For Dad.

This one's for you, Dad. You see, I am assuming your favourite position here, and there is lots of room and it is very comfy! (If you look closely, you can see through my glass lenses that I'm squeezing in a little nap.)

Unrecognizable!

Popped by last night -- the demo has made the place almost unrecognizable!

The downstairs is still a haz mat zone until air test (today, I believe).

This photo is looking left toward living room):

this is looking straight ahead down hallway:

 

Bathroom is gone from front entranceway! (Floors are thrashed, but there's enough hardwood down the basement -- in room that will be demolished -- to replace it.):

Note shower head hanging on left and rotted floor: 

Opening to stairway has been restored:

Looking up stairway where overhanging closet has been removed (skylight will be going in):

On left, hole where Katie's closet used to be (now there will be a railing overlooking the stair well):

Entire ceiling gone in upstairs hallway, revealing quite a tall attic (and no insulation whatsoever):

Bathroom. Pretty much gutted:

WC:

Fifi's room:

Katie's room. They were running around screaming with excitement (as is their wont): "Fifi! My closet's gone!" "Demo, Demo, Demo!" Etc.

Parents' bedroom at the back: closets (one from neighbouring room) torn out to be replaced by full wall of closets with sliding doors.

Pics of downstairs demo later.
....I almost forgot that other part of my life: I teach today!

Buh-bye playhouse.

When Andrew dropped by the house this morning, he discovered that the playhouse -- which would have looked like a pile of rubble -- had been thrown into the dumpster. It's at the bottom, mixed in with all the other demo junk and not worth trying to retrieve. We still have the slide (it had travelled home in the car), so we'll start with that and build our own (Grandpa Bocking has offered to help!). 

It took me all day to work up the courage to post this on the blog. The girls don't know yet! (They were out on a play date at the time, and we didn't have the heart to tell them tonight. Family Day and all.)

Play House.

Well, we don't have enough to do right now, so we spent the day taking apart a playhouse Andrew bought (not to cast blame or anything) on Craigslist. 

We thought it would be a matter of a few screws and a couple of hours, so we rented a truck...

drove out to North Van, had some fun...

and began unscrewing...

About four hours and thousands of screws later...

We finally got it loaded up, and then unloaded the pile of rubble at the new place. Andrew told the girls it probably won't look the same when he puts it back together. (!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, things are still under wraps.

But all that scaffolding in the back suggests something must be going on. Yes, that's me trying to peek, but those tarps are strapped down so tight, I couldn't see a thing. We'll find out tomorrow.

Babysitters Extraordinaire!

Andrew's partner, Dave, and his wife, Dominique (who have three of their own!) took Katie and Fifi for the WHOLE day while Andrew and I went shopping, and then we all had take-out Thai together. So fun! However, I left my camera over there, so no blog pictures tonight.

We seem to have accomplished very little, though we did manage to sort out a few details over lunch (which we actually had together, just the two of us! At Tacofino on Hastings, in case you're interested. Yummy!).

We think we did, however, decide on a dining table. We've been comparing a few, including one we had on hold at Antique Market, and one at Mint Interiors (thank you, lovely Craig, so knowledgeable and helpful!), but actually think we're going to get this one ....from Pottery Barn! Who knew? It's quite gorgeous -- a sturdy family table, plus it extends an extra 18 inches on each end -- a great dinner-party table!

Serendipity.

Looking down from the second floor windows, we spotted this metal bar stool in the garbage bin before the previous residents had it towed away. We had no compunction about diving into aforesaid dumpster to snatch felicitous find forthwith. (Oh dear. I'm tired!) Seriously cute stool, though, and just the kind of thing I've been looking for. 

Keeping me honest, Andrew clarifies that we showed no compunction about watching Fred dig out the stool.

with a very expressive bird.

four sinks.

Andrew just read my previous post where I said we've chosen two sinks in the last couple of weeks, and pointed out that it's actually been three sinks.
Four, if you count the kitchen sink. Four sinks we've agonized over. Four completely different sinks.

One of them is this little Ann sink from Ikea. I've been waiting for an excuse to buy this little darling.

Decisions, decisions.

OK, here's the deal we made with our builders: in order to stay on budget, they do all the building, we do the designing and sourcing.

And FAST! So the decisions you might normally linger over for weeks or months have to made in a snap -- and simultaneously! Our minds are reeling. Hard to believe the decisions we've already made in the last few weeks (has it really been only four!?) 

Here's what we're thinking about now: 

1. Lighting -- for every room! We finally took that first step and admitted we need help: scheduled a meeting with lighting consultant tomorrow (Allison at Norburn). We know what we want, but aren't confident we know how to achieve it. 

Up-lighting, down-lighting, ambient lighting, task lighting, chandeliers, wall-washers, pendants, sconces, blah blah blah. Then we have to go shopping (!) and choose lighting for every room! We can move in without all the lights in place, of course, but the rough-in electrical happens next week, so we've got to figure out what, where.

Look at this lovely thing.

2. Furniture -- our colour consultant (yes, we have one of those too: Amber Welton), rightly points out that we need to have rug, sofa and curtain colours chosen before paint. Gosh, really?! Here's our favourite sofa so far! (but in a different fabric.)

And ...ooooh .... I'm in love with these curtains! 

And an over-dyed carpet! (can't afford those I saw at ABC in New York, and haven't been able to find anything as nice in Vancouver. Anyone have suggestions?)

3. Bathroom fixtures: we've already chosen two sinks, two toilets, a bathtub, a shower (the mind reels!) but still need to work on medicine cabinets, mirrors, toilet roll thingies, soap insets, lighting (see #1), and so on. Sheesh!

4. Tile. Tile, tile, tile. I fall asleep thinking about it, jerk awake sweating about it, dream about it…. We have the white hex floor and white subway for the upstairs bathrooms (boorrring, I know after all that!) but are trying to figure out a floor border. The Pinterest pictures make it look so easy! Star Tile, where we're getting the white hex, doesn't have the right stuff for borders so we have to look elsewhere. Something similar to this, but in "antique white." 

I went to Creekside Tile today, fell in love, specifically, with their Original Style line, and am now rethinking the whole thing! 

Dreamy.

With so many decisions to make all at once, I just jump from one thing to the next. Thank heaven for the amazing Andrew: organized, focused, and calm. : )

Soliciting opinions: exterior colours.

I posted this question on Houzz: what colour would you paint the exterior of this house? The variety of responses has been amazing. People have even made changes in photoshop and posted them (below)! What do people who know this neighbourhood think?

http://www.houzz.com/discussions/337198

Demolition

Today was demolition day (it involved disturbing asbestos, so we had to stay away).

Bye-bye floral wallpaper (we've already started researching new floral wallpaper to replace it for Katie, maybe just a feature wall).

Bye-bye wood panelling!

Bye-bye lino!

Bye-bye branch banister.