WEEK FIVE Status report

It has been only five weeks since the first nails were pounded and construction was officially started on the new house. A week of that time was spent hauling and packing fill into the foundation to bring the floor level up to that required by the city officials. Some areas have come in on or below budget, while others have gone over. It is the nature of construction in my experience. The weather has definitely been a little soggier than usual for this time of year. We are more than ready for some more sunshine without a doubt.

There have been plenty of surprises along the way as well. The folks who drew the plans made some mistakes. Our Logix ICF forms are 13.5" thick instead of the 12" they put on the plans. This effectively made the house 3" smaller on the inside and necessitated a lot more time wasting calculations with all of the trades. Now that we have made the final decisions of where the three inches will be taken from we have asked for a new set of plans to be drawn that accurately reflect the necessary changes. Many tough compromises needed to be made.Thankfully few changes were required to completed work as we discovered just how much it affected all of our room sizes.

The city building officials required that we raise the floor level of the house a little higher than we anticipated. This means we have to haul in about 4,000 extra cubic yards of sand and gravel to achieve the grades we want around our new house. The walls of our foundation were also raised the required 16" meaning we buried a lot more foam blocks and concrete than we would have liked. Life is like that sometimes. On the plus side we now own the highest view property in Yarrow and the vista is spectacular! If there is ever a flood this will be the safe point without a doubt!

We are delighted with our contractor, Harold's Contracting, and his crew. They have been great to work with and the work they have done to date is wonderful. Other trades are raring to go and just waiting for their turn.

After five weeks the walls are up. Because we used LOGIX ICF forms the insulation and vapour barriers are already in place, saving much time down the road. The trusses are up on top of the walls as are most of the steel beams. As the last trusses and rafters are fastened into place in the next week the framing will be complete save for the interior walls which will happen after the concrete floor is poured. 

Our crew is starting the outside finishing and theme work and making good progress. We are on track thus far. The project has required long working hours and plenty of attention. Our lives and most of our thoughts and discussions are currently about the house and will be until we are done six months down the road. 

Although a little stressed at times we are greatly enjoying the house project and look forward with great anticipation to the continuing adventure.

-grampa dan

Getting a little crazy - on purpose!

With many of our projects we are frustrated by limitations. Budgets almost always draw the line on how far we can go. Space limitations can thwart an all out project on occasion. Regulations and rules sometimes limit a design in some respects. Authorities would much rather have us conform to endless rules than be creative. Often people I do projects for worry about what other people might think or how it might affect resale value of their property. Instead of doing what they think is cool they (and us as designers and fabricators) merely settle for the minumum. They play it safe. Instead of doing what they want they march along with the masses.

It can be frustrating at times. But at our house we know and practice a cure that makes us feel much, much better. Instead of marching along with everyone else we choose to simply dance a happy dance.

When we do our own projects we purposely think of designs that will allow us to go absolutely crazy. There are no limits. What others may think or talk about behind our backs doesn't concern us. We aren't building for them this time so they have no say. The purpose of our projects on our property is to make US smile. This is where we live and work each day. When we get to our projects it is time to pull out the stops, wire down the accelerator and go for broke. And that is what we will do. Life is far too short to settle for anything less.

As we designed our house Janis & I constantly asked ourselves 'what if?'  What if we made the windows round? What if we sculpted giant trees to 'hold up' the front of the house? What if we designed hundreds of hearts into the trim and painted them pink? What if the rocks along the bottom of the house were painted purple and blue? What if we had a cool bridge that spanned the living room to get to the other side of the house upstairs? What if the fence curved along the front of the property instead ofgoing straight? What if we shaped our property to be hilly instead of making it flat? What if we did all kinds of crazy things all through the house? Each time the answers were anything but 'normal'. If it made us both laugh it was deemed perfect and made part of the plan.

The giant trees we are sculpting as centerpieces for the front of the house are coming along nicely. Peter was merely instructed to go crazy and he happlily complied. He has no trouble dancing to the same music Janis & I listen to daily. The trees, as penci rod, are still largely invisible from the road but that will soon change when the concrete goes on and is sculpted. Locals will have much to debate in the coffee shop and around town. We'll be at home, smiling a big smile. Life is fun!

-grampa dan

East wall details

Last week a fellow I know took a good look around the house. He was amazed at how we were making the effort to add the same attention to detail all around our house. The truth these days is that most people detail the front of their houses and perhaps extend it a few feet around the side. But they stop all detail around the sides and back for it is not visible to the street. All that seems a bit silly to me for we tend to live in our backyards for the most part. When I am around the back of our new house I want to enjoy the same level of detail we apply to the front of the house. It makes perfect sense to me.

Today, while the beams were going up at the front and back of the house some of our crew were busy on the east side. The forms for the stone columns were being fastened to the wall in preparation for the sculptured concrete to come next. Detailed routered panels that will eventually be painted up to look like chiselled stone were also put in place on each column. These details will add a lot to an otherwise big plain wall.

We have a few more surprises coming as well to make this back wall just as detailed as the others. Stay tuned to see it unfold...

-grampa dan