Up to now, I’ve just been going on and on about the experience of building a laneway house.
But what about the experience of having one built in your back yard?
DD will be contributing about the trials and victories of living in a construction zone.
Starting…..now!
When I was a little girl, I loved when anyone in the family got new shoes — because I could get the shoe box to build a home for my tiny dolls. Cutting pictures of furniture from old catalogues I would furnish each room. Then I would stack the boxes, spread them out, connect them in different patterns. This permitted me to add my own secret passages, elevators, hidden staircases, and all the touches that meant my little doll family could have a home that was uniquely theirs.
Our dsigner mentioned that when she was going through the process of presenting the plans for our home to the city, someone commented that many of the laneway home designs that they saw seem to be fitting into a cookie-cutter template. They were happy to see something new and fresh come across their desk.
For us, the process of designing our laneway home takes me back to the old shoebox days — and not because of the size of the rooms! We knew what we wanted, and we got it. That’s why our bedroom is built into the slope at the back of the house on the lower floor — dark and quiet, just how we wanted it. That’s why we have windows on all sides of the homes, great sight lines, a charming deck — it’s exactly how we wanted it. And we were very lucky to have found a designer who shares our vision and wants to help us make it come true. I was a little intimidated at first to talk to Laurel — a little bit afraid she would try to push her esthetic onto us. But she couldn’t have been more accommodating and helpful.
If you are thinking of building a laneway home, find a builder who will make the home of your dreams, whether you want it for yourself, a family member, or a renter. Remember, a home built for revenue now might very well be your domicile in the future. Get what you really want.
And for a little inspiration, here’s a gallery of tiny homes, each with its own unique charm.
This morning I had another visit to the Home Discovery Show on CKNW–part of the Corus Radio Network coast to coast, and co-host Ian Power and I chatted about the problem of finding storage in the tight quarters of our new home.
I’ll be a regular visitor to the show during the design and construction phase of the laneway build, so I’m looking forward to continuing to join this great team. Want a listen? Go to their audio vault and listen to the show for March 3. My part is during the 9 am hour, around the 11 minute mark, though you should listen to the whole show! It’s a great resource for any home owner.
And thanks to Ian Power and Corus, our little project and this blog has come to the attention of other media.
More on that tomorrow.
I love going to the BC Home and Garden Show. Even when our home renovations were restricted to painting our hallway — just going to the show made us feel like we were “real” home owners.
This year, of course, we had a legitimate reason to be there. We are building a home! We wanted to look around at, well, everything, but there are a couple of things that we paid close attention to.
Home security: Currently we have an alarm system installed in our condo. We enter a few digits on a keypad and arm or disarm the system. This was the first alarm system I’d ever used, and I was pretty impressed with the system and the motion sensors tucked into the corners.
Seems pretty old school now. Now the smart systems can be armed or disarmed by your cell phone while you are halfway around the world. It can be run through your laptop or ipad and control your TV, stereo, heat and lights. My little carrier bag is stuffed with brochures from the various distributors, and it’ll take some serious on-line investigation to even get started on deciding what we need.
Window Coverings: It was great to see all the window coverings laid out before us. We got to see them up close, and we think we will go with Hunter Douglas Silhouette. We really love the way you can get full coverage, but also even with the blinds open the sheer outer panels give you UV and heat protection, perfect for our upstairs sitting room that faces full south.
Naturally, they can be installed to open or shut with the flick of a switch or a remote. It’s nice to dream about, but we’re talking about two 32 x 48 inch windows and one glass door — I think a pull on a couple of cords will not be too onerous.
Of course there were lots of other things to see — from celebrity appearances to basement bathrooms to roofing options plus grdens and fountains, but we just poked our heads into the booths that we related to. Although we also tried out every bar stool we saw, just to see what they felt like to sit in. We will need to get two stools for our kitchen counter/table. They will have to be a little higher than regular kitchen chairs, which are usually 18 inches high for 29-inch-high tables. Counters are usually 36 inches high, so we’ll need to accommodate that. Regular bar stools will be too tall, but we were just checking the comfort levels of different styles. Note: lushly padded seats are too precarious, your bottom wobbles on them.
Update: Here’s what four editors of BC Living magazine found to love at the BC Home and Garden Show.
From the people at Smallworks comes a story of how Sears and Roebuck (the forerunners of today’s Sears stores) sold pre-fab HOUSES from a catalogue about 100 years ago.
The Rodessa was one of their most popular designs and at one time, two identical homes were built in Cairo Illinois. The story is of how the HonorBilt system saved hundreds of hours over traditionally built homes.
That was a very small house, just 22 x 28 feet with a porch. But there were lots of other styles available, from large to small:
It’s great to see how many are still around. Thanks to the blog Sears Modern Homes for all the info!
Here’s another great story from Houzz about a family who built a tiny guest cottage where their garage had stood.
Check out this story about a new pre-fab design that is energy — and space — efficient.
Ah, so much about this project reminds me of that Dusty Springfield song. Okay, I know Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote it, but it really was Dusty’s song.
So much time is spent wishing and hoping and planning. We will be meeting with the designer in the next few weeks to talk over the DRAFT Design Development. In the meantime, I am still looking through every decorating site on the web, thinking about what we like and don’t like, what we can use or what would be too outre.
I spent last weeks visiting the old folks at home in their condo in Nelson, BC.
Nelson is a beautiful town, and Mom and Dad’s condo looks out over the Kootenay river. Very relaxing. While we were there, the grand-kidlet found some magazines under the couch — some from as long ago as 1950. The emphasis on thrift and re-using instead of buying new stuff really struck me. Everything was about making a dollar go as far as possible. Tucked into the magazine was an English Woman’s Weekly (famed for its Knitting!) from the 1970’s. It showed how to knit rags into rugs and tucked into that magazine was some directions my grandmother had sent to her from the Toronto Star in 1946 showing the same thing. So that’s another project I can dream about — I’m currently in the middle of 3 knitting projects and have vowed not to buy another meter of yarn until they are complete. I put the directions for the rugs away, but it’s given me an excuse to hold onto an old kilt that the moths attacked and ruined — the fabric will be perfect for the rug.
By the way, speaking of wishing and hoping and planning, nothing gets the old creative, aquisitive juices flowing than flipping through houzz.com. I get the emails and drool over them every week — pinning everything from interesting lamps to ideas for herb gardens. It’s a great read.
Well, it could be the proximity to the Pacific. It might be the dynamic nature of the city. Or, it might be, that coming home on the bus one evening in September, you look out the window and see this.
Credit where credit is due. Sunset courtesy of our nearest star. Photograph courtesy of Kyle Rurak.
First of all, let me tell you that I do not have permission to use the image on this post. It is by a lady named Anni Morris who lives in New Zealand, and I like it and she made the mistake of making it Google-able, so I have grabbed it. Thanks, Anni!
A number of serendipitous and calamitous events have led me here.
Event 1: Vancouver Real Estate Fatigue
We love our condo. We love the neighbourhood. We love the layout. We love the fact that it has more than doubled in value since we bought it. That is the great thing about Vancouver real estate — if you buy at the right time you can make serious money on your abode.
But we are tired of the mortgage payments on our little condo. We want to use that money elsewhere — travel, dining out, really good scotch — and that means getting out of the mortgage game. But — and this is the lousy thing about Vancouver real estate — everything else we might want to buy costs more than our equity would cover. So if we sold this place and took our equity, we could never find anything we could afford within 100 miles of here that we would actually live in. And we want to live in the city we love — everyone does — that is why the real estate market is so crazy — so many people want to live here.
Event 2: Laneway Houses
The city of Vancouver has recognized the ugly truth of the real estate market here and is allowing home owners to build small homes in their back yards. (Note to readers in Great Britain and Ireland — in North America the yard is the area in front or behind your home, which you would term a “garden”). These homes are very small — 550 – 750 square feet — but they can be built for under $300K.
So there you have it. A way out of our dilemma. Getting our own little cottage right in the city that would be all ours (or with a very small mortgage). All we needed was a back yard to put it in.
Enter the Daughter and Son-In-Law. They have a home in East Vancouver, and would like to have a laneway home built on it, and would love if we built one there.
After many conversations and discussions and chats and a couple of tète-à-tète-à-tète-à-tètes we have agreed that we all get along very well and it will be nice to have a family compound that we can share. They need some work done on their basement and yard, we need construction of a home, we should do this all together.
So we are starting to begin to build a laneway house. All we need is a builder. And the money. And a tenants in common agreement.
Should be a snap.
Come walk with me, Down My Dark & Stormy Journey BUSINESS INQUIRIES & CONTACT EMAIL : GODSCHILD4048@GMAIL.COM
Artist and Desert Dweller with Big City Style.
Domenic Garisto / LIFE IS NOT A REHERSAL,SO LIVE IT..if you can't be the poet, be the poem..havau22.com
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
building a home that's not too big and not too small
Funny thoughts from a nut like me.
Words on Music
Small house designs with big impact
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
Lane Way Housing for the Nervous Novice
The Lady Who Lives Down the Lane 