Check out last year’s 2023 in review

Coach Home

Our rental property is conveniently located across the street from our personal residence. A few years back, the Ontario government and the city of Ottawa introduced a new policy allowing homeowners to build “Coach Homes” - small, separate houses - on their properties. After careful consideration and thorough research, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and build one as an investment.

Planning and Building

The process took about three months of planning and a solid six months of execution. I functioned as the General Contractor, where I worked with the city, trades, designer, engineers etc. My long time contractor worked as part-time Foreman getting quotes, managing the trades on site and tactical problem solving. My wife Ashley handled all the aesthetic and finishes. We think it turned out great!

Final Result

Here’s a tour of the space. The counter tops will be installed in a few weeks, so it’s just plywood for now:

Switzerland

After seeing the Not Just Bikes video on how amazing the Swiss transit system is, I explored online to learn more about Switzerland. The family hadn’t ever seen mountains before, so we thought this could be a great trip! We spent 10 days in Zurich, Bern, and the Lauterbrunnen region. It was surreal! There is a reason that there’s a sub Reddit called “/r/SwitzerlanddIsFake”

I made a separate write-up for the Switzerland Trip.

Hobbies

3D Printing

Previously, I had heavily modified my Prusa 3S+ and it worked fine. However, the newer generation of printers print 3x faster and have all the modifications already built in, including some nice features that I don’t currently have, such as the ability to print in multiple colours.

So I bought one! Say hello to the Bambu P1S:

A TINY bit of woodworking

Since I sold my 3D printer enclosure with my Prusa, my Bambu was sitting on the ground for months. UNACCEPTABLE!

So using the same aluminum extrusion materials for my workbench I built two years ago, I built a stand for my 3D printer.

I needed shelves for it, so I bought a track saw to make the cuts in OSB.

Producing Electronic Music

Last year, I began experimenting with creating my own music. As expected, it quickly evident that this hobby required a lot of effort to reach a level where I could produce anything that sounded decent. However, due to the demands of the coach home project, I had to set this hobby aside for the time being.

However, I did make this little beat:

Hopefully I will get back to this at some point, but I’ve found it such a steep learning curve requiring extra energy I don’t have.

Organizing my lab/tools

When trying to get some house fixes done or doing work in my lab, it was a major distraction trying to find the tools I needed since they were scattered all over the house and shed.

Probably the best investment I made this year was getting a proper tool bag (Milwaukee Structured Tool Bag) and Milwaukee Packout containers. I organized all my screws, tools, and electronics gear, all nicely labelled and stored away. The most surprising thing is that now that my tools are organized in the bag, I’m way more confident tackling stuff around my house, and I move the bag on a daily basis for personal, kids’, or house projects.

This is during the organizing phase. Not after lol

A New Rabbit

My youngest kiddo wanted a pet of her own. Since we already have one rabbit, we decided to get another.

Say hello to Teddy! A three-month-old mini-Rex.

I guess we are “bunny people” now.

Gaming

All three of kids enjoy playing video games to unwind. There are some pretty amazing games out there that I wanted to play with them co-operatively, but most games don’t do split screen. Unfortunately, (fortunately!) I would need another PC to play with them. So I bought a Steamdeck! It’s basically a portable PC that is really well optimized to jump into games really quickly.

It’s been a real boost to help me unwind. After work, I’ll play a game for half an hour to get my dopamine up, then I’m good to take in the evening rush. I don’t think I’ve played on my gaming PC since getting my Steamdeck. I can’t play First-Person Shooters from the deck, but I haven’t really missed them.

Games with the kids

Breakpoint has been a great co-op game with my son:

My list

I don’t usually have time (or want) to sit and do a multi-hour gaming session, so I need to find games I can play for half an hour and feel like I got something from it. Here are some of my faves from the year.

Evaluating Last Year’s Goals

I’ll continue to work on my electronic music, but without putting too much pressure on myself. I just want to enjoy the process of creating.

I dedicated about another month to it before other priorities took over. Life happens, and that’s okay!

I’m determined to find ways to accelerate TypeStream’s growth.

Due to other commitments, Luca and I had to put TypeStream on hold. While there’s still market potential, we had to focus our energies elsewhere.

We also plan to scale back on the kids’ evening activities so that we have more energy to spend and invest in them.

We’ve been mindful about our commitments, but our schedule remains full. My son’s advancement in competitive soccer now requires 3 or 4 evenings per week. However, seeing him thrive and enjoying his games makes it worthwhile.

Next Year

Here’s the cleaned-up version of the sentence:

Reviewing the above, I don’t think there is much point in coming up with year-long goals because life happens, and I want to remain opportunistic. In fact, adding these annual goals creates additional pressure on myself. The days when I’m most relaxed and joyful are those where I’m fully present in the moment and not thinking about the past and future. If I continue to grow in my career, invest in my family/relationships, give back to the community, grow in the major areas of my life, and have some hobbies, is that not life is about?

Here’s to you having a fantastic year!

Hit me Up!

One of my favourite things with writing these posts is that there are always a few folks who reach out and I get to connect with. Anything here fun?

Hit me up! jevin@quickjack.ca.

Have a great 2025!