HOW WE ADDED MORE USEABLE SPACE TO OUR SMALL HOME IN THE FOREST ON HGTV’S, LIFE UNDER RENOVATION

I couldn’t have dreamt up such a beautiful, modern, sun enclosure. Thank you so much Suncoast Enclosures.

One of the most challenging aspect of raising a large family is finding a home that comfortably fits us all, while still allowing us to pay the mortgage, and have some fun. It’s hard finding anything that comfortably fits us, really— Dining tables. Vehicles. Hotel Rooms. Vacation Packages. Restaurants during Covid restrictions- tables of six max. Hell, even grocery carts can’t handle a week of our family’s food.

DISCLAIMER: although all opinions are our own, Suncoast Enclosures provided the Sunroom as a gift to our family, in exchange for us showing you how we choose to use it.

Look, there is one 7 bedroom home for sale on Salt Spring Island. It’s only 11,975,000. See what I’m saying?

There are surprising places where having this many people in one family makes life difficult.

Including housing. Who can afford a seven bedroom home so everyone can have their own space? In most major Canadian cities, the answer is: Not us!

I see you and your affordable housing, Regina. I see you.

But furthermore, where do ALL OF THE SHOES GO when you have seventy-two of them floating around at any given time? How many bathrooms can seven, sometimes eight people actually survive with? (The answer to that question is one and a half)
And where do we store everyone’s… everything?

These are just the things keeping the grown ups in large families up at night.

How WE CHOSE OUR FIXER UPPER

Katherine North trying to fall in love with our rickety new home.

People always ask how we chose this house. Truth be told, it’s the only house that would have us. Both Katherine and I are self-employed and Katherine is an immigrant in this great country of Canada, meaning banks hate us.

The surge in folks like us leaving the city and the notoriously low levels of homes for sale on Salt Spring Island left us with exactly three houses on the island in our price range.

We didn’t get the first two houses, leaving us with just this old chap. That’s what I call our house. (I imagine he wears a jaunty little vest when he goes out on the town, but that’s besides the point) And the current owner wasn’t allowing showings due to COVID-19.

“It has that amazing sunroom! How bad could the house be?” we thought.

We gave the bank almost all of our money, and we trusted that it was going to be exactly what our family needed.

Except it wasn’t.

notice the screen door will not close as it’s so out of square

Our New Fixer Upper

Although the location was even more beautiful than we imagined, it was shadier, deeper forest than we realized as well. My dreams of growing heirloom tomatoes and eating them salted with mozzarella and basil were crushed.

We drove up, ready to fall in love with our home and then we realized it was falling apart.

The sunroom I was planning as using for my “office” was falling off of the house due to dry rot in the framing of the deck. It was basically a glass hallway of death just waiting to strike when we least expected it!

For a dozen different reasons, the sunroom - which was originally not on our priority list - had been moved to the very top.

HOW WOULD I CHOOSE OUR SUNROOM

Like so many Dads, I took to the internet to search for any and all sunroom replacement products, in every price range imaginable.

I went into deep research mode. I found some DIY build it myself, order panes of tempered glass by the 72 inch sheet type of plans, and dozens of prefab kits, and super cool custom-designed three-season rooms, and even looked at creating a true addition.

We went around and around trying to figure out how to get the things we wanted out of the space, within the budget we had, and the timeframe we were working with.

The Hardest Part About Creating This Extra Living Space For Our Big Family

Here on Salt Spring Island, finding a contractor was almost impossible, with 6-18 month waitlists for anyone reputable. So when my ex-husband Chris mentioned that Suncoast Enclosures was out here in BC as well as in Alberta, we had West Oak Homes give them a call and price out one of Amy’s designs to replace our old dangerous glass sunroom with one of Suncoast Enclosures 3 season sunroom with memory vinyl windows.

They can be pressed on, stretched, hit, and stand up to extreme heat and cold, and they go right back to their clear, magnificent self just seconds later. This means I’m not worried we’re all going to die because Mayhem throws something he shouldn’t have while hanging from the ceiling and shatters thousands of dollars worth of glass.

I was skeptical that something that could fit into our budget, would also look awesome. Somehow I imagined a sunroom to feel old fashioned no matter what. Like the kind of folks that get patio enclosure’s were people like my dad. Sorry Dad, I love you. But your patio enclosure is not this cool.

GUESS WHAT!

I was wrong once again. Shocker! When Katherine and I saw the design that West Oak and Suncoast Enclosures came back to us with we were blown away! I didn’t know sunrooms could be modern, sleek, and classy, but this next generation of technology, and using powdered coated aluminum is amazing.

We Chose A Modern Sustainable Sunroom

Not only was adding a Suncoast Enclosure 3-Season room the coolest option, it also turned out to be a fiscally responsible one as well. Because these 3 Season Sunrooms are made primarily of windows it means no drywall, and no trim. It also means no painting ceilings, or putting up roofing, all of those costs add up to a fair amount of savings. West Oak and I created the deck for our enclosure to sit on and 36 hours after Suncoast pulled into our driveway, Jesse, Nathan, and Bryce had completed the entire room, inside and out, eavestroughs hung, garbage cleared and all.

The time, energy, and materials alone made our Sunroom an affordable option compared to all built solariums.

And the best part, is that if you want to know more about our Suncoast Sunroom, check out our Discovery+ tv show, Life Under Renovation, Episode 4 to watch it all come together.

Or go and check these awesome Canadian made sunrooms yourself at SuncoastEnclosures.com

P.S. I know taking on a fixer upper can feel like an uphill battle and a never-ending to-do list. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, I make a Did It List. It makes me feel sooooo much better! Click here for a free workbook about how to start your own monthly Did It List practice.