In Memory of Arthur Erickson

Arthur Erickson, one of my favorite modernist architects, died last week, and I wanted to honor his memory by showcasing a few works form his huge body of work.

Erickson's work seems to have transcended the vision of future living and you can't see a Scifi tv show or movie filmed in Vancouver that does not use one of his buildings as a backdrop, such as the very famous Simon Fraser University Campus:

Photo copyright 2000 - 2007 arthur erickson

He has many famous buildings throughout the world, but his beautiful houses have always served as inspiration in my own designs and drawings. I love them all, and it's hard to choose just one of them, but the graham house in west vancouver has always stuck in my mind.

Ezra Stoller / Esto www.esto.com

It's amazing how the house both defies and embraces its cliff-side site and yet still seems to somehow bled with the environment. Unfortunately, the recent owners of this architectural icon don't seem to understand the house or its significance to the community and had the house destroyed in 2007. Although its real destruction had started years earlier with bloated additions that included over 2500 sqft of additions. Fortunately nearby Smith House remains as another example of his early work.

Good Buy Arthur, you outlived many of your brilliant creations and your genius will be missed...

Spring Cleaning

Well, its been a year since we started the multitude of outside projects, and now that spring is here, it's time to start all over again.

I began this spring by working out the new chainsaw, cutting down dying trees and clearing the front of the house and driveway. I spent sometime surveying the hillside and clearing the dead-fall that occurred over the winter. All went well with the exception of some possible septic field issues >:(

Then it was on to the pool and pool decks. Tracy painted a dark slate over the ugly brown rubber roofing material that covers the concrete patio and I am repairing and replacing the rotting wood on the far side.... non stop fun. Last fall we managed to finally get he pool running only to discover a leak in the foundation where the pool light socket is!! More repairs are needed to get the pool running and with the end of May fast approaching, we want a pool we can swim in this June!

The list of home improvements seems to be long and never ending but were slowly making progress, and as always we are working form a non-existent budget, so we'll use what recycled materials we can and find some deals on lumber....

My list for the last week in May:

1. Pool crack repair
2. Pool Deck replacement
3. Broken Eaves section replacement.

Waiting for Eames

For many years, i like many others have drooled over the Charles Eames famous lounge chair and ottoman. You can't pick up a copy of a magazine like Dwell with out seeing at least 2 Eames chairs somewhere in the catalog. Unfortunately, also like may others who covet these masterpieces of modern furniture, i can't afford the $5K price tag from Herman Miller .....

So like many others, I've gone looking for used thriftstore find and even for decent replicas. Well recently one of Santa's elves found a high quality replica and is planning on putting it under my tree this Christmas.. :) I will not debate the fact that a replica is not a real Emaes, nor will I debate by owning a replica we may be taking something away from the original intention of the designer, but it will do until this global economic crisis ends and I become independently wealthy having even a replica Eames will make an great addition to our limited furniture collection..

If you can afford a real Eames, visit hermanmiller.com

Here's a little assembly video for you once you get your Eames char:

Media Blasting, Deck Stain & Pool Paint

After almost 3 months of waiting on our pool painter to show up and start sandblasting the pool, and despite dozens of un-returned calls we finally gave up on him and decided to sub out the blasting and do the pool painting ourselves.

We called Ocean Pacific Media Blasting on a Friday afternoon and Sal came out the next Tuesday to asses, quote and test with a light media. After his assessment and reasonable quote, we also decided to have him do the ceder house ad deck siding arround the pool. Well the next week he came back and spend the entire day in the pool and arround the decks. The deck siding looked brand new and we could finally see the cedar on the house siding after removing a layer of back mold and a terrible rawhide varnish. Sal even did our carved Druid statue, who was also covered in black mold. I would gladly recommend Sal to anyone!

Next we weer on to stating the deck & house siding. Unfortunately rain on the bare wood, brought some new water marks before we were able to stain, but overall it looks amazing! With some help form our weekend guests (Caylee & Chance) we were ready to tackle the pool.

Chance and I took turns scrapping & power washing the remaining paint job, I patched the bad plaster and leaking stairs and then Tracy, Caylee and Chance started the first coat of white, cement based pool paint. Unfortunately, the local Rona ran out of white and after 2 weeks of waiting for the next shipment we made some calls found the same paint type at General Paints and turned the pool from white to Capri blue.

Tracy & the kids love the Capri blue, but I'm still not sold as the overly vibrant blue offends my minimalist aesthetic (insert pompos voice here ;) ) , but we'll have to see how it looks after we add water.

Overall the job went well, and not only did we sace thousdads of dollars painting ourselves, we also managed to to get the decks and house done for half the cost of original painters quote.

Now I just need to fix the pool lights, replace the bulbs, get a new drain and we're ready for water!!!

Just in time to close the pool for the winter.....

Pools, Patios & Decks

One of the main reasons we bought this house, is the amazing views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountains. It has no less than 5 decks that that advantage of the various views or the forest settings. It was standing on the upperdeck, when i first came to view the house, that I watched 2 bald eagles thermal 10 ft over the roof and I knew I would buy this house. Along with decks the house came with 2 hot tubs, a 16x30ft pool in-ground pool and 4 interconnected ponds with waterfalls.

This all sounds great on paper, and in the listing, but one of the reasons no one else snapped up the place is the general sate of neglect of everything. Just as the ivy had completely covered one side of the house and was coming through the 3rd floor windows many the decks were falling apart. The cement pool deck was covered in 3 layers of crap, not counting the layer of moss on the astroturf. One tub, was completely gone and the other a a 10yr old beachcomber was in good shape, but still required a new circuit board, cover, and reconnection of the breaker. As for the concrete pool, it held water, but looking at it I saw $10Gs just to make it swimable again. Lucky the pump was working and their was a brand new, unused sand filter installed.

Taking stock, this is what is required to take the decks, patio and pools back to their former glory:

1. In-ground Pool - Drain, Clean, Sandblast old paint and marzite, prime, re-paint & seal.
2. Upper Hot Tub - It is an old shell that seats 10 and needs to be removed, no need for two hot tubs, removal will require replacement of the deck pieces.
3. Master Hot Tub - The good hot tub sits of the master bedroom on a large deck surrounded by forest, it is in good shape but requires an new cover, and circuit board.
4. Ponds and waterfalls - Requires a new pump, hoses, filters and cleaning.
5. Kitchen & Master Balcony's - Resurface waterproofing and paint railings.
6. Master Hot tub Deck - powerwash, remove snowfencing and add railings.
7. Two Level Pool side decks - The face of the deck is beautiful red cedar that is covered in a layer of black mold and yellow varnish. It must be cleaned, power-sanded, and re-sealed. The stairs up to the decks and a few of the deck boards need to be replaced. As do some one of the glass railings.
8. Pool Deck - The wood deck on one side of the pool is completely rotten and needs to be removed and replaced.
   
9. Pool Patio - The moss covered astroturf on the pool patio needs to be removed. Underneath the astroturf is 3mm layer of rubber, over-top of flaking pebble finished concrete.
   

Where to start? The tasks look daunting and being very budget conscious we knew we would be doing most of the work. We started slow, in the winter I removed most of the astroturf, drained and power-washed the pool. In the spring, we power-washed the master deck and got the hot tub and ponds running. We then stared tearing out the poolside deck, and booked a pool painter to come in and sandblast (unfortunately 2 months later and he still hasn't shown up :( ). Now we've started the sanding the upper deck - 16sqft down - 300sqft to go .... sill a lot to do but we will get there eventually.....

The photo above shows the pool deck form the upperdeck on the day we came to view the house last august.

Fir floors & Iron Railings

When we purchased this house the last owners had recently put in reclaimed fir hardwood (softwood?) floors on the main level, that spans the kitchen to dining and living rooms. Looking at the patterns on the unfinished drywall, on the ceilings it was also evident that they had removed walls around the kitchen and stairs to open up the space. This opening looked great, but was a bit dangerous, as there was no banister surrounding the stairwell. Which made late night trips to the kitchen a somewhat dangerous endeavor, and we realized we needed to do something soon.

We wanted to maintain this open look, and create an almost transparent feel. We considered, wood, glass, and aluminum, but finally agreed on iron. With inspiration from a modern house blogger in Minnesota, we took an almost industrial approach that gave us a open "loft feel". Designing a simple structure, we had a local artisan create, and we finished off with airplane cable. Overall it looks exactly as we had imagined, and fits seamlessly within the overall modern aesthetic we are attempting to achieve. As an added bonus, I no longer need to make death defying leaps across the open expanse to save rampaging toddlers....

Welcome to project 624

Welcome to project 624. I created this blog to document our progress in the re-development of our dream house in Victoria, BC.

Six months ago we moved to Victoria, from Vancouver and purchased an 1976 modern hill side house on 2.5 acres outside Victoria in the rural community of Metchosin. The previous owners had started to re-build this house. Doing some major structural repairs, ripping out some walls and putting down reclaimed fir floors to replace the rust coloured shag.

Unfortunately the owners lived outisde the country and were unable to upkeep this demading propery. Ivy completey coverd one of the exterior walls, breking thru windows and literally coming thriu the kitchen walls. The pool was filled with green water and coverd by half an inch of alge. The astro turf pool deck was converf in a thick layer of moss, and the cedar decks and siding had turned black from mold. Inside the house had been spit into 2 apartments. The kitchen and bathrooms needed updating, the upstairs drywall walls & ceiling remained bare of paint and the banister free stairwell made for a perfect deathtrap to the unsuspecting.

Friends and family thought we were crazy to take on such an project, but looking at the ocean and mountain views and the open-concept loft feel of the upstairs we fell in love and saw th amazing potential of this house. With creative ideas on a very limited (read non-existent) budget we feel we can re-develop this house and property into modern and contemporary dream house for our growing family...