Hot Take: I’m a Vancouverite Who Actually Loves the Rain (Inside > Outside)

Written by Jamie Burke

The soundtrack of my adolescence growing up in Vancity was absolutely, 100% without a shadow of a doubt, Death Cab for Cutie.

Transatlanticism, circa 2003, and Plans, circa 2005, pretty much played on loop / repeat via my trusted and beloved MP3 player (RIP) during my high school days.

First off, I know - Death Cab is based in Seattle, not Vancouver. Please don’t send hate mail to myself at Burke By Burke or our friends at VMF!

But to be fair, their music feels like the embodiment of what it means to live in the Pacific Northwest: a one-of-a-kind natural beauty all around us that can be either stunning or sombre - depending on the weather, of course.

When it’s sunny in Vancouver, everything seems to be coming up Millhouse. The shirts are off on Kits Beach as everyone does their best Maverick from Top Gun impression playing volleyball. Everything is off at Wreck Beach. Life is good, and the ice cream is even better.

But when it rains in this city?

It’s like Vancouver becomes a different place altogether. One that is enveloped in an eternal, monotonous grey. A mist somehow starts forming from out of nowhere. The Canadian geese decide to eff off for the season, and with good reason. 

According to the City, our beloved Vancouver ranks amongst the Top 10 Rainiest Locations in Canada. We’re not known as “Raincouver” for nothing.

We all hate it, right?

Well…

Here’s the thing. As a born and raised Vancouverite, I actually love it.

Every single rainy day. Every. Single. One.

I’m sure it’s not nearly as hot of a take as I think it is - there are plenty of people who prefer this weather over the sweltering heat of summer. But isn’t that also a typical Vancouverite trait, thinking that we’re the centre of the known universe? 

The rain comforts me. The rain cleanses me. The rain calls and welcomes me home.

The rain always says: “Stay inside.”

For a while, I tried to convince myself that I was one of those “cool, outdoorsy” Vancouverites: the one who wears waterproof clothing from head to toe, who knows all the best hiking spots, who walks their dog in all weather conditions with a smile on their face.

But truth be told, that just ain’t me (Nothing wrong with being that though, mind you). I spent my whole life in Vancouver trying to be an “Outdoor Dog”, when really I’m actually an “Indoor Cat”.

I’m an indoor cat that prefers sitting inside, with a cup of tea, reading a book. 

I’m an indoor cat who would rather spend the afternoon at an art gallery or film festival than on top of some mountain.

I’m an indoor cat that just wants to be, well, inside. 

Don’t get me wrong - I do still enjoy nice weather. I’m not Edward Cullen, after all. I love sunny days strolling through the city. One of me and my husband Eddie’s (I did double check, he’s not a vampire) favourite things to do is stroll through Mount Pleasant and check out the latest murals - we even took some of our wedding day pictures behind some mural walls.

So when Burke By Burke, the real estate marketing agency that I run with the aforementioned non-vampire husband Eddie, and VMF decided to collab on something together, the idea to focus on interior mural work felt like a perfect fit.

“It’s what’s on the inside that counts” was born.

Our goal is to make it easy for interior designers, design + build firms and general contractors to create something beautiful and memorable for their clients’ commercial spaces.

With Burke By Burke’s experience in the commercial real estate, construction and design space, along with VMF’s well-known reputation as a leader in the city’s public art space, our partnership and shared passion for building beautiful communities came together as naturally as peanut butter and jelly.

“Death of An Interior Decorator” is a song on Death Cab’s Transatlanticism album - an album that Eddie and I were extremely fortunate to hear performed live in 2023.

I think about what my beloved hometown looked like twenty years ago when I first listened to that song. As I listen to the song today, twenty years after its release, I think about how different Vancouver looks now. 

But even with all the changes that have happened, and the changes that are still to come, Vancouver is still a beautiful city - inside and out.

Interested in learning more about VMF’s interior mural work? Reach out to Jamie Burke or Erica Binder today. Let’s create something beautiful, on the inside.