Mr Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun

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Me and my sibs, being all one with nature
and stuff, circa about a million years ago.

I don't remember when I got hooked on being green. I mean, I've always adored nature. Trees. Lakes. Dirt. My family's annual (and sometimes bi or tri-annual) camping trips (usually to the majestic Rockies) led to a love of the great outdoors and all that it represents being wound into the very fabric of my being. But did I always recycle? No. Was I always that person – you know, the one who dies a little inside when someone at a birthday party throws away a paper plate, or licks clean plastic cutlery and puts it in their purse so it can later be reused? No. No, I wasn't.

I'm a firm believer in the fact that green living is about integrating eco-friendly choices into reality. I clearly recall that I didn't start blue-bagging until I lived in my first apartment, which had recycling bins in the parking lot. I didn't start separating organic waste from the rest of the garbage until I moved to Stony Plain, where we have Organicarts that are collected on a weekly basis.

Then there's this whole solar power thing. I'm not sure where my obsession with it began, but I do know that when Devin and I first started talking about building a home it was something I brought up very early on. And though he certainly was intrigued by the idea, he also tends to be a bit more pragmatic than I about this whole "let's save the world" business.

Fast forward a few years (and, you know, throw a baby in there just for fun) and the phrase "solar farm" (as in on our land) has actually befallen my ears via the mouth of my husband several times as of late. Be still my David Suzuki-lovin' heart!

So here's some info on solar power – specifically geared toward our Albertan climate, which we all know comes with its own set of… shall we say quirks?

Ironically, this photo was taken in British Columbia.

Alberta is Mad Sunny, Ya'll

According to a recent study by the not-for-profit Canadian Solar Industries Association, "Alberta's solar energy resource is almost one million-billion kilowatt hours per year" (or 1,000,000,000,000,000… I didn't even realize there was such thing as a "million-billion"). Alberta is the best solar energy resource in all of Canada and, fun fact, even though Okotoks is more than 25 degrees of latitude further north than Miami, it still is a greater solar energy resource than "The Magic City" between the months of July and October.

Just think – this could be you! For serious though,
brushing snow from solar panels may not even be
necessary as "the albedo effect," i.e. sun reflecting
off of snow, "can make a panel generate more
electricity in the same way that it gives
skiers sunburn on sunny winter days." (Source)

Unlike Most of Us, Solar Panels Like Cold Weather

I attempted to paraphrase (and then deleted) this article because of the nightmare-inducing equations, but then I found this one, which explained things just the way I like it – with words instead of numbers. Plus, it gives a grand total of nine explanations about the relationship between solar panels and temperature, one of them being: "As the solar panels get hotter, they will produce less power from the same amount of sunlight [than a colder panel]. Normally, electrons at rest (low energy) are excited by the sun (high energy), and the difference between their excited and rest energies is the potential difference (voltage) . . . Because we produce power from the difference in the states (at rest and excited by the sun), if the electrons have more energy at rest (your solar panels are hotter), the difference between the rest energy and excited energy (from the sun) is smaller, and our solar panels will produce less energy." What do you think, should I change my header to read "Of Houses and Trees: A Blog about Architecture, Interior Design, DIY Projects, Trees and, Of Course, Excited Electrons?"

The days of ginormous solar panels protruding from the
rooftops of only the crunchiest of hippies are coming
to an end. Behold... solar shingles!

"This is Oil Country" is O-V-E-R

No, I'm not talking about Connor McDavid (but, since I did bring him up, let me just say that poor kid is never going to live up to everyone's second-coming-like expectations of him – he's basically Barack Obama on skates). I'm talking about the glorification and shortsightedness that permeates our oil-soaked culture. Yes, we have a lot of oil. We get it already. But, as aforementioned, we also have a lot of sun. So pardon my idealism, but would it really be so hard to divert just a teeny bit of the time, the energy and the monies we put into the oil industry and send it on over to solar (and other alternative and renewable resources)? "That will never happen," you say. "It's all a conspiracy," you moan. "There are people who would have you shot just for saying that," you intone, twirling the tip of your handlebar mustache between your thumb and forefinger. "Bah," I scoff. "Change is coming," I muse. And then, I break into song… here comes the sun, little darling...

What say you? Is oil over? Have you ever thought about looking into solar power or other alternative energies? Do you care about where your power even comes from, or are you more of a "as long as I can binge-watch the new season of Orange is the New Black I'm all good" kind of person?

Deciding on Siding

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Super charming house that incorporates
several types of exterior cladding. Plus,
who can resist a front porch, window
boxes AND a brick chimney?

"Oh my god, [I'm] back again…" and I obviously have Backstreet Boys on the mind since watching their riveting documentary "Show 'Em What You're Made Of" on Netflix the other weekend. (I'm not even being facetious, it was surprisingly moving.) And just like BSB when they came out with their second album, I'm back without having actually gone anywhere. But now that Devin's laptop has an external keyboard hooked up to it, the AutoCAD muses are sending me productive vibes once more.

That's right! The design of our new house is back on track and the time has come for me to start thinking about exterior siding. Our current home has one type – horizontal vinyl boards in beigey-grey. Yuck. (My apologies to anyone who loves vinyl siding or the colour beigey-grey.) The truth is our new home will likely have some vinyl siding strewn about as it's pretty much the most affordable (and easy to maintain) option. But after seeing photos such as the one above I got to thinking about homes that are clad in several different materials and about how the varying colours and textures add so much visual interest.

So here we go, nearly 200 words into my post, let's talk about what I came here to talk about… siding!

Brick

Sure, it looks decrepit now, but I bet this
brick farmhouse (which I used to drive
by every day) could've been restored
to its former glory… if a developer hadn't
bought it and promptly tore it down… sniff.

I had to begin here, because brick is just, well, classic. It's uber durable, it adds mad character and… it's crazy expensive. Since I was a kid, all I wanted was to live in a home built out of brick. Really. I even would've traded my favourite toy pony Jessica (who had beautiful rainbow coloured wings… which I later cut off because I thought she was too delicate to play with in her winged state) for a red brick farmhouse with a dormer window in the attic. And while an entirely brick facade just isn't in the budget for our new house, it's quite popular in the neighbourhood I currently live in to have a bit of brick or stone across the lower face of the house, although we don't have any on ours as Devin told me it would've been an extra $10,000 at the time of purchase… yikes.

My fingers are itching to pick just looking at this photo...

Stucco

Another pricier siding type, stucco is traditionally made from sand, Portland cement, lime and water. Spread over top of a metal screening (which, if I recall correctly from my architectural technology days, is called "lath"), stucco has several finishing options ranging from smooth as a baby's bum to pebbledash – meaning small rocks were smooshed in before it dried. Pebbledash was a popular finish in the neighbourhood I grew up in, which was built in the 1980s and thus it seems quite dated to me. We had a neighbour who had coloured glass mixed in with their pebbles and I used to pick the little pieces out and pretend they were jewels, because I'm classy like that. Devin and I have talked about using stucco for the new house because of its durability, especially after the great hailstorm of '09 pinged holes through our vinyl siding and much of it had to be replaced (hooray for insurance!).

All jokes aside about vinyl siding being "cheap" – you can
actually find high quality variations of it and, as this little red
house shows, it can look pretty damn good!

Vinyl

Ah, vinyl. Cheap and easy… [insert inappropriate sex-trade worker comment here]. Like many oft-used home finishes these days, vinyl began as an affordable substitute for the pricier wooden clapboard or shakes seen on many older homes. Vinyl claims to be "no-maintenance," while wood siding at the very least needs to be stained or painted every so often, but I just finished reading a very informative article that insisted no siding is ever maintenance free. It was geared towards owners of historic homes, but still made some good points, my favourite being in reference to historic materials: "They're not good because they're old, they're old because they're good." But, I digress. The aforementioned hail damage to our current home's vinyl coupled with the fact that it just doesn't look as good as other siding options means it is my last choice for our new home… and the one we'll probably end up using because, hello, having a stunning dream home you can't actually afford to build just doesn't make much sense, now does it?

I've seen this home's wood clapboard up

close and personal (I wrote an article

about this house, located in Edmonton,

Alberta for a community newspaper.)

It truly was beautiful! 

Wood

See above. Although I'd also like to add that wood siding is susceptible to rot and insect infestation, but damn it sure is pretty… or maybe it's just the houses it's typically used on that I love so much?

Green Options

I wouldn't be able to keep my credibility as the tree-hugger in the family if I didn't include a little info on sustainable siding options. Many of the aforementioned materials have environmentally friendly counterparts such as vinyl siding that includes a layer of foam insulation. Or, how about some FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood? Another eco-concious choice for a home's exterior is fibre-cement siding, which is reported to be extremely long lasting and has been popularized by the company James Hardie. (I did come across mention of a class action suit filed by consumers angry that their James Hardie products are failing, but I think I need to poke around a bit more before writing it off as I'm leaning toward using some fibre-cement siding on our new home. Yay! More research!)

If you stuck with me through this rather long post then congratulations! (I even left several siding types out for brevity's sake – aluminum, natural stone, etc.) Your reward is commenting below and letting me know what type of siding ensconces your current house and what your "dream" siding is.

A Horse (Fence), Of Course

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Horse love… or horse jealousy? (I'd keep
an eye out for the black one in the
background if I were these two.)

Land news! No, I haven't finished (nor started, really) another house design. Devin's computer has gone on the fritz and it's the one that has AutoCAD on it so everything happening on that front is happening in my head. And while we won't be living out there anytime soon I am pleased to announce that the land has new residents of the four-legged variety. Horses!

Seven little beauties that are going to be munching the summer away on our pasture and drinking in the pond that Devin dug last year. Prepping the land for (other people's) animals has been a process several years in the making and, while I haven't had a direct hand in things, I can confidently say I was indirectly involved in the following ways:

- Bringing Devin and hired help (i.e.: family members who are paid with love and food) a pic-a-nic-a-basket.

- Keeping a 0-20 month old occupied on many a long weekend (remember, I said it's been several years) because children and chainsaws don't mix.
- Helping to write and review an iron-clad legal document also known as our pasture lease. 

Possible boo-boo inducing situation.

I feel like I just had a job interview for a position I am unqualified for and thus had to make stuff up that sounds impressive (like the time I told a potential employer I had "implemented a digital record-keeping system" when all I really did was burn some old files onto CDs… and then make labels for them!).

The truth is, I'd love to be more involved. I want to cut up my arms on barbed wire and get slapped in the face by indignant tree branches, but sometimes these things are better left to the pros. It's likely I would have just slowed things down since lately it seems like every boo-boo I acquire, whether real or non-existent, needs to be kissed better… Oh wait, that's not me.

Have you ever missed out on something not-so-fun and been sad anyway? Do you feel like you have to be involved in everything even when your talents could probably be used elsewhere? Gimme a "C," gimme an "O," gimme an "M"… oh for eff's sake just comment already.

So Close… And Yet...

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We had never been so close to actually doing it. Selling our comfy, cozy, happy home and moving out to the wilderness… of rural Parkland County. We talked to a realtor. We started madly doing all the projects that needed to be done before we listed. We even met with the bank and were relieved to find out that financially – this could actually happen. But then we told them we're planning on building a garage apartment, not an actual house, and that was kind of that, my friends.

Oh erstwhile future home, we hardly knew ye.
(At least I didn't have to draw it all by hand.)

We knew that the county would potentially balk at the garage apartment as we'd heard rumblings they were finicky about these things. But, honestly, I didn't think the bank would care much. I mean – a house is a house is a house… right?

Not so much. I'll spare you all the gobbledy-gooky details and just say that if you build a garage apartment or any sort of secondary detached living space before you build the primary residence it kind of screws you over in the end as far as the dolla' dolla' bills go.

The hardest part of all this for me is that I now have to go back to the drawing board (aka AutoCAD) with the house design. I worked really, really hard getting the garage apartment plans ready and they were just so very pretty by the time they were done. And I'm not talking about the garage apartment itself – I'm talking about the actual drawings. The notes and the dimensions and the details. The details!

This one I did draw by hand. Nearly two years ago
while on vacation in Panorama. Now I'm trying
to recreate it in AutoCAD as the possible
front elevation of our home to be.

Now here I am staring, once again, at a blank screen. I draw a line. I delete it. I draw two lines. I delete them both. I'm currently so far away from where I was with the garage apartment and yes – of course the garage apartment began exactly the same way. And, before that, there were other house plans I started and then abandoned at different stages and for different reasons.

Beginnings can be difficult. The unknowns. The what-ifs. The not-sures. But they're also exciting. When everything is just a fuzzy idea and the reality of life has yet to make it all real and sharp and stuff.

Draw a line. Delete it. Repeat.

What sort of house related setbacks have you experienced? An offer on a 1920s farmhouse fall through? Someone snatch up your dream land before you could buy it and build a replica of Versailles? Let's all commiserate on the so-close-and-yet-so-fars that come with life as a homeowner.

The Town with the Painted Past

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Here I go again. My second attempt at this post, which was sadly lost during a Tiny House Nation marathon. In my last entry I put up a few images of our recent family trip to Maui and, I don't know about everyone else, but nothing makes me appreciate home more than when I'm away from it. Don't get me wrong, Hawaii was beautiful. Stunning. It makes our half-melted snow and sand-covered roads look, well, like half-melted snow and sand-covered roads. But I was probably more excited to come home than I was to leave. That may have had something to do with the very squawky 18 month old we had in tow. My daughter is a lot of things – smart, fun, sweet, adorable. But adaptable? Not so much.

It also had to do with missing the well-loved house we live in and the life we've built for ourselves in ye old Stony Plain. I never thought when I moved here, somewhat begrudgingly, nearly six years ago that it would ever feel like home. But the  town just has so much damn character! Aside from the rich history (as this post's title says, it's "The Town with the Painted Past"), locally owned and locally charming stores keep popping up everywhere. This is a town with a population of 15,000, which may be more than five times the population of the town I grew up in, but a metropolis it ain't. Still, at last count, Stony has more home decor stores than you can tally on one hand. Okay, it's not a ton, but it's enough that friends who live in a completely different city drive all the way out here just to ooh and ahh over shabby chic furniture and reclaimed barnwood bird houses.

So now, without further ado, I shall get to the crux of this post, which is to profile my favourite Stony Plain home stores. This isn't a post about keeping the great cogs of commerce a-turning, it's about real people with a love for unique things just trying to make a living.

One Man's Treasure

4912 - 50th Avenue

What town doesn't need an "antique emporium"? Similar in concept to Edmonton's Old Strathcona Antique Mall and Rocky Mountain Antique Mall, just on a smaller scale (though at 3,500 square feet it's still pretty roomy). One Man's Treasure features items from over 40 vendors displaying everything from vintage and vintage-inspired furniture to collectible household items (as well as books, clothing, jewelry and a whole host of other old-timey things). I've bought a few items from this store, mostly for gifts (mostly for my mom - hi mama!), but my favourite purchase is a Medalta size 10 crock with both handles in tact, which I use in my pantry as a recycling bin. If you're not a crock person then none of this will make sense to you, but if you're the kind of guy or gal who gasps upon seeing a 5 with an unbroken lid – then you're picking up what I'm putting down.

The Country Pumpkin
Suite 104, 4807 - 48 Avenue

This is my aforementioned mama's favourite store to visit whenever she stays with us in Stony. Is it because it smells like Christmas year-round? Is it because the staff is always incredibly friendly? (I'll never forget the time my daughter said "bye bye" – for the first time clearly – and the lady behind the counter got more excited than me.) Is it the green and white armoire with the punched tin inserts that I drool over every time I visit? (That last one would be why it's one of my favourite stores, not the mama's, but she certainly does like to see me happily drooling!) Most memorable purchase is my linen-coloured duvet cover featured in this post.

Raggs to Riches

4810 - 50 Avenue

One of two Parkland County locations, the Raggs to Riches in Stony Plain is niftily located in an old craftsman style house. The store is organized into rooms so that any merchandise relating to the kitchen is in the kitchen, any relating to the bathroom is in the bathroom, and so on and so forth. There's home decor, clothing, jewelry, locally made seasonings and dressings and real old-fashioned antiques mixed in with all the new stuff. I once put not one, but two rope ladders on layaway because I just hads to have 'em. (Well, one was for me and the other was for, you guessed it, the mama – who has just received trifecta shout-out status.) The ladder hung in my garden all last summer, waiting oh so patiently for sugar snap pea vines to climb up and embrace it, but sadly my garden sucked last year (which will be the subject of a future post).

Whimsical Vintage Creations
Suite 100, 3805 - 49 Avenue

One of the newer additions to the Stony Plain family of home decor stores, Whimsical Vintage Creations specializes in re-loving old furniture – which they carry both in store as well as do custom requests. They even sell paint so you can do-it-yourself, if you are so inclined. Plus, the store carries a whole schwack of handmade signs in all different colour schemes and I have my eye on a yellow one that reads: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." Tear.

The Barn Owl
4912 - 52 Avenue

So new to the Stony scene I've only had the chance to visit once, but I very much enjoyed the eclectic mix of handmade knick knacks and paddy whacks, furniture, purses, jewelry, lamps, etc. Has kind of a Country Pumpkin-y feel (and smell!) and they also offer classes so you too can learn to make all kinds of cute things for your home – like the burlap stuffed owl I saw there. (I will definitely be making one of those babies in the not too distant future… I'll keep you posted!)

Honourable Mention: General Store
5411 - 51 Street

Located in the 1910 Oppertshauser House, the General Store is part of the much beloved Multicultural Heritage Centre – a place to learn about local history, peruse work by local artists and eat local pies. All profits from the store go towards funding the MHC and all the cool programs they offer, such as an organic demonstration farm and tours of the oh so famous Stony Plain murals. Plus, and I just found this out as I was researching this very blog post, the Oppertshauser House has its very own ghost! There's all kinds of videos on YouTube of people searching for paranormal activity and I also read that once upon a time someone committed suicide there, which is actually more sad than spooky. Thankfully, I've never come in contact with any kind of spirit whilst innocently browsing through the mixture of seasonal items, candy, books, clothes and antiques. You'll also find home decor at the General Store, but it's so much more than a home decor store – hence the "honourable mention."

Ever been shopping in Stony Plain? If so, what's your favourite store? Did I miss any worth mentioning? How about in your own town/city? Feel free to give a shout-out to all things locally owned and operated - doesn't even have to be a home store...

Mahalo Back Girl

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An epic failure has occurred over here at Of Houses and Trees, folks, and my heart is a-broken. I probably put a good two to three hours into a post about my favourite locally-owned Stony Plain home decor stores and – right as it was ready to be posted – Safari crashed and only a fraction of the entry saved.

The ironic part (using ironic in the Alanis Morrisette way and not in the I have an English degree and thus know better way) is that Safari crashed because I was trying to watch episodes of my new obsession, Tiny House Nation, online for free. Oh, how I love that show, but the loss of my post is a heavy price to pay. I could rewrite it, but honestly I'm too depressed about the whole thing at the moment. Maybe another day…

In happier news – here are some pictures of my recent family vacay to Maui! These have nothing to do with houses or trees, but nobody will care because Hawaii is so effin beautiful it trumps all things – including off topic blog posts and technological malfunctions. Enjoy!

Two very different comment topics, but I'm equally interested in answers for both (I don't play comment favourites): Ever lost something you've worked really hard on due to the fickle mistress that is technology? Or, have you ever been to Hawaii?

Apartment Living… In the Country

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I realized I haven't posted an update on one of the main focuses of this blog, which is my own adventures in designing a brand new home, in a very long time… I actually don't think I've ever posted an update on the subject, if I'm being honest. And, if you know me, you know I'm always honest. So update on!

We may not live there yet, but "The Land"
still feels like home.

When it comes to the type of house we'd like to build on what we've affectionately dubbed "The Land" (40 acres of rolling hills and trees just north of Stony Plain, Alberta), my husband and I have gone back and forth, up and down and in all other possible directions.

What started out as a Victorian-inspired, turreted two-storey morphed into a one-and-a-half storey cape cod/craftsman complete with matching carriage house. Somewhere in between there were talks of living in an RV parked on the land (I'm all for living small, but there's a difference between a beautifully designed tiny home and year-round camping), or doing the whole modular home thing (which comes with it's own set of difficulties). We even went and looked at a log cabin that needed to be moved off an industrial piece of land with thoughts of renovating the crap out of the decrepit old thing. But yeah… umm… no…

Inspiration the first… (Funny story
about this image – I got it off
Google Maps after seeing it on
an episode of "Supernatural.")

And all the while one possibility came up again, and again, and again. What if we built a garage that was also an apartment? (Also sometimes called a coach house or the aforementioned carriage house.) Not having a garage on our property isn't really an option when there inevitably will be skid steers and graders and hoes to store and maintain. This fact is something you accept when you're married to a heavy-equipment operator. Just like you accept that when you're married to a writer there will be books. Lots and lots of books. Oh, and also no money.

So, unless we want to throw down some bedrolls amidst the oil stains, we'll also need somewhere to lay our weary heads. As I already briefly mentioned, we've always said we'd like to have an apartment above the garage anyway for either a rental suite our a guest/grandparent suite. So, why not do a two birds, one stone type thing?

Inspiration the second...

Now, the plan was to build the garage apartment first, live in it for awhile, then build our "real-life home" (the term I use instead of "dream home," because you might as well add "Barbie" to the start of the latter phrase), but being the fiscally responsible people we are, Devin and I knew there was a possibility it was a one or the other type thing. Build the house – no garage apartment. Build the garage apartment – no house.

Picture something like this, but with
less landscaping and more... land.

And so it went on like this… for a long time. Until the decision was made that if we ever want to live on "The Land" we'd better you-know-what or get off the you-know-what. And thus we went with the [hopefully] less expensive option of the two, which is why I'm about to wrap up this blog post, fire up AutoCAD and put the finishing touches on the design I've been feverishly working on for the last few months.

Part workshop, part living quarters. Part logical, part lovely. Part garage, part apartment. All home.

How do you feel about garage apartments? Would you ever live in one? What does your "real-life home" look like (not the one you already live in, but the one you envision at night to lull yourself to sleep… or am I the only one who does that…)?