Architectural photos of 50 Gordon 2.1!

Where are the photos?! Scroll down! But before you do, let’s just say there was a good reason for holding off on posting our “settled in” photos. That reason is doublespace photography and the masterful work of Amanda Large & Younes Bounhar. They are an awesome couple that have applied their love of photography to capturing and featuring residential and commercial architecture. Interestingly, they have photos featured on their website of Ottawa’s “Old City Hall” (now named after John G. Diefenbaker) which is where I am working these days. This International Style office building was originally built in 1958 (on the right) and expanded (on the left) in the 1990’s. I personally really enjoy the interior of the old part since it reminds me a lot of architecture in Brasilia built around the same time.

Back to our story…

Jason (Flynn Architect) hired doublespace to take photos of the house to feature in his portfolio. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Amanda and Younes while they set up and perfected each shot. They were there at the crack of dawn to take morning photos of the exterior before we were up. Then they transitioned to the inside for daytime shots, where they captured the amazing sunlight that comes through at the back of house in the afternoon. We were all excited as we held out for “twilight” shortly after 8pm at this time of year. This is when they took my favourite photos of the exterior with all of the lights on inside and out. What a treat to see the house look so similar to the original renderings!

A big thanks to Amanda, Younes and Jason for sharing these photos with us so we can finally feature the house as it was intended to be! See below for both photos of Amanda and Younes in action along with the final photos of 50 Gordon 2.1.

Also a big thanks to our good friend Josh who worked tireless hours cleaning up the front yard to make it presentable for the photos.  He is a Landscape Architect and we are excited to work with him on the landscape design.  Stay tuned for that of course.  In the meantime, see if you can notice the alteration in the photo of the back…

Photo Credits: doublespace photography

See their blog entry as well: 
http://doublespacephoto.com/blog/flynn/

Here are the photos I took while Amanda and Younes were taking the photos above…

Lastly, check out the side by side Jason sent me today…

Sneak peek

Our architect Jason Flynn has a photographer coming to take photos of the house in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime we figured a photo of the completed exterior is long overdue. We need to do landscaping and fix up the front steps and some stones. Other than that the front is all done!

Jason Flynn coming out of the woodwork

Our architect Jason Flynn was featured in the Ottawa Citizen this past weekend, check it out here: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/homes/Modern+sustainable+integration/8165874/story.html

Check out his website here: http://www.flynnarchitect.com

100 years ago at 50 Gordon…

Where do I even begin? First off, let’s get it out there… we are in the house!!! This post has been a long time waiting since we moved in. Before we start posting photos we want to finish up a few things and set things up. In the meantime, we wanted to share a very interesting discovery we made about the bottles that we found in the foundation of the home.

It turns out that the 5 bottles we found are from 3 different companies in production between the 1840′s and 1940′s. Here is where it gets more interesting for us personally… Back in 2005, Natalia and I went on our honeymoon to Quebec City where we stayed at a nice little boutique hotel in the old part of the city. Auberge Saint-Antoine also has an interesting historical story itself. When the excavation for the hotel started, they too discovered bottles from the past! Not only bottles of course, it turned out to be a full out archaeological project.

Here is the description from the website:

“Auberge Saint-Antoine is located in Québec City’s Old Port, on Îlot Hunt, a historically significant property situated just opposite the majestic St. Lawrence River. As a result, the Auberge is an integral part of Québec City’s history. In its early days, the Îlot Hunt property was used as a wharf, then a cannon battery, and then by British merchants when Québec City was one of North America’s biggest ports. Each of the three buildings and structures still standing today boasts great historical significance.

During the construction of Auberge Saint-Antoine, a final large-scale archaeological dig was held that led to the discovery of a number of new artifacts, some of which date back to the 1600s. The objects discovered shed new light on a part of Québec City’s history. These precious items were documented and restored by the conservation centre in order to be displayed in the hotel.”

As a side note, when we were deciding on the bathroom light fixtures we knew that we wanted a reminder of our experience. Here is a photo from the hotel bathroom we stayed at and our ensuite with the same lights (sort of).

Now, back to our story. When the hotel discovered all of these artifacts, they decided to showcase them throughout the hotel. Here are some photos:

So of course we decided to do the same. We had the perfect place to put them above our fridge in the kitchen:

Now onto the history of these bottles from left to right:

1900 to 1944: Capital Brewing Co. Ltd, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

1840′s to 1920′s: John Kilner & Sons, England

History: http://www.brothersfive.ca/sb_kilner_brothers.html and http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Kilner_Brothers

1913 to 1920: Pilgrim Mineral Water Co, Ltd, Brockville, Ontario, Canada

Here is a photo from this site:

Here is a close up of the one from 50 Gordon:

Once we are all set up in the house, we will be posting photos of the final product … stay tuned!

Movers booked!

We can hardly believe it.  Here are some photos from a couple of weeks ago.  Hopefully the next entry will be with photos with no more dust!

Working into the night!

The hardwood guys are working late to get the floor done this week. The top floor is already done and they’re now working on the main floor. Once that is done, they will sand and finish.

Very exciting!

Online inspiration

I was just reviewing the blog’s stats and I noticed that there are 2 very popular photos we just posted. One is of the kitchen and the other is the stairs. I thought it would interesting to share the photos that inspired these designs in our home.

The photo of the kitchen below really captured the walnut finish we were going for. The photo of the stairs had the angles we wanted to see on the risers. However we went with white oak to match our floors.

By the way, the hardwood has started and things are really going to pick up in the next couple of weeks with everyone back from vacation. More pics coming soon!

The final countdown

In the span of a few weeks a lot has happened at 50 Gordon!  What was once a wooden shell is turning into a true home.  The kitchen, bathrooms, tiles, drywall, paint, and trim have gone in.  We even have some appliances on site.  Unfortunately, we didn’t hit our hope of being in before the new year, but we are close.  A lot of the trades are off for the next 2 weeks, but some will continue to work to keep the momentum going.  Once we see how much gets done in the next 2 weeks we should have a much better idea of when we can call 50 Gordon home!  For now, check out the latest photos.

For those of you wondering what is up with the bright green in the small bedroom…. well we thought we would experiment a bit… love it or hate, we hope you enjoy it!

Things are about to get crazy

Movember

We wish we had more time to provide you with more substantial blog entries, but unfortunately that is just not going to happen.  Here are more photos to at least share with you some progress.  We now have lots of cedar to speak of outside (back is not complete yet), more drywall, and pavers+front steps (the dark parging on the face of the steps will lighten)… there are probably more things I am missing.

Also, you may notice I have some additional facial hair in my photo while standing in the basement.  For an explanation, check out the homage to my father on my Movember page:
http://mobro.co/aramabizadeh

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