Our House

As boring as our house is, we still love it. Correction, as boring 'looking' as our house is, we still love it. When we did our first & only walkthrough, before purchasing it in early January 2011 (our little babe was only 4 months old), we were very 'underwhelmed' by the materials, finishes & detailing that this house has. It lacks any kind of character at all.
At.
All.
The furniture was terribly out-dated (not that it was staying, but furniture makes a huge impact on how you first perceive a space).There was no architectural detailing of any sort. The doors are blah. The windows are blah. The hardware is all shiny polished 80's brass (not the good, patina'd, matte or brushed brass I'm in love with). I can go on & on in the same manner about the plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, flooring, etc.....I'm sure you get what I'm saying. It's just so underwhelming. Anyways, the very thing that we hated about the house was what I LOVED about it! No one had come into this home since it was first built 17 years earlier and did any reno's or changes. That meant that we weren't going to be paying more for a shitty renovation that (chances would be at about 99.9%) I would absolutely HATE! And because we would have paid more for someone else's shitty renovation, we would have to live with it longer since it would take us longer to save money for the renovation/changes we want. Basically the ugly materials, out-dated finishes & lack of character are what sold me on this house. It's a clean slate for me to start with.

The size of the house also works for us. It's about 2500 square feet. Each floor is roughly 1250 sq ft. We were at that time living in a 900 sq ft condo w/2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms. To go from that to a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom house was crazy huge to us. The rooms are a small scale & the house size isn't McMansion big which is exactly what I wanted. First of all,  I do not want to clean a huge house and secondly, buy furniture that we wouldn't really use just because we needed to fill empty space. Not really our lifestyle or my personal design philosophy. So the size & scale of this house is good for us.

We also loved that the house has an ocean view. It's not ocean front but its across the street from the ocean. The entry & family room on the lower level and kitchen, living room, dining room on the upper level have amazing views looking out onto the Straight of Georgia at a couple northern Gulf Islands.

Following is the lower level plan:

We like the larger entry. Just off of it is a large laundry/mud room which is great. My husband is currently using the family room off the entry as his office. We have a guest room with its own ensuite, a large storage room and another bedroom w/ensuite off the laundry room (that bedroom & the garage are currently being used by my husband for his business). We can do many things with the the lower layout but it all depends on what happens in our future, a long story for another post, but there's basically a Plan A, B or C in the works.

Following is the upper level:

We like that there are three bedrooms and the kitchen, living & dining all on this level. The only major change to this layout is that the wall between the kitchen & living/dining area will come down. We'll expand the kitchen island (whenever that reno happens) to create more storage & counter height seating on the side facing the living space. We use the deck a lot & our neighbors said that the other, original owners never used it. Why you would build a deck facing the ocean & not use is beyond me? We also like that our house is two levels since all the homes to the left & right are single story ranchers and it makes our main living space feel a bit more private.

The only draw-back to my love of the ugly house finishes & lack of detailing is the work involved changing them which is a shitload. Every square inch of this house needs attention. Not one room is okay as it is. Someone who did a lot handy work here didn't know what the hell they were doing & did very weird things with very sloppy craftsmanship. The fun part is designing the house....I love designing it. Did I mention that I had this whole house re-designed two weeks after viewing it? BEFORE the real estate deal was even confirmed. Finishes, detailing, fixtures and all.  But holy shit is there a lot of work ahead of us. Just painting the nursery wiped me out and that was only a short term fix!

Please excuse the rough sketches, it's just to give an idea on the layouts of our home. I'll add proper furniture & finishes plans in the future.

And here we begin...

How to approach this first entry...I'll break it down simply into the five W's and approach it from the point of view of "someone who's stumbled upon this blog".

'Who'
I'm an interior designer, wife & mother recently transplanted from the city to a rural coastal home. We moved in the spring of 2011, with our baby boy, from a condo to a house! With an ocean view! We had to move far from the city to afford it but we own a house! And it may not be ocean front property but we love our "ocean view from across the street". We don't even notice the power lines cutting across our vista anymore.

'What'
This blog will be mainly about the design changes made to our house. Our home may only be 17 years old but words can't explain how much work this place needs (as will be evident from future images to be added).....its not necessarily offensive to most people (other than me), just really, really, really boring & blah. I will post pictures, sketches, renderings, plans & details of changes we make and  my future design ideas for the "big renovation" (which isn't anywhere near our immediate future). I might also post occasionally about other design projects I'm working on and anything I find particularly interesting or inspiring.

'Where'
Vancouver island, BC, Canada

'When'
My plan is start small & address the house one room at a time. I've got a schedule in mind, flexible of course, but a schedule none the less. Projects for clients will take precedence over our little place so things will shift as I go along, but I plan on working my ass off to get this house in a better state.

'Why'
Finding a way to show family & friends, both near & far, what my future design plans for our home is what initially got me thinking about a blog. When I show people my house, as we go through each room, I'm constantly explaining my ideas & details for future design changes. I see their eyes glaze over and they just slowly nod their head or quietly mumble something along the lines of "oh, I see"...then I know that I've lost them. A picture or sketch is truly worth a thousand words. I need to show sketches, drawings & images since words never can fully convey a design concept/intent. We can't afford to do any major renovations for the next few years so I'm trying to 'spruce' each room up as much as I can with as little money. I'll also show what my design plans are for the future 'big renovation' of each space through plans, elevations, sketches, concept images & renderings.

That's what this blog is for.

I didn't know I was so wordy or liked to use quotations so much.

Hopefully I'll learn how to edit better.Soon.