“Things that happen in other cities in five or ten years happen here in half a year,” says Arbel, pointing to Gastown as one example of rapid recent development.

“What often happens in our relationship is I come to Funn with an idea and he makes it into something livable.” —Vincent Kartheiser

Fun Fact: The adoption of sustainable building codes, like the California Green Building Standards Code, is likely to increase in the future. These codes describe more aggressive standards than typical building codes as regards energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor environmental quality, and other green topics.

“Life happens around architecture. And that’s fine: A lot of houses get more beautiful when they age.” —Architect Rick Black

Now, the newly exposed brick wall is like a “very raw piece of the old house,” says Jennifer. A preserved window opening marks where the bathroom used to be, and has been overlaid with mesh so that eventually vines can grow over the wall. Being open to the sky means, “a lot of credit goes to the contractor to make it happen, because of the amount of sealing that has to happen for an exterior space to be carved out of a [former] interior space,” says Jennifer. “It was not an easy thing to implement.”

"I wanted to make things look really nice and not spend a lot of money, but it takes time. It's not something that happens overnight," says Alex of scouting for furniture and decor.

A view of Sequoia's pared down kitchen, where all the magic happens. It's here that she cooked up her ideas for her meal delivery service, TAROCCO.

In search of relaxation, Cain Semrad and Damen Seminero happened instead upon a home improvement challenge: a pine-covered “rhombus-frame” house built in 1967.

I tabbed Kleikollektief in the Amsterdam Made by Hand book, but just happened to stumble upon it while wandering.

“Guests are received and welcomed in the kitchen,” she adds. “As everyone knows, no matter how small a kitchen happens to be, people always end up hanging out in there during parties.”

A central pedestal holds both the wall-hung toilet and sink to save on space. "We wanted the bathroom to feel open and easy for two people to move around in if we both happened to be in there at the same time," says Dale.

"The site itself has a generous slope, and the access from the street happens at the lower part," says Manzi. "This was the major challenge—to make the house accessible without disfiguring the site with a road."

The designers fortunately happened on enough antique wallpaper to outfit the whole room. The bookshelf is a custom design by Yun and made of salvaged heart pine, same as the floor. It features grooves in the sides, so the shelves can be pulled in and out.

“This house considers also real and imagined aspects: It is now projected as a diffuse space, free of partitions, where the boundaries between rooms are blurred so that any unexpected events can happen,” says Pardo.

Streamlined birch plywood cabinetry and a maple butcher-block counter forms the kitchenette, which isn’t intended for extensive meal prep. The building is a blend of "a bedroom and camping," says Shaw, which means much of the cooking and cleaning happens outside.

The most hands-on part of the inn’s facelift happened in the bar and adjacent lounge area, where the front desk was removed and the bar was elongated. A new bar-back was constructed out of wood shelving and supported by copper piping.

9. "Am I willing to sell my home before finding a new one?" “You want to be in the most powerful position possible to purchase your new home, and that entails having your home in escrow with all contingencies removed, or even better, having the money in the bank,” says Hoffman. 10. "Am I ready to find the perfect home on the first or second day of looking?" "If you are working with a highly trained team, then your agent will only show you homes that fit your needs,” she adds. “Finding a home on the first or second day happens half of the time, and it's easier to celebrate if people know this from the start!"

The sliding door between the kitchen and living room is painted a shade of sky blue that matches a hue favored by Italian bike brand Bianchi—a nod to Ben’s previous passion for cycling. Chiseling the track into the concrete floor was no easy task, but builder Miso Building made it happen.

“This is a humanized landscape of meadows, walls, ash, streams, a small-scale landscape, minimal, almost domestic, and where absolutely everything happens in yellow,” the architects wrote in a statement. To that end, the only hint of color on the house’s otherwise natural exterior is a door painted a vibrant lemon-yellow hue.

“There’s an interesting form of communication that happens when we’re both working. The music that is coming from the second floor starts to inform the painting that is happening on the first floor, and visa versa. It’s like we’re collaborating in an indirect way.”

The kitchen of a home on an Amsterdam canal “is where it all happens,” says Van Zeijl. As the hub of the home, the room is situated at the front of the house and features a minimal palette and Belgian granite countertops. The table is by Pilat & Pilat and the pendants are from It’s About Romi.

Fiedler Marciano Architecture custom-designed the kitchen to complement the rest of the space, including the custom frames around the cabinets. "That kind of detail—that craft and kind of effort couldn’t happen without the best subcontractors we were fortunate to work with," says architect Martin Marciano.

The Juniper Room. As for the name, Rich explains, "there's a big Juniper plant I initially wanted to get rid of to make this room happen, but my contractor told me I couldn't do that because it was a 500 year old Juniper and that we had to build around it. So we did."

It wasn’t till he was standing on the first floor framing during construction that Anderson noticed three church spires visible from this level. “It just so happened that as you move around the top floor you do get glimpses of the spires, which is a lovely aspect,” he says.

“The students were really ambitious,” Elijah Huge says. “This class was just one step beyond the intro studio, but they were really dedicated to making this project happen.”

"I think the strong, simple, unrefined setting of nature all around The Lofthouse forces you into a different state of mind," says Tarah MacAlmon. "There is something that happens mentally when you aren’t on your own man-made turf anymore. You are on nature’s turf, and there really is a certain awe and even pause that comes with that."

First, a concrete slat was poured into the ground with strategically placed dwarf walls built on top. Working as an adjustable “raft,” a floating structural frame was placed on top of the walls allowing for potential movement. If that happens, there are mechanical jacks placed underneath the frame in case the house needs to be leveled again.

"We thought about what happens to brass when exposed to oil, water, air, and time. Our bronze finishes were a response to that," says Lanette. "It tells a story in the sort of pattern of the surface, and is very forgiving. There is an imperfection, a wabi-sabi, that is so beautiful. We approach all of our patinas this way."

“We thought about what happens to brass when exposed to oil, water, air and time. Our bronze finishes were a response to that. It tells a story in the sort of pattern of the surface and is very forgiving. There is an imperfection, a wabi-sabi, that is so beautiful. We approach all of our patinas this way,” says Lanette.

My kitchen—where all the magic happens—is galley style, which makes maneuvering easy-peasy. Through the doorway at the end of the galley is my pantry (where the wall oven and microwave live) and my tiny, sweet (pun intended) office, complete with Farrow and Ball’s Calamine-colored trim (pink is my favorite color).

Stuth and Shelton’s dining area, like their bedroom, and the rest of their house, is a work in progress. The couple keeps an eye out for deals on materials to complete their laundry list of unfinished projects. Recently, a local surplus building supply happened to have just enough extra maple to finish their floors. They jumped on it. “We’re just waiting for the right opportunities,” Shelton says.

This is how showers happen.

Part of the Tools for Everyday Life

Here Egoyan captures Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) through the various glass planes in the house. A sense of hovering doom pervades the film; only bad things happen once you get upstairs.

Removing this wall transformed this dated and closed off kitchen into our clients dream space. She asked for a “monster island” and we delivered. Modern and elegant, this now open concept layout allows for hosting and connecting to happen from room to room. This also allows views of the fireplace and living area for the family to feel more connected.