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Monthly Archives: September 2013

Day 123 — a meeting with the builders

We always get so much accomplished when we meet face to face with our designer and builder from Novell. Last evening Angelito took us through the place and showed us where work had been accomplished over the past two weeks.

20130905TorchOnDeckOn the deck the lights have been installed and the torchon applied.  In fact, all the torchon has been applied to the flat roof areas, too.

20130905TorchOn

Here’s the area that will hold the living roof right off the deck.  That’s a kitchen window you see to the left.

We really noticed the difference inside between the roof with the torchon and without.  Previously there was a small lake in our downstairs bedroom from the heavy rains we’ve been getting.  Now everything inside is nice and dry.

The living roof is nearly ready for us — but we are not ready for it.  A few weeks of work have to be finished.

Inside all the wiring is done.  Plus the sprinkler system is installed.

20130905UpperStairwellWiringWe have electrical wiring for the lights, low voltage wiring for the AV (with speakers in the ceiling), and more low voltage wiring for the alarm system.  It’s going to be so good to have all this hidden behind the drywall.

20130905SpeakerHousingsDownstairs we see where the pocket door is going to go to close off the closet and bathroom from the hallway.  I’ll have my own private dressing area!

20130905PocketDoorThen we sat down with Laurel to talk about finishes.  It’s surprising how much there was to discuss when we have narrowed down the choices already.  The cabinet finish (walnut, with the grain on the horizontal), the floor (a grey-brown engineered floor), and the trim (very plain, baseboards only, no crown trim).  We chatted a bit about the paint colours.  And we chose the tiles for the bathroom. Two by two grey-brown for the floor, two by six white subway tiles for the shower and white hexagonal tiles for the shower floor and niche.  We did talk about putting in larger tiles on the floor, but we love the non-slip aspect of the smaller ones, especially since we will be aging in place and safety is a big consideration.

We also talked about the window covering.  This is going to be tricky because the windows go right to the ceiling, plus they open to the inside, so we may be going in a totally different direction than we had thought.

What’s next?  Well the sheathing inspector just wants to see a letter from the engineers about the torchon (we think he is being extra picky about the living roof, a reasonable consideration) and then he’ll sign off.  The water has to be connected before the drywall is put on, but I talked to the city last week (didn’t contact the Mayor’s office as had been suggested, just the Engineering office) and they were pretty sure the water and sewer would be connected early next week.

Then there will be insulation (a combination of spray foam and batting).  Then the drywall!  What a difference that will make.  Everything is on track for the millwork, and the lights are on order.

A great meeting and we continue to be thrilled and excited!

Do I really need that?

While we are waiting for the great strides that the laneway house will be making in the next few weeks, we are busy doing some decorating for the new place? Compensating? Maybe, but the tasks have to be done and we will do them.  Ordering lights.  Arranging for a headboard to be built.  Checking out the bed situation.

Plus this evening DH told me that he would like to go up to the storage space this weekend and see if we can winnow down the amount of, well, crap that we have there.  Even if we just organize a couple of boxes to be carted off to the Salvation Army we’ll be further ahead.

As if to emphasize the point, tonight I managed to break the coffee grinder.  Not the whole thing, just the lid.  Necessary to grind coffee as it contains the switch to turn the grinder off and on.  Do we have another grinder?  Of course!  Plus another lid.  But not here.  No, they are put away in the storage space.  If we are lucky we will run across them when we are rooting around the storage space this weekend.  If not, we will have to buy our coffee pre-ground, because we must have coffee.

At times like this, it’s good to review a few rules for thinning down our belongings.  Here, we see “10 Decluttering Principles to Help Anyone Clear the Clutter”.  Things to remember:

1. Stop the Flow of Stuff Coming In.

We’ve already started cutting back on the papers entering the home, switching to emailed bills that are stored online, and we refuse to buy anything new.  New books go straight onto the Kindle.  But that doesn’t include furnishings for the new place, we have boxes of lights piled about.  So there’s still a little work to be done there.

2. Declutter at Least One Item a Day.

OK, noble aspiration.  But it’s difficult to find one item per day.  I have managed to get rid of some decorating magazines by passing them along.  And I’ve been throwing out my shabbier socks.

Let’s skip ahead.

5. Decide to Not Keep Things out of Guilt or Obligation.

This is the tough one, isn’t it?  Especially since I’ve got so much of my parents’ things to dispose of.  What is an extra dish or glass, what is a relic?  Something to work on.

But it’s all summed up with the final suggestion:

10. Do Not Waste Your Life on Clutter.  Every item you own takes time out of your life: time to manage it, clean it, repair it, and maintain it; time to choose between objects of a similar category; time spent shopping for it… and that doesn’t even mention the time spent earning the money to pay for it in the first space. Decide to sacrifice less of your precious life on the pursuit and ownership of stuff.

That’s the goal.  to live life with the minimum of belongings to weigh us down and complicate our lives. Because you can get trapped by your extra stuff.

It not just clutters your life, it can cost you money.  We are paying for a storage space every month.  But some people pay a lot.  

In the basement of Tribeca’s newest luxury high rise, the storage wars are underway. 56 Leonard just sold a 200 square-foot storage unit for $300,000 — that’s $1,500 a square foot.

More than we are paying.  But why pay anything?  Better to just rid ourselves of the stuff we aren’t using.

Decorating a small space for the most impact

While we wait for the laneway to be completed, we are working hard to make sure we have all the decorative components ready to install when the time is right.

We are challenged by the small space, of course, but we know we can have a smart looking home — a jewel box of a house — with lots of special decorating touches.

This article at Apartment Therapy sums up the challenges and offers some rules to follow:

1. Don’t be afraid of drama.  We are counting on our lighting to add a real punch to our spaces.  Already on hand are the sputnik light for the bedroom.

sputnik2

I’ve always liked the idea of a chandelier hanging over the end of the bed — but we needed one that would fit in with our mid-century modern decor.

The kitchen will have a saucer lamp, another icon of mid-century modern.

lampsaucer2

and of course, there’s the nut lamp to hang over the garden door.

nutlamp

2. Use every nook and cranny. And

3. A place for everything and everything in its place.

This is a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.  A lot of people like open shelves in their kitchens, and I can see their charm.  But our kitchen is also our sitting room, so we are putting everything we can behind closed, walnut-clad doors.  Including our appliances that would ordinarily sit out in the open, which we are putting in an appliance garage.

Another handy rule:

6. Install wall-mounted shelves.

Our designer has planned for built-in shelves along the wall beside the staircase.  These will serve not only as the repository for books and family pictures, but also as a “landing strip” for our keys and the mail when we come in the door. We’ll put baskets or decorative boxes to hold them out of eyesight but close at hand.

7. Bring in as much natural light as possible.

Another no-brainer.  We are challenged in this regard by the slope of the lot that the home is built into — we have limited access for putting in windows.  It worked out for us as we want our “quiet, dark” bedroom downstairs.  Upstairs we put in windows wherever we could, a glass door out to the deck, and even a window between the upper cabinets and the counter.

8. Use multi-functional furniture.

Our bed will have storage underneath, and we are putting in drawers in our bottom stairs in the hall, so we get this message loud and clear.  We are also looking at how we can have storage put into an ottoman for our sitting room area.

Good ideas all, read the whole article for more great suggestions.  And stay tuned for more news on our decor!

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