Full Circle HouseIn the Riley Park Neighbourhood
The DecisionThe hardest part wasn't the permit. It was the garden.
The owner of Full Circle House isn't alone
She's one of tens of thousands of millennials in Vancouver weighing condo vs. ownership vs. proximity vs. possibility—and finding that none of the standard answers fit.
What she had wasn't unusual either
Parents with a family property where she grew up. The parents didn't hesitate to say yes. But they grieved the garden first. Years of tending, of colour and tranquility meant the backyard was theirs in a way that mattered. Giving up even a corner of it would take away something familiar.
Turns out what came back was better than what was there.
The garden didn't disappear. It evolved.
Designed around the laneway house rather than despite it, the yard now holds casual chats while watering the plants, a grandson running to grandma’s house, or a walk over to daughter's for a cup of coffee.
The Wish List vs. The BuildFull Circle House came together through thousands of decisions made between the family, the designer, and the construction team.
Specifications
| Build Year | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Neighbourhood | Riley Park | |
| Floor Area | 915 ft² | |
| Levels | 2 | |
| Bedroom | 2 | |
| Bathroom | 1.5 | |
| Lot Size | 25' x 147' |
Floor Plan
Download Floorplan PDF
"Living in the house now, I look back at those days of designing it and the decisions we made... Our designer really helped us to say, okay, we see what you want but this is what it might look like when you're actually living in the space. It was great because this home now works exactly as we wanted it to and as we planned for it."
"One of the must-haves for me was the office desk area. I do work from home sometimes and I really wanted that separation between work and not work."
"We also wanted the house to flow with the main house. The main house was built in 1912 and there are a number of houses close to us that are the same. I wanted a modern inside but the heritage style on the outside."
"One of the things that surprised me was... When you're an adult and you're moving back in with your parents, there's a part of you wondering—how are the dynamics going to be? I'm different from when I was a teenager, and they're different than they were twenty years ago. And honestly, it's been so much better than I could've expected. Watching my son be so close to his grandparents—it's a bond that wouldn't have happened any other way, even if we lived a block away."
The two-year-old doesn't know any of this yet.He doesn't know about the permit or the garden debate or the millennial housing crisis.
