Building with Words

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”

What words would you use to describe your dream home? That was the homework we were given by Smallworks last week to prepare ourselves for the meeting with them tomorrow. With over 50 words to choose from we were asked to narrow it down to about a dozen. Here's what we came up with:

1. Green
2. Open
3. Natural
4. Organized (yes, both Brendon and I picked this)
5. Warm
6. Custom
7. Relaxed
8. Spacious (This is key since it's going to be under 750 square feet)
9. Simple
10. West coast
11. Ergonomic
12. Quality

Signing off on a new approach to city livin'

So, when I wrote the first blog post about a month ago I thought that I'd be writing about what Brendon and I did today - sign a contract. Instead, I ended up giving you the details on his motorcycle accident. Well, now four weeks into his recovery life is beginning to return to normal and we finally had the time to reschedule a meeting with Smallworks (the company we'll be working with to build our home) and today we officially committed to build!

But really, the story of today started almost one year ago when we found out that the City of Vancouver was expanding its approach to urban density. Vancouver has developed a reputation in Canada and worldwide as a city that as sucessfully managed to concentrate a whole lot of people into a small amount of space. In fact, the city is the third most densily populated urban centre North America after San Fransisco and New York. Now most us when we think of 'density' think of skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. If this is your version of Vancouver, you wouldn't be too far from the truth. Starting in the 1950s the city began to build high rise residential towers in the downtown core. From there they launched into a less imposing form of density - mixed use development where they combined commercial space with residential apartments and office rentals. Last year, pursuing its goal of becoming the greenest city in the world, Vancouver took ecodensity to the next level and introduced basement suites, secondary apartments and laneway homes.

I like to call this new approach "density with dignity". Rather than sticking us all in towers hundreds of meters off the ground and away from all of the street life, these new policies are reinventing ways for us to share space close to the ground . Laneway houses, in particular, are an innovative way to think about our backyards and how they can be used differently by turning lawns into small homes.

Right from the start, when we began doing the research in August last year, we saw how difficult it was going to be to figure out how to make this happen. Since this policy is brand new, and only a handful have been built, everybody (including the city planners, engineers, architechs, surveyors, builders, utility companies) are all trying to figure out how to make a mini home happen. Add to the mix the fact that Brendon and I don't own the property but are just building on the land and suddenly you enter into a labyrinth of questions around permits, financing, land title, building practices and public support. The absence of information is one of our motivations for doing the blog and hopefully a reason for others to read it too. Over the next few weeks we'll be telling you about how we are financing the project, what we're doing to protect our relationship with Brendon's parents and the prep work you need to do to get a permit.

So, with $3000 less in our bank account and a commitment to take make the yard a home, we begin the journey happily into the void, in the pursuit of density with dignity.

New steps towards construction

Things are coming together now at a quicker pace. Mind you this has nothing to do with my mobility, but with the progress on building a home. We've had our initial meeting with Smallworks and have come away extremely excited about what's possible. Meanwhile today marks the halfway point in the 6 weeks of non weight bearing necessary for my foot to heal. Things are coming together.
Check out my other blog for a clearer update on that: www.brendonpurdy.com/blog

Nuts

I couldn't help but snap a photo of Brendon in the hopital bed. Take a look at what is says on his bracelet. The medical reason it says NUTS is because he has a serious allergy to all kinds of the dry fruit, except for almonds. On Monday when Brendon was in better spirits and under the influence of fewer drugs, he joked with the nurses about being accidentally shot up with peanuts. Today, the worst appears to be over. He came through the operation really well and now has screws holding everything in place. He came home yesterday and while he's definately still struggling with nausea and pain, he's on the slow road to recovery - six to eight weeks of crutches.

The deeper meaning behind the bracelet must be obvious to all of you - right? Well if you were thinking something along the lines of motorcycles, fair enough. But that's not what I'm getting to here. We'll have that conversation later.

NUTS is a good way to describe how others secretly feel about what we are about to do. Don't lie to me! I know what you are thinking. I have to admit, I've had the same thoughts you're having right now. It's definitely not the traditional dream. Not many people imagine themselves actively seeking to live two blueberry bushes away from their in-laws. The truth is that Brendon and I do feel a little NUTS taking this on. I'm in my 30s and I'm building a home in my partners' parents backyard. Everything about that sounds crazy and creepy.

So a good question might be, "Why are we doing it?"

Well our first goal is to have a home and Barbara and Roger have been generous enough to open up their backyard for that possibility. For those of you that are familiar with real estate prices in Vancouver, this aspect cannot be underestimated. A dump in a crappy neighbourhood starts at $700K in this city. Neither one of us want to live in the burbs so building a mini home means we can stay in the heart of Vancouver. Second of all, we want to build a green small home, one that treads lightly on the world and perhaps can help show others how to do the same. We have a lot to learn but I am really excited about how much we'll know one year from now. Third, having family close by has been wonderful and truth be told - we've really enjoyed it. Barbara and Roger have been amazing pillars of support for us and if we want to extend our family beyond our cat someday, having babysitters a couple of feet away won't be too bad either...

So call us NUTS. I know you're thinking it. Now you know that we know you've thought it.

P.s. Mom - You can post comments now without any restrictions.

Starting out

"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans." - John Lennon

We've been planning this day for months now, ever since we first decided that we were going to build a home in Brendon's parents backyard. Since October, several opportunities to start blogging came and went - like our first trip to City Hall to navigate through what we'd need to do to make this project happen, or the Saturday spent in Chapters pouring through Build Your Own Home for Dummies books and the first meeting we had with a financial advisor to figure out how to fund this project. But Brendon and I wanted to be ready and none of those moments were just right. Finally with winter nearing its end, we were starting to feel like we were ready to go public and start this project 'officially'. We had everything lined up. I had figured out the blog and we had gotten some great custom artwork done to add a personal touch to the web pages. (Thank you Jenny!) We had decided on a design/build company that we wanted to work with and had set-up a meeting for this afternoon. Brendon was to meet at Smallworks and we were going to begin negotiating the contract. All of this was going to be posted online by the afternoon. But then life happened.

I got a call from a good Samaritan about 30 minutes before we were supposed to be at our meeting. She was with Brendon who had been in a motorcycle accident. He was conscious but in a lot of pain and the ambulance was on its way. With the name of the hospital in hand, I quickly jumped into the car and rushed over to emergency. I found Brendon on a stretcher with a neck brace and a very swollen left leg. He had been hit by a car at about 50 km an hour and had flown over the hood and landed 10 feet away. Despite his injuries Brendon was in good spirits and had already wooed the ambulance attendants and nurses into helping him document everything via photos and video on his iphone. By the time I had come and gone to get him a few things from home, he had gotten even more comfortable - giving out several business cards to potential clients. That said, all is not perfect. Brendon broke his tibia and fibula and will be going into surgery tomorrow. I'll be with him and I'll let you all know how he's doing once he's out.

While this isn't exactly what I thought I would be writing about for the first entry on our blog, I'm so grateful that he's okay and I'm still going to get to build this dream home with the love of my life.

Akua