Landscape Dreams & Schemes

Our yard is a Landscapers dream before shot. I am now all too familiar with that nod from landscapers working on a neighbouring yard. The "You know you need me" nod*. With our 90:10 weed to grass ratio, rogue perennial beds arranged according to where the squirrel buried the bulbs** and scatter of toys and buckets from Lily's outdoor escapades, we continue to hold the reigning title of least popular yard in the neighbourhood.*** YYYAAAAYYYY!

One of our neighbours walked up to me while I was watering my weeds recently and told me how the previous owners had such a beautiful garden. "But we've been so busy restoring the interior" I pleaded, "and no family here, and I'm working hard to get the business going, and my husband has a demanding job... and, and, and..." He looked bored. Apparently there's no excuses for an ugly yard in a pretty neighbourhood.

When we first moved to Calgary we had the lofty goal of achieving full restoration inside and out by years end. Fools. After eating all the cans of stuff you swore you were on crack when you bought because you have no money to buy groceries after completing two resto/renos in one season, there will likely be no more fancy Before and Afters to wow you with this year. Instead, please enjoy countless weeks of DIY and pictures of other people's restorations that we covet.

Back to landscaping. We do have a plan for the outside. According to several landscape quotes, it's a $40,000 plan. So we are now scheming on how to get it down to the $5-7000 range. Part of the scheming involves telling relatives the said quote, and getting them all riled up over landscape companies who are taking advantage of young families in Calgary. "Hell, I can do it for an 1/16th of the price" said one, "I'll bring the lumber out myself from BC."

"Really?" (batting eyelashes) "We're free the Labour Day weekend" ha ha. Just kidding.

Here's the plan:

Current Condition of Backyard:

Hubs in the backyard, spray painting out our plan for the deck. We initially did this to get quotes then just kept on going. One of Jay's tasks before guests arrived was to spray paint the deck.

House Colours:

Here are the two contenders. I prefer the second but our neighbour's house is sage. We plan to remove the vinyl siding and replace with drop cedar siding similar to that on the first picture below.

I'm starting to like light houses again. But not sure if it will be too similar to its current state (white with white vinyl and white window sash) Yawn. Sorry, fell asleep.

This colour scheme is gorgeous. And the orange door is a must.

We plan to replace the sick vinyl door with yellowed doorlight trim with a new door (likely from a local New & Used) and this door kit from Crestview Doors. How bold is a peach door? Loves.

Front Yard:

Hubs and I are at a 'vs'. over the front (His boring plan vs. my brilliant one.)

Me: Remove most of the sod except for small patches and replace with small pebble xeric gardens of perennial grasses and clumps of blooming flowers (appropriate for Zone 3a gardens [Calgary]). All plants will require little watering throughout the season and look pretty even in the winter. Also doubles as shield from busy street close to our house.

Him: Replace sod with new sod. Replace concrete crumbling front path with new concrete path. Get a new gas powered lawn mower to mow new grass. (Hubs LOVES mowing the lawn. He always gets misty in that scene from Forest Gump when he gets the job mowing the lawn at the local school)

Inspiration for xeric garden in front

Backyard:

There is currently two levels in our backyard the upper of which slopes sharply down to a sad concrete paver/grass deck. We plan to skim the lower level back further away from the house, pave with square concrete pavers and add a retaining wall. The lower patio will be for a table, the barbecue and will be shielded with a pagoda. On the upper portion, we will create a small concrete paver patio for our lounge set. Most of the areas surrounding the deck on the lower level will be converted to small pebbled xeric gardens with super modern and simple perennial grasses/flowering plants. We plan to integrate a sandbox into one of the gardens that I have a clear view of from the kitchen window. A new horizontal fence will also be built.

Inspiration for horizontal fence.

Both lower and upper patios will be composed of this type of paver with a similar garden to pictured

I like these grasses and the patterning of the pavers

We're hoping to do this same pattern as the edging to the patios

The type/size of gravel we'd like to use for the xeric gardens (but more plants)

We're hoping to get this done in the next year or so (fingers crossed) and we're starting to source out product and friends and relatives who like manual labour. ha ha.

LP

*At first I thought the landscaper was tyring to pick me up, but when it happened again to my nanny and husband, I knew something was up.

**PS. Squirrel, you suck at landscaping. Stick to looking cute and running up trees.

***Actually, we have moved up a notch. Hubs and his dad made a side gate to stop Lily from wandering into the front yard and my mom came out this week and removed all the unsightly (yucky bushes, overgrown plants and weeds from our front garden). It looks much better now.

Bathroom Unveiling

I have held off on the downstairs bathroom reveal for about a month in hopes of finding some fabric for the window. But alas, I am NOT inspired by fabric choices in Calgary. Anytime you want to come to Calgary, Fabricana, I'll be waiting outside doing cartwheels. In the meantime, must wait for my trip home to Vancouver in September...

Soooo, remember this doozy of bathroom? So bad, it was not even worthy of a before shot (read: I forgot to take a before shot). Some original (sink, back splash, toilet, mirror, light, floor vent), some replaced (1970s floral vinyl flooring), some horrifying (shower).

We worked with Cornad Contracting, who also completed our kitchen. We had a few minor glitches:

• one tiler we had disappeared for 3 days, was fired then took off with all of our tile - took 2 weeks to re-order;
• a few personnel changes (three different project managers);
• the shower tile had to be re-grouted;
• and the sink wasn't installed in the centre below the mirrored vanity (we have to get that one fixed in the fall).

I counted the number of people that actually worked on that bathroom. 14. In the tiniest bathroom. It was a clown car renovation. HOWEVER, the final result is just beautiful and we are very happy with Cornad's work. Take a look below:

Before - original wall hung sink that was cracked. I looked for months to find a similar second hand replacement.

There was nothing local and the one I finally pinned down was in Seattle at Second Use. And it was burgundy. They were willing to ship but it was going to cost a fortune and I had to have it repainted white. Too much work & $$. Finally broke down and decided to buy new.

Hubs and his brother removed the walls one weekend in May. One of the 14 guys added insulation and new gypsum wall board. The shower has cement board and was sealed with this red goopy stuff. Yes, that is its official name.

Framing out the shower in tile and installing a shower light

And AFTER 3 months with no shower and 1 toilet for a family of 4 plus a nanny:

Pretty much had to redo this entire shower. Frameless shower door.

River rock floor with original drain. I fought hard to keep this drain.

Glass penny tile detailing.

Shower - which I chose strictly for the cute engraved sun and snowflake design.

Original Universal Rundle toilet - need to replace toilet seat in the near future - tad oversized.

New wall-hung sink with chrome console. Mirror was replaced but vanity is original. We added an extra outlet (the only one was in the overhead light!) and a bathroom fan.

I love this sink. So. much. Duravit.

Faucet from Grohe - if this faucet was a man, it would be Olivier Martinez.

We had our plumber mack out the piping (one of the perks of owning an older house, we have our plumber on speed dial - should even consider inviting him to Christmas dinner)

Original light over mirror. The outlet is located at the base of the light.

Hubs had this vent cover chrome plated - was originally a dull dark grey.

From the outside. Ceramic tile and baseboard are new. Door is original but needs to be refinished.

Here's a product list of everything we restored/renovated in the bathroom:

Sink:

Basin - Duravit, Vero line with chrome console from Robinson Lighting & Bath Centre in Calgary (ask for Michelle - she really knows her products and has excellent solutions for your space)

Faucet - Grohe, Atrio series, from Robinson Lighting & Bath Centre in Calgary (Ditto to above)

Vent cover chroming: Alberta Plating

Floor tiles: Euro Ceramic Tile, Neostile series, graphite black mosaic (12"x24"), available at Deerfoot Carpet & Flooring

Shower tiles:

Main - Daltile ceramic Subway tile, Snow Drift (3"x6"), available at Home Depot

Floor - Euro Ceramic Tile, Freestone series, charcoal (12-15cm), available at Deerfoot Carpet & Flooring

Accent tile - Olympia Tile, Glass Penny round, teal blue blend, (1"), available at Deerfoot Carpet & Flooring

Shower fixtures: Moen shower faucet, Level series, not sure where plumber picked this up?

Towels: DKNY Urban Pique White Towel collection, available at Bed Bath & Beyond

LP

United States of Walmart

I worked in small town USA for a number of years, digging in the dirt and showering at the local pool. Super Walmarts had just made their grand entrance at that time and everyone in town was flocking at all hours of the day to buy their groceries, toys for Christmas, renew their car insurance and get a perm. The ultimate one-stop shopping.

I returned every summer to work, and slowly I witnessed businesses closing in the downtown core and new houses and condos popping up around the Super Walmart - in essence shifting the downtown to the Walmart parking lot. The businesses that closed down just couldn't compete with the low prices. And residents couldn't justify spending significantly more just to support Joe's hardware store.

I now work in heritage throughout western Canada. Most of my firm's projects are in small towns in Alberta and BC. These small towns are dealing with exactly the same issues that hit the US 5 years ago; big box stores looming on the horizon, tempting residents with low prices and in-store Starbucks. And it's unavoidable. For those communities that resist, residents just leave to shop in a neighbouring big box friendly community.

Many municipalities in western Canada have started to adopt sustainable policies and frameworks, that trickle down into all future planning initiatives. At a basic level, local governments may initiate a recycling program, increase transit routes, or encourage residents to support local industries and businesses. We are beginning to work with communities that have adopted a sustainable planning framework.

I've been thinking a lot over the past while on how heritage can contribute to this sustainability movement, apart from the obvious - that a heritage buildings is inherently sustainable. In the heritage community we abide by Carl Elefante's famous statement that "the greenest building is the one already built"*

But how can a heritage building contribute to the sustainability of a community?

My firm is currently working on a Heritage Inventory for the Town of Lacombe in central Alberta. Lacombe's population is almost 12,000. They are undertaking a 2 year, phased program to add approximately 50 to 60 heritage sites (voluntary by owner) to their Inventory. After designation, these 50+ resources will not be permitted to be demolished and owners will work with the city on changes to be made to the exterior of their buildings through the application of Parks Canada's Standards & Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places. They will however, get access to grants to restore and will rest assured that the house remains historically intact long after they leave.

What this also means is that 50+ buildings in town will not be going to Home Depot to replace their windows, doors and siding. Instead, they will either have to learn to repair them themselves, or have a specialized trade do it for them.**

These building owners are then essentially switching from a culture of replacement to a culture of maintenance and repair. For those skilled local tradesman, repair and restoration of 50+ resources could potentially be big business. Restoration work is not materials based, like current construction practices, but labour based (as you're striving to restore original material). And because most of the houses are built with similar materials (brick, sandstone, wood, etc) in relatively the same time period (early 1900s to 1920s), a tradesman could easily become specialized in 'Lacombe heritage restoration'.

Now, for those downtown businesses that will inevitably feel the wrath of the big box, they should consider adopting what I'm going to call for the sake of this posting, the Lee Valley Business Model. Lee Valley is a specialized store for builders and gardeners. They have small stores across Canada and a thriving catalogue-based business. They are in direct competition with Home Depot and Rona yet have managed to continue to expand and remain successful. What's their secret? Specialization and tailoring to specific markets. You can buy at Lee Valley what no big box can provide: excellent service, high quality tools and gadgets you cannot find anywhere else. Everyone I know shops at Lee Valley and we all covet their seasonal catalogues.

50+ historic house owners in Lacombe will now need very specialized supplies to restore their houses; window and door hardware, special order wood siding, shingles, replacement bricks, stained glass window replacements, historic lighting, new and used building stores etc etc. Now, this little town that is trying to find a unique identity within Alberta, becomes a hub for specialized historic trades and historic building material businesses. Similar to what happened to Portland, Oregon.

It's an interesting way to look at heritage buildings and their role in the future sustainability of our communities. And at a personal level, good for me to always keep in mind that our heritage house is contributing to the local economy in a small way.

LP

*And for anyone who owns a heritage house, it seems like nobody with any power seems to realize this. I have shared 'words' with provincial/federal eco initiatives (who want you to upgrade wood windows/doors - which can last 100s of years - to vinyl, which lasts 20 if you're lucky); house assessments (who place higher value on synthetic new material over old); house insurance (ever try to insure a heritage house?). And on and on and on...

**Wood windows are actually very simple to repair and are designed to be maintained by the owner. It's a lost art in our culture.

When Things Go Wrong

When things go wrong, it's always the wrong time for these things to go wrong. Like, when you're on holidays, or when you have to leave on a business trip the next day or when you've just sank every penny into a recent renovation and you can't even afford a ladder to see what the problem may be. When things go wrong, it's always in the wrong room, like your daughter's, who doesn't understand why she can't play in her room. It always seems to be in areas that you thought were ok, that weren't on the rolling list of 'to do's', that you or a professional had assessed and checked off as one of the few things you wouldn't have to tackle while living in the house.

When things go wrong, it always seems to involve elements that you knew you didn't have to deal with in your area, like water (Calgary's considered semi arid) (REALLY?!) And it always seems to be a bit of a mystery how it even happened? (newer roof, water seeping into Lily's room - hunh?) When things go wrong, it will always cost more than you expect and force you to react dramatically in effort to figure out how to pay for the things gone wrong (should I take on a second job, should we just sell the house, do we need to live in a hotel for 2 months while we fix it?)

Sometimes, when things go wrong, you get so consumed with figuring out how to right your wrong that you lose your wallet in the airport on the way to your business trip, miss your flight and have to re-book when you find your wallet, costing you $157 to change the flight, but luckily, you're so upset that you start bawling to the ticket agent who then waives the fee because she feels so sorry for you...

But after you get some breathing room from the thing gone wrong, and realize that there's no need to panic, the house isn't going to fall down, you will find the money to fix it; you realize that this thing gone wrong was somewhat of a blessing. For example, when checking for the leak in the attic, we found out that the kitchen fan simply sucks air into the attic and doesn't vent to the outside. 55 years of kitchen grease ripe for a fire are up there. We also found a mint condition Hasbro game dating to 1967 stored in the rafters. Better be a fun frickin' game that gives us years of joy...

In addition to their propensity for poor timing, old houses in general are challenging. It's part of the whole experience of restoring a heritage house; the good, bad, ugly, stinky, and frustrating that only adds to its layered past. And in the end (if there ever really is an end) these war wounds heal and evolve (hopefully) into to an incredible sense of pride that you actually made it through without burning down the house and divorcing your partner... Someday your thing gone wrong will simply be a good story to tell your friends and family.

Someday.... Not today, though.

LP

New Paint = New Life

We here at the Prairie House love grey. Almost every room has a splash/wall/accent of grey. It highlights the teak trim and panelling well and instantly modernizes the original elements that seemed dated against the existing nicotine yellow colour. We had three desperate areas requiring painting left in the house: the kitchen (nicotine cream with wallpaper); the hallway (6 layers of wallpaper over flamingo pink and jail cell brown); and the upstairs bathroom (sage green - with pink fixtures - this one kills my soul). Alas, the bathroom cannot be tackled until the reno in the late summer?/fall?

Through a friend at Lily's preschool, we hired Janet from Janet's Painting. She's a one woman show originally from Newfoundland who prides herself on her meticulous painting and edging without tape or some kind of fancy instrument (says she was born with a surgeon's hand). She also leaves every job spotless and nary a drop of paint to clean up afterwards. And naturally, like many of the trades we have hired, an excellent storyteller. Word of mouth only so please contact me for information and I will happily pass along...

The hallway has been Jason's albatross. While we originally thought it would be a good idea to remove the layers of wallpaper it took him 5 whole months of scraping (didn't work), every recommended wallpaper remover in Calgary (nope), this cutty thing that put holes in wallpaper to allow water to soak through (ok but ssslllllooooowww), and finally a rented wallpaper remover (MESSY but effective) to remove the wallpaper. Then, during what I found out through first hand experience to be Calgary's monsoon season, he had to patch and sand, taping up every entryway with plastic, ET style. Try entertaining two kids for 6 hours when it's dumping rain, hail the size of golf balls, cracking fork lightening with a splash of tornado warnings. Good times.

After all said and done, every stage just made the hallway look worse. So we hired Janet to pretty 'er up.

I had originally selected a very light shade of grey called Intense White, (neither white nor intense) from Benjamin Moore*.

Design challenge #62 was to retain the original faux concrete block on the bottom half and make it look more modern. So I figured it best to paint out the entire wall in this light grey. Well, after Janet finished one coat on the entire hallway (and it's a big hallway), I didn't like it. The faux concrete block on the base looked too stark, too much like primer, and it appeared as though it was floating. So I was forced to do something I swore I would never do. Change my mind.

Hubby and I decided on a darker, creamy grey called Escarpment,also from BM, which has a touch of a purple undertone. Janet, while clearly not impressed, was very obliging.

This colour works well with the other greys in the house and really helped to ground the wall. Lily, who loves to just hang around and chat to contractors, told her that she thought it looked exactly the same as it was before. Janet told her not to tell her mom that. ha ha.

Anyways - here's the final results. While we used the same tones of colours (light on top, dark on the bottom), I am very happy with the end result. As a final touch, we will be adding a small wooden chair rail painted out in the same colour as the upper portion of the wall.

The hallway when we moved in. We kept the cute little door bell (originall)

The second type of wallpaper. The original owners just recovered this paper/paint stamped wallpaper over and over and over and over again. Paper wallpaper is NOT easy to remove. Rented wallpaper remover is the best option.

Here's the original wall colour - Carnation by Pittsburgh Paints. Imagine this wall, but covered in scrape marks, remnant bits of wallpaper and drips marks from wallpaper removal. Then imagine living with this for 5 MONTHS!!

AFTER - well not quite. But thought I'd show the wall before the base was painted out a darker grey (upstairs). The ceiling patterning is exquisite. Will show you in detail once I get my frickin' camera back.

As I mentioned, Janet also painted our kitchen, which looks absolutely divine. I would show you pictures but hubby is currently on a Shaw sponsored "event" at the Eagle Point Fishing Lodge, near Prince Rupert, BC and has the camera. He and a selected few took the private Shaw jet up there. I told him that a private jet wasn't the most eco friendly option. He told me to put a cork in it.

In lieu of some gorgeous shots of the 'After', here are the paint chips. As a reminder, we painted the walls in the Wickham Gray (Benjamin Moore) and the ceiling in a slightly lighter shade of Sea Crystal (Pratt & Lambert).

Coming up - The downstairs bathroom!!

LP

*Paint chips from Colorcharts.org - which I find to be the most authentic colours for your computer. I use this website for historic colour analyses at my office.

Republic of Pink

I have a bit of a love-stuck relationship with my pink upstairs bathroom at the moment*. Sure, I'm proud that we've dug in our heels and kept the pink but stuck because there are certain design elements in the bathroom that I am not sure will translate well to a more modern audience.

El Pinko is nearly original. Cast iron tub (pink), tub faucet, pink splattered tile, toilet (pink again), wood vanity, mirror, lighting, hardware, trim and vent. As far as I can tell, the enamel pink sink and tap and cream vinyl floor were replaced.

Original toilet with 'stunning' wooden toilet seat. Wood + toilet seat = worst invention ever. Love the angled lines of the toilet base though. Note broken toilet lid and shelf over toilet that appears to be blocking any type of access into toilet bowl. Nothing beats needing a sledgehammer to fix a toilet.

Sweet little original chrome taps by Mueller. Company no longer exists. Plumbateria in Calgary carries a good selection of discontinued or hard to find plumbing parts. Unfortunately no Mueller parts from that era. Ebay is the next best option.

Cute little chrome soap holder and good closeup of original pink/white tiles surrounding the bathtub.

Original vent. We had this same style vent re-chromed for the downstairs bathroom. It looks amazing. Maybe when we finally get a sink downstairs sometime in the next 10 years I'll be able to post pictures of it.

We've been boggled by the faux marble laminate counter. When we first moved in, it was covered in blue Mac Tac. I know, I know. Who would be that mean to a counter? After removing we found an intact, but quite water damaged original cream? white? laminate counter. There's a portion that extends over the toilet and it appeared that should anything go wrong with the toilet, that we'd have to smash out the counter (see first picture). Lucky for us, the toilet chain broke 5 minutes after our first summer guests arrived for us to test it out** Awesome.

With hammer in hand, Jason reluctantly headed up to the bathroom to conduct his first unplanned demo while I huddled in the kitchen. He came down a few minutes later with the over-the-toilet section in his hand and a smile on his face. Turns out this section just slides out. Clever non?

So our big dilemma? Do we replace with laminate to preserve the original material and design of the counter or replace with a material that will glam up the pink? Glamming it up means losing the portion over the toilet. Bottom line with the bathroom is to ensure its 'survival' after we sell. Prior to this fun discovery, we were going to replace the counter with a local recycled glass counter from Crystal Crete, based out of Red Deer - 100% local and green. I keep flip flopping between them and laminate.

This bathroom will have the highest level of restoration in our house. Here's the plan as it stands:

Restoration

• Repaint cast iron tub (pink)
• Restore chrome tub taps
• Retain soap and toilet paper holders
• Chrome vent
• Retain wood vanity - to be reclad with birch veneer and new chrome handles from Rejuvenation (dish cabinet knob with star back)
• Refinish mirrored cupboard and replace cracked/degraded mirrors with new
• Retain lighting
• Refinish door and retain chrome door handle
• Repaint toilet (pink)
• Replace completely rusted out sink with repainted replica
• Paint walls and original trim

Rehabilitation

• Replace cream vinyl floor with white oval stone tile floor (it's so fabulous)
• New sink tap
• Counter????? Help!

We recently completed the refinishing of the bathtub. It had actually dulled to a peachy colour and was pretty dinged up. We used Granor Bath Renovations, based in Calgary. Grant Sayles, the owner, is excellent. He's been in the business for a long time, stands by his work and has some juicy stories about people's obsessions with their fixtures in Calgary. Make sure you're home when he's working - hours of entertainment. Grant also provided us with a re-finished toilet lid and a 50's pink toilet seat from his collection. The toilet seat doesn't match completely but is good enough until we can do this: Beamis Color Direct Toilet Seats For the whole shebang, including repainted tub, toilet lid, repainted exact Crane sink to replace rusted sink (from Restore), it cost us $800. Grant guarantees his work for 5 years and has already come back to buff out the tub at no charge. In the end, much cheaper than demo'ing and buying a new tub and far gentler on the earth.

For those who are interested, Grant apparently has a pretty good collection of fixtures at his house. Best to contact him to see if he has what you are looking for in stock. And always keep in mind that if you find a fixture you really like at the local new and used and it's burgundy or lavender, that he can likely repaint to match your bathroom.

Here's a play by play of the re-finishing which took about 6 hours total:

A layer of acid is smeared on the bath to remove the paint. Also good to clear clogs in the drain...

A base coat and sealer is sprayed onto the bath

The bath is sprayed in this pretty pink and left to dry for 3 days. We should have planned for this as we had no shower at the time. Anyone for a dip in the kitchen sink?

Before: Dull, peachy and pocky (also for those lead fearing folk, apparently you can tell if lead is leaching in a bath by how dull the colour of the bath is. Which is why we had re-finishing as top on the list)

After: Shiny, happy, and pink! This was after the bath was buffed out a couple of weeks ago. The bath now always looks this good. Well, as good as pink can look...

Next on the list for this bathroom is to fix up this vanity (recladding in birch veneer), doing away with the cracked and rotting laminate counter, replacing the now gushing sink and pipes with the repainted version (this will happen in the next couple of days) and replacing damaged mirrors with new. I will be painting the room some shade of grey (naturally). Floor will follow probably later this year.

Current state of the vanity. Note wood under laminate showing.

Toilet with it's 'new' toilet seat that doesn't quite match but is leagues better than the wooden one. See the fancy tupperware container catching the leak? So classy.

LP

*Apart from the fact that every single fixture is currently leaking/dripping/gushing at this moment (and our plumber's in Edmonton - thank god for tupperware).

** The downstairs toilet had just been re-installed the day before after 4 months with only 1 bathroom.