help provide a sense of the sort of style/look/feel that we're aiming for. You can laugh when the house is completed as to whether we were in la-la land. So...enjoy the pics.

 I love the use of reclaimed windows here to create a bank of windows.

If Kris and I could replicate these cabinets, we would...sadly, we won't be able to afford such luxuries.

Nice general look/feel - built in book shelves and neat use of space.

An accessible bathroom is something we're shooting for - along with frosted glass. Not sure about the sunken tub!

Cool corner window, simple but elegant/modern kitchen...all our kind of things

And lastly, some clerestory windows, and a walk-out back area (not the best image to show the latter)

Back from a Solar Decathalon...a what???

Wow - how time flies when you're busy. So, apologies for the lack of postings over the past week - I was down in Washington DC for work and so the house was on the back burner. First, a few observations about DC:

1) I'm loathe to admit it, but I think DC may, in fact, be the most cycling-friendly city. I don't mean the car drivers (they're mean, nasty beasts nearly everywhere on the planet) but rather the cycling infrastructure. In addition to a pretty big (and popular!) bike share program, there are a zillion bike lanes and tons of dedicated trails throughout not just "the District" (as the locals call it), but the surrounding Greater DC area. It's impressive...and so I packed my folding bike (my beloved Brompton - there will be a full dedicated blog on that at some point, including love poetry).
2) DC is more fun that I ever used to give it credit for. I can't say I like the weather (sticky is an understatement in the summer), but I do like its left-leaning vibe, the copious amounts of Ethiopian restaurants, a generally young, intelligent and informed populace, and the international flavour it has (despite being pretty whitewashed overall). While I'm not a big fan of the racial divide that clearly exists (all servers, cab drivers, wage-earners are either black, latino, or from MENA - yes, I'm acronymizing you). Other pluses are the cherry blossoms in the spring (though we've got that one covered here in VCBC - my friend Tim's term for Vancouver - which he seems convinced will earn him a mint one day...perhaps not now that I've published his genius online), the free museums (the Smithsonian...which goes by a singular, but in fact is a range of museums, zoos, etc. - confusing eh?)
3) As an example of the above, this past weekend had a "Solar house" theme to it. In addition to there being a city tour of "solar houses" - which was really just code for "green homes" - they also had this thing on down at by the Mall (the giant strip of grass in front of the White house that lines up all of the various monuments) called a "Solar Decathalon" (who comes up with these names???!). This time, however, there was a decent reason - these houses, which were entries from about 20 different universities throughout the world (Canada's entry was from the University of Calgary), were indeed "solar powered" and had to meet ten different requirements (ergo "decathalon" I'm assuming). It was a pretty cool event, and I toured about 7 or so of the houses on Friday when I had a couple of hours I could squeeze out of my week. Some neat designs - lots of heat exchange systems, massive insulation, air tight houses, passive solar orientation, and a few fancy bells and whistles to boot. I could go on (I'll fill in the details on the pics below later), but its getting late and I want to post about the other significant house happenings this past week.

While I had been away, Target Land Surveying had visited the place and done a formal site survey. This $1200 piece of magic provides you with the formal dimensions of your lot, house, neighbours place, etc. including elevations (again, both the site and the house itself). Basically it tells you how much contaminated junk you truly own (ok, well in our case that's what it tells us). But, it's an input required by the architects to start designing. So, with that completed on Friday (as I was busy decathaloning), we were ready for meetings this week. Drum roll....and here's what they look like:

So once I returned home to Kris and pup, we had our first "official" meeting with our architect, Ian. We sat down with our fancy new drawing and talked about what we wanted in our new place. We looked through some pictures that Ian had pulled out, and told him what we liked about them, and what we hated. In general, there are a few things that are emerging about what we want: lots of light, lots of storage (bikes, gear, books, booze - you know, the good things in life that are also clutter when not put away), lots of green features, universal design (accessibility), future-proofing (thinking about its use when we have parents, guests, dogs, kids, etc.), and a combination of modern and old design.

Tonight we went over the architect's contract (no we haven't actually signed it yet...but that's a formality really), which requires a few points of clarification. On Wednesday, I'll be sitting down with Brett, Ian and Bruce to go over some scheduling questions along with communications and a few other odds and ends.

And in my spare time, I'll book the hazardous material assessment, which I'm guessing will set me back another $650 or so. That's going to be a heart in throat moment when those details come back as it will be the difference between a pretty dreamy house, versus a bare bones thing.

It's 10:30pm though, Kris has been in bed for over an hour, and while she's up at 5am, I'll be up at 7am, so time to head to bed.