Progress Out Back

It's been a while since there was any significant work on the house and garden. We've been slowed down by weather, sloth and a wedding in Australia, only one of which was enjoyable. However, our plans for the parking lot out the back are finally underway.



Here's what we started with:

When you only have one small car, you don't need room to park four. So I sought quotes to remove about half of the old concrete and put a kerb around the cut edge. The five quotes I received ranged from reasonable to astronomical. When we assessed them, one stood out because: the tradesman actually came to look at the job (as opposed to asking me to email a photo); he was pleasant and helpful; he could begin promptly; he had appropriate insurance: he was a member of the local Better Business Bureau. And, of course, his quote was one of the reasonable ones, at least partly because he didn't propose to use expensive equipment.



I didn't photograph the work in progress, but the job was done precisely as he described and we were very happy with it.

There is now a three-foot strip that runs along the top of the wall, behind where the car is parked. I will plant this with shrubs and perhaps my espaliered apple trees.

The large rectangle beside the car space is destined to have vegetables in raised beds.

We had a load of organic mix delivered and Michael promptly began preparing the beds.

Progress Out Back

It's been a while since there was any significant work on the house and garden. We've been slowed down by weather, sloth and a wedding in Australia, only one of which was enjoyable. However, our plans for the parking lot out the back are finally underway.

Here's what we started with:

When you only have one small car, you don't need room to park four. So I sought quotes to remove about half of the old concrete and put a kerb around the cut edge. The five quotes I received ranged from reasonable to astronomical. When we assessed them, one stood out because: the tradesman actually came to look at the job (as opposed to asking me to email a photo); he was pleasant and helpful; he could begin promptly; he had appropriate insurance: he was a member of the local Better Business Bureau. And, of course, his quote was one of the reasonable ones, at least partly because he didn't propose to use expensive equipment.

I didn't photograph the work in progress, but the job was done precisely as he described and we were very happy with it.

There is now a three-foot strip that runs along the top of the wall, behind where the car is parked. I will plant this with shrubs and perhaps my espaliered apple trees.

The large rectangle beside the car space is destined to have vegetables in raised beds.

We had a load of organic mix delivered and Michael promptly began preparing the beds.

Winter Solstice

New Year's Eve in Vancouver doesn't have the razzle-dazzle of larger cities like Sydney, London or New York - no public fireworks displays, no balloons. However, on the winter solstice we did have a small celebration in our neighbourhood. Locals gathered after dark to make paper lanterns and march through the streets, led by the wonderfully-named  Orkestar Slivovica, to the community centre.

Since the procession route was along an adjoining street, it was easy for us to join the parade. Michael used his phone to take a few rather blurry pictures, of which these are the best:

In the second photo, a keen observer can just make out the shape of the tuba with its halo of little coloured lights.

Winter Solstice

New Year's Eve in Vancouver doesn't have the razzle-dazzle of larger cities like Sydney, London or New York - no public fireworks displays, no balloons. However, on the winter solstice we did have a small celebration in our neighbourhood. Locals gathered after dark to make paper lanterns and march through the streets, led by the wonderfully-named  Orkestar Slivovica, to the community centre.
Since the procession route was along an adjoining street, it was easy for us to join the parade. Michael used his phone to take a few rather blurry pictures, of which these are the best:

In the second photo, a keen observer can just make out the shape of the tuba with its halo of little coloured lights.

Kitchen Door

It's taken a while to follow up the new front door with some images of the new kitchen door. This is partly because it arrived with frosted glass panels, which we hadn't asked for; and partly because of Christmas and New Year activities claiming my time.

The old door looked like this:

Not a bad door in many ways, but we wanted to bring more natural light into the kitchen.

The replacement was installed with the frosted glass,

... and we had to wait a few days for the clear glass to be retrofitted, but we finally got what we wanted.

We're very pleased with both the look of the door and the extra amount of light.

Kitchen Door

It's taken a while to follow up the new front door with some images of the new kitchen door. This is partly because it arrived with frosted glass panels, which we hadn't asked for; and partly because of Christmas and New Year activities claiming my time.
The old door looked like this:

Not a bad door in many ways, but we wanted to bring more natural light into the kitchen.
The replacement was installed with the frosted glass,

... and we had to wait a few days for the clear glass to be retrofitted, but we finally got what we wanted.

We're very pleased with both the look of the door and the extra amount of light.

The New Front Door

It's been a while since we've made any progress that affects the exterior of the house, but we finally have new front and back doors. The front door in particular was ugly, either with or without its aluminum screen - so ugly that it never got into any photos and I had trouble finding a "before" image. This is the best I could do, cropped from a larger image of the porch:

It was not a welcoming sight. The opening was not standard, which meant we couldn't go with a pre-hung door, but on the positive side it allowed us to design our own replacement. The drawback was waiting for it to be manufactured. Finally, it arrived last week, and I spent hours in the basement painting the exterior and clear-coating the interior. Yesterday, Randy the carpenter installed it, and this morning we attached our new letterbox beside it. (The old door had a mail slot.) So now it looks like this:

From the street, it complements the house.

From the inside, it completely changes what was a very dark hall into a much more pleasant space.

When I originally photographed the hall from the stairs, I had to open the door to get enough light.

                                                             Not now!

These last two photos also show the changes to the floor, walls, and the stair rail. We've had to replace the newel post, but found all but one of the original spindles intact under the sheathing. Needless to say, the stair treads are among the tasks still to do.