Furniture, Falafel & Ikea

We went to Montreal this weekend. Our primary goal was to visit Ikea and make some kitchen planning/cabinet decisions as well as scope out options for bathroom vanities and storage for the walk-in closet in the master suite. On a previous visit, on our way to Milano, (a wonderful Italian grocery store north on St. Laurent in Little Italy) we passed a number of contemporary/modern furniture stores. We decided to spend yesterday scoping these out and reserved today for Ikea.

We didn’t find much of interest at the furniture stores on St. Laurent. However, we discovered a great little middle eastern restaurant called Rumi Grill with delicious falafel and authentic Moroccan mint tea. We’ll go back, and highly recommend it.

http://www.rumigrill.ca/en/

After lunch we continued north on St. Laurent and spent a little time shopping at Milano where Michael bought a 3 liter jar of “meaty” green olives (which he will most likely consume within the next week). After this, an hour remained before stores would close for the evening. We decided to go in search of a lighting store that I have driven past for years, but have never had the need or excuse to visit. Au courant is located just off 15 north before the exit for 40 west and has a vast array of contemporary lighting fixtures. Not sure we will end up purchasing from them, but saw some beautiful things.

www.aucourantlighting.com

We returned to our hotel in Old Montreal and spent a few hours assessing what we needed to accomplish today. After this, we went out for a nice dinner of mussels at Holder and decided to be at Ikea when it opened this morning. We arrived around 10 and, after a rather dismal breakfast in the cafeteria, launched our attack.

As we wove our way through different showrooms on our way to the kitchen section, we found a possible desk for Michael’s office, bathroom vanity for the kid’s bathroom and some ideas for storage for ours. I was busy taking pictures on my Iphone — and making notes. After about an hour of meandering through the displays, we found

ourselves in front of a computer screen (the only one set-up for english-speakers) using the kitchen planning software to configure our cabinets. Ikea is a busy

place on a Sunday . . . luckily, between us we only needed to ask two quick questions before finishing up our preliminary plan.

We need to run our ideas by Rolf and have two cabinet finishes we are interested

in. They don’t have samples of the finishes. But Michael had the great idea of purchasing drawer fonts of both. I ordered them online rather than wait for a staff person to place an order for us to pick-up before leaving. we chosen a flat panel door design with a simple handle. We use a plinth or kickplate under the cabinets rather than having the legs exposed. It’s a cleaner andsimpler look. The sides of the cabinets will be facing with matching finish panels so the finished installation won’t be two-toned like these photos.

As we printed our our plan and the itemized order form that is generated by the program, Michael looked at his watch and we had been working on the plan for about two hours. It was 2:00 and we had been in Ikea four hours! We decided to head home. I felt exhausted, and relieved after we finished, and Michael did too. Not too many exciting visuals to share, but as we progress,we’ll have plenty more. We think we’ll hear back from Jeremy, our contractor, later this week with a preliminary estimate. Then we’ll know if what we have planned up to this point will be within budget. More to come.

Site Plan and Awaiting Estimates

Two posts within a few days, I know, but this one will be short. We got a package from Rolf on Friday that’s on it’s way to Jeremy for estimating.

The site plan, which is very close (if not final) is included here so you can see the “U” shape we discussed in our first post. It gives a good idea of the footprint of the house and how it will be sited. We love this plan and look forward to implementing it all once the construction is complete.

We’ll share floorplans and other drawing when they are resolved—we still have a few details to work out on that front.

Tina

To Shed or Not to Shed

I promised a recounting of the shed roof discussions around our house design. I’m sure everyone has been anxiously awaiting this post. In high design speak it’s called a mono pitch(ed) roof. Funny, when I googled mono pitched roofs, I got lots of images of garden shed designs from the UK. Hmmm, wonder why? I’m including a photo of a one story shed roof home I found in my search on the internet for reference.

When Rolf first suggested this as a good solution to reducing our square footage on the second floor of the main house (the master suite area), Michael and I were both open to the concept. The next weekend we drove around and saw examples of this roof style on existing homes. After this, we both felt that we weren’t interested in this design direction. However, in subsequent meetings, Michael started to stray to the dark side. Rolf tried unsuccessfully to sway me as well—showing me photos of multi-million dollar homes with shed (oops, I mean mono pitched) roofs and explaining why it would be a great solution for our house. I know if anyone could make this visually appealing, it would be Rolf. But, I just can't “go there.”

I think of myself as open to new and unconventional design ideas. But, on a gut level, I just can’t bring myself around to the mono pitch design. My original thoughts of how I would describe the house we wanted to build was “loft meets modern/minimalist farm house.” None of the other exterior surface finishes need to be conventional—but I need the overall shape to have a reference to the vernacular architecture of Vermont. And to be something I know that I won't regret or grow tired of.

As it turns out the solar hot water panel will be sitting on the southern pitch of our conventional gable-to-gable roof, which wouldn’t have existed in the mono-pitch design. So, it all worked out in the end (especially since I got my way).

Rolf mentioned to Stevie (his wife and my best friend) that I was closed to the idea of the shed roof . . . her reply to him “I hate shed roofs!” (Thank you, Stevie.) And Michael’s latest idea was that we should put a hinge in the roof and when I’m not around he can open the hinge and have that mono pitch roof he was considering. Now, there’s a realistic solution!

Tina

Our interpretation of Modern/Minimalism

I thought I’d flesh out our interpretation of Modern/Minimalism as it relates to our new house. Pictured above are Bocci 22 electrical wall outlets. There are no face plates, just a simple, flush, functional outlet. To me, this illustrates one of the major factors in minimalist design—no unneccesary trim, embellishments, or just plain crap. This idea carries over into:

Process. We will try to keep construction simple by using standard sizes where possible for trusses, drywall, etc.;

Lifestyle. Attempt to declutter our lives by paring down non-essential material possessions;

Design. Keep to simple forms and colors that align with natural surroundings.

The minimalist approach also works well with “green building” principles. We will “buy local” where possible, use energy star appliances, minimize chemicals (i.e., no VOC paints) and, hopefully, install solar panels on the roof for our hot water, PV array for power, thermal or ground water heat exchange for, well, heating.

The reality is that these require larger upfront investment. Although there are financial incentives from the state and some power companies, many of these things end up costing more than the conventional systems that rely on oil or gas for combustion. So, some of what is on our wish list might not be possible.

The “modern” component of this relates to our love for great, classic design as exemplified by these well-known 20th century modernists:

Charles and Ray Eames

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Le Corbusier

I tend to see things in musical terms. There’s been a minimalist movement in music for quite some time, going back to Erik Satie’s experiments with what he called “Furniture Music.” “In the midst of an art opening at a Paris gallery in 1902, Ambient music was born. Erik Satie and his cronies, after begging everyone in the gallery to ignore them, broke out into what they called Furniture Music—that is, background music—music as wallpaper, music to be purposely not listened to. The patrons of the gallery, thrilled to see musicians performing in their midst, ceased talking and politely watched, despite Satie’s frantic efforts to get them to pay no attention.”

Contemporary music minimalists that I love include:

Arvo Part

Goldmund




Library Tapes



Olafur Arnalds




I’ll save my interest in foot-pedal faucets for another post. Stay tuned.