For a good part of the 40-plus years I’ve lived in Vancouver, the city has seemed rather stable. Now, in the past ten or so years, things are changing at an ever-faster rate. Try as I might, I still feel more than wistful that six months from now, the construction I see out my kitchen window will have produced a building that will block parts of my view of the mountaintops.
I guess it’s best to just enjoy what I can while I can. This east side of town and my neighbourhood of Kensington-Cedar Cottage is one of the old working-class districts of the city. Although that term itself is outdated, the area still has plenty of houses from the early 20th century onward that have their particular charms. I’m always on the lookout for additions to my photo files.
The improbably cute houses:
More traditional models, sometimes with enticing porches, stairs, doors
The irresistible stained-glass windows.
Some years back, I started collecting ideas and sketchbook notes for a series I’m about to activate – “East Side Storeys.” (Yes, I do know the difference, but I hadn’t known about the national preferences described here.) My plan was to get back to people, too, along with the interesting houses.
As I flipped through my photo files, I remembered a recent acquaintance telling me about her family’s move here, also in the early 1970s. In their first week in their modest (but beautifully maintained) old two-storey house, she’d called her 10-year-old son to come in for lunch. He answered with, “Come look at me, Mom!” When she went outside, she spotted him balanced right on the peak of the second-floor roof, having a grand time exploring their new digs.
In answer to my what-on-earth-did-you-do question, she said, “I told him that lunch was on the stove, and I didn’t have time to stand around talking” and went back inside – and the boy came along pretty quickly.
Without recreating history, then, my plan was to put people on the roof – and I selected the house shown in the title image and started to plan.
As I continued, I saw that this – and likely any others in the series – would require a lot more attention to lines and angles than to anything else.
And here’s the final version. I resisted the title “Second Storey Gang” – because they’re not breaking and entering. They’re just having a high old time, with the title, “High Jinx” (copyright 2025)
Should I have borrowed from the Beetle Beings’ wardrobes? No, I think we’ll have enough fun, just sharing storeys.
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