About Ottawa's Alta Vista

There was an era when plasterers were hired during house construction to finish off the lath and plaster walls and to do decorative swirls and curls and strange designs on the ceilings. If I had to guess the time frame, it would be around 1920 - 1970. Do you know what I mean?

You can see some these designs in older homes in Sandy Hill, the Glebe, Ottawa South, etc. Some of them are beautiful and reflect real craftsmanship. Others - well - not so much. I was out with a buyer looking at homes built in the 1950s. In the basement of one home the ceiling had been plastered - BUT - it was as though they had paid for the plaster by the truckload and were moved to use it all. The ceilings were low, especially where the heating pipes had been encased. The plaster, dried and hardened after many decades, dripped from the ceiling in long upside down peaks. It was as though we were in a cave with decades of stalactite growth. My client was over 6′ tall so there was a clear and present danger in that basement.

The photo that I have included is so close to what that ceiling looked like that I have to share it with you.

This plaster time seemed to be followed by the stippled ceiling time. Here, the drywall guys or painter guys would be hired to tape off the drywalled ceiling and then, rather than do the fine sanding and make the joins invisible, stippling was added. This covered any and all imperfections. Once up, they are a real bugger to remove. Times change and now we seem to hate stippled ceilings. Some people call these popcorn ceilings (and I for one wonder what their popcorn looks like). Removing stippled ceilings is not for the faint of heart. You need a shower cap and cape, you need a lot of water to loosen the stippling and you need plastic covering everything in the room including you. Wet - scrape - wet - scrape - wet - scrape. This is followed by: drywall - tape - sand - mud - sand, -mud - paint. Now you know why those stippled ceilings are still around. You may want to consider removing the stippling as it dates the house BUT also consider it worth the cost to have someone come in and do the ceilings professionally.

Whatever your decision on your ceilings, minimize the odd and bizarre. At least touch up the paint smears from painting the walls and, if you are a smoker, you might want to paint the ceiling (plastered, stippled or drywalled) as the yellow from the smoke is not a selling feature.

Don't inflict and artificial ceiling on your price.

Photo credit: stalactites @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/hodgers/117656517/

When you think you have seen everything when house hunting, there is still more to surprise you. A few years ago, I was looking for a new house. I must have seen over 20 homes when lo and behold - a bathroom with a clear glass door. I thought it was a joke. Who would want to have the most private room in the house, clearly visible? My only thought was that nudists lived in the house. It would be bad enough that everyone can see how clean or dirty the room is BUT it would also be a huge surprise to dinner guests and visitors.

If you think the clear bathroom door brings light into the rest of the house, you may be right. However, privacy will always trump light when it comes to bathrooms. I never went back to that house and thought it was a unique ‘feature'. Later in my search, I came across another bathroom with the clear glass door, this time in the basement of a sprawling bungalow in a very desirable part of town. Was this just a local Ottawa phenomenon? Once might be unique, two could be coincidence but seeing a third on a TV make-over show made me think there was a less than desirable trend occurring.

If you are selling and your bathroom door is glass or missing , you have three choices:

• Leave it and learn to live with voyeurism and a house on the market for a little extra time;
• Remove the glass door and replace it or the missing door with something standard and private; or,
• Frost the glass so that it is not transparent.

A bathroom is not the place to play....

Peek-a-boo, I see you.

Photo credit: bathroom

Well, I have taken photos of the snowmen that are leaving for a better home and these are just two more. Clearly there was a time when adding numbers to my collection was more important than adding quality. They are serving their final purpose here by wishing you a Merry Christmas.

Are your kitchen cupboards jam packed? I was in a kitchen design shop yesterday (Laurysen Kitchens) and was shown a really cool set of kitchen cupboards for the wall in the kitchen that does not have a counter top. They were only 6' high. There were no cupboards extending to the ceiling. The designer said that very few people wanted this design because they preferred more cupboards tp open space. In fact, she said, people with 10 ' ceilings still want storage to the ceiling. She said you would need a ladder to get to those cupboards. What on earth are people keeping in those warehouse size kitchens?

When your house is on the market, Buyers will want to know if there is room to store their things in your house. Even if you have enough cupboards space take out anything in the kitchen that is not food or food preparation related. Having ornaments, boxes of files and papers, tools, toys, etc tells the Buyer that there is not enough room in the house. Having a few empty shelves is a good thing.

If you have an over abundance of food, you may want to collect up some of the duplicates and triplicates and donate them to the Food Bank.

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

Photo credit: Baa, baa, black sheep