- Hey, and welcome
to my new place in Victoria, British Columbia.
(gentle music)
If you're new here, my name is Dunna.
I'm a full-time YouTuber and content creator.
Typically I talk about photography,
videography, and camera gear.
So if that's something you're into,
make sure to hit that subscribe button,
but today we're gonna be doing something
a little bit different,
because ever since I moved to Victoria,
I've had a lot of people asking me, "Why?"
What's going on out here for me?
So I thought it would be cool
to give you the answers for that.
Why I'm out here in Victoria,
and give you an apartment tour for my new place.
So first things first, why the heck did I move here?
And to answer that question,
I will refer to Dunna from a few years back.
It's our last day here, we're just getting ready to head out
and go to the ferry to catch back to the mainland.
It's really hard to leave this place.
And I do think that someday,
eventually we'll end up living out here.
So as you can see, this is something that's been
on the table for quite a while now.
My partner and I have been thinking about it
and planning and saving for this moment
when we could move out to the west coast.
Now, if you've been watching my content for a while
you'll know that I love the mountains in Alberta.
And I did a lot more exploring of that side of Alberta
in this past year or two here.
And I was worried a little bit about missing it,
but some of the benefits of moving to Victoria
is that I get to go out and do that kind of exploring,
but all year round.
And I've kind of traded in the big Rocky Mountains
for the ocean out here.
Going for a walk by the ocean every morning
with my partner has been incredible.
And probably the main catalyst for us actually deciding
to do the move, is the fact that my partner's gonna
be going back to school in September.
So that's basically why we moved to Victoria.
Moving's never fun.
Moving's never easy,
but it's been such a great experience to finally be here
and to have our space set up.
And speaking of which, I wanna give you the tour.
So let's kick things off and I'll show you the living room.
(upbeat music)
When you first walk into the apartment,
you're greeted by the big, beautiful living room.
We've got a nice open kind of space here.
So we've sectioned it off into a couple of different areas
to kind of make it feel like you've got different places
to hang out.
One of my favorite places, one of my favorite kind
of backdrops in the whole place is this wall of books,
as I like to call it.
My partner is quite a book worm.
And so in the last spot,
we ran outta space to put more books.
So when we moved into this spot,
we wanted to make sure that we had a lot
of space for books and a lot of space to grow.
My section is about this kind of two thirds
or half of this specific shelf.
Everything else belongs to my partner
and probably will grow.
Eventually I'll have to get rid of my shelf
and put it somewhere else or something like that.
We absolutely love these shelves.
They come from Article who is also supporting this video.
So sturdy, so beautiful, just such good quality.
And they look so great up against this wall.
As you move past the shelves into the actual kind
of living room area, we've got a big rug over here
that kind of separates off this section.
So you kind of feel almost like you're in a different room.
There's a nice big chair,
comfy chair here that you can hang out on.
There's actually a cat in it right now.
That's where he likes to hang out.
And in a previous video,
I actually used this as kind of one of my sets.
I had pushed everything out of the way
and had the camera kind of facing
towards the kitchen behind the chair.
And it worked really well
with these nice big windows blasting in light
from that side.
It's really handy to have a space
where you can have lots of sets.
I even used the bookshelf as one of the sets
as a backdrop in that same video too.
And then behind me here, we've got our record station.
So we've got all of our vinyl down here,
so we can listen to that on the record player that we have.
We got a couple of speakers,
and this piece is really cool too.
It's handmade, we found it on Etsy.
Somebody over in Ontario is hand making these fairly simple
but beautiful pieces.
So we had that shipped out here
and it just happens to be the perfect size
to fit with our TV.
It's literally like down to the inch
the same width as the TV.
Previously, I had always mounted the TV up on the wall
but this time we decided to try and go with this stand.
And I'm so thankful that we did.
I didn't have to put any holes in the wall,
which is super awesome.
And one of the nice things is
that we have the ability to swivel it.
So I just usually will move one
of these speakers here and swivel it.
So if someone's sitting in the chair
and the other person is sitting on the couch,
we can still kind of both view it.
We've got our coffee table here.
And then kind of the centerpiece
of the entire living room area
is our big Sven couch from Article.
This thing is absolutely so comfy and it's so big,
which is super key for me.
I'm six foot one, and it's so nice to be able
to just stretch all the way out and have a nap on the couch
like the old man that I am.
And actually speaking of how comfortable this couch is,
I wanna give a quick thank you to Article
for supporting this video and for supplying
both the couch, the chair, the ottoman
and the two bookshelves for our new space.
Their stuff is just such high quality.
It's all so comfy.
And it's so beautiful.
I've got links in the description for all this stuff.
Their selection is just,
it makes it so easy because it's all so nice.
It kind of takes all the guesswork out of it for you.
And the other thing is when we did get delivery,
it came super quickly and the people
that delivered it to us were so friendly,
absolute best experience that I think I've ever had
with some kind of a large delivery like that.
So huge thank you to Article for supporting this video.
Now I'm gonna have a nap.
One of the best things about our living room area
are these big windows that we have
that basically run the entire length.
We've also got diffusion blinds
on the windows too, which are really nice.
If you want to kind of cut some of the light
without getting rid of all of it.
It's really dreamy in here when you've got those down.
Just behind the couch, we've got a guitar
that hangs out here just in case we wanna make some noise.
We've got one of our absolute favorite pieces of art.
This was actually done by my sibling and was a gift to us.
It's always a bit of a reminder of the Rocky Mountains,
which is so nice.
Next to it here, we've got a cowboy cactus
that hangs out next to Megan's desk,
where they can get their schoolwork done
or write their novel that I'm very excited to read someday.
If you come down this kind of hallway area though,
this is one of the ways
that we can get out onto the balcony.
(door opening)
(upbeat music)
The balcony's pretty simple at this point.
We got a couple of chairs and a table out here,
so we can sit and have coffee
and enjoy each other's company.
But mostly we take in this beautiful view
that we have of the inner Harbor.
We've got the Empress Hotel, just over to the right.
We get to watch water taxis coming in and out.
We get to watch the sea planes come.
Absolutely a wonderful place to just sit
and kind of take it all in.
(upbeat music)
Welcome to our kitchen.
There are a couple of things that I really love
about this kitchen.
It's, you know, got the standard stuff, fridge, stove,
microwave, dishwasher down here.
But one thing that I really love about it is the view
that we get out of this window behind me.
We can actually see the Olympic Mountains
down in Washington.
So that whole thing about moving out of Alberta
and being worried that I was moving away from the mountains.
I'm actually closer to mountains now
than I was when I lived in Edmonton.
The other thing that I really love about this kitchen
is having this big, huge surface here.
This countertop, it's got kind
of the breakfast bar thing going on.
So there's a little bit of an overhang.
We've got a couple of chairs over there.
In our previous place in the kitchen, the breakfast bar
or countertop actually had the sink
right in the middle of it.
So it was kind of annoying to have to work around.
I love that this is all just one big area
where you can either sit and work or sit and eat,
or you can do your food prep over here.
And then behind me here, I've got my little coffee station.
So I've got my Fellow kettle and I've got my scale
and everything that I need to secure the cup.
(bouncy music)
As we head down the hallway,
that's where all of the rooms are.
So it's a two bedroom, two bathroom
with a decent storage space
that has in suite laundry as well.
The bathrooms aren't anything to write home about,
just basic kind of bathrooms.
One of them has a bathtub.
One of them just has a shower,
but we did kind of make it our own
by adding these little shelves that we found on Amazon
and just having some kind of knickknacks
and stuff up there to make it look nice.
As we head into the bedroom,
you'll notice it's also pretty simple.
We've got a king size bed that we had from our last place
and it takes up most of the space in the room.
We've also got those same shelves
that we're using as bedside tables.
And then we've each just got a little basket
on the side to keep our extra stuff.
The bedroom also has a guitar hung on the wall,
as well as this big, beautiful mirror that we found.
And there is a sliding door coming out of the bedroom.
So we get that same beautiful view from the balcony.
This goes out on to like a smaller kind of Juliet balcony.
It's just enough space to stand out there,
but not enough to actually put a chair
or anything like that.
But it's really nice to have that in the bedroom regardless.
Now, if you're paying attention, you'll notice
that I basically skipped a bedroom at this point.
And that's because the second bedroom in this apartment
has been converted into my studio or office,
or whatever you want to call it.
The place where I film my YouTube videos usually.
So let's check that out.
(gentle music)
Welcome to the studio.
This is where I get all my work done.
So I film my videos in here.
I edit them.
I make music in here.
I'm doing pretty much everything from this room right here.
So it was super important how I put it together.
When I'm filming, I'm thinking
about different sets that I can have
so I tried to build as many little mini sets
into this room, as I possibly could.
Just as you're walking in the door,
you're greeted with a giant Dunna Did It neon sign
that I just got from Echo Neon.
I love that it just greets you.
It shows you exactly what you're walking into,
even though I'm pretty much the only one
that's walking in here,
it really made it feel official that this is
like the Dunna Did It room.
Along the back wall, I've got my electric guitar
and my bass guitar hung up there,
so that I've got easy access to them when I'm making music.
And then right here behind me,
you can see this crazy contraption.
This is called the gear tree.
It's something that I'm trying out right now.
Basically it's a pole that extends
from the ceiling to the floor,
and then it holds all of your gear.
So I've got two different lights coming off of it.
I can have my camera and a microphone
and a monitor and all sorts of things coming off that,
so when I'm filming, sitting at my desk
I can just have everything all there
and it doesn't take up any extra kind of floor space.
So there's still lots of room to walk.
Continuing further into the corner,
we've got what I call my chill corner.
I found this really cool looking chair
and a little table that I could have my guitar amp on.
So I can chill back there.
I can drink some coffee.
I can play some guitar.
It's designed basically just as a place
where I can like take a quick break,
but I also made it into one of the sets
that I can use within this space.
Just above the chair, I've got two different plants
just for kind of decoration.
And I'm happy that I can actually have live plants
in this studio.
At my previous one, they were all fake
because there wasn't a whole lot of sunlight
coming in there.
But here I've got these giant windows
that can definitely give enough light
to have real plants in here.
And one of my favorite features of this apartment
is that in both the bedroom and in this room,
I've got blackout shades.
So when you're sleeping, that's great in the bedroom.
And in here, when I'm filming,
it gives me more control over the light.
So when it's time to film, I can just black out the window
and I can just use the lights that I have set up over here.
And the big window is actually also the second way
that you can get out onto the main balcony.
Right in front of the window,
I've got a table here and it's a cranking table.
So it comes up to standing height
and that's kind of my music table.
So it's got my Ableton Push Two and a keyboard on there.
And basically I've got a single cable
that runs from that table.
I plug that into my computer
and I'm ready to go for making some music.
It also is kind of a charging station for all the batteries.
And it just kind of ends up being where I set things down
if I don't know where else to put them in the meantime.
And then of course, we've got my desk,
which is a electric sit/stand desk from Autonomous.
Not only is this where I do everything
that is computer work, editing videos, making music,
all that kind of stuff.
This is actually also one of my sets.
And this is something that's new in this studio
that's different from the last one.
Previously I was setting up a camera in front
of the desk and facing it against the back wall.
The problem with that is that when I was done filming,
I had to tear down all the gear just to get at my desk.
The nice thing now is when I'm filming towards my desk,
I can pop the card out of the camera when I'm done.
And I've got full access to my desk,
because that side of the room is clean.
I've also got four acoustic panels
on the wall behind the desk.
I've got one light that's boomed up over the desk
that kind of acts as a back light
when I'm shooting that way.
And I've also got two tube lights
in between the acoustic panels on the wall.
Just beside the desk, I've generally got a big stand
that holds a sound blanket on it.
It's basically just like a backdrop stand
that I've attached a sound blanket to
and that's right in front of a closet.
So if I need to get at anything,
if I need any of my tools,
or if I need any gear, I can hop into that closet.
I've got a shelf organizer in there
and I've got kind of a tool organizer that houses a lot
of my little bits and pieces that I might need.
Generally it's pretty organized,
but it does get pretty messy as things get kind
of tossed in there really quickly so that I can move on.
So, about once a month or so, I think I'm gonna have to go
and do a full reorganization or it'll get outta hand.
So like I said, the functionality of this room
is the most important thing.
I've actually managed to make about three
and a half different sets in here so far.
I've got the main one, which is like me sitting
at my desk and the camera pointed towards the desk.
I've got one over in the chilling corner.
I did do one where I used the table that I have on wheels.
And I pulled it over in front of this blank wall.
So you had the guitars
and a little bit of the plants in the background.
And I thought that was pretty cool.
I can't do that right now because of the gear tree,
because it would be in the background
and I don't think it would look very good.
And then the other one that I've experimented
with a little bit is using the blackout blinds,
because it's white on the one side.
I can use that as kind of like an infinite white background.
Not something that I think I'll need a lot,
but it is pretty cool that I have it as an option.
I did just release a previous studio tour
and desk setup tour in my last place before I moved.
But if something like that, a more in depth look at all
of the gear that I'm using and kind of how I'm using it,
maybe how I build out each of those sets.
If something like that is interesting to you
and that's a video you wanna see,
make sure to leave a comment down below.
(gentle music)
So there it is.
After years of thinking and dreaming
and planning and saving, we're now here, we're in Victoria.
Actually living here, which feels so surreal.
And that's a look at our apartment
and the studio that I've got going on now,
it's always gonna be kind of a work in progress.
So I'm excited to keep you guys updated
on what I do with the space.
I hope you enjoyed that video.
If you have any other questions,
make sure to leave a comment down below
and on your way down there,
make sure to hit that like and subscribe button.
So you don't miss out on future videos.
Thank you again to Article for supporting us
through the move and providing that furniture for us.
Make sure to go check them out.
There are links down in the description.
It's really awesome stuff.
You just really need to go check it out.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.
But if we come down past the desk here,
this is actually where we can go out onto the balcony.
This is just one of the two ways
that we can get out onto the balcony.
If it's not locked.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)