EAST VAN BY HAND

It's a Christmas post I forgot to publish

2011-12-10T14:24:00.001-08:00

http://issuu.com/graymag/docs/gray_magazine_no1/1

Just found this new on line bi monthly digital magazine Gray. It features Pacific Northwest Design. For the first time ever I found a spread that fits me to a T. "The New Glamorous". So me! Sigh...I don't have the money or space to do this in our house yet but when I do. I'll post it here.
Things are going tickity boo down stairs. I have another set of photos to share. It beginning to look like Christmas and while Keaton is sleeping I am itching to go up to the store and see if there are any christmasy bits to get for our tree. It's our first in our new house and I am soooo happy that we are not in the old place anymore. Between the malevolent presence of ex-friend upstairs and an Eyore for a downstairs neighbor. It was a depression sandwich. So even though we are close to financial ruin things are waaay better over here in East Van for Christmas 2011.

Slooow Down There Little Pookie!

2011-11-13T22:39:00.001-08:00

We could not be going slower. Some of this is my fault and some of it is just life. I'm so sorry to drop the ball like this. We or rather Peter has been doing the basement. He's the "One Man Renovation Show". It's been excrutiating for all of us involved. Nothing worthy to write or take pictures of. Just the drudgery. I should go down and take some photos because it will be a great contrast for when it's finished. It will be a nice generous one bedroom with good light. So for now here are some upstairs photos. They are not professionally staged and you may see some of the clutter creeping back in. But hey, like I said this aint HGTV. It's real reno real time.

From the bathroom to kitchen

Hours of Good Clean Fun!

My little pookie warshing the dishes

Keaton's Reading Chair

Play Table

Keaton's kitchen area

bathroom

kitchen

bedroom I got a padded headboard for my Birthday

Livingroom

I love me a sweedish bulb

More Keaton's room

spice rack o my dreams

Mud room

Bathroom

Thanks for your patience! We'll be back up and running soon! I promise.

And We're In!

2011-07-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

1st night staying at the house and I want to do everything! Have a cup of tea, a glass of wine on the patio
( Peter is out tonight of all nights ) have a friend over, yak on the phone etc. Instead I skip dinner and keep running around unpacking and making lists.

I had another tough session with Jada my "Simplifyer". I am exhausted. I had to try to get rid of 50% of my wardrobe. All my dresser drawers are full and I have another trunk load of clothes coming over from Grandma's. What am I gonna do?

She had some amazing ideas for organization, really really amazing. I can't wait to impliment them. For instance, we have this old ironing board cupboard and it is the perfect size for our canned goods. It will free up so much room in the pantry.

It's really going to be so wonderful to live like this. I am finding it easier let go of things and rather than give a long explanation about where I got it and how it makes me feel I just say toss or keep. Then we go through everything again to find that I have 19 short sleeved striped shirts and I have to keep culling. This really will be a transformation.

I'm not use to the sounds here, inside and outside. I noticed that the neighbours putter endlessly in the garden, go in and out of the two side doors. They also go through my recycling when I put it out and they get more and more brazen each week. First, I put it out and walked to the back of the garden to get a hose and just as I land at the bottom of the garden and start watering the vegetables he was rummaging through it. Was he watching me? The following week I had barely put it down and he was behind me. I ignored him because I was going to finish putting it down damn it! I don't know why it bugs me so much. I feel kind of territorial about it. Silly Silly Silly....

Here is a picture from the old apartment. I have gotten rid of over 200 pieces since this was taken and I still have to get rid of more. I don't know what makes me feel more sick. Having this much stuff or getting rid of it. All I know is the feeling I have after purging the clothes and clutter is much better.

My closet at the apartment at it's worst

Why does more space feel like not enough?

2011-07-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

It's so frustrating that we got rid of about 4 car loads, 6 book cases, 8 huge garbage bags of clothes before moving in and we still have way too much stuff. One thing we have working against us is the lack of storage in the house. True we have a garage but only certain things can be stored there. Most of the basement is taken up with the suite. It's been a week of unpacking and ten hours of hard purging with a professional.

But today I saw my kitchen counter tops for the first time since we took posession in May. Finally I feel a little hope. At last I am seeing the potential of the place and the possibility of living in a decluttered, organized and totally decorated house. Finally! I can get on with the business of living. I'm very excited.

So for the afternoon we took a bunch of measurements and went to Ikea. Normally I am hating Ikea but now there are a few things that would solve specific problems. It's nice to buy things that you know are going to be used and you have a place for them. Today I decided to replace my bath towels for all white ones. I got some gadgets for hanging the vacuum cleaner and the iron. Then what I am really really excited about is the picture rails we will use as a spice rack that will run the full length of the wall above the stove and I have these fabulous old fashioned spice jars. I hope it turns out as fab as I picture it.

Now I have the makings for an amazing, really awesome garage sale. Not just junk but really good junk. Cute useful junk. I'm going to go all out and advertize it and put up flyers. It will be interesting to see if I can pull it off and sell everything. I promise it will be good garage sale prices, like clothes 2 bucks a piece, magazines 25 cents, books 1 dollar.

My lightbulb / aha moment came today when Jada said,

"You want to hold on to the space not the things".

So true.

Restore your teak! Go to the paint section in Home Depot and get some steel wool and go over the surface then put some tung oil it let it sit over night and voila! The steel wool worked great for cleaning paint and grunge off of our tiles.

some of this ended up in the garage sale stuff

Unpacking

You can't tell by looking at it but there's some really good stuff in there

Booze, vases, platters, trays, good china etc.

Peter built this shelf in the back to maximize the space using scrap wood from the garage

Seeing more potential

I've got space in my cupboards!

Still a work in progress, all the mail and bills from our summer in limbo

I haven't seen my counter in 12 weeks!

IKEA Hackers: Maskros XL

2011-07-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

A brilliant hack for Keaton's Maskros Lamp. Maybe we'll get another one!

IKEA Hackers: Maskros XL: "Materials: Maskros, Plain white paper coffee cups, Glue gun Description: Looking for a reasonably priced pendant lamp for a restaurant ..."

Inches Away

2011-07-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

We are inches away from finishing the kitchen cupboards. Peter read about using Rustoleum on the Retro Renovation Blog. So while we were in Belingham at the start of all this we got a kit. You have a choice of a "light" or a "dark" kit. We chose light because we wanted to match the light lemon yellow in the accent tile. I also didn't want to go all white for the cupboards for some reason.
By leaving the store we made two mistakes. 1st you have to get the kit tinted and also we should of gotten the bigger kit. We are having to get real creative here to stretch the amount that came with our kit. I had the brilliant idea to get it tinted at our Benjamin Moore where we've been getting all our paint. They were only too happy to oblige. Unfortunately they mistinted one of the quarts. So we got a quart of tinted primer and a quart of flat tinted to our chosen shade. So far it's working but we haven't put the final coat on yet. Hopefully tonight!

It seems that we will never get out from under the boxes. I am up against a lot of blocks, emotional ones about how much stuff we have. As a gift to myself I hired a professional to help me declutter and organize. We did a marathon 6 hour session. I'm still recovering but it really inspred me to keep going with this. We have two more sessions booked and I think I'll keep going till the whole house and garage are done. Jada calls herself the "Head Simplifyer" at Nitty Gritty. She also does home staging and I found her to have great ideas for lay out which is something I really struggle with. So far I have a good pile of stuff for my garage sale and then I will donate whatever is left over to Miscellany - Thrift Store which is in my hood and the proceeds go to women's programs.

Bedroom in progress

Ikea curtains that go really well with the livingroom rug etc

Kitchen mess

Nice light that came with the house

Out of the ashes comes a cute little vignette

Boxes everywhere

Boxes in the dinning nook

Kitchen in progress

Scored this from my favorite vintage store, not sure where it's gonna go

So in love with the lamp

Just need to get rid of the extra chain and cord

Peter hung the schoolhouse lamp

We'd thought we'd use this side table for her to use as an art table

Keaton's Room

Getting there.

2011-07-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired I don't know what to write or if I do if I will make any sense. I'll just post some photos and update later.

We almost bought this house

We lost out to a Celebrity Yoga Instructor, this is what he did to it

Kitchen floor is in, waiting for baseboards

I think the mudroom is going to win most improved room in the house

Trying to hide Hoarking Spitting Man next door, not high enough but it does hide their ugly fence

Very important box

Redoing the Heating Vents. We're going to leave them natural.

The Blue Garden

Waiting for planting

Cleaning up the basement

What's Next?? Basement kitchen.

Clean up downstairs

Uphostery project and our Mod Chair. This is the bedroom downstairs, it will have new carpet and paint.

Where do I begin?

It's amazing how things pile up

The bathroom will be closed up, new floor and vanity, fresh paint and fixtures

Clean up, we still need to do the cupboards

Keaton's room

Bathroom

Our room

Livingroom

New fixture in the entry way

Heat register

We put one up in the hallway too

Remembering the torn linoleum and the paint splatters

Hallway redone with new floors trim and paint and lighting, waitng for the runner we ordered from Home Depot

Happiest in Chandleer Land

2011-06-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Lighting Warehouse in Richmond. There were a lot of lights that would look good in your Surrey McMansion. There were some little gems and some were fantastical and some just don't go with our house. I saw quite a few that I imagined would go with our friend's West Van house. We hoped we would fine parts for our free track lighting we got off Craig's list but they didn't have any. I figured the track lighting should be white to blend in with the ceiling but that's as far as I can go. I'm not sure how to place the lighting in the kitchen, we need task lighting and I'm afraid it's starting to feel beyond me. I need some hand holding by someone who's done this before. The other thing is lighting is also really expensive, 110% markup Peter says from his days at a lighting and plumbing store so even though they were "wholesale prices" still outrageous.

Weird Star Trek lighting

Sparkly

Chandleers galore

Can I have this one?

Swarovski

I loved this one but not the price

AGH! Nipple Lights!

For my friend Scott's house

Boring!

2011-06-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

What's been happening for the last few weeks has been really boring, unphotogenic and other things. We found an electrician who was able to help us get the electricity up to code and also wired things for future upgrades to the house, like having a deck. It's really great to have had this done. He tore out a lot of stuff that was badly done and now the house wont blow up if we plug in the toaster and use it. There are going to be smoke and CO2 detectors, he hardwired them in. We are trying to take care of everything before we close up the walls.
One thing that is baffling me is figuring out the amount and placement of the pot lights we are putting in the basement. The height is pretty good but if we did track lighting the tenant would probably hit their head on them so we decided to spring for pot lights and a couple of other fixtures. There we a bunch of nipple light fixtures which Peter absolutely Hates with a capital H. So we ripped them out.
Been looking at a lot of magazines and I find them both addictive and frustrating. Nobody wants to do a story on a just a normal everyday size house with a small budget. It's all aspirational. I look at these places and they are huge and these people seem to be loaded as far what they have done and bought to decorate. Are they maxed out? I just wonder. I just don't see myself represented in these pages. I aspire to a life that looks like that but it's never going to happen.
On the main floor we have been prepping for painting for ever and ever, fixing squeaks in the floor, mind numbingly boring. We did start to paint and we seemed to be chugging along but Peter's Mum had her varicose veins lasered and so we lost our only source of child care because she is not allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds for two weeks. Keaton just weighed in at 26 and a 1/4 pounds yesterday at her Dr's appointment.
So in a nutshell, boring. Do you really want to see painting in progress? It's about as interesting as watching it dry. I can't wait to show it to you when we have taken the tape and the paper off and it's ready to be moved in. But for now, it's just a messy empty house.
We are getting dicked around by the flooring people a bit. Long story and a common one where they subcontract the installation out to a guy who has a bad memory, doesn't call or show up when he says he's going to. If he doesn't show up tomorrow we go with someone else and that may take a bit.
We have a big deadline at the end of the month, we gave notice at the storage space and also I am moving out of my studio space in Chinatown. It's great to be living with out our stuff. But soon we will have to confront our stuff and the amount of it. Right now I have filled about half of the garage with my studio stuff save for the big bulky furniture, shelves, tables, sewing machine etc. I know I have a lot of junk that I need to get rid of but I just had to get it out of the space so we are going to have one hell of a garage sale, I tell you.
I haven't enjoyed this process as much as I thought I would. I'll enjoy the result but it's not exactly HGTV. I wish I could just Jeanie Blink and have it done. But the reality is that it is painstakingly slow and tedious. It's been really difficult and hard on our relationship. I thought having a baby was hard! Well this is right up there. Peter has been working on his own for the most part and he can't be having as much fun either. We have to go through with the drudgery of moving and we probably don't have enough room for everything. I know it's a bit Debbie Downer right now.
So all I have to show you are some photos of the garden progress and some wanderings around town.
Thanks for reading.

My Furst Born all blissed out in the back yard

Mud Room

Trying to get rid of the 1940's Avocado

Peter

Subfloor is down!

Getting ready for paint

Peter thought this should be our banner

I love these colors!

I've also become a Poppy lover but they only bloom for a short time

California Lilac, just discovered them, since I am from California I had to get one

In the community garden, lots of little vignettes for sitting and enjoying

This is a church!

Lavender in the Church Garden

I went in here and drooled over all their tile

I love the way they used three of my favourite plants, Lavender, Boxwood and Ornamental Grasses and the rocks too!

I am falling in love with succulents thanks to Mummy in Law

My New Happy Place

2011-06-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

My new happy place is now my garden and Northwest Landscape and Stone Supply. Grandma took me there so we could get a stepping stone to put at the foot of our stairs for the Postie and other people could step over the flower bed with out wrecking things.

Let the planting begin!

Grandma gave us a couple of dwarf Maples. Notice next door is shut up tight like fort knox with all those bars!

The white flowers were being thrown out so we took them and planted them.

Some Cosmos and Elijiah Blue Grass

Horrible day for gardening it was

Northwest Landscape and Stone Supply my new favourite place

Look what you can buy for your yard or fountain or whatever

All these different stones!

I kinda liked these

I liked these but the were 4200 dollars for the gate set up

Here's our little step stone, it was buried under a few layers of rock

Bins of gravel and pots etc as far as the eye can see

Heavily flirting with the Birdbath here

But I like these too

And some of these, especially the acorn squash ones back left

Balls! Love them but too formal for our place

Stuff for fountains

I fell in love with this owl. I got one for the front garden. Thought it would update our look to the 70's

Professionals for a reason

2011-06-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Yay! We got the floors done. It took three days. But damn! They are sexy! I really really think so. The color of the two woods aren't really close and I think the fir took to the stain more than the oak. But the color turned out exactly as I pictured plus you can still see the grain and the inlay on the oak side which is what Peter wanted. Now the walls look like sh*t! We have to paint! There is something stupid going on with the soft ware that is screwing with my format and I can't get the pictures to line up. I have been fighting with it for hours and I'm too tired to do it again. So I'm posting it anyways.

Oak Before

Testing the fir

Testing the oak
We chose the darker color in the centre

Testing the oak
It looks like machine marks on the floor but that is just the sawdust pattern from the machine. There was also this big black spot that wouldn't go away and apparently it was cat pee. They like to go in the same spot. The guys got it out.

Oak

Fir floors before Peter sanded them

Keaton's Room

You can see the bruising on the floor in Keatons room. Fir is really soft and bruises.

Oak floor with white stain, um ...... not as sexy

Peter, just before he laid down the paper for painting.

Between the Oak and the Fir

Fir

Hallway before Peter Sanded

Peter would want you to know that Dinitri (who redid the floors) said that Peter didn't do that bad of a job sanding, he'd seen a lot worse.

Fire Place

2011-05-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

I had found this photo in Canadian House and Home . I thought it would be great in our living room, but Peter hated it and I forgot we have coved ceilings.

In the October 2010 issue of Canadian House and Home there was a profile of Vancouver Ceramicist Andy Blick. I found his work breath taking and I was thinking when we redo our fire place to use his tiles for the surround. Anne Sacks also sells his line.

Coved Ceilings

This is one of the few period details left in the house. It's not spectacular but how can we improve on it? I would like to paint the mantle white and get a new surround that is plain. The pilasters are repeated on the cupboards in the kitchen. So it would be nice to keep them. The way it's going is I have an idea in my head and when I ask the house it's tells me to go another direction. The fireplace is pretty low on the list of priorities so I will have to live with it for awhile and collect ideas.

My friend David suggested this from Retro Renovation. I love it!

Still wondering where the firepit and the wood fired brick oven is going to go?

2011-05-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Modern Vintage Style

by Emily Chalmers

Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design

by Christiane Lemieux

Design*Sponge at Home

By Grace Bonney

We went on an after dinner walk one night and ended up at Chapters where I fell in love with a few books "Modern Vintage Style" and "Undecorate" plus "Design Sponge at Home" from my favourite Blog of all Blogs.

I love the idea of being an amazon associate but I am finding it hard to make it look nice in the post. I've been fighting with it for the last hour. It would be nice to have a little passive income from the site somehow. You see every body does it, google adsense and all that, even the big guns whom you would think wouldn't need to bother with this pettiness, but I guess every little bit helps. It would be even cooler if a Canadian chain were doing this.

Who needs toys? Keaton has kept herself entertained for the last two hours with our dog's leash, trying to hook it on to various things and two rusty screws which she has not put in her mouth Thank God!

Does it hook onto this?

Things are winding down for the day and finally a taste of summer weather. I can hear weed whackers going and smell Barbecues. It's torture! I am getting excited to move in. Still wondering where the fire pit and the wood fire oven is going to go. (Ha ha) They might fall into the category of "over improvement".

I had pretty romantic ideas about renovating that were colored by HGTV I thought we could handle this. As I said before, we aren't doing anything extraordinary or difficult. I'm not afraid of hard work. I've worked very very hard, hard physical labour, 17 hour days. But this has been unlike anything I've ever done. I am going through something here. In the process, in the muck. Maybe because we are weeks behind and we haven't had any of the rewards yet. They seem like everything else so far away.

It's also frustrating trying to mother my 1 year old during all this because most of the work falls on Peter alone to do. If I helped I wouldn't see Keaton for the next two months. Right now if it rains heavily Grandma can't get in the garden so she watches Keaton and then I help Peter. Today I got to help for about 15 minutes, wrapping a drainage pipe in landscaping cloth for the ditch. Then Keaton needed a diaper change and a snack. It's impossible. I love to have her near but she demands my full attention so my contribution lately has been mostly child care.

Look what Gammy did!

I don't know if I want to do this again. I want to move on up but to a turn key house. The work itself is drudgery, repetitive, boring. There will be more of the same maintaining the house. The only thing I have loved doing is pulling those nails out of the ceiling. I know we are very lucky to have this opportunity, there are so many great things about it, really really great. I'm just surprised at the feelings.

Good things:

Going to the Trout Lake Farmer's Market first thing in the morning, shopping and then having a crepe from La Boheme. Then walking the Dog and Keaton around the lake. It's going to be a good summer if we can make this our Saturday morning ritual.

Hate in the walls

2011-05-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

I found a new piece of graffitti, in the mudroom in the corner about eye level. Scrawled in the walls HATE. Peter has promised that he will sand it out. I have to wonder who did this and why? I certainly don't want to preserve it in the walls by painting over it. We'll sand it off.
Not much progress to report. We phoned an electrician and he put us off for about three weeks so now we have another guy coming on Monday to look over the basement and give us a quote.
Dimitri will start the refinishing of the floors on Monday as well so in the meantime we continue with the drudgery of painting prep. Everything is going to get so dusty so there's no point in painting untill the floors are done. We'll either start with the bathroom or the kitchen after it's sanded.
We are behind schedule. It's official. We had to keep the storage and we have continue to impose on my In Laws by staying with them.

Trying to accent the creamy yellow on this accent tile

We have ordered the tile from AAA Flooring. Finally we chose some colors. My good friend Tara had a point to accent the things we like in the kitchen. Which would be this creamy yellow on this accent tile. So I took our paint chip of Cloud White and tried to match it and then chose another yellow as an accent

Tiles we chose for the kitchen floor , yellow looks brighter in photo. The offwhite matches the cloud white

To be installed by AAA flooring

Paint testers of lemony ice, deocrator white and cloud white from Benjamin Moore

Begining the hedges and the flower bed is even wider now

Music system

We found these in a dumpster, six of them! Plus a table. They're not to my taste but hey they're fine for now. they would be about $30 bucks new.

New Gate by Murray

Waiting for planting in new flower beds in the front yard

Rest of the Boxwood hedges, Lavender, Heather, Ornamental Grasses and shrubs for the front yard

Double ended tomatoes, tumblers are on the top

Trying to reseed the grass with this stuff but it's not working.

We think these are tire tracks from when the oil tank was removed.

Zuchinis , Shallots and Marigolds

Cucumber and Strawberries to the right

Peppermint, Cilantro, Oregano, Parsley, Lavender, Parsley, Rosemary

Found these light strings at Restoration Hardware

Conquering the root

2011-05-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

So excited about the Hydrangea my Mum in Law got for us. It can take full sun! My dream is coming true. I can have my favourite flower! The front gets quite a bit of sun and since Hydrangeas can't take full sun that made them out of the running. We got it at Southlands Nursery. On their website Celebrity Gardener Thomas Hobbs has his blog as well check it out. When Grandma brought it home I jumped up and down with joy. Something is going right!

Watson Gloves have been a big part of our gardening experience. They are a local company who use to have warehouse/ factory on west second and Main st in Vancouver. They have moved but still seem to be going strong since 1918! They really seem to have a glove for everything that you need gloves for.

Planter of Dahlia's on the front stoop

Wearing My Watson Gloves I conquer the root of the tree

We are at a bit of a standtill. Tomorrow I hope the refinishers can help us resolve our floor problems. It hasn't been hell but it feels like sooo much work for one and a half of us to do. Peter is exhausted and he's been doing most of the work while I take care of Keaton, sometimes I can switch off with Grandma. Sometimes she entertains herself but mostly when I put her down she cries. We tried to let her cry it out today, in a corral that we built for her and even though she could see us working at the front of the garden she still screamed and cried for what seemed like an hour. My nerves rattling I did what I could. I was helping dig out the flower beds that go along the front and along the walkway. So I took her in the back to thin out the seedlings but she wouldn't settle down. Emphezema Man came out and coughed and she went quite then she fell asleep on me for another hour.

Oh the drudgery of sanding. I keep sneaking off to check my email or write a few lines for the next post.
Even with KCRW Eclectic 24 blasting all the latest tunes. I feel like I want to run away.

We had Dimitri over to give a quote on redoing the floors for us. He's also going to take off the crud in the kitchen so we can lay the tile. It's going to be 5 days and $2100. Damn! I think it's pretty good. He's also going to do the 1/4 round for us if we want it. Who knew we would have to decide on coloring the 1/4 round same as the floor or same as the base board. These crazy little details drive me mad. I use to have detail oriented on my resume and I have since taken that off.

I am so inlove with this idea so is Peter

Absolutely have to execute this in our upstairs bathroom. I'll post the cabinet that we currently have and you'll see that this is much better.

Today's Cuteness

2011-05-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

We are at a standing point with the wood floors till the Floor Refinsher Guy comes to have a look and give us a quote on Tuesday. So we soldier on with the kitchen floor and the prep for painting and as always the garden has a million things for us to do. It keeps raining though, good I don't have to water but bad for letting Keaton sit and play.

Some of today's highlights:

The electric floor scraper, $10 cheaper to rent from A&B Tool Rental. They gave us two new blades to have on hand and they actually made the job go faster. My Father in Law said it was heavy and you still had to put some oomph in it.

Now that the lino is gone we have to scrape the crud off this floor

Father in Law Murray helping us with the electric floor scraper

Waiting for planting

Before

Buh Bye Shrub

We are going to do as much of the front as we can and finish the rest after we paint the house. The colors of the house are still up for debate. I wanted to do a dark charcoal but there is a black house with red accents across the street and a couple down. I wanted white trim and then a red or yellow door so that would be different. But there is a dark navy with white trim and red doors down the street as well. Just don't want to copy someone who is close by.

For the Love of a Bungalow

2011-05-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Metro Vancouver's vintage homes

Bungalows reflect early Vancouver development

VANCOUVER SUN MAY 20, 2011

Of the many architectural styles that reflect Metro Vancouver's young history, there is perhaps none as ubiquitous on the city's housing landscape as the bungalow. Roomy and square, with useful basements and, often small second-storey bedrooms, the bungalow is a utilitarian house renowned for both compact efficiency and thoughtful floor plans, twin attractions for growing families looking to settle down.

In Vancouver alone, there have been several incarnations of the bungalow -and you could argue the infamous Vancouver Special of the 1960s is one -but the first version owes its provenance to the economic uptick following the First World War.

By the early 1920s, as the city's population began to grow and streetcars were travelling farther east into what were then the far-flung suburbs around Commercial Drive, a building boom saw the development of entire neighbourhoods boasting distinctive arts and crafts bungalows.

Somewhat less ostentatious than their westside counterparts, and crafted to conform to smaller building lots and more manageable mortgages, they were no less a testimony to a time when houses were built to last.

That's just one of the attributes that attracted Chris Tonge and Roxanne Cave to their tidy 1927 Craftsman-style bungalow, among the dozens lining the lovely elm-shaded streets in the bungalow-heavy enclave just east of Victoria Drive and north of Broadway.

They bought the place eight years ago, and they have been transforming the house ever since, inside and out, from replacing the knob and tube wiring to installing stained glass windows to planting a now-thriving cottage garden.

For the retired 62-year-old Tonge and the still-working 55-year-old Cave, decorating their historic home is about funky vibrancy, heirloom antiques and reminders of their world travels. It's also about a palette so colourful that the house now boasts 36 different colours, and counting.

The exterior alone is five colours, its bright blue hue with raspberry trim something of a shock, at least at first, and sure to be a talking point when the couple opens their home to ticket-holders on the 9th Annual Vancouver Heritage Home Tour on June 5.

Every room in the 1,200-square-foot home has its own personality, whether it's the vintage bathroom with the turquoise claw foot tub or the Taj Mahalstyle master bedroom with the orange Venetian plaster. "We're pretty eclectic," says Cave .

They're on the tour, they say, because they know that if the city's housing heritage is to survive, if people are to understand that the greenest house is a house that is already built, then heritage home tours are one way to open people's eyes.

Jana Zylich and John Sinal, who live in a 1932 bungalow just a block away and who also agreed to invite hundreds of strangers into their house on this year's tour, hold a similar perspective.

They bought their house a decade ago, and while "it has never had a full 'charmectomy,'" says Zylich, they have undertaken an ambitious renovation, including ripping away stucco to reveal original cedar siding, removing panelling, linoleum and mouldy carpet, re-righting the porch and converting a basement area into a spacious studio for Sinal, a professional photographer. "Nothing had even been done to the house," says Zylich, "and at some point it must have been loved, but when we bought it, it was really awful. It looked so cute from the outside, but it was really run down."

The couple - she's 43, he's 45 and they have two young children - kept the original floor plan, but worked room by room to open things up and restore as many of the original features as they could. They stripped and stained - all the doors had been painted brown - and salvaged windows and doors from elsewhere. They also redid the kitchen, which overlooks an expansive back deck.

The house is a bright, livable space for a modern family, but still retains the character sH of its 1930s roots.

If these two east-side bungalows represent the modest aspirations of early Vancouver development, and the dedication of their 21st-century owners, the tour's other seven homes are also a nod to the rich diversity of the city's vintage housing stock. From Strathcona to Shaughnessy, ticket-holders this year can check out several Craftsman-style homes, a Tudor revival and a restored Edwardian with a laneway house.

Shelley Fralic Vancouver Sun columnist sfralic@vancouversun.com

* The 9th Annual Vancouver Heritage House tour is Sunday, June 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets for the self-guided tour are $40. More information about the tour, and ticket purchasing, can be found on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation website: www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org.

Read more:http://www.vancouversun.com/Metro+Vancouver+vintage+homes/4815488/story.html#ixzz1MtwMhQv0

These pictures are from the Museum of Vancouver. We go by there on the way to take the dog to the beach. I love the pattern on the exterior walls. Wouldn't it be great as a Fireplace wall? Such a beautiful place and such a beautiful day.

??????

2011-05-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

What we are doing is not remarkable and this certainly is NOT HGTV. This is real life, we have no money and are severely under-employed and we make mistakes. One thing we see on TV and when we were househunting is that money doesn't buy you taste.
We are a little stuck right now waiting for tradesmen to get back to us and if they are good they are busy so we are at their mercy. So we are prepping to paint and that is 90% of the work of painting. Caulking, spackling, taping, sanding. The whole house will be painted upstairs and down so it's a huge amount of prep. We also have started tearing out the floor in the kitchen.
It's all about having the right tool for the job I am finding. We will probably rent an electric chisel thing to rip off the lino and glue. Then get the drum sander to do the rest. I am still pulling for the downstairs kitchen floor to be done as well.
Today we went to Dick's Lumber. Lots of good stuff but very intimidating. We think they are use to dealing with Contractors rather than the General Public. Prices were good but they are not as helpful when it comes to finding things. There was a pink suede tool belt that I was dying to get cause I like to dress pro.
Fake it till ya Make it! I always say.

I walked by the Electra Building the other day and snapped these photos. I love the tile and the look of the building. I heard the suites were really small, like 500 sq feet some of them. The Electra Website

I would love a tile wall like this somewhere in my back yard

bettershelter blog: Low Cost High Impact

2011-05-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

bettershelter blog: Low Cost High Impact: "I like these planters from concrete blocks, great DIY project and so cheap."

Better the mistake you can change than the one you have to live with

2011-05-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

It's official we are redoing the floors. We made too many mistakes that we can't cover up with more coats of stain. It's not the right product for what we are doing and it's not the right effect. A friend pointed out to me that the floor in the picture is different wood than what we are working with. So we have to come up with a plan B. We are going to talk to a professional about redoing them for us. We are terrified of the cost. We'll find out tomorrow. Needless to say we are pretty bummed out about it. But hey, we'll have a great story to tell everyone about the house. Talking to other renovators they say we'll never be done. I know that but we aren't changing anything major, it's mostly cosmetic, floors and paint upstairs and the basement is getting new electrical and the rental suite is getting insulation a fireproof door and drywall and a new coat of paint, new carpet in the bedroom as well. I think we'll be done phase one by the fall. Moving in to sleep there seems like it may get delayed a few weeks. It's the 17th already.

There are a few design decisions that have to be made probably tomorrow. The new color of the floors and the paint colors for the walls and the kitchen cupboards. I'm so afraid I am going to make the wrong decision. I've made many before especially with paint colors. Usually by choosing mistints to start. I bought a can of Ralph Lauren paint. It was yellow. I hoped it was a beautiful creamy butter yellow but it actually turned out to be this violent acid yellow like French's mustard. I lived with it for years because this was the third color I had tried in the room and I was tired of painting. Peter repainted it for me as a surprise when I was away for a week on tour with a show. I can apreciate design and I am told I have good taste but I can't design a space and choose colors.

We are admiting defeat. For the redo I was thinking about chocolate brown. My father in law says we should do a honey oak color. Peter is still not sure.

Paris 1975

2011-05-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

So tired!

Forgot to mention yesterday we went dumpster dumping (Our demo waste from the basement) and diving. Someone threw out a perfectly good patio suite. We got six chairs and a table. And we also snagged an interior door. I was pricing chairs at home depot today and they start at 30 dollars. While they are not to my taste. I am sure we will use them because I plan on having people over a lot!! Especially to dine al fresco. I can't wait. For years we've not had people over because our place was small and crowded or we were embarassed so we always said we'd like to make you dinner at your place. Now we can return the favour of so many dinners over at our friends. We don't have to worry about our hostile upstairs neighbour getting pissed off if we have loud music or if we're making too much noise. Yay!

Today we mostly worked on the basement suite. We are hoping to rent by July at least. The suite was not bad but we have to redo most of the electrical downstairs and we also found that the ceiling was not insulated and no smoke alarms so we can sound proof and fireproof the ceiling and walls. We also have to replace the doors and build a wall. But we have to finish the upstairs first so we can move in and then move out of Grandma's and the storage spaceby the end of this month. I don't want to leave Grandma's. Everything is better here.

We found a french coin in the ceiling. Perhaps this is was a rec room to start, then redone poorly by the son as a rental suite.

I have pulled about a thousand nails out of this ceiling. Would Mike Holmes hire me after this? I have a feeling that if you are just starting out in this business that this is the job for the apprentices.

Pissed off about the weather. It means that Keaton has to stay at Grandma's and we can't do much in the garden. Going to plant some bamboo in a couple of pots so it will grow high and hide the smoking emphezema man from next door. He smiles at us but otherwise he just coughs and smokes and spits on our lawn.

You can see the fantstic wiring job they did.

Uhhh what were we thinking????

Watch out Thor! Peter has a hammer too!

See the floor that the bastard was too lazy to glue down. Maaaybe we'll get it tiled while the upstairs kitchen is getting done. At least it will be easy to rip out.

I just wanted you to see some of the nails that we have to take out so the Electrician can work comfortably. Then we will insulate and sound proof and then drywall with the fireproof drywall amd hard wire the smoke alarms. House doesn't have any.

Looking from the downstairs kitchen window to the garden while it was almost sunnny today

This is what I arrived to this morning

Downstairs kitchen demo

Bye bye downstairs bedroom carpet

I remember seeing this when we first toured the house. My Father in Law wonders why we didn't keep the tenants who were friends of the family.

Some of the nice graffiti in the basement suite

Second coat on the livingroom floor

It looks better but still doesn't look like the pictures. Not sure what we should of done. Maybe another coat. Nobody sells the stain here, we'd have to wait a week for them to order it or whip down to Home Depot in Bellingham and get a few more cans. Will it all come together when we varnish? Which varnish would be best for having a dog run all over it? Whatever they have done at my In Law's is what we need cause their floor doesn't show any wear and tear from Pepper.

I'm absolutely Knackered

2011-05-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

This actually turned out to be a productive day but now it's about 10:30pm and I can barely sit up to write. So this will be short and sweet.

We went to the Salvage Sale and it was very very busy. I think it was a huge success for them. We got there half an hour after opening and Keaton fell asleep in the car on the way there so only one of us could go in at a time. Unfortunately there was nothing that worked on our house. I was kind of hoping that we would find a cool front door or a fireplace insert but no such luck. So we went to the ReStore and found a pocket door for the downstairs suite. We can leave it there for a week but somehow we have to figure out how to get it home.

When we got to the house Grandma was there and she had bought us some hedging and she was digging away in the back parking spot. She's decided that we can grow potatoes in the back, they'll get enough sun. I started digging a trench so the water could drain into it rather than flood the garage and the rest of the garden. It's really annoying this rain right now because we want to be outside and bring Keaton and the dog and let them hang out in the yard while we work. The vegetables and seeds are almost planted in the back. Soon we can start working the front and improving the curb appeal. I have no idea what to do but Grandma, Thank God is an expert Gardener and she's got a plan. It includes some ornamental grasses and boxwood and japenese maples and some gravel and rocks. Can't wait.

Meanwhile Peter has started to tear out the walls in the downstairs suite plus the ceiling. We have to redo the electrical and possibly relocate the sub panel. When that is down we will insulate with either spray foam or the pink stuff that will be sound proof and then use the fire proof drywall. We are redoing the bathroom. There is a light switch next to the tub and some exposed wiring and pipes. We also need to put a fan in and hardwire some smoke alarms. Exciting huh?

The stain on the floors didn't look that great. So we thought we would do a second coat. So far Peter did the livingroom and it's looking much more like we had hoped it would. I can't wait to see it tomorrow.
I'll post photos later.

How to Shop at Home Depot

2011-05-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

This story of a sad dirty little bungalow is now a sad, dirty, PEE STAINED little bungalow. We noticed these stains on the wall on the front door, in the hall, both bedrooms at ankle height and I remembered that the owner's daughter who was living in the house had a flopsy mopsy little toy dog that was probably a boy and was marking his teritory inside the house! Ugh!!! We'll be tsp'ing the walls for sure before we paint.

This is turning into a Home Depot Reno because there is one on the way to the house. It seems we go there everyday or twice a day sometimes. So we have formulated a few tips for shopping there.

Ask where it is, it's faster than trying to find it yourself.

Park near and Enter through the exit because that's where you'll be anyways when you're done

Don't take no for an answer. We asked about VCT tile for our kitchen and the dude said they don't carry it anymore. Then we asked if there is someone who does instillation and again they said no. I even think this was the same location we go to. So today we asked someone else the same question in the flooring department and she led us to what looked like three pallets full of our VCT tile and yes they can order it and yes they can install it. Hah! Take that!

After two days of back breaking work sanding the floors we applied the stain today, the jury is still out on whether it will look good. Tomorrow we have some touch ups and then we'll apply the urethane. Not sure what plan B will be if we decide it doesn't look good. We're just soldiering on.

After this the kitchen floor will be next. I really like the kitchen, the layout and the vintage tile and cupboards. A new floor and new appliances and paint is all we would need. I can live with the appliances for now but a new floor and a good coat of paint will go a long way. We are looking to get some of the old tile beneathe the lino tested for asbestos. If the test is negative we can dispose of everything easily enough. If there is Asbestos, we have to wet it down when we tear it out and then double bag it and label it it Asbestos tile when we take it to the dump and there will be fees obviously.

We are going to have a professional do this with us because of the time crunch and they are insisting on a subfloor and we want it done really welll. It's a good thing we talked to a pro flooring guy because we were going to just lay it on top and that wont work very well. We are still getting quotes. We need about 200 sq ft done and the price is coming in between 6-700 bucks so far.

It's overwhelming all the details, I just have to stay with the job that's infront of me. Tomorrow we are going to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation Salvage Sale. So exciting! I hope we find a front door. They left us with this plastic one that I can't stand!

Thumbs up Reno!

Great place in the kitchen to put Mom's ashes, now she can watch over us

We just swept, too dusty to take a flash photo

Can't remember which room this is

Look what we found in our Rag Box! T Shirt Remnants from H&M

Cracking open another can of Stain in Keaton's Room

Starting the living room Oak floor

I married a hottie

Sacrificed a pair of Tom's Shoes for this job

Stateside

2011-05-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

We had to go stateside yesterday to get a few things. We phoned ahead to make sure they were in stock and yes they were except we did have to go to Burlington to pick up one number 3 for our house number. Damn, it made the trip much longer than we had planned. But we did get the three things we came down for.

They had five quarts of the colour stain and we read the can and it said that it wasn't suitable for large areas like floors. The girl in the paint department had no clue and couldn't answer any of our questions. Peter wanted to take the plunge anyway but I wanted to talk to a professional to confirm we could do this. SO I borrowed a phone book and looked up a flooring refinisher and they let me use the phone and I said to the guy,"My Husband and I are trying to refinish our floors and we are at Home Depot and nobody who is working today can answer our questions. Would you mind terribly giving us some advise?" I expained to him that we had fir and oak floors stained two different colors and would it be possible to get them close in color. He said yes but it wouldn't be possible to get an exact match. We asked about the stain and he said that if we knew what we were doing we could use that stain. He told us to apply the stain and wait 48 hours for it to dry otherwise the Urothane would pull the color off. Also we should wet the oak and let it dry to pull up the grain and that would grab the stain. What a nice guy to give us that info. I said if it didn't work out we would call him for sure to fix it. Everyone else at Home Depot was very helpful otherwise.

The reason were doing this whitewash staining on our floors is, Peter found it on The Brick House which is one of our favorite Design Blogs and she featured a house that had a whitewashed matte stain on their floors. So we found the stain but it had to be ordered in and we had to get going on the sanding. So we threw everything down and jumped in the car, left Keaton with Grandma. We found the stuff we needed was half the price in the US. Seriously, it makes me so mad!!!! Why are things twice the price up here!.

You can see the effect on the floor we are trying to acheive. Check out the Chandelier too!

Lindsey Adelman You Make It chandelier

Our floors are in progress. Peter let me try the sander and using it is like trying to tame a bumper car gone wild. I wanted to get off of it after 10mins. I'll try using it again tomorrow, I want some of the glory for doing the house too! We were making excellent progress until we kept blowing a fuse with the sander, after we had been using it all dayin the same outlet. So frustrating for Peter because he could of finished almost all the sanding and then be able to return the sander to the rental place. I think it was a sign from God or Dog that it was time to quit for the day and go back to Grandma's to see Keaton and put her to bed.

Crossing our fingers it will work, he did a few rounds of sanding and the color is coming off but there's still a ways to go.

I also wanted to record some of the garbage I picked up. A large flower pot full of cigarette butts and cigarette packaging, we have found a total of five little dime bags commonly used for drugs. Hmmmmm. Between the spilled paint and the cigarette butts, Peter and I want to erase all proof of existence of the previous owners. When we were house hunting. We saw houses that were in worse condition than the one we got, but come on!!! It was in our contract of sale to take their shit with them! They cleaned up most of it but really! What's with the huge pile of left over wood? We can't use it because it's weird small sizes, we can't burn it in the fireplace because it's treated with chemicals, and bonus! it was mixed up with cigarette butts and a rat's nest with a mummified dried up rat still in it plus all it's shit. Thank God I wore gloves and a mask!!!!

I've loaded the photos onto iphoto but for some reason they don't show up for uploading. This drives me mad!!! This must be a sign for me to go to bed, we have a big day tomorrow.

On the way home Peter and I were talking about how we have the saddest looking house on the block. Not for much longer! We'll be on the lookout to see which house is the second saddest house on our block to take our place when we are done. Stay tuned!

Samples for Kitchen Floor

Sample Colors

Cleaning up Cigarette Butts

Before Entry Way

Before Sanding the Livingroom

Master Bedroom

Sawdust in the Air

Repairing holes and Nails

Keaton's Room

Vents are taped off

Major change in Color

"Everything I want Doesn't Exist or is too Expensive" or "Fir Is Dead"

2011-05-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

"Fir is Dead" is what Peter wanted as the title of the post today. But I found that "Everything I want doesn't exist or is too expensive" was the theme of my day. We bought some pieces of flooring Fir and Oak to repair holes in the floors in the livingroom and the bedroom. We have to get a few more pieces but so far it's going well. The previous owners had driled holes in the floor to run the TV cable up from the basement instead of running it through the walls. There are a lot of stupid moves like that, lots of unfinished and very sloppy work. Peter found that the pieces of Fir were extremely difficult to work with and shattered into pieces when it was sawed.

Today I tried out the Italia Bakery on Hastings and Slocan. It was really good. We got some sandwhiches and canolli and some pizza for tomorrow and some pasta and salami to snack on. We are so lucky that the food shopping is spectacular in this neighbourhood. I have it all within a few blocks. Donald's Market has everything I use to drive all over town for, there are a few deli's I am looking to try and a couple of restaurants as well, The Roundel Cafe and The Red Wagon Cafe.

Tomorrow we rent the Floor Sander!!!! Scary stuff. We are going to A&B Tool Rentals. We are having trouble getting the stain we want. It also is about 10 bucks cheaper to buy in the states. So far we have about 3 reasons to go down there. The Stain, Minwax's White Pickling Stain, and the Neutra-esque House Numbers and this cabinet refinishing kit called Rustoleum that's supposed to help us restore and paint our cabinets.
Before we get the stain we have to talk to an expert about our delemna which is we have two different colours of wood and how do we make them as uniform as possible? Is it possible???