Every time we wander over to the Victory Cafe, we keenly keep an eye on a modern build happening right in our neighborhood. The space before, if I remember correctly, was occupied by a house begging to be torn down. The new owner probably got the lot for a song (or five), since it’s location is less desirable in a very desirable neighborhood. Next to a laneway and across from a high school is not the best scenario (trust me, we know), but when you can build your dream home then does it really matter? My only hope is that this home is being built for personal use and not for resale–I get that people love to flip houses but it really takes away from the personal aspect.

Anyway, the other day we walked by and we nearly lost it when we saw that the Tyvek was being covered by slats of wood. Good gosh, it looks fab. My only question is, how long is the wood going to look that good? What’s the maintenance on it because our backyard deck looks awful and it’s only been about 5 years. I love the use of wood and hope it looks this great indefinitely. It’s such a refreshing change from charcoal stucco or concrete. And it really brightens up the street (again, next to some older sad looking houses and a very cool Central Tech concrete addition – then again, everything looks abysmal right now. Can’t wait for spring!).

Photos: Juli Daoust