About A House... Design Almost Done!

Lots of friends have mentioned that we should document the process of our house building in a blog. Now is probably the best time to get started as we're very close to the end of the design stage and about 2 weeks from getting our permit!

Here's a picture of the 100+ year old house that's on the property. Try as we may to want to reno it... not possible!

We're working with Wilma Leung, named one of the top influencer in residential construction by BC Homes Magazine to design it. The concept is to build a modern Vancouver Special with:

• no basement
• separate senior friendly suite on the main floor 
• a bigger suite on the upper floor plus the attic for us
• eco design and energy efficiency in mind
• low long term maintenance

Overall square ft of the new house will be around 2400 sq ft with 800 for the secondary suite and about 1600 Sq Ft for us. The overall design is extremely compact and maximizes usage of the slanted space under the roof.

The design is a mix of modern and traditional; modern in the building materials but the overall shape of the house is typical old timer Vancouver house.

Our builder is Arthur Lo of Insightful Healthy Home. He is part of the team that built the CMHC sponsored Equilibrium Project Harmony House.

More about the green aspects of the design another time...