Ready to reno, with a slight change of plans

Pepe and Mickey check out the new 'hood

After our original plans came in at more than double our budget, we took what we thought would be a short spell to rethink the renovation. That was eight months ago.

I thought we wouldn't have to live through another winter in our cold, drafty house. But we did, and it was a fairly mild one, and now it's starting to feel like spring, with birdsong at dawn and plum trees blooming on the boulevards. Our contractor, Tim, says they'll be ready to start next week. I'm counting on getting the building permit by then. I was told it was a three-week process when I submitted the permit application almost three months ago.

To escape the chaos that is to come, we've temporarily rented what we're calling a beach house. It's one block to a strip of sandy waterfront where the dogs can run and sniff and chase balls.

Our home renovation will now be much more modest than originally planned. Instead of jacking up the house, blasting out the basement and adding a strata-ready 3-bedroom suite, there will be no lifting or blasting, just a small basement addition at the rear of the house. We'll add a one-bedroom secondary suite, and the renovations upstairs will be more limited as well. We won't get everything we want, but we'll get what we need to make it safe, warm and, I hope, at least a bit straighter.

I thought I'd learned from my rookie mistakes in past renovations. I thought this one would go more smoothly. I guess there's always more to learn.

A lesson for next time: Get rough contractors' estimates on the scope of work you have in mind, before getting completed plans and applying for permits and variances. We spent thousands of dollars and wasted a lot of time on design and engineering work that had to be redone, an unnecessary hazardous materials assessment, some preparatory work and the first of two variance applications.

Of course, at the time, it didn't seem useful to get a bunch of contractors' estimates without a formal plan and a sense of what the city would permit.

Let the spending begin

We have had a couple of meetings with the designer who's working on plans for our house reno/redevelopment. There are still lots of details to work out but it already seems to be most of the way there. Our designer is Wil Peereboom of Victoria Design Group, whose broad portfolio includes many conversions of heritage-type houses in Victoria like ours.

Our plan is to excavate the basement (a polite term for jacking up the house and blasting tonnes of granite). We (meaning not us but skilled workers) will then construct a fabulous three-bedroom ground floor suite, and rewire, re-roof, straighten, insulate and renovate the bathrooms in the upper two floors. The kitchen will move to a different part of the main floor. I want to demolish the existing, decrepit, single-car garage that is wedged between the house and the neighbor, and build a new garage behind the house, not for cars but for storing books. We need some new windows that actually close. Two chimneys will be demolished, and gas fireplaces will replace the old wood/coal burning ones. Closet space will be modestly improved.

This has all been like fantasyland up to now: Watching the designer sketch out what we want, without actually paying for any of it, yet.

The devil makes work for idle blogs

Did you ever wonder what happens to an unwatched blog?

My attention has been focused on my other one, The Merida Initiative, for the past couple of years while our project in that lovely place progressed. This one stayed alive but dormant.

Unnoticed until  now, during this period of inattention, spam comments sprouted like the weeds on our tropical patio. It was a bit of a surprise. I guess I'll have to adjust the settings a bit as we get underway with planning and execution of the reno I have been dreaming about for almost 15 years, of our rambling, run-down Victoria home, which I not-always-lovingly call Fallingdowne.

At least I think we're getting underway. With Mérida, I blogged about a dream, and it happened. Could blogging be the charm?

I am inspired by our friend Angela's blog on her family's big project to update and improve their very cool midcentury house. You can follow that one here.

Meanwhile, if you want to see Obama playing with an Xbox or learn how to make a fortune working in your spare time from home, you'll have to find some other neglected, spam-filled blog.

The Merida Initiative

Haven't written much here for awhile. Houses got expensive in Victoria, and we're stuck as ever on how to tackle the many challenges of Fallingdowne. So, not much happening in the way of amazing transformations on a low, low budget.

However the lure of Merida, Mexico is powerful. Many months of research, questions and daydreams have turned into a plane ticket to see if this could be an affordable way to satisfy the urge and create a nice little place to get out of the cold.

For the occasion (and because I like the title) I've created a new blog: http://themeridainitiative.blogspot.com/

Merida dreaming

It's a year since we spent a too-short time in this enchanting city. These days as the cold bites at my fingers I spend way too much time trying to figure out how to get back there to stay, at least part-time.
I plan and calculate ways of turning a crumbling, inexpensive hole in the wall into a tiny oasis where we can escape the winter months. A little place like the one above.
There is a dissenting opinion, however, which favours something grander, like this:













As always, the object of desire is just out of reach (or way out of reach) and the risks are a bit frightening.

Farewell toast

Long time, no post. Renovations have happened, are planned, are underway, here and there. But on the last day of the year I only want to recognize a good person who has gone. Martin Auld was one of those small-sized people with huge energy. A highly skilled and conscientious carpenter and contractor. Opinionated, funny, well-read, a dedicated CBC listener who would sometimes call to challenge what was put on the radio. He appreciated working for "nice people." He didn't much like working on "dirty old houses," but did anyway, a fine job at a more than fair price. A devoted dad who started early and worked like a fiend to be done by the end of the school day.
On a bright, late summer morning he was struck and killed on his motorcycle by an apparently drunk driver.
I don't know if he realized how he made it possible for me to realize a dream of buying and renovating a "dirty old house", something I really didn't have the money or expertise to have any business doing. Here's to Martin and other good friends and family, gone this year and missed.

http://www.legacy.com/CAN-Victoria/GB/PhotoAlbum.aspx?PersonID=116884850&EntryId=

Take a look...

...this could soon be gone.
I know, there's nothing "Wow" about a plain white room with no pictures or fancy pillows, but believe me it's a big improvement. (See: "This wallpaper exploits women", Aug. 15.)
I spent the tag end of the good weather clearing, stripping wallpaper, repairing plaster, painting, stripping woodwork and installing new light to get us a real bedroom. Now, if we follow through on plans to DO SOMETHING about this cold, run-down pile, 10 years of DIY will be ripped out. Or the house will be sold, then it will all be ripped out. I'm okay with that.
Today I went to meet with a designer who specializes in strata conversions - turning houses like this into multi-unit buildings. Award-winning. One of his recent houses is going to be in Architectural Digest. After all these years of imagining what could be, and often being told it was nonsense, it was amazing to watch this man place a tracing paper over the original house plans and draw exactly the side-by-side duplex split I had in mind. All the challenges and questions about parking, sloping floors, excavating the crawl space, creating new entrance doors...all had workable answers. The cost estimates were lower than I had guessed - that never happens! I was told this house is a rare thing, a gold mine. A big house on a big lot with great "setbacks". If we decided to sell, not renovate, he said the developers would have a bidding war over it.
I left feeling like I was in a dream. Perhaps I was. I don't think anyone here is going to believe what I was told in there.