Elvis at The HayLoft

Elvis the chair, that is. This was designed and build by Tom Ray, a Saskatoon artist. The actual piece is named "Wahoo".

When we stumbled across it at an opening at the Darrell Bell Gallery, Carrie and I both laughed because we instantly knew that it was perfect for the HayLoft. Darrell was even kind enough to deliver it in exchange for a tour of the house.

The HayLoft Grows to Three

This is my favorite photo of Eliot Olson, taken just 3 days after he was born. The photo is taken in Carrie's barn/office and Eliot is laying on our chair Elvis, which was made by local furniture designer and artist Tom Rae.

Morning Martin Photo

The sun was peeking in the east window and casting great shadows on the barnboard this morning. Had to snap this one with my #1 assistant, Mr. Eliot.

Paintings by Marie Lannoo

We've just added two great pieces from Marie to our art collection. These are in the Grain Elevator (my office) where the north facing windows cast a beautifully soft and diffuse light that helps show the unbelievable color depth that Marie is renowned for.

HayLoft Sandwich Board

The HayLoft sandwich board turned out to be a wonderful integration of design (Derek Bachman), material (salvage barn board) and execution (laser etched by Dave Zolinski @ Laser Impressions).

This one was a bullseye...

SkyLight Addition

Nov 5, 2009 saw the long awaited installation of our skylight on the HayLoft.

The original plans called for the skylight because the kitchen is located in the middle of the building limiting natural southern light into the space. In addition to this, we've found that the combination of some dark colors and the exposed fir roof, while making the home very cozy and warm, tend to soak up a lot of the light that does enter the home.

So we pulled the trigger and managed to do the entire project in one day thanks to Ken Heath, my go-to-guy for renovations, and Western Urethane who came out to do the spray foam and waterproofing on the exterior of the skylight.

The end result has been to make two major improvements to the home: first, we get FLOODED with beautiful diffuse daylight all day long now and, secondly, we now have opening windows up high that will help with the natural ventilation in the summers and during house concerts.

Check out the photos...

Step Up To The Mic

I just took this photo with our new Canon G11 and thought I'd post it to share the experience of playing a house concert at the HayLoft.

Saskatoon Home Article

Here is a copy of the article from Saskatoon Home Magazine.

Photos from Saskatoon Home Magazine

Here's a few images shot by Jimmy Oneschuk or the Saskatoon Home Magazine, Spring Issue. The magazine is hitting the streets this next week but if you can't wait, wander down to Museo Coffee at the Mendel Art Gallery or Caffe Sola on 23rd and Pacific for advance copies...and grab a latte while you're there.

No Pressure, No Diamonds

"No pressure, no diamonds" is a favorite saying mine. When I'm under pressure I manage to use it as a galvanizing force to focus all of my energy into a single goal.  I think I learned that in the U of S Engineering program where I was under constant pressure for a 4 year run during my Engineering Physics Undergrad.

These days it's men with cameras in their hands that put the pressure on me.  Saskatoon Home Magazine, run by my good friend and powerchick Susan Zwarych, has decided to run a feature on the Hay Loft for their spring publication.  If there's one thing that puts me under the gun to finish the, ooohhh say, 100 uncompleted tasks in the house, it's a magazine photographer.

As such, it has been an intense couple weeks of working until 2 am on the house (sorry about the router at 12:30 last night, Carrie) to finish our master bathroom (image attached) and the fireplace in our living room.

  

We also stumbled into a floor model sale at local modern furniture retailer Sew and Home where we picked up a G.Romano sectional (with pull out bed, indie touring musicians across Canada celebrate in unison).  Our photographer/barista friends Jimmy Oneschuk commented "now you can add 'bought furniture specifically for a magazine shoot' to your list of 'you know you're an architectural nerd when...' " How true....

Oct 3, 2008 - Completion

I've heard it said that a home is never finished, and I think that the Hay Loft is no exception to that rule.  

Oct 3rd 2008 was our official move in date, followed quickly by the house warming and my 31st birthday on October 4th.  It was easily one of the best parties we've ever had the pleasure of hosting and we couldn't have done it without the help of our friends and family, especially Anthony and Anastasia McCarthy, who put on the most unbelievable spread of food I've ever seen. 

All in all, the project consumed about 1 year of my life. It has been amazing, but I'm ready to move on....next up, converting the ex-Motion Picture and Sound brick build on 2nd Ave South into a pair of condo's and then I'll try convince the former Saskatoon Chinese Mennonite Church in Riversdale that it could become a vibrant multifunctional art space (let's see what the city thinks of that plan).

Rear of building, new garage is up and waiting for the rooftop deck which I'll tackle next spring.

Our grain bin.  Perfect home for cereal and oatmeal....

Facade and side of the Hay Loft. Xeriscaping will commence in Spring '09.

The Ultimate Rendition by Victoria artist Colin MacRae, still brings me joy everytime I see it.

Inside the Hay Loft...front extension of the grain bin/kitchen.

My office, the grain elevator.  Saskatchewan Wheat Pool should have paid for this advertisement. I'll invoice them....

A la barn. I think Ron Sexsmith is really going to enjoy playing a house concert with a barn for a backdrop.

Kitchen. Bubinga countertop.

You Have to Create Some Problems...

Vaughn Wyant once said that sometimes in business it's good to create problems.  Especially when interesting problems require creative solutions.  I think I just created a problem to deal with.  Let me explain...

A few weeks back I stumbled into a hot tip on some grain bin siding that was coming out of some office space in Saskatoon.  My first inquiry about the material didn't go anywhere, but yesterday I received a call from the building owner saying that the material was up for grabs, but I had to go pick it up today.  

So this afternoon was a salvaging mission.  Net results: 4 vintage sliding barn doors, 4 nicely weathered barn door tracks with rollers, and 3 sheets of grain bin siding complete with the door assembly.

"So what's the problem?" you ask...I needed all this material 3 weeks ago before we went and salvaged other barn doors and bought both the sliding box track and grain bin siding from the Co-Op Farm Center.

The question now is...what's a guy to do with extra barn doors and grain bin siding?  The answer is forthcoming.  As of now, I think the barn doors will be reworked to become window coverings, but, as I tell Carrie, all plans are subject to change...like our move in date (2 weeks).

Progress Photos

Just a few photos of recent progress.  The barn is 99% complete and never would have come together without the surgical precision and craftsmanship of Byron, my father in law.  It turned out much better than I had imagined.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Grain Elevator last week.  Still needs a few finishing touches like a door and shingles.

The OSB flooring turned out much more golden that I had expected, which is actually better than I had thought.

First House Concert

May 11, 2008

"Curt, I'm booking our first house concert with Claire Jenkins for August 6th.  Are you sure that the Hay Loft will be ready by then?" said Carrie.

"I guarantee it" said I.

My new saying has become "no pressure no diamonds" and it certainly feels like we've had enough pressure on us lately to make a few diamonds.  We were able to meet the deadline of Aug 6th for our concert, but not without 3 weeks straight of working from 8 am to midnight and with help from my best contractors, other wise known as our dads (Byron, Peter, Rick) who helped us to cross the finish line just in time.

I'm sure the band was a bit taken back when they showed up at 5 pm to discover two plumbers, three carpenters, an electrician and myself running around like mad trying to complete the house.  At 5 Carrie asked "Curt, when are the contractors going to leave because I kind of (read: should have started yesterday) need to set up for the concert?" What patience that woman has.

I'll let the pictures tell the tale.  Special thanks goes to Dean Friesen for the sweet mixing console that he lent us, to Bob White for getting it set up, Jay and Depesh at Boom Music for the stage lights and especially to my dad for the electrical and Byron (Carrie's father) for putting in the late late nights with me leading up to the house concert.

ps. we're still not moved in yet....that's still coming.

 

Late Nights

It's been over a week now of working late every night. The other
night I checked my watch and realized that we were still running the
saws at close to 11pm. I'm sure the neighbors must hate me at this
point. The first house concert in our place is scheduled for Wednesday
August 6th. I think we'll be able to make it...actually, we have no
choice. We've already sent out the invitations.....

"Farm Junk Sale: 222-2228"

Byron, my father in law, called me just as Rick and I were crawling back to Saskatoon with the first load of barn board to say that he'd just visited another site towards Wakaw.  He said that it was worth our time to make the trip and pull off a few boards.  So on Thursday night we headed out to the site for a reconnaissance mission.

Apparently Byron had been in contact with the owner and they were willing to give up the siding from a couple of old granaries, but the barn and the original house were off limits.  After a quick debate over our strategy (Byron wanted to removing it one board at a time, while I lobbied for cutting out the whole wall, lock, stock and barrel, and taking it back in one huge piece) we decided to take it one board at a time. The boards came off quite nicely and we only lost about 30% in the process.  

Let me wax about these boards for a minute...these are the best ones: they're fir, which is most common, they've got the beveled lap and a groove, so they fit nicely, and they also have a beautiful grey sun beaten and sandblasted patina to them.  These are boards that you simply cannot manufacture and they bear the scars of 100 years on the Saskatchewan prairies.  I would even go so far as to say that they've got soul.  Perhaps, a green eyed soul. (www.carriecatherine.com)

By the time we ran out of daylight at 10:00, we'd managed to strip two sides of the building and had a decent load of boards denailed and loaded into Byron's Volvo.  Byron, being the sacrificing individual that he is, offered to skip a weekend at Emma Lake to stay back and get a start on installing the barn board.  

I'll stop there.  The pictures below should tell the rest of the story.  Note the beam projecting out of the barn just above the opening for the hay loft.  That's from the first load of salvaged lumber.

I'm out the door to return to the site for the rest of our barn board.  

C

Barn Board Salvaging Success

My step-dad, Rick, just pulled through big time....

Working on advice of "he's got a quonset full of old boards and will give em up for a hundred bucks" Rick and I decided to drive out to Laura, SK this evening in search of siding for Carrie's barn/office.  You see, if you'd asked me what the chance was of finding old barn siding in the middle of the prairies, I'd have guessed it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.  Turns out it's been quite a challenge to source out the stuff.  I had an early success with fir 1x4's but have since been left out in the cold with respect to the barn board. I've even recruited my best team to help out...my father in law Byron Horachek, who I'm sure has half of the accountants at Meyers Norris Penney searching for the stuff, my pops Peter and my step dad Rick.  I've even gone so far as getting Habitat for Humanity and the City of Saskatoon Fire Chief looking around for me.  Despite my best efforts, nothing had come alive until today when, if you can believe it, 4 of those people came through with real opportunities for barn board.  The Fire Chief stopped by to tour a couple of guys from the City Planning Department through the Hay Loft (I should be charging admission), Habitat had an opportunity, Byron sourced out an entire building, and Rick came through with the connection in Laura.  So tonight we drove to Laura and found a great supply of fir siding and rough lumber.

The owners were Lawrence and Shirley Fay and they live part time on the property that Lawrence's father and uncle homesteaded in 1903 (before Saskatoon was formed).  It's a very well kept farm with grain bins, an enviable quonset/garage/ultimate workshop, and a few salvaged buildings from the town of Laura.  One in particular used to be a coal shed, which apparently was used for people to store their coal.  Who knew? They moved the building to their property in 1974, just before Lawrence took over the farm following his brothers sudden passing. 

The prairies really is beautiful in July and I was reminded of that this evening.  As we were loading the trailer, the clouds turned black and we even got a bit of rain and lightning.  The colors of the landscape are just so vibrant that I had to break out my camera and take a few snaps.  Below is a picture of Rick as we were getting ready to leave.  It was really peaceful being out in the middle of nowhere, watching two deer and a fawn jumping through the pea fields, loading the lumber and then having a visit with the Fay's.  The thing that I realized tonight is that the lumber is not just a cost saving measure.  I'm an engineer (at times) and fully understand the idea of optimization and efficiency, and I can assure you that salvaging lumber is neither.  What it is, though, is a continuation of the history of our province. It's part of our heritage, part of our culture, and I find that it's a really strong way for me to connect with older generations through a process of learning more about the history of my home land.  I actually feel like I've learned more about our province's history from building the Hay Loft than I ever did in school.  

Someone should tell our teachers that....

Concrete Fireplace

So we took the forms off of the fireplace the next day to find the wall was about 80 degrees celsius.  Too bad we didn't bring any eggs, because the sucker was hot enough to fry one one...

For a first attempt at casting concrete, I'm super happy with how the fireplace wall turned out.  We totally achieved the form-board impressioned concrete look that I was after.  The downside is that it's not quite perfect, due to some leaky plasic wrap, and some spots are a bit rougher than I would have liked.  

We've since decided to use concrete for our other two countertops and have contracted Bruce Rempel at Sand and Stone by Rempel to cast them for us.  We'll continue the rough fir board texture on the countertops so that it ties in nicely with the fireplace.  I know he's going to do a killer job and can't wait to see how they turn out....

Fireplace Casting

Yesterday saw the finish of casting our concrete fireplace. Let me
tell you a bit about it...

The fireplace will be a mix of concrete (hearth and back wall of the
surround), reclaimed douglas fir boards, and a natural gas firebox.
Early on I realized that our boiler and radiant floor heating system
essentially had the potential to provide heat anywhere I could run
water. When thinking about our fireplace, I decided that having it
cast concrete with and embedded radiant heating loop, I'd be able to
have the fireplace provide heating whether the fireplace was on or
not. So I guess it's a water heated fireplace...or a
waterplace.....or a hot-water-fireplace.....or a water and fireplace.
Really, it's just an experiment.

I wanted the fireplace to serve a few purposes: first, to become the
heart and focal point of the living room and common area, second, to
provide heating to the room, and third, to add another material and
texture to the place. I decided to form the fireplace out of the
reclaimed douglas fir 1x4's and am hoping to get the grain pattern of
the form boards telegraphed into the concrete. After the forms are
removed, I'll use the same fir boards for encasing the firebox.
Essentially, when you look at the fireplace you'll see the grain of
the fir boards start in the concrete, transition into the actual fir,
then back into the concrete as you travel horizontally along the
fixture.

The photos show the rebar and kitek tubing that is used for the
radiant floor heating system, along with the form just before we
started pouring yesterday. After having done two hand mixed concrete
pours this week (hearth first, then back wall) I've decided not to
pursue a career as a concrete truck.....

Canada Day Progress Report

Notice has been given to vacate our apartment as of July 31st. I
guess that means I have to get the Hay Loft ready for occupancy.....

We've been making great progess lately and the finishing is starting
to come together: the elevator is 90% finished, the walls are painted,
flooring is being installed, kitchen cabinets are almost ready, and
the concrete fireplace is underway. We'll be tight to try and occupy
by July 31st, but you know what they say......"No pressure, no diamonds"

Attached is a picture of the concrete fireplace hearth and surround.
We've embedded radiant heating lines into it and will set the
fireplace and mantle on top of this structure. I've designed the
fireplace to integrate both the urban and prairie themes into it: the
shape of the piece is quite simple and contemporary, being comprised
of a simple base and back wall, but will be formed using fir 1x4's I
salvaged from a farm such that the fir grain pattern is embedded into
the concrete. Those same fir 1x4's will then be used to build the
other half of the surround and mantle, resulting in a fireplace that
is warm concrete and salvaged fir. I think this will be one of the
focal points of the room and the first object that the eye will see
upon entering the house.