PROGRESS... in the home stretch

This week let’s look at a few before and almost afters:

Garden suite: (851 Union)

The Grand Dame: (853 Union)

The Octopus (Studio ):

The Octopus: (855 Union)

The Octopus: (857 Union — Mama’s place)

ART...where will I hang it all

My art collection is waiting to come out of storage and find it’s place on the walls. My brain is working as I walk around looking at the millwork going in and watching space open up. Hmmm, “What would be amazing on this wall or that one?”, whirls around my mind. “Oh that is def. going on the memory wall”. These are some of the early planning thoughts floating about my head as I walk the Pink House and the Octopus. The art of placement and detail, a different kind of hand of the Artist.

Speaking of “opening up” and making room and tossing in a little before for effect of architectural art; take a peek…

Back to the art. Here’s a share of the art as hung in my old place.

Those many pieces of art you see are just the tip of the art-berg. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s work is peeking out but the tree drawings are missing from these photos. Also you don’t see the work of Anida Yoeu Ali hung but it too is waiting for a wall. I’m going to help rope you into this special person and her work, enjoy the worm hole you’re going to want to explore further...

Let’s work on getting that Buddhist Bug to perform here on the Project 851 site and bring her to Vancouver, hmmm do I hear the Vancouver Art Gallery calling her? How fun will that be!!

PEOPLE...missing (haha)

This week while people , as in worker people, were on site things were flying: stairs blued and waxed, millwork in the octopus, piece meal tiles going in, front door primed, garden suite patio graded, meetings… While Dino was coordinating all that, I thought I’d toss in a little guerrilla project for us to add to the mix. He helped me with a guerrilla tree planting; now there is a Dino/Mira tree planted in a super secret place! The usual Friday strudel arrived, via Mama, to feed the workers on site and prep them for a nice Canada Day weekend.

I, on the other hand, did not go away for the weekend and with all the people missing proceeded to step up to the work table and did a little priming.

What are those spindles for you may be asking? Well those puppies will be going outside on the porch around the front door. If you recall the Newell post blog you’ll understand how they’ll work together. It’s a fun transition of indoor details going outside. This kind of play of inside/outside, old/new/, octopus/pinkhouse and metaphors of reference have given me a lot of joy. At those times I feel I can’t take it anymore and am going to sit down and cry for a year that is what helps me through the journey of the never ending project.

I recall a friend building in N. Vancouver years ago calling his house “the house that will never be built”, going through this process gives me a whole new perspective on his positive outlook on a difficult journey. Little does he know how those words would actually help me survive construction fatigue.

Here’s to the old inside going outside…

COMMUNITY...who's coming to this house, complex, compound...

As completion crawls closer and closer to the finish line the coordination of who’s going where becomes a focus springing to the surface. The initial intention was me, Mom, and rentals. Without a doubt costs escalations at every turn coupled by two years of ongoing uni-directional money flow have not been with out challenge to that original intent. My stress level has reached epic proportions, I never thought possible. Actually, the recovery has been the more important part of that equation as the human body is truly amazing as to what stress it will endure.

Where I was going to live was never really a question, the grand dame of pink was a focused destination, keeping at least one stress in line. The “real” grand dame on the other hand, that being Mama, was not so simple (smile). After pinging and ponging on her destination, the garden suite, the 2 bedroom … she has finally landed on the 3 bedroom!! Yeah, and good for her I say; another stress down!

There was interest from friends and family on buying units, which was not without more stress for me, but once I focused on me being healthy it all seemed to land in the right place. Me and Mom taken care of and rent the rest, sticking to the original plan! Never say never, so we’ll see how it all unfolds in the next 3 months and I’ll be sure to post about the joys of the community filling up!! That will be the final hurdle to stress reduction.

This post will share the options available: (it’s a bit of an operating chaos, but at least you get the feel)

The PINK HOUSE:

Garden suite: (ground level w/ private entrance)

Grand Dame: (moving up the Pink house ladder)

Looking to the OCTOPUS:

Artist Studio space:

Two Bedroom:

Three Bedroom aka Mama’s place: