Marsh Hill Studio 54: Home Sweet Home

Significant

Moving to Seaforth, Nova Scotia

The best plans back in 2010 were to sell our Vancouver Live/Work loft and to put our ‘stuff’ into Vancouver storage, for we will be rejoicing soon, in our new abode, within a few months of leaving Vancouver. WHO KNEW that our well-thought-out plans could change, leaving us with just our suitcase and me, with only one drawing kit, a year later??? 

Big life changes and a drastic move across Canada have encompassed our lives for over a year now. We moved from Vancouver, British Columbia (on the west coast), driving across Canada in October 2010, to Nova Scotia (on the east coast). We intended to buy an existing house once we arrived in Nova Scotia. 

The Workshop Live/work loft studio space
Vancouver BC... red dot marks our loft.

Open living and studio space 
aka 'the lofty palace' with 20-foot-high windows. 

Vancouver's city skyline from our loft window.

View from 'Lofty Palace' of downtown Vancouver, BC.

Upon our discovery, purchasing an existing house left us with the reality that we would have to do some serious renovations to make it work for 2 creative people who need a 'specific' space. My friend, Jim, is a working musician, and he needs a space to practice, write, and store all his equipment. I need a place with lots of light, space, and SPACE…did I say ‘space’ twice? YES, an artist seems to never have enough space to hang paintings or to store everything! It is not that we just needed a house that caters to basic living, but it had to have 2 functional ‘specific’ studio spaces, a great soaker bathtub, a view, and the big clincher, to stay within our budget!

We gave in to the auspicious idea of building and designing our own home from scratch within two months of searching for a home every day. For years,  we watched many TV episodes of my hero 'Holmes on Homes', and 'getting it right' is what we wanted to have in our lives and our home. His TV series gave us valuable insight into searching for problems in houses. They instilled some confidence to look for those expensive issues without getting too caught up in the glitz & the sparkle of some very nicely presented homes. 

We owe our heartfelt gratitude to Fred, Jim's friend from years past, who acted as our building inspector and shared with us the oodles of his experience in home renovation and building sets for the movie industry. Eventually, after months of looking at homes for sale, Fred mentioned, "Why don't you build your own, then you know the house is built right?" We began searching for land and found a dream come true: a view property with a country setting in Seaforth, featuring horses in fields, stunning views, and access to Gaetz Lake and the Atlantic Ocean beaches. 

Just getting the land cleared...ahhh the Seaforth NS view!

We couldn't believe our luck and timing, connecting with another friend of Jim's from years ago. Joe Murphy is a musician, singer & harmonica player who introduced us to some land in Seaforth, Nova Scotia, that he knew a fellow surfer friend from the USA wanted to sell. We could see the potential, although it was very overwhelming to think that we would have to start from scratch. We negotiated a fair price for the land, THEN the next plan of action was to design something for our budget and ‘needs’. 

Started by hand clearing some alders 
and burning them in late winter.

Cleared land, just getting started!

Land cleared, dugout, refilled with pit rock, with an Armour rock wall built, 
getting the best view potential. 
'Digger' Wayne calls it a 'Hollywood' view
... were liking it!

Armour rock wall and pit filled 
ready for house building.

Clearing and shaping the land was overwhelming.  Before constructing the building, we had to remove an acre of alders, raspberry bushes, and other vegetation to access the dirt, allowing us to plan the house's location. Then, a large amount of red clay dirt had to be excavated and refilled with drainage pit rock. Massive armour blue stones had to be brought in to create a landscaped wall that would hold the hillside in place and to make a curved shape into the hillside, allowing for safe drainage and ensuring our home is tucked away. I nicknamed our CAT-driving big rig guy, "Digger" Wayne, who handles his CATs like they are extensions of his arms and legs. I am sure he can scratch a mosquito off the end of his nose with a CAT bucket! 

View of Seaforth, NS... Ah, sweet!

Guinness a.k.a 'Stick' and Charlie a.k.a 'Stone'

These two dogs belong to our neighbor, and they have become our best buddies. Every time we came to the land, they would come to greet us with their favorite collections of sticks and stones. Sadly, without warning, the black lab, Guinness, just up and died of old age this summer. Charlie still comes to greet us, but suspects he misses his black brother to compete and share whatever spoils they manifest!

John, our building contractor, introduced Sarah Zollinger, a recent graduate from architecture school, to create a style of home and studio we wanted to build. Being a painter is much easier; I can very easily buy mediums, find a surface to paint on, and the time to do it, to create my art, but an architect needs clients, with money, to express a bit of something that is 'them', but at the same time, filling their clients' needs. She had a keen vision of what we wanted and helped us organize all our wants, styles, and needs into a modern, designed house and studio space that is unique yet functional. We have been further enriched by hiring John Brannen and his crew, Jordan, Jamie, and Ron, who are all talented and have also contributed ideas to work out the constant building challenges, keeping our energy-efficient and on budget. 

ICF Construction walls

Future studio spaces for Jim and Minaz 

Minaz Studio side

Minaz Art Studio is under construction.

The Seaforth Beach house has lots of windows!

Currently, the house building is still going on, and with hopes that we move into our new home called 'Marsh Hill Studio 54' by fall 2011, thus rejoicing and joining with our stored ‘stuff’ still in Vancouver.

Be careful about what you wish for... ancient wisdom meets modern dreams! Minaz