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…)?

The Houses in Which We Live No. 3: Tiny Homes

This 125 square foot home utilizes a

tiny house design staple – the loft bed.

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I've been infatuated with the "tiny house movement" since the moment I heard about it, which isn't surprising since I've always had a love-on for the little. From the plastic toy toilet I used to hide from my sister as a child (I didn't want to share), to the miniature potbelly pig I desperately wanted for a pet as a teenager, I've been cultivating my weird obsession with tiny versions of full-sized things my whole life. And now, here is a movement that not only bolsters one of my many eccentricities – it also validates it – because tiny houses aren't just adorable, they could save the planet too.

A tiny home is 500 square feet or less, although I've read about people building homes as itsy bitsy as 96 square feet (about the size of a smallish bedroom). Did I mention the average Canadian home currently sits at around 1,900? So… what are we doing with the extra 1,400 square feet? Why, filling it with stuff, of course!

According to website The Tiny Life, having less stuff ("Life Simplification") is one of the core principles of tiny house living, along with "Environmental Consciousness" (tiny houses have smaller footprints – literally and metaphorically), "Self Sufficiency" (68 per cent of tiny house owners have no mortgage), "Sound Fiscal Plans" (32 per cent of tiny house owners have more than $10,000 saved for retirement) and "Life Adventures" (what could be more adventurous than raising three kids under the age of seven in a 400 square foot home?).

With only 1 per cent of American home buyers purchasing a residence that is 1,000 square feet or less (1,000 square feet is the cutoff for a house to be considered "small"), it's clear that extreme downsizing isn't for everyone. But I think there are a few things the tiny house movement can teach us all.

"The Little House in Little Rock," is just a

hair bigger than a tiny house, but it's so

flippin' beautiful I think we can forgive
the extra 57 square feet.

Build Better, Not Bigger

Back in my favourite decade – the good ol' 90s – English-born, American-based architect Sarah Susanka published her design ideas, based on the principle of quality over quantity, in The Not So Big House, which served as a launchpad for the tiny house movement. According to the book's website, "Not So Big doesn't necessarily mean small. It means not as big as you thought you needed, but designed and built to perfectly suit the way you live." Essentially, think before you build! A bigger house not only isn't better, it also leads to a higher upfront construction cost, a higher overall cost to maintain the home and, as mentioned above, just a whole lot of wasted space to fill with wasteful things.

The Simple Life

When you permanently live in a home the same size as some people's recreational vehicles, you have to make simplification a priority. And it's within this task that tiny house owners shine. My favourite example (and one I'm currently implementing in my own not-so-tiny, but also not-so-big residence) I watched a video about a couple who lived in a tiny home. Their office was about the size of a regular home's linen closet. To maximize their space, they scanned all their officey-type documents into their computer and then shredded the paper copy. Well, let me tell you, this blew my mind. Before I began my own shredding extravaganza I would say a good 3 feet by 2 feet of the closet floor in my office was dedicated to those clunky plastic filing boxes. Not only am I now saving space, I'm saving something even more precious – time – because all I do after I open a piece of important mail is scan, shred, done.

Tiny homes can even come with wheels, an idea

popularized by Jay Shafer, owner of Tumbleweed
Tiny House Company.

Less Truly Does Equal More

Although I already briefly touched on the decreased environmental impact of a tiny house, it is – by and far – the most important facet of this movement. Statements similar to the following currently echo throughout our daily lives – if we want to continue to live on a planet that doesn't resemble The Day After Tomorrow, something has to change (but don't worry, Jake Gyllenhaal can stay). Website Planet Forward calls tiny house living "one of the rare instances in which cheap and green go hand in hand." For everyone who has ever wanted to "go green" only to gasp at the price of organic foods, eco-friendly cleaning supplies, clothing made of natural materials and alternative energy sources like solar panels, here is a price that is truly startling: $23,000. As in, the average cost to build a tiny home, if built by the owners. Plus, a smaller home means lower heating and electricity costs, and a lot more money available to invest in all the cool, new eco-inventions for the home – like an incinerating toilet (which is small, but not small enough to hide from your sibling).

So maybe a tiny home isn't in your future, but a tinier, simpler life? Now, doesn't that sound nice…

Want to learn more about tiny life living? Watch this video! As for your comments, which I'm always dying to receive, please post them below. Would you live in a 500 square foot house? If not, are there ways you'd like to incorporate the tiny house principles into your life?