Vancouver’s best makeovers
Sunday, May 31: Parade of Renovated Homes lets homeowners get the best expert advice
When it comes to getting inspiration and information for your home renovation, there’s nothing quite like seeing something in real life, says Bob de Wit, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association (GVHBA).
The organization is holding its annual Parade of Renovated Homes on Sunday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., allowing members of the public to tour through nearly a dozen homes around Greater Vancouver.
“Seeing is believing,” de Wit explains. “Being able to take a look at a finished project and to talk to a renovator about all of the stages involved in getting to that point — that has a lot of value. You can’t get that by looking at a picture on the Internet.”
He says the GVHBA members playing host at each location are prepared to speak candidly about what homeowners should be aware of before hiring someone. In fact, one of the homes on the 2015 tour involves the successful renovation company having to address problems from a previous contractor, including work that did not conform to building codes and work that was not inspected at the correct times — creating expensive delays.
The reasons for taking on a renovation project vary widely. In some cases, homeowners want to add some wow factor, with highend kitchens, expansive outdoor spaces, and sweeping sightlines. In the case of a Coquitlam home on this year’s tour, that includes a glass hip roof over a reading nook, which allows light to cascade over the space.
Retractable glass walls which allow true indoor-outdoor living, double- sided fireplaces which provide visual interest and warmth to two rooms, and home automation systems — for both energy conservation and entertainment purposes — are also proving to be popular this year.
In other renovations, residents love their neighbourhoods and don’t have any interest in hunting for new homes; they simply want more space, or for their existing residences to be more functional. That can mean gutting a place to the studs and rebuilding from the inside out, or adding on another floor.
The families who live in two homes on this year’s tour — one in New Westminster, the other a 1911 heritage house in Vancouver — loved the character and the personal history of the structures, and wanted to preserve those attributes while improving dayto-day living. Homeowners had contractors open up the spaces; and in the case of the Vancouver property, opted to lift the house to create a proper basement and added on to the second floor.
“The parade is a great way to chat one- on- one, to meet the professionals who can pull off complicated manoeuvres like raising a house or building a significant addition, and to get design ideas — even for little DIY-style projects,” says de Wit. “There’s something for everyone.”
Admission for the tour is $10 per adult, with children 17 and under entering for free. A parade “passport” can be purchased on site at any of the homes, and then presented to gain entrance to every home visited after that. A portion of ticket sales will go toward supporting a carpentry program offered by two Surrey high schools: Guildford Park and Frank Hurt Secondary.