Ottawa Magazine

The Interiors Edition of Ottawa Magazine shows off projects from pretty much everyone involved in our house project. RND Construction built one of the houses profiled, John Donkin designed one of the other houses (which is gorgeous, please check it out) and Serina Fraser did the re-design of an advertising office that is featured. It was a great read. Oh, and the kind of freaky house full of dead, stuffed animals is right around the corner from where we're living now. Yikes.

J.

Wallpaper Wars

The interior design continues! I am really blown away by how hard the architects and designers are working to get this done, confirmed, priced, and eventually executed.

Up there you see my photo of the computer view of our powder room from our laundry room. This is one of the two rooms in the house where there will be wallpaper. My husband hates wallpaper. I love wallpaper. The compromise is having some wallpaper in rooms where he is not likely to spend a lot of time. It will work out well, I think.



We had a three hour meeting at the architect's office this week, where Sarah (architect/designer) walked me through the house's interior while Serina (designer) displayed the samples of the materials that will be used. It is a great way to get a sense of how the space will actually look.



My sewing room is the other room in the house that will have wallpaper. This room is, obviously, very exciting for me. I had a sewing space in our old house, but it was also the guest room and had only a sub floor, no actual floor. Plus the floor was sloped, so my large shelf of supplies often lurched back and forth precariously. This new sewing room will have shelves that are not lurchy, a closet for more storage, my existing (sentimental value) wooden work table, and the cool adjustable light you see in the photo above. It will also have wallpaper patterned with birch trees, which I am super in love with. Oh! And towel bars on one wall that I can hang quilts over for display or for storage while I'll working on them. That was my idea. I'm proud of it.



Having the sewing room be well designed and efficient plays into my idea of this house as an urban homestead. I know it sounds a little nuts, but I love the idea of taking traditional activities (growing food, making clothes, keeping bees) and making a modern, comfortable, beautiful space to practice them in.

J.

Colours and Textures

We had a meeting with the architects/designers this week to go over the interior design for the house. It went freakishly well. I say freakish because for weeks Serena, who is handling the interior design stuff, had been alluding to the plan she had for the tall wall space by our staircase. I had been secretly hoping, for no reason other than I kind of liked the look of it in pictures, that she'd want to put reclaimed wood all up the surface of the wall. And guess what? She wants to put reclaimed wood up the surface of the wall. And, it turns out, everyone agreed that carrying this kind of wall covering into the living room is a great idea. Sold.



Serena also demonstrated her in-tune-ness by printing out selections of the photos I'd posted on Pinterest (choosing a bunch of my favourite shots without knowing it) and grouping them into design elements that kept showing up again and again. She used those textures, colours, and arrangements to pull together ideas for the tiles and flooring and millwork for our house.



It's crazy-exciting to see more detailed rooms pop up on the computer screen.



J.

And we have windows!

On December 31st we went to see a movie and then dropped by the house afterwards to check out the recent progress. There were windows!



I was most excited to see the south side of the house, where the kitchen is. It was great to see the doors that will lead to the outdoor deck area from the dining room and the windows that will bring lots of light into my new kitchen.



The windows will allow people to work inside the house without worrying about wind and weather. Already the electrician has been in to do some wiring. Oh, and all of the windows have big stickers on them that say "Marvin". Lots of windows named Marvin.



Our vague move-in date of May 2012 seemed really far away when this all started, but now it's actually seeming kind of close.

J.

A Walk Through

I finally got to do a quick walk-through of the house. It was pretty overwhelming to actually be inside something that I've seen drawn on paper and mocked up on computer screens for so many months. The size of the house feels really good. Not too big or too small. It only gets more exciting from here on.



All three stories are now built and the roof is on!



This is the view from what will be the kitchen/dining area, into the living room.



A temporary staircase.



Second story balcony. Where the container garden will be.



View from the third floor.



Third floor beams are close together to support the solar panels that will be on the roof.

J.

There's an Appliance For That

In our old, falling down, moldy, no-heat house, we tried to put off purchasing anything new or fixing anything unnecessary because we knew we were going to be starting this project and a whole new home would be in our future. One of the things we avoided fixing was the stove. It was a brown and avocado-green model that came with the house. It had one working burner and an oven that heated about 25 degrees off what the readout said. Still, I cooked dinner every night for years on that stove. I wrote a cooking blog based on my recipes. I used that stove to illustrate my belief that anyone, fancy kitchen or not, could make nice meals every night of the week.



But I'm not crazy. I never LIKED the stove. I felt no pangs of emotion when I bid it, and our other sub-standard appliances, goodbye. Before we even moved out I was starting to research what kind of stove I would have in the new house. And all roads led to Wolf. Everything I read said that Wolf stoves were the best. People loved cooking on them. Whenever I read an article featuring a house tour where there was a Wolf stove, it was always listed as "best splurge." Consumer reporty-type sites and home design blogs and people's personal accounts all lined up. These stoves are awesome. They never break. They are a pleasure to cook on. And they are nice to look at, as well. The same kind of accolades applied to their fridge line, Subzero, which also looked great. And buying both got us a rebate. Sold.



Well, "sold" didn't actually come that easy. My husband ended up on a self-directed crash course in Wolf/Subzero Appliance Acquisition. Who had the best prices? Everyone's prices were basically the same. Who could offer financing? Almost no one, except The Bay. Why were the appliances significantly cheaper in the United States? A combination of the bad economy and NAFTA. Would it be cheaper to just drive to the USA and buy the appliances there? Not when you factor in truck rental, movers (because these things are HEAVY!) storage etc.

So, off we went to The Bay last weekend. After a few hours of phone calls to their credit department and dealings with a somewhat keyed up salesman, we'd purchased our fridge and stove and hood fan. Sold! Finally. I can't wait to get cooking.

J.

First Floor

We've got wallllllllls, they're multiplyin'....



We stopped by the house yesterday so I could get a look at the walls that have gone up on the first floor. It sure is amazing to see so many versions of plans for a building and then see that building start to appear in real life.

J.