The Calm Before the Storm...

We're poised to storm into the renovation of the first-floor unit early Monday morning. It will be our first foray into the inner depths of the Special. Working on the fence was a practical first step for us: it was a small, controlled, and isolated project that we built from scratch. Getting into the actual residence leaves me feeling a bit nervous as it has many more unknown variables and a timeline/budget with real financial consequences.

The budget for the unit is $7000 and we are giving ourselves 3 weeks to complete the cosmetic upgrades. Wow, suddenly it feels quite real now. So you're probably wondering what exactly we're going to do? Well, check out these pictures and the directives are more than clear!

Yikes! The yellow countertops and back splash along with these dark faux-wood plastic cabinets make me cringe.

What's with the color yellow? Here it is again in the flooring. All the nasty brown doors will be painted out white and 4" trims added.

Bye, bye "harvest gold" toilet and tub!

This chandelier is actually salvageable. Imagine it painted out white... from totally grimy to totally shabby chic!

Here's the plan of attack:

1. Paint & Drywall Repairs- We will essentially be whiting out the entire apartment from top to bottom to give a crisp, clean impression. Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White CC-20 will play the staring role in this production. Apparently, the secret to this ultimate white of all white paints is the 1 drop of black and 2 drops of yellow in the recipe.

2. Kitchen - Revamping the kitchen will consist of painting the existing cabinetry, installing new appliances, and applying a new tile back splash.

3. Flooring - The choice was clear here, TrafficMaster vinyl plank flooring in "Rustic" looks and feels like a million bucks. Amazingly, all you need to install it is a pair of scissors! We were sold on this product even before we saw it in all the Chapters bookstores here in Vancouver, so we're confident it will hold up for a long time.

4. Bathroom - We're installing a new tub, toilet, mirror, and the biggy - tiling.

5. Lighting - We will replace most of the lighting fixtures and salvage what we can with a black paint makeover. We began to paint over some sconces earlier this week and here's how we went about it:

This is the layout from House & Home that gave us the idea.

Matt found these sconces at Rona in North Vancouver that were on sale for $21.

Here I am spraying 3 pairs of the lights with a Tremclad primer.

The finished product after 2 coats of flat black spray paint. What do you think?

Since the fence project, we have purchased most of the materials and researched installation methods for these proposed changes and (my favorite activity) collected additional inspiration for the upcoming makeover. Here are some photos illustrating the all-white look:

Here is that type of sconce again. Using outdoor lighting on the inside may be a new trend?

I love the white cabinets and subway tiles in the running bond. Modern and timeless.

The all white interior with black accent lighting looks clean and fresh.

Matt will begin work at 6am on Monday and I hope he leaves the house quietly. We will end this post on a positive note...we ran into the listing agent of our Special who praised the fence and estimated that we added $25 - $30k to the value of the house! Sounds outrageous to us, but nice to hear in any case.

FENCE COMPLETE!

Dear Friends,

Friday, we completed the fence and we're so pleased with the results. The last stage of the installation went smoothly and we were given the nod of approval from many of our new neighbors, including the barista at the local Bean Around the World, and the wizened old Chinese man next door. He was a tough cookie who stared down stoney-faced at us from behind his walker for a couple of weeks; but good ole Peter managed to get a double A-OK sign from him as we drilled in the final fence rail.

The morning shift began at daybreak which included Matt and me positioning and drilling in the 3 panels. We used the lowest post (on the far right) to set the height of the entire structure.

The milk container concrete mold proved successful and is now the strongest of all the posts. With each section drilled into place, the total structure began to tighten up and became more stable -- much to our relief.

After a lunch break, Matt headed back out with his dad for the day's 2nd shift. They sheared off the top of each post with the circular saw so that the posts were flush with the top of each panel and the final rails were drilled over it all to finish the look.

The last component to be placed is the gate beneath the pergola which we have decided to leave off until next week. Here, Peter and Matt are bringing in the gate to test the height.

Sylvie and Gramma came by to inspect the work and by the look on Sylvie's face, I think she's a little skeptical.

But then she began to warm up to the design after a few minutes:

Rain, Rain, And Concrete In the Way

It's been a wet, wet, wet week. Despite the rain warnings, we've been out every day and pushing on with the fence installation. The pergola is installed (yay!), but the fence panels are not up yet. I'm beginning to understand that this project is not going to be a 3 or even a 12-step process, but a multi, multi-multistep, non-linear process that is sure to have even more twists and turns.

Here I am loading up the car with some last minute supplies:

The spikes that hold up the fence posts were pretty easy going into the ground, until we got to the last one and a major kink arose:

Kink: As we were driving the last fence spike into the ground with the sledgehammer, we heard the CLUNK of a giant lump of concrete. We spent 4 hours to no avail trying to figure out how deep and wide this impostor was. Matt gave it his best with the chisel bit on the hammer drill and a few good wacks with the sledge. As darkness fell, we gave up and took advantage of grandparents visiting to catch the much talked about Avatar. This was our first movie out in over a year since the baby was born! On the way to the theater, we phoned a friend for some advice.

Solution: Dave Croft helped Matt come up with a wacky solution that involved a milk container, concrete, and nails. The crux of the solution involved taking advantage of the lump of concrete by countersinking in a handful of 3" screws to act as rebars. The impostor became the foundation to support a fresh-formed new lump of concrete that was made by retrofitting a plastic milk jug into a mold. Grampa had meetings in Vancouver so,luckily, we had him for a few rainy hours of muddy grunt work this morning. I regret not having photos of Peter in his full rainy day regalia.

Here is a detail shot of the nails and the milk-container form work:

This is the finished product drying under a plastic bag:

The pergola went up more or less without much ado except for near frost-bite-like numbness to our extremities and some scraped knuckles. The biggest challenge here was making sure all the posts and beams were plumb and level. All the neighbors and passer-byes seemed to appreciate our beautification efforts and it's been a great way for us to get to know our new community.

Here are some photos of what we accomplished today with the pergola (note the panic in Matt's grimace):

Please notice the tricky varying ground levels and general aura of handiness in the below, almost-finished image -- we were too cold and it was too dark to take a final image of today's accomplishments.

Although the rest of the week's weather forecast remains rainy, we're still aiming to get the fence panels up and completed by the end of the week!

Rodent Musings & Fence Update

It's Saturday night and the fence has really come together quite beautifully. We're a little behind schedule as some unexpected rodent cleanup became an immediate priority. Thankfully, I was sleeping while this discovery was made in the workshop/garage and thus, this is the reason for no photos of Matt wearing a dust mask, gloves, and wielding his broom and shopvac. Matt was pleased to have bought the vacuum just the night before which we now know is handy for sawdust as well as clearing out old rat droppings.

Having a clean workspace, the fence project has moved along nicely and we were able to complete about 50% of the staining. Here I am brushing the first coat of "Dark Suede" onto the pergola beams before the baby woke up:

Sister Sarah arrived just in time to help with a bit of staining and a trip to get the last fence beam in her truck. The lucky 12 footer almost didn't make it home as it almost fell out the back along 1st ave.

Matt was very meticulous about coating the ends of each board to make sure we don't have to stain again for another 8 years (as promised by the label on the paint can).

This mitre saw was the real key to achieving this style of fence.

The happy accident that came out of the near traffic disaster was that Matt discovered this gorgeous renovated Vancouver Special (below). We were pleased to see the double-french entry doors beside single entry doors, as we have been contemplating the same idea. Currently, our house has 1 common entry door for both units. This picture proves that adding another entry can achieve our goal to bring more light and privacy into the lower unit without too much awkwardness.

So back to the fence, it's supposed to rain on Sunday so we'll finish up the staining inside and aim to install on the next dry day which might not be until Wednesday!

A Few Good Tools & A New Look

Sunday was not a productive day. We had a yummy brunch with our cousins Jeff and Lisa at the Alibi Room in Gastown which thankfully was kid-friendly and urbane enough to meet all of our needs. We then took them on a walking tour of our new neighborhood, Strathcona, before they headed back home to Sydney, Australia.

Today, we were back on track and Matt completed a couple more fence panels thanks to some borrowed tools. Our good friend, Dave Croft - a Vancouver Island carpenter and computer science professor - sent a load of amazing tools (including a Japanese framing hammer that I'm dying to use) over on the ferry to us. According to Matt, it made a world of a difference working with a chop saw and impact drill rather than the hand saw and regular old drill he's had since college. Check it out:

My husband has completely transformed from just a few months ago. He's turned in the wool Hugo Boss-vneck and DKNY slacks for a suede toolbelt slung low on his waist, a chunky knit hat and flannel workshirt. Matt has been quite philosophical about these past few days spent working with his hands, the wood lumber and all. It's been such a contrast to his time behind the desk developing financial models in Philadelphia and business school. He came home raving about a radio show he heard on CBC last night featuring Matthew Crawford and his book: "Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work". I think the title pretty much says it all.

So, the lesson of the day has been to gather up all the best tools you can find in advance. It probably would have saved us a couple of days if we had them lined up before beginning the fence. We will do a post devoted to tools in the near future.

P.S. We saw John Malkovich today at Costco!

January 2, 2010: A New Year & A Special New House

Wow, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE. A really, really ugly house. It's so unsightly, there's even a name for this type of house: a Vancouver Special. Crap, now what are we going to do? Since we arrived in Vancouver, BC 2 months ago, Matthew and I had the goal of buying a light fixer-upper. The dread is setting in as the first purchases were made at Home Depot this morning. Matt and his sister even went ahead and cut the pieces of wood for our soon to be modern-Dwell-magazine wannabe-japanese screen-like fence. So I guess we can't return those anymore. It's a done deal. We bought a house, now we're renovating it and there's no turning back. GREAT...

The Vancouver Special is truly a euphemism for a tragic moment in Canadian design history. Somehow my architect husband has convinced me of our house's supposed merits: an efficient floor plan, duplex zoning, and sturdy construction. Here is a rough sketch of how we'd like to amp up the facade.

Here are some inspiration shots for the landscaping:

The goal is to turn the front yard into a private, sunken garden filled with wooly, green, shade-friendly plants. This weekend, we'd like to finish building and installing the front fence/trellis/gate design. Here's a peak at some of the neighborhood inspiration:

Check back to see more details on how the fence progresses!