I have lived in Strathcona for many years. When I moved into the “hood” it took me one day to realize this was where I wanted to live for the rest of my life. It felt like I had landed back home in the city where I grew up, greeting neighbours, friendly people and quite simply feeling the familiarity of community again.
I grew up in East Vancouver, close to the P.N.E. on Georgia Street. Our family moved to North Burnaby and later I did some time in North Vancouver, where it felt a bit isolating. Deciding to move back to Vancouver and ending up in Strathcona was life changing. Community became important and I began getting involved. Being asked to sit on the Board for the Eastside Culture Crawl Society (ECCS) as well as Creative Cultural Collaborations (C3) along with touring children at the Vancouver Art Gallery and becoming a Committee member for VGH Art Foundation led my life long interest in the arts to grow into a more active participating role . I am truly grateful to all the people who helped make this happen and continue to be my friends.
After living in Strathcona for more than 10 years the neighborhood “shingle house” on Union Street was purchased in October of 2014. This was the beginning of Project 851.
Project 851 came about as a project of love and creativity. Love for the idea of aging in place and providing home for family. My Mom would be turning 80 in 2015 and I wanted a place for her to age gracefully and closer than Burnaby where she lives. The hope was an easy transition before getting too old, and I certainly was not reversing on the age spectrum myself so planning for the future was at hand.
This Site documents the journey of an old home moving forward, getting some needed love, while creating new and exciting family space at the same time. The journey starts with the beginning , 1898 when the house was built and the history of the people who passed through the space. This history is found in the BIG HOUSE section. The OCTOPUS section explores the new space to come and the BLOG talks about the journey of the process to get there.
Loving to share and learn are an important part of my life. This site is about that. The intention here is to share the journey of discovering the past, exploring the path to a future reality and the community in which it exists.
All photos on this site were taken by myself and/or credited to those who have shared.