A buffet of weekend thoughts

Very often over the last few months I have wished that there was some sort of gadget that could transcribe directly from my thoughts to this blog. Something like the Vulcan mind reader would do the trick. I often sound better in my head – more articulate, funny and insightful somehow. Somewhere between my flashes of inspiration and the late nights when I put in the time to transcribe the story of the day, I lose something and I end up with a hodge podge of ideas.

This one is no different. In fact, I’m warning you in advance that I sound a little like an excited four year old recounting a story about their day. That won’t stop me though so here I go.

This morning, Brendon and I were on the ferry back home from the rainy Sunshine Coast. I organized a weekend away at a resort to celebrate Brendon’s 34th birthday. It was a much needed respite for both of us. We spent time mountain biking, eating great food and playing with our iphones at the dinner table. (I’ve gotten exceptionally good at the cribbage and scrabble apps.) The point of the trip was to distance ourselves from the stresses of home building and financing yet much of our conversation and activities revolved around the imminent home.

Upon our arrival on the coast, we took a scenic route to our destination and from the road couldn’t help notice a beautiful small home perched up on a hill. Brendon pulled the car off the road and we scrambled up the driveway to get a better look. There we met John Gillespie, the excited owner of the 750 square foot new home. He was more than happy to show us around and share his thoughts on modular small homes. His is a beautiful space on a gorgeous plot of land. The home is an experiment he’s working on to see if he and his partner can build something green, modern and affordable. They’ve got some green, a lot of modern and they are slowly chipping away at the price although it’s doubtful that they’ll be able to get it much lower than $250K with labour, materials and permits.

Friday, before we left, I took a trip to Smallworks with Barbara and Roger to see our home. It was hanging from the rafters and since it will begin to be put up tomorrow, it was our last chance to see it in pieces. I took some classic pictures – one of Roger in ‘the bathroom’ and another of our first and second floor hanging in one long line together.

 

 

Saturday and Sunday felt like a true break from our city routine but we couldn’t turn off our interest in real estate and we found ourselves ‘mls’ing’ and commenting the designs of different homes and communities. While the trip was a well needed escape from the everyday, it is pretty clear that if there were to be a gadget that could read our minds and transcribe our thoughts – the story you’d get is one that is dominated by anything and everything to do with building small homes.