Washroom on the Wild Side

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This powder room can be found in the same Yaletown apartment we featured last week with the Wild Side Kitchen. High gloss black wall treatments and stone work surfaces accent the bamboo print cabinetry.  This bathroom is a bit different in that all the storage is found opposite the vanity area;  an arrangement that is not always possible unless you have a larger than normal powder room!  By placing all the cabinetry on one wall we've allowed the unique pedestal lavatory to take centre stage.

WIP - Ridge Meadows Reno Part 6

The floors are in!!

After a 3 day installation, the beautiful new floors have been installed in the kitchen, dining room and living room.  What a difference it makes!

• Flooring makes the room look a LOT more finished.
• Having proper flooring down greatly reduces the amount of dust that kicks up into the air.
• The lighter flooring reflects light making the whole room brighter
• The material is softer than the subfloor so the room sounds quieter ... until the saws start up again for the baseboards and trims.  But that's not until tomorrow.

The material we're using is Karndean flooring. It's made of part recycled PVC with high quality plasticizers. This material enables Karndean to create a textured surface that looks amazingly like a real wood or tile floor. We chose a "Tasmanian Wattle" wood floor that is very difficult to tell from the real thing.

As mentioned, base trims and painting will be completed by the weekend, and the countertops are being installed on Monday.

Links to other entries in the WIP series on the Ridge Meadows Reno:
Part 5
Part 7

On the Wild Side

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We originally featured this project on this blog a year ago, but wanted to show you what it looks like through the eyes of a professional. Marcos Armstrong has a terrific sense of style when it comes to interior photography and really captures the drama of this room in these shots.

This showstopper of a kitchen is the centerpiece of this Yaletown loft. High gloss black and Macasar Ebony veneer cabinets and a custom painted glass backsplash help set off the appliances. The quartz countertops extend into the living space for a convenient eating bar, perfect for entertaining.

WIP - Ridge Meadows Reno Part 5

Monday was an exciting day at our Ridge Meadows household.  For the home-owners, cabinet delivery day is almost always the highlight to this point of the reno.  After all the earlier mess the arrival of the cabinets is the light on the horizon.  The room is getting put back together and the plans we worked on all those weeks ago is about to become a reality.

For the designer, this is where the anxieties begin.  Did we measure everything correctly? Will the cabinets and appliances fit?  Is all the electrical and plumbing  where it needs to be?  It's not that we expect a disaster.  Far from it.  But accidents do happen from time to time, and this is typically where we discover them.  But for this reno, everything is going together nicely.

A nice shot from the living room.  You can see the opening for the fridge and microwave on the back wall.  The sink will be located beneath the window on the right (with a nice view of the mountains and the dike along the Pitt River) and the island in the middle of the room will be covered across the back with panels that will match the rest of the cabinetry.

The working side of the island showing the opening for the 48" pro-style range.  The skinny cabinet to the right of the opening is a pull-out that will hold oils and spices conveniently near the cooking area.  Pot and pan drawers are right of that.  Also, note the door panelling on the end of the island.  The tall unit that will act as a support for the raised eating bar also opens up revealing some hidden storage.

Another picture showing the inside of the kitchen.  The 3 cabinets to the right of the fridge opening are each pot and pan drawers.  Further in is a recycling centre and a food waste centre located right beside the large sink.

The installation to this point took approximately 2 days, and we expect there to be another day and a half to finish up.  The countertop manufacturer will be templating on Friday.  The next instalment on this blog will appear once the tops are in ... in about 10 days time.

To see how we arrived at this point, visit our previous post in the WIP series: Part 4

WIP - Ridge Meadows Reno Part 4

The man in the denim shirt is Al, a contractor we work with on many of our projects.  Al is screwing down the subfloor in the kitchen .  The installation of the kitchen cabinets is starting today.  The subfloor was supposed to be installed on Friday.

We're telling you this not because Al is a bad guy.  Quite the contrary.  Al is great.  We love Al.  Why?  Because Al showed up on site first thing in the morning, making sure the subfloor will be installed before the cabinets.  True, it would have been great to have the subfloor in place by Friday, but other aspects of the project got in the way and that just didn't happen.  That's the way things go sometimes.  And when that happens, you want someone like Al on your side.

While the subfloor is being installed, the cabinet installers have a chance to organize and inspect the cabinets.  Being that this is the first day of installation, not much will actually be installed.  The installers will spend the morning going over the plans with the designer, discussing installation details and potential areas of confusion.  Items such as built-in appliances and crown moulding details look good on paper, but an on site meeting with all parties involved make the installation go much smoother.

There's activity going on outside as well with the stucco contractor putting the finishing touches on the repairs around the windows.

Links to other entries in the WIP series on the Ridge Meadows Reno:

Part 3
Part 5

WIP - Ridge Meadows Reno Part 3

The rough-in work (plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilation) is complete at our Ridge-Meadows renovation, which means the drywall can begin.

This is where the new kitchen will be.  The windows have been replaced and raised to allow for the cabinetry beneath.  The wall in the middle is where the new island will be.  You can see the openings for the gas connection and the vent for the fresh air return (for the furnace) which we're going to hide beneath the range rather than leaving it out in the middle of the kitchen where it was before.  Lighting is visible in the ceiling at the moment.  Once the ceiling is painted and the light trims added they will be much more conspicuous.

This is the dining room end of the room.  The entry staircase (behind the wall on the left) was open to the main room.  By closing it off we've created a more intimate entry to the house, while increasing the size of the dining room and creating a wall on which the homeowner can place a hutch.

The drywall phase is one of the most trying in the reno experience for a couple reasons:

It marks a sort of "no-return" point in the project.  While it is true that lights and outlets can be relocated once the drywall is up, that involves bringing in the trades again, creating delays and adding costs to the job.  So, before the board goes up we go over the design to make sure everything is where it needs to be.  This pictures shows the new duct work we installed for the ventilation hood.  The location of this is critical as it needs to be perfectly centred over the range in the island.

The mess.  As careful as are, drywall dust is one of the most invasive substances known to humanity.  It will get in everything.  Even if we have the doorways sealed with plastic, the dust will find a way through.  The best solution is to empty the room.  The more valuable an item is, the greater the need to keep it away from the dust.  Electronics are especially affected by drywall dust.

The length of the drywall phase is also affected by something we have no control over:  the weather.  The mud that is used to make everything smooth takes time to dry.  That drying time is affected by both heat and moisture.  While we use fans and heaters to help things along, if the mud isn't dry it isn't dry, and cannot be sanded.  We've been lucky this week ... the weather has been pretty good.  We still needed to use some heaters to help things along, but delays were minimal.

Up next:  the cabinets!!

Links to other entries in the WIP series on the Ridge Meadows Reno:

Part 2
Part 4

Gallery - Kai Sushi

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While the majority of our work is residential, we occasionally design for commercial and retail space.  This is a brand new restaurant: Kai Sushi Bar – located at 3093 Oak Street in Vancouver.  Rift White Oak cabinetry with inlaid Bamboo panels are the main focus of the bar.  The bench seating, baseboard moulding, wall wainscot and bamboo planter box continue the rift-cut white oak theme throughout the restaurant.  Corian countertops are both beautiful and practical; a seamless fit and completely non-porous.  Table tops are made of a plastic laminate  that resembles a tatami mat and are finished with white oak edging.  The finished room is a perfect backdrop for the excellent food they serve.