Where to begin?

So here we are. After living in North Vancouver for 10 years, we had ample time to scout our next home while walking the dogs. Figuratively speaking, all roads seemed to lead to Forest Hills - a quiet neighborhood 15 minutes from downtown Vancouver, a couple of minutes from the gondola to Grouse Mountain, walking distance to Edgemont Village, and backing directly onto a private greenbelt and creek.

When the house finally came up, we pounced. It was custom built for a family back in 1963. It's got world class views, is well thought out and has got great 'bones' - but although our dream location... its not quite our dream house... yet! Welcome to our blog as we record the creation of our new home - hopefully it'll be a good record for our children, and a way of documenting our learnings along the way for friends to follow (or avoid!).

Having done all the normal internet research and asking informed friends who have done it several times before, clearly enlisting experts is the way to go. Seems logical, but you would be surprised how many people seemed to 'go it alone'. First step is to look for someone to draw us our vision of our new home.

Choosing an Architect
So where to begin? Most of the recommendations seemed to be designers versus architects. Driving around (both online and out in the real world) led to some spectacular North and West Vancouver houses - but brief inquiries quickly seemed to indicate these types of individuals liked to search the world for dramatic art pieces, then design the house around it. We're not planning to skimp on quality at all - but this was not our price range!

The feedback on the designer option was mixed. Most indicated they were happy with the outcome, but the cost tended to escalate more than they had expected along the way. Some ran into unforeseen bylaw issues due to the homeowner having to deal with the municipality and bylaws themselves. Others had a great experience, but typically knew exactly what they wanted - and managed the entire process themselves.

As things got bleaker, a short-cut through a design show to pick up Alexandra from a birthday party led to a coincidental meeting with Matthew Hansen, a well decorated ('scuze the pun) Georgie Award winning architect. And he lives right here in North Vancouver. After a couple of emails and a meeting, Matt agreed to take on our project. That was the first smart decision we made! Aside from the basics like integrity, transparency on (very reasonable) fees and great design sense - he also took great diligence in understanding what we really wanted.

Clearly having an expert bring practical realities to your dreams is a very good thing (sure, building your house to show well while entertaining is important... but what does happen in your house at 3:30pm when the kids traipse in from the rain and drop their bags and coats on the floor...?). We were impressed that he even found a book on the architecture of the houses in our neighborhood during the era our house was constructed. A few of the Forest Hills custom post and beam designs from the 1930s to 1960s became the basis for our West Coast Contemporary design. He proactively stick handled the municipality with great ease... ensuring each idea would pass muster with the bureaucrats before the final permit applications went in.

We live on a creek, so he got the Environmental Department engaged early on. This was a wise move as they hold significant power - but were interested in our project and we came to an early agreement to restore our bank with native western Canadian plants in return for the appropriate paperwork - a solution that will allow us to do our bit for riparian rights and a key part of our sustainable construction strategy!

The other experts...
The next experts to be engaged were the survey engineer, structural engineer and the geotechical engineer. You'd think we were building a skyscraper. Now the value of a good architect to coordinate all these minds was hitting home.

North Vancouver is blessed with spectacular natural creeks flowing pristine water from the snowy peaks above us. But that comes at a cost... building a house on a greenbelt, particularly one overlooking Mosquito Creek (above), the main tributary off Grouse Mountain, meant a rigorous geotechnical inspection was required. I was amazed at the range of fees quoted - but we settled on another local, Blain Good, at the recommendation of our contractor. He knew the in's and out's of the municipal requirements  and delivered a comprehensive report in no time at all. If I had to do it all again and didn't need the report, I think I would get one anyway! It was a fascinating read (for someone who hasn't any engineering in their background at all) - but it was also very reassuring to have from a peace of mind perspective (as most houses on creek banks in North Vancouver range from moderate to high to extreme risk). Fortunately we are in the moderate camp, and the house is set about 40 feet back from the bank on bed rock!

Who will build it?
The last two experts were the builder and interior designer. Jamieson Merritt from Arbutus Point Developments, a long-time friend and high-end West Van home builder relented and agreed to build our home for us. He also recommended we find an interior designer to supplement the dream team supporting us. His reference was Jan Romanuk, an award winning Vancouver-based interior designer. We had heard of her work from various sources as we were doing our initial research, but figured she would be well out of our reach. However, after meeting with Jamieson and inspecting our "project site" and plans, she excitedly jumped on board. We found she was finishing our sentences and was pulling up images on her Apple laptop that were mirroring the ones in our head.

I can see between the strong opininated minds that exist between us and our architect, builder, and designer that there will be some fun times ahead!! But I'm guessing with all that experience, they won't let us build anything 'quirky' (as Jamieson would say).

So now we just hurry up and wait. The financing is in place. A rental house down the street acquired for 12 months. The permit is on its way. Jamieson is busy showing potential sub-trades through each day now. Time to purge all that really useful stuff we acquired in the last 15 years and just haven't got to using again... yet?