Construction

New Uses for Old Wood Part 2

September 26, 2021 by clove Leave a Comment

We continue to pick away at the beautiful fir reclaimed from our old house. And by we, I mean that I periodically check in on the “things to finish” list and Matt does the actual picking away. What can I say, we manage to our strengths. There would be about as much sense in me constructing things out of wood as there would be in Matt doing our taxes.

This installment has Matt making a gravity defying bunk bed for our daughter and finishing up the kitchen cabinets. I’d gotten used to pulling kitchen drawers open by the plywood box. Entirely functional, right? Then they got fronts and handles and it was a small revelation: hey that looks good and these handle thingees work pretty well!

of course, before installing the bunk bed, the walls had to be decorated

and the bed takes flight! admittedly I still occasionally imagine catastrophic structural collapse, but at least we’d be falling on a mattress right?

If you missed the first installment of New Uses for Old Wood, you can find it here.

Ongoing Preparations for the Apocalypse

August 13, 2021 by clove Leave a Comment

Tis the season when we are reminded that climate change is real. The Gonzales weather station near our house recorded 39.8 C on June 28, more than 9 C hotter than the previous daily record, and an all-time high for any day. As of this writing there are 246 active wildfires burning in BC.

And yet our provincial government still fails to make a meaningful connection between these impacts and the ongoing logging of our miniscule swaths of remaining old growth forest. Or more likely (and cynically) they get the connection but lack the political will. Some of the municipalities in our region still think there is nothing problematic about cutting deeper and deeper into the wildland urban interface under the belief that owning a detached single family home with a large yard is either a human right or the key to happiness.

So what am I doing about this, other than feeling the mix of sorrow and rage that has become endemic to our current times? Being the optimist that I am, I take solace in the things I can control. Increasing urban green space and growing ultra-local food are two things that keep me believing that each of us can change things for the better (and prepare for what’s to come). I’m also a sucker for fresh berries.

I’m delighted that the lavender and catmint we planted in the front yard last spring are now attracting a small army of pollinators, and I stop to listen to the buzz of bees when I walk past. There’s really no downside to growing green stuff, other than an aching back from all the weeding. If the green stuff creates shade and is also food for bugs, animals and humans, all the better.

Our backyard greenspace potential may appear modest at first glance. But even with our large woodpile still occupying the space of future veggie beds, I’ve found space for 5 dwarf fruit trees; a 12′ long raspberry patch; a raised bed for blueberries (three kinds!); a strawberry patch, some peas, plus the garlic I’d planted late last November.

I’ve been observing the changing path of the sun as the season has progressed and am pleasantly surprised by the growing potential on the north side of the house. Even the area shadowed by the house gets direct morning and evening sun in summer.

I also planted nasturtiums and blue borage (both flowers edible) as companions to the apple and strawberries, and recently discovered the nasturtium seeds are also edible. Who knew? Most people recommend pickling them as a caper alternative. I ignored this advice and roasted mine. Not recommended if you’re wondering.

Back yard in late winter, the shoots of the garlics just visible and the only green thing in the back yard at that time

And in late June, we have 4 dwarf fruit trees in front of the deck wall (a fig, a scarlet and a golden sentinel apple and a nectarine); an espalier with three kinds of apples along the north fence; nasturtiums and strawberries below, and peas to their left

the blueberry patch beside Matt’s workshop

New Uses for Old Wood Part 1

February 2, 2021 by clove Leave a Comment

It’s been fun to document the many new uses for the old house wood that Matt and the Interactive crew rescued from the old house. There’s still a lot left and some furniture/cabinet making still to be done, but we won’t come close to using it all. If you know anyone looking for 26′ long rough cut fir 2x10s and 6x6s, let me know.

Here’s where it all started:

reclaimed fir cabinets in the rental suite by Matt (made from 2x4s)

the other side of the suite kitchen island, faced with reclaimed flooring

the actual flooring (+ the flooring from our friend Nick’s old house), relaid (and glued down) with its old finish

These old beams got some serious sanding

wood landing in the other half of the duplex

extra flooring used for the workshop soffit

Matt made this nifty rollup tool cabinet cover using old 2x4s

A Couple Big Things

September 26, 2020 by clove 6 Comments

With the caveat that “big things” are entirely relative in the context of our current global apocalypse, two big things happened in the past several weeks to signify that we’re (actually, maybe) almost done with our project.

Big Thing #1

We got this coveted piece of electronic paper:

Yes, we’ve been living here since last Christmas, but we wouldn’t be able to complete the sale of Suite 3 until we had the official Occupancy Completion Permit.

This was one of the weirdest non-events of the whole project. Our neighbours Len and Gail spent 18 months attempting to get this for their character rebuild. The city inspector we had for most of our project – and who we also shared with Len and Gail- seemed to revel in making us do more and spend more. Even if his demands seemed unnecessary or were even incorrect, we had to weigh the time and expense of fighting versus just swallowing the pill for the sake of carrying on.

By the time we got to the end, this inspector was on medical leave; we got a new one and subsequently sailed through the last few inspections, including the final.

Of course, though, it being the city, it could never be quite that simple. I had sent our inspector’s final emailed report, which said that all units were safe to occupy, to our lender in order to close out the progressive mortgage. It was only after they asked for the official permit that I realized we needed something different. I called the City and learned that someone had decided not to issue the official document because our accessory building permit was still open. No one communicated this to me; it just sat in limbo for a few weeks until I realized it was missing. Fortunately, a phone call to our new favorite inspector cleared that up (yes, they had withheld it in error) and our permit was emailed within about 30 minutes.

On to big thing #2!

Now this was an event. We reached an accepted offer at the end of August, with 7 business days to remove conditions. On the last day on which conditions could be removed (and we could therefore be confident the sale would happen), I made a triple chocolate mouse celebration cake. But because it takes all day to make this thing, I had to start well before knowing whether conditions would in fact be removed. Worst case it would be a pity cake.

When our realtors Ally and Dennis shared the news as the final layer was setting in the fridge, I thanked them and said “phew”. It would be a celebration cake after all. As amazing as this news was, though, our initial reaction was subdued. Surely, this couldn’t actually be the end. The natural inclination of a body in motion is to remain in motion. A body in a state of anxiety is inclined to remain in a state of anxiety.

The financial uncertainty of the project has been the predominant source of my underlying anxiety. The sale is relief to this anxiety. We didn’t do as well financial as we’d initially hoped, but hey, we didn’t go bankrupt! A couple blocks away is a house for sale that is half reconstructed. Presumably they ran out of money – which I’ve learned, probably means that they didn’t have the money when they needed it – regardless of how good the end-game looked. It happens more often than we might think, to developers big and small.

There are so many externalities that impact the financial outcome of a project that have nothing to do with one’s ability to solve a problem or wield a hammer. Construction costs have reportedly increased 10% per year over the past 5 years in Victoria. So to have our final cost inflate to 150% of what we’d initially planned for is not surprising (full financial debrief coming soon).

Now that I allow myself to think about it, the fact that we didn’t lose our shirts may have simply been the result of working with people who were invested in helping our project succeed. I’m not sure what would have happened if we had chosen a builder who insisted (or needed) to be paid immediately on invoicing. Or with a lender who was not willing to be flexible. Or extended family who were not able to help out.

Development is difficult and risky. I completely understand why many people working in this field are not actually spending their own money. More typically, there is an investor in the background who has the means to spread their risk across multiple ventures, and then pay someone else to actually do the project so they don’t have to think about it too much.

—

So we’ve sold to a couple (+labradoodle) we’re excited to have as neighbours, at a price that is in the range of what I had expected. We’ll still be left with a giant mortgage, but we can handle the payments and we’ll be able to pay off our other debts. And as we begin to emerge out the other side of financial purgatory, the air is noticeably lighter, and the laughter and silly dances are enjoying a welcome resurgence.

Finishing Progress

July 31, 2020 by clove 4 Comments

We just passed the 5 year anniversary of starting on this project. And yeah, there’s still a list. I can count the project to-do’s on two hands now, whereas several months ago, I could not even conceive of the full list. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to over the last couple of months.

I had to get the strata registered, which meant a detailed property survey and documentation that meets Strata Act requirements, plus legal assistance to create the two parcel IDs and file with the Land Title office. $10k later, at least we won’t ever have to do that again.

Matt’s been making progress on his pièce de résistance, his workshop building:

And our interior millwork:

the kitchen drawers are now fully functional, just waiting for their fronts

Matt hauling plywood for more cabinet boxes

We had to fix our front stair when the nose broke off. And this was already a re-pour of the whole thing.

Kudos to Brian from Interactive for his fancy (and effective) formwork:

We had to build this wired glass overhang as part of the City’s “triplex” fire protection demands. On the plus side, it gave us the opportunity to repurpose and showcase more of the beautiful fir from the old house.

I’ve been tending to the landscaping as it grows in:

this was in late March , shortly after planting

Our daughter and her friends are breaking in the hard landscaping. The patterning between the woolly thyme, black concrete parking strips and gravel is visually appealing but also invites leaping between the different segments. What a bonus when kids find pleasure in what we thought were mostly practical choices.

They also love the backyard of the suite for sale. We may have to amend the purchase contract to give usage rights to the kids. Just kidding, but I never fully appreciated the appeal of a simple patch of grass until this summer. I’ve spent more time than I care to tabulate pushing the mower over said grass, mind you, but at least its growth has now slowed. It was out of control for a while there.

Siding and Sidewalks and Plants (oh my)

March 27, 2020 by clove 2 Comments

When I started this post, I wrote about how I’d go off to work for the day and then come home with great anticipation to discover what new progress had been made while I was away. It was a time when seemingly small finishing details made a big visual impact. That was 3 weeks ago, when I still went to work. With the changes we’ve all lived since then, it’s as if months have passed and I felt like I had to start again.

I’ve been working from home for over two weeks now. Last week I was consumed by the news and taking care of my staff at RDH – establishing safety protocols, deciding when to close the office, making sure everyone has what they need to work from home, playing through future business scenarios. This week, we’re all settling in. I’ve got my computer and desk setup more dialed in (my neck and I both thank my mom for the card table) and I’ve been a lot more productive.

I’ve also looked up more and observed the scenes outside my ‘office’ window at the front of the house. It hasn’t been that long since the construction fencing was removed, so I’m witnessing a big reveal for many passersby. It’s actually quite a dramatic structure and it’s been fun watching the myriad people who stop for a look. They’re pointing to different areas, debating how the units are arranged; many are smiling or at least appearing thoughtful.

A lot of smaller details are being ticked off the list now. The uniquely Passive House pieces are mostly done, and now it’s on to all the bits and pieces that tie everything together and make it look like a finished home.

Jill, Mila-Kate and I spent last weekend working on the soft landscaping. I wanted to be outside and this gave us the chance to interact with many of the people walking by. It was so refreshing to chat with everyone (while still easily maintaining our safe distances). We live in an incredibly engaged, respectful and positive community, even – or especially – in these wild times. I feel very fortunate and more convinced than ever that we are all stronger together. Be safe out there and stay connected.

sidewalk and driveway ready for concrete

this was a busy day on-site – stucco and flashing trades doing their thing, plus prepping the area for the paving strips

stucco finish coat is done; forms are almost ready for the parking strips

strips poured (and almost immediately covered in dirt)

fancy soil truck saving us some manual labour

Thanks to Master Gardener Jill, we had the landscaping whipped into shape over a few days. Thanks also to Auntie Marcia for the two Japanese Maples, and Mark and Ting for the boxwoods and Pittosporum that have all found new homes

making use of some reclaimed fir for the back deck

Ringing in the (cough) New Year

January 30, 2020 by clove 4 Comments

Hello and happy 2020!

Bit of a rough start to the new decade for me. Yes, we got moved into our suite on December 24, and yes we (just barely) got the suite ready for our tenant to move in Jan 1. But it came at a cost.

Matt was pulling long days building mill work, installing trim and vanities, and a myriad other site tasks that needed doing. I was doing my best to stay on top of our budget, source vanities for our suite, confirm appliance details and delivery, dig into the operation of our Sanden CO2 combi system (which was not producing hot enough water); all the while fulfilling my work responsibilities, doing way more dishes than I like and filling parenting gaps while Matt worked extended hours on the house. I’d be at work all day, then come home to our cramped temporary space, littered with construction tools and debris and a sink overflowing with dirty dishes.

The screech of a band saw assaults my ears from overhead, where our suite has been temporarily converted into a work space. It is dinner time and no one has given any thought to what we might eat. There is no peace and no escape. After momentarily losing it (cue utensil thrown with satisfying force into the sink), I reflect that this must be how some working moms feel all the time (minus the construction debris and band saw noise). Fortunately, this is atypical and I am grateful that Matt and I normally have a well balanced distribution of household responsibilities.

So we got moved in upstairs, thanks to our moving heroes Cam, Peter and Rob; had a nice Christmas Day brunch with family courtesy of Aura Restaurant, then got back to work on the rental suite. Our other hero Renny swooped down and spent two days on the 29th and 30th painting so Matt could finish the cabinet doors and drawers.

Mission accomplished by about 11PM on Dec 31. And then I woke up on the 2nd with a nasty chest cough. After twelve days of suffering with a low grade fever; blowing copious amounts of thick phlegm out of my nose, and being up all night coughing violently, I finally went to the clinic and got on antibiotics. Turns out I had a sinus infection. And hallelujah, after a few days I started to feel like myself again. I now have energy again, and my brain is once again able to juggle multiple competing priorities.

Here’s how things are shaping up. Lots of progress and still lots to do. Is the end in sight? I don’t want to say that just yet, but we are certainly getting closer.

Outside first:

hard landscape progress, including repurposing our old chimney bricks for a back patio

Moving inside, our suite was transformed during one long day from work space to living space:

moving angels Cam, Peter, and Rob helping us move the big stuff

rental suite kitchen island, faced with our reclaimed flooring

Construction Progress

December 21, 2019 by clove Leave a Comment

Our realtors say this is about the point when most people are done. Not actually done because there is still a lot to do; but mentally ready to be done with the thing already.

We’re certainly not lingering on any decisions right now. A critical criteria for any choice these days is “how long will that take?” If it’s not fast it’s simply not an option. We continue to hustle to be ready to move upstairs to our suite, to have the rental suite (where we are currently living) ready for our Jan 1 tenant, and to have Suite 3 ready for listing early in 2020.

Living on a construction site has been, let’s say, unique? My forest green fleece housecoat complete with snowflakes and reindeer was never really intended for public eyes, but so it goes. (It’s definitely too comfortable to not wear). I look forward to not having to sweep the dirt and sand from our suite several times a day. I look forward to not having piles of tools and nails mixed in with dishes that don’t have a home. I look forward to not having to go out one door, along a muddy path, and in another door to then extract my bike from some sawdust covered corner in order to go to work.

We’ve only unpacked the bare essentials and scattered the rest of our worldly possessions among the three suites as out of the way as possible. I did my best to place boxes of things we might need in accessible locations and memorize where I’d placed them. Box with bakewear – suite 1 near the entrance. Box with extra coats and hats – tall one in suite 3. Recipe books – I forget what I told myself about that one because I can’t find it.

I’ve given up on finding that pyrex casserole dish for the time being, and I bought a new issue of Cooks Illustrated with the recipe I needed.

Meanwhile, Matt has been working seven days a week on-site, carving out windows of space and time to work on kitchen cabinets in between jumping in to help Interactive with a long list of finishing tasks: doors, trim and baseboards to be installed and painted in our suite and Suite 2; kitchen backsplash tile installed; CO2 heat pump system installed and commissioned; ventilation system install completed and commissioned.

And that’s just inside. Outside, the concrete guys have been here on evenings and weekends working on three sets of exterior concrete entry stairs, and Abbey Road has made the most of a brief window of availability to make headway on our hard landscaping. On the house’s vertical surfaces, the cedar accents and flashings are now mostly installed, and all that remains is to install the siding and stucco.

If all goes according to plan, we will be in our suite the day before Christmas. Yes, of course, minus some finishes like cabinet doors and drawers, a couple of bathroom vanities and closets, but functional enough.

As a side project to our side project, I did a Pecha Kucha presentation a few weeks ago as a two-year update to the one I did just before our rezoning public hearing, the preparation for which consumed my evenings for a week. Despite the extra work, it was a great opportunity to reflect on what I’ve learned through our project and to share it with others. In a way, sharing is what makes it all worthwhile, and I never regret making time to look outwards and connect with our friends and community.

On that note, enjoy the latest photo installment and thank you for reading. Happy Holidays!

Starting outside:

Strapping and flashing are complete, ready for cedar detailing, then siding (stucco will go on the gabled side; Hardi Aspyre vertical siding on the other side)

Back of house flashing and soffit details

Moving inside:

Suite 3 CO2 heat pump tank and interior workings for domestic hot water and in-floor hydronic heating

Reclaimed flooring install starting in earnest in Suite 1

!!

October 31, 2019 by clove 2 Comments

Matt observed that I use a lot of exclamation points in my blog posts. My first thought was that I’m just really excitable. Except that I’m not. Then I thought that writing makes me happy, which is certainly true. But really, exclamation points are just so darned convenient.

Yes, maybe they’re a bit lazy. Like if I were to accurately describe my heightened emotional state using words alone then I might elevate my writing to something more than just a conversation among chums. True all this. Yet still. What is a few exclamation points among friends?

If I were to describe my mental state today, exclamation point free, a mere two days before we move into our new not-actually-finished home, I would describe a mix of anticipation about finally being back on our property, albeit not in our actual suite; scattered thoughts manifested as an unceasing compulsion toward list-making; a probably futile drive to figure out a solution that would magically finish the reclaimed flooring in our suite so that we only had to move our piano and impossibly heavy bed once, and compartmentalized denial about packing and being ready for move day (who wants to live among boxes for longer than absolutely necessary, but on the other hand, who enjoys frantically throwing things in boxes as the movers are loading the truck?). The list-making includes things like setting up play dates for Mila-Kate so I can go prep the suites for appliance delivery; making the daily phone calls and follow ups to confirm an HRV delivery; order two more vanities and then figure out what to do when the ones we want aren’t in stock; cancel services at one house and set them up at the other; organize movers; sort out incorrect invoices, find a lawyer to draft up a strata plan. Yeah, I think that was a run-on sentence. Welcome to my brain. And then there is all the regular stuff: staying on top of bills, feeding ourselves, planning Halloween costumes, working, getting in the occasional physical activity and the odd hour of down-time with Mila-Kate and Matt.

Um. So. Yeah!! Phew it was hard to hold those in so long.

Okeedoke, so where are we at? Let’s have a look see.

Outside first:

Front of house wing wall and entry to our suite

Polyiso roof insulation installed to meet up with the roxul wall insulation outside of the structural framing for a continuous ‘sweater’

Cross strapping and cedar window bucks coming along on the south side, nearly ready for the vertical siding

Russ and Jodie of Interactive, our intrepid builders, at one of our construction open houses

Moving inside:

Reclaimed fir flooring, acclimated and ready for laying

Zehnder Q600 Heat Recovery Ventilator placed in the mechanical room, ready for duct connections

Construction Progress

September 27, 2019 by clove 2 Comments

Progress continues to be quick and very tangible as we hurtle toward our end of October move-in date. That’s still like ~~six~~ five weeks away right?

One of the advantages of having our ‘enclosure’ all on the outside of the framing is that we can be working on the outside and inside at the same time. Services can be run anywhere and anytime in the main stud wall because the air barrier and most of the insulation are on the outside of the sheathing.

So while Matt has been focusing on the exterior insulation and strapping, the various trades have been flying through the inside. Interactive installed ventilation ductwork, City Plumbing roughed in piping, and EM Electrical ran wires all at the same time. DT Drywall has since covered it all up, followed soon after by INNOV8 Group applying the first coats of paint. All in the span of a handful of weeks.

Phewf, just need to stop for a minute here and catch my breath.

In other news, we had a construction open house a couple weekends ago, which was well attended by neighbours, friends, and colleagues who got to see all the component parts of a Passive House before they’re covered up. Several of them have decided they are moving in!

Here’s how things are shaping up.

Outside:

front view, insulation starting on the east side

lower cedar window bucks complete; insulation and vertical strapping in progress on the south side.

horizontal strapping going on the north side, the last piece before siding can be installed

concrete forms going in to support exterior entry stair

Moving inside:

Big Thing #1

On to big thing #2!

Recent Posts

Tags