Renovation journal
Real costs, real permit timelines and real construction detail for Vancouver Island homes. No listicles, no affiliate links — just what we tell clients at the kitchen table.
Where every dollar of a $95,000 kitchen actually goes — and the five line items that quietly turn a $70,000 project into a $110,000 one.
Marcus Feld, Founder & lead estimator · 11 min read
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A plain-English guide to what needs a permit on Vancouver Island, what it costs, how long the wait really is, and why unpermitted work follows a house forever.
Priya Raghunathan · 13 min read
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Small bathrooms don't need clever gadgets. They need continuous surfaces, fewer visual interruptions, and about six centimetres in the right places.
Dana Whitcombe · 9 min read
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Ceiling height, egress, fire separation, sound, parking, alarms — the eleven things that decide whether your basement can become a legal suite, in the order you should check them.
Priya Raghunathan · 12 min read
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Two metres of rain a year, salt in the air and sideways wind. Here's how five cladding materials actually perform on this coast, with real installed costs.
Marcus Feld · 10 min read
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Most renovation stress is a mismatch between what people expect week to week and what actually happens. Here's the real sequence, including the quiet weeks nobody warns you about.
Tom Kealey · 10 min read
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