Outside - After(ish)

Tonight was the first night that hubs and I had the opportunity to sit in the backyard. As opposed to digging or sawing, or moving dirt around...

We started this project in April and we had some serious delays from mother nature. She was especially nasty this year, thwarting nearly all of our weekends that we had help from family/friends (to which we will reward for life with backyard mojitos) with torrential downpours, floods and the occasional funnel cloud (tornadoes??? there's no place like home...)

Hubs and bro outfitted for fencebuilding. And biblical floods.

Apart from stump removal, sod and dirt removal and delivery and levelling of loam and sod, hubby did the work almost entirely by himself. My role was to keep the kids away from the power tools and pick out prairie proof plants. Here's the lowdown.

May:

• Removal of a football sized portion of sod and dirt (dug by hand - hubby/friends)
• Levelling, compacting and laying down of existing patio stones extracted from walkways and smaller patio - extending existing patio by a good 10 feet
• Cutting out existing sod with sod cutter (which then died)
• Removal of concrete pad by back door with concrete saw
• Fence removal and building of new fence (still under completion) (and a huge thank you to hub's brother, dad and our neighbour for the help)
• Stump removal - from every single tree/shrub we removed (they were decrepit and awkwardly placed trees)

Hubs removed sod and dug down to level out. I told him to just fill with water for a pool and call it a day.

Laying down of existing patio stones - we power washed these on the lightest setting. Turns out they are rainbow coloured!

I'm not sure what stage this is - big stinking mess though.

Progress - we have fenceposts. Time to celebrate with beer.

June:

• Bobcat guy - BG made two unplanned visits to our backyard, only because rain had weighed down all of the dirt. It was nearly impossible for hubs to move on his own. BG came back at a later point to level out the backyard for new sod
• Sandbox (Grandpa's creation)
• New side and front walkway using 2x3 concrete pads and pea gravel
• Wood borders on all front and back gardens
• New loam for entire backyard
• Laying pea gravel for back parking pad and converting into raised garden beds

This is shortly after the sandbox was installed. Guess where the girls spent all of their time? Giant pile of dirt.

Spreading out the loam and the garden boxes going in.

July

• New sod (thanks to help from hubs friend, it was complete in less than a day)
• Planting (all Zone 3 plants - will describe in detail in a later posting)
• Staining fence

Laying of the sod. Baby is busy rolling out the lawn.

BEFORE AND AFTERS!

Front Yard

BEFORE: Front of house

AFTER: Pretty perennial flowers and prairie grasses

BEFORE: Front and side walkway

AFTER: New walkway and plantings

AFTER: New rain barrel and pad to water south veggie garden behind.

Back Yard

BEFORE: Original backyard with narrow patio

AFTER: Extended patio and terraced yard

Patio space with new gardens against house and fence

This is the sandbox that grandpa built. Designed to echo angularity of patio.

View out to side walkway.

Thai Buddha we picked up for $25 because its head is broken. Score.

Flower vase, a turtle and the Karls (grasses in the background)

BEFORE: Back garden

AFTER: Fence was extended to include parking pad (now for all my raised veggie gardens) Hubby just has to build a gate.

We're so thrilled with the final results! We're planning to plant some fruit trees in the back to provide some shade perhaps this fall? And we intend to add some play integrated into the environment.

LP

The Calgary Bungalow Project: Result(s)

The result(s) are in for the Calgary Bungalow Project. And there is a clear winner!

Kristy and Brad, the proud owners of this fabulous clean-lined bungalow in the Southwest of Calgary have owned their home for over two years. I love the modern grey colour palette, the inviting front porch and the 50's inspired front door, which I covet. They have completed some sensitive updates to the interior and exterior of the house but have kept the form and scale intact. So a huge thank you to Kristy and Brad - you have done a superb job of reusing your Calgary Bungalow! (Big Prizes to follow)

Interestingly enough, this was the only house image that was submitted for this contest. I had some excellent coverage and some intriguing feedback from readers (along the lines of "terrific idea - but good luck finding home owners in Calgary who want to preserve their bungalow"). So maybe we're breaking into some new territory here??

Of interest, Dwell on Design's annual show, in LA this year, featured a sustainable prefab home that takes inspiration from the small footprint of the mid century bungalow. Designed by architect Jonathan Davis, the 520 sq ft home features clerestory windows and a wide range of eco friendly materials. Feedback on the design has so far been positive, that it was a good use of space and very livable. (The entire house will be for sale on eBay July 5-15)

If this is the design of the future, maybe there is some hope for the Calgary Bungalow. I will certainly do a Part Deux of the Calgary Bungalow Project next year to continue to feature Bungalow redesigns when I come across them in my travels.

Thanks again to Kristy & Brad!

LP

ps. there's finally some green in the backyard.... Will update with 'afters' shortly - stay tuned!

Brutal Bus Tour

Busy little life lately, hence the scant posts in the past few weeks. We're still knee-deep in mud (litterally) for this year's landscape project. We're hoping to once again be one with sod by next weekend, so I will post some 'nearly afters' once we've rolled out the green carpets. (ha)

In the meantime, keep posted for plenty o' updates this week, including results from the Calgary Bungalow Project, an upcoming Cow Town Lowdown with People Food and an energy efficiency assessment of Prairie House.

For all you Calgary-based architectural enthusiasts out there, this Sunday is Calgary Heritage Initiative's first architectural bus tour. I've been working with a fantabulous crew to develop a tour of the architectural style we all love to hate, Brutal architecture, or beton brut, (french for raw concrete). This style became popular in the 1960s -1970s, expressed in buildings designed with raw angularity and geometric massing accented with exposed structural systems and treatments of board formed concrete. Calgary has some of the

country's premiere Brutalist sites, undoubtedly inspired by the city's setting against the stunning backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.

Calgary Telus World of Science

Many of these buildings in the city are under threat and CHI has partnerned with Calgary Architecture and Urban Studies Alliance (CAUSA) to raise awareness and understanding of our very own black spot of architecture.

Tickets for the Brutal Bus Tour (warrants a hair band t-shirt, non?) $30 for CHI members and $35 for non members. Reserve your tickets at rsvp@calgaryheritage.org. Introduce yourself to me if you join us. Would love to meet some new fellow MCM'ers in town.

More information:

Brutal Bus Tour

LP

Brutalist inspired soundtrack provided by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Landscaping - Progress Report

We're a few weeks away from the final reveal for our landscaping project. Hubby has successfully completed the recycled stone paver patio in the backyard, and is about half way through the snazzy new modern cedar fence. A biblical rain storm and resulting biblical flood in basement last week (hubs stopped counting at 75 34-litre containers) set us back a couple of weeks. This coupled with my seemingly irrational rejection of anyone with a bobcat setting wheels in our backyard, (see the fate of An Old House, A Young Woman and a Hammer Make Three's enviable garden) has slowed this project down to a pre-industrial pace.

Hubs has essentially hand-dug our entire backyard. He's lost about 15 pounds and walks around with his shirt off lifting the kids over his head like Thor. I've resorted to cooking these massive carby Prairie meals to appease my converted urban farmer, who takes off his tie at the end of the day and digs swimming pool sized holes in the clay ridden garden until 10/11 every night. He must be burning at least 15,000 calories every day.

Meanwhile, with the help of my dear agrarian friend, Sandi (Prairie gardening tips anyone? yes please!), I have planned and planted the Zone 3, xeric garden in the front yard and a vegetable garden in an unused bed between houses on the south side of the house. My single most important job is to keep the kids away from holes and power tools so we spend countless hours scouring garden shops for pirate treasure and plants I can't possibly kill even if I try.

I'm also on the hunt for old tractor tires and barn door hardware. If anyone knows where to source locally, please let me know. Curious? Well you'll just have to be patient...

In the meantime, a wee sneak peek.

Old vs. new fence. Hubs and Uncle 'Tad' (who so graciously flew out this past weekend to help out)

***Remember to submit exterior photos for the love of your bungalow contest. Submission date closes June 12th!***

LP

The Calgary Bungalow Project

A contest! With prizes!

Courtesy Glenbow Museum

Every city has a ubiquitous housing type, that defines a city's major period of growth. For some like San Francisco, it's the Victorian painted ladies, for others like Seattle, the Craftsman bungalow.

For Calgary, it is unequivocally the Postwar Bungalow.

The Calgary Bungalow Project is inspired by Vancouver Heritage Foundation's initiatives in the past few years to draw some positive attention to the often misunderstood and much maligned Vancouver Special. Built to maximize square footage of a lot, the Vancouver Special was the predominant housing type built between 1965 to 1985. Characterized by its boxy appearance, low pitched front gabled roof and full width balcony at the second storey, the VS's were built in response to an influx of new immigrants into the city. VS's are practical, many built with two separate suites on each floor.

Courtesy Ouno Design

When I was young, I pitied the fool that chose to live in one. Now? I covet. Many, in fact covet. They have become like collector's items that families buy, renovate and reinvent and modernize.

Courtesy Vancouver Special

Calgary has its own misunderstood ubiquitous architectural gem: the Postwar Bungalow. According to Calgary architecture professor John Brown "we have bungalows - blocks and blocks and blocks of bungalows"* Indeed we do...

The prototypical one storey, four-room bungalow was introduced to the then small ranching town of Calgary in 1949, at the start of what was to become a monumental explosion of growth and prosperity in the city. As the administrative headquarters for oil and gas in the country, tracks of farmland quickly became dotted with tracks of suburban neighbourhoods filled with modern bungalows.

This broad home with low pitched roof lines and horizontal massing expressed the growing affluence of the city. The low building height also adapted well to Prairie life, with its searing cold winters and windy summers. So adaptable in fact, that the Postwar Bungalow was the dominant housing type built in the city well into the 1960s.

This brings us into the present day... I am still new to Calgary, but have driven through many neighbourhoods throughout the city and the fate of these bungalows seems to be unfolding in many areas as dozer bait for infills. Whole tracks of neighbourhoods have been replaced by these giant infills. While I have nothing against infills, I have a hard time believing that every single family in Calgary needs or wants to be in 4000 sq. ft. I certainly don't. I have a hard enough time keeping my 2000 sq ft clean, I can't even imagine wanting or needing twice that amount.

The Calgary Bungalow Project** was envisioned as a contest - a showcase - for homeowners who love their Postwar Bungalows and have decided to keep and live in this iconic home. This contest is for those of you who have taken on the challenge of living in a smaller space and creatively reinventing or modernizing the classical Postwar Bungalow. The outcome of the contest will feature a showcase on this blog of how average people are re-using their Postwar Bungalow's in Calgary. And you the reader will get to vote on the winner.

The rules are as follows:

1. Only one-storey Postwar Bungalow's are allowed to enter

2. Any architectural stylistic updates are acceptable (ie Craftsman elements added to bungalow) but the house must still look like a bungalow

3. The house must be within Calgary city limits

Please email photos (exterior only) of your house to me by Sunday, June 12th. I will post images of all of the houses and you the readers will vote on your favourite.

The winner will receive an awesome prize package courtesty of LMCMHP:

• two tickets to the upcoming Brutal Bus Tour on June 26, 2011, sponsored by CHI and Calgary Architecture and Urban Studies Alliance (CAUSA) (a guided bus tour of Calgary's premiere Brutalist sites)
• $50 gift certificate from the kind people at People Food (who has the best organic meats (and prices) and gluten-free goodies in town)

Please email images of your house to ljpasacre@shaw.ca by Sunday, June 12th.

I will post the entries the following week.

Some inspiration from fellow MCM bloggers:

The Brick House

ps. I have come across a few in my drive abouts so don't be surprised if I knock on your door and ask you to enter.

* In Robert Stamp's Suburban Modern: Postwar Dreams in Calgary

** Avenue Magazine currently featured a Calgary Bungalow challenge for architects and designers in their May 1, 2011 issue. How serendipitous...

Mrs. Average Housewife (1945)

Image from Building or Buying a House, 1945

My how times have changed....

What would today's Mrs. Average Housewife look like? Certainly wouldn't be an arrow for 'Answering the Doorbell'

LP

Jane's Walks - Calgary

Image from Jane's Walk

Jane's Walk's are this weekend for those of you in Calgary.

I am a Director with the Calgary Heritage Initiative (CHI) and am volunteering for today's CHI sponsored walk: Sandstone to Skyscrapers lead by CHI president Cynthia Klassen. The walk starts at Memorial Park Library at 1pm.

"Victoria Park’s Sandstone landmarks provide the foundation for its recent revival as a vibrant inner-city community. Join us for a walk through 100 years of history and see how the old informs the new - or not. Meet at Alberta’s first public library, take a peek inside at the Beaux-Arts décor, and then join the walking discussion about how Calgary’s sandstone heritage has influenced its newest skyscrapers."

Tomorrow's CHI sponsored Jane's Walk with CHI Vice President Bob Van Wegan tours 17th Ave entitled: Calgary's Urban Avenue: 17th Ave SW at 10am.

For more information and a full schedule of the city's walks see the Jane's Walk website.

Hope to see some of you there!

LP

Let There be Light (After)

The new kitchen light is finally installed. And the winner is...

...

...

The P652 Pendant by George Kovacs from Lumens.

I am deeply in love with this light. It is a ideal scale for the room and looks smashing with the rest of the decor. It's not as bright as our original light - whose light could be seen from space. But I don't mind in the least. We have undercabinet lighting and the lower light adds more depth to the kitchen.

As for the "embarrassing exoskeleton of a light" that formally occupied this spot, well, turns out, this light was original. I always thought this was a later '80s innovation and that it was missing its light cover. Nope - apparently this was to showcase the curved fluorescent light technology.

The below page is from my 1956-67 Eatons Catalogue (Canadian) I purchased off EBay last fall. Our fixture is no. 32, the Circline Fluorescent Fixture. We also own a few No. 13's in our bathroom, which conveniently come equipped with a socket, for when you need to shave from your light.

Apart from lights, many of the elements in this house are represented in the catalogue. Nearly everything in the catalogue is what Pam from Retro Renovation has coined as 'mid century modest'. Conservative, modest and tailored for the modern post war family.

So if anyone is interested in adopting a good condition curved Circline Fluorescent Fixture for their mid century abode, mine is up for grabs. Free to a loving home...

Thank you to those who helped out with our decision. You all have superb taste.

LP