FIND ME A SHOEHORN!

After those simple questions such as whether I wanted to share my life with Steve, or whether Steve's rambunctious Westie, Brewster, could get along with grouchy Terri-poo Theo and placid Maltese Shitzu Ellie, I really had to go to the BIG question: where will I put all my shoes? Where will I fit my makeup? How do we shoehorn my large home into Steve's cottage? Of course, we explored several options, he moving to Twin Brooks or us buying something together, I knew in my heart that Riverdale has such a lot to offer as a community and the character of this Riverdale cottage-like home and neighbourhood was where we needed to be.

I've lived in suburban homes most of my life, and I believe that the apartment I shared with Marty in university (UWO) was even bigger than the Riverdale home, so I need a BIG shoehorn.  Poor Steve. I moved in on February 1, 2011, and Steve's life has not been the same since. Fortunately, my furniture has still to come, so it is not quite as cramped as it could be.

Steve's a handy guy, and so we talked a lot about starting a renovation. We knew we'd need a second bathroom…. And the project grew. Besides the interior renovations, we will be adding 17 feet to the length of the house, eventually making the house 1260 square feet on each of the two levels.

The House

Small bathroom... one and only

U Shaped kitchen.

This 816 sq. ft. bungalow with full basement was built in 1957. The mail floor has a kitchen/dining room, living room, small bedroom, smaller bedroom (now used as an office) and a very small bathroom. It was well built: nice and square with old knot-free fir studding, well fit doors etc. Original windows are vertical sliders with seasonal screens/storms. Walls are 2X4 with paper-backed fiberglass, now significantly settled, and covered inside with 2 layers of 3/8 Gyproc and a thin veneer of plaster. 

 

Living room

The kitchen has been updated sometime in the last 15 years.  The is a faux granite counter and stick built cabinets.  Our plan is to move this space into the basement as our wine room and potential kitchen suite.

The basement was partly finished, maybe 25 or so years ago, with 2X2 frost walls and a thin strip of insulation behind ½ inch drywall. Wiring is copper throughout, but the entire basement is wired into the furnace circuit. The breaker panel has 12 circuits, of which 4 are taken up with the range and the dryer. Laundry is in the basement unfinished area. There is a small existing bedroom with enough space to slither beside the bed... and a rough study area and family room.


Even the stairs to the basement are narrow and steep! There are no front or back hall closets in the house as you can see by the coat hooks.

The lot is narrow – 11 meters wide – and sharply sloped down from front to back and 45.6 meters deep. There’s an original single car garage accessed from the back alley.

 

Side entrance

More living room

Kitchen and back entry

Next installment: The Project

SMALL BEGINNINGS

So, here’s the story of Steve & Nancy and their lovely little (emphasize LITTLE) house in Riverdale. We’ll narrate the story in 1^st person and try to let you know who’s writing as we go.



24 feet wide, 33 long. 



It’s Steve writing now. It all started back in April of 2010 when I returned from my trip of a lifetime in the Nepalese Himalayas to find that my good friends Sandra & Barry were moving and wanted to sell their 1950’s-built 800 sq. ft. home in the Edmonton’s river valley. I had long wanted to live closer to the river valley and quickly agreed to buy the house from them and moved in on July 01, 2010.

Back deck overlooks a long, slender lot.

Enter Nancy and the LITTLE-ness of the place quickly became a problem for both of us and late in 2010 we started thinking of how to make more room. Here’s a couple of photos of what it looked like then.