Chasing Net Zero

InfraRed Camera Reveals ALL!

2012-01-23T00:11:00.002-07:00

I had an opportunity to borrow a FLIR E50Bx infrared camera from work. So, guess what I did? Nerdy me went around the house looking for where there are "hotspots" and areas of interest in our house. I looked from both outside and inside. I didn't pressurize the house, like they did during the blower door test, but nonetheless, there was still interesting things to point out.

If you can help it, don't build anything with a corner or windows. Or doors for that matter. ; )

We still have some weak areas at the exterior wall/ceiling
intersection and corners. This is the top of our stairwell.

Weakness around the windows. And corner, again.
This picture is with the blinds drawn down.

Thermal mass works! This is the morning

after we had a fire going. Notice the brick is still

relatively warm behind the fireplace!

But unfortunately, the stove pipe top is really cold.

Mystery: why is one stair tread edge relatively warm?
It is not getting direct sunlight. Any ideas?

Found a window with a bad seal. Need to have this looked at.

Exterior shot. West elevation. Chimney at top, right.

Composite shot: back of house.
Notice the HRV intake and exhaust vents glowing
brightly. Sigh.

TechniColour Fun Times

2012-01-22T23:58:00.003-07:00

Here are some fun shots from the infraRed camera!

Guess who?

Baseboard heater in the reiki room.

I was here.

Can you tell the hot/cold water lines?

Reflection of the tree behind me in the window!

Corrugated metal is beautiful.

Our neighbours to the south.

distant skyline.

home.

Testing Continues!

2012-01-15T21:59:00.002-07:00

Robert was over for our monthly colour testing for the carbonized wood. And it seems we keep on creating more things to test! So, the latest is a vertical panel that I'm hanging from the kitchen balcony. It has the same coatings as the roof decking, but the panel will be exposed to full, direct sun.

Rob testing our new panel that will hang from the kitchen balcony.

Can you believe this was taken on Jan. 7th? No snow and +5 C.

Pantry, Take Two. or, "Happy Wife, Happy Life."

2012-01-15T21:48:00.002-07:00

Lots of lessons learned on this house adventure. One of which is what not to use for a shelf with a 78.25" wide span. It seems like the wire mesh shelving, even with a mid support bowed too much for Serena's liking. So, I rebuilt the pantry with 3/4" wood shelves. Now I can sit on it without deflecting. Yay! Happy wife = happy life.

Sunny days make me so happy.

2012-01-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Sunny days make me ever so happy. Why? Because every day it is sunny, I get an email at the end of the day from the SunnyBoy inverter that tells me how much energy our PV system generated. Every overcast, cloudy day, I get a lousy, depressing number. So, go SUN go!

So, here are the monthly utility bills- not as brilliant as $3.26 from September. Especially now as we kick in some electric baseboard heaters.

September 20, 2011 to October 19, 2011

Consumption: 505.19 kWh

Production: 389.0 kWh

Net use: + 116.19 kWh

Cost: $52.92

October 19, 2011 to November 18, 2011

Consumption: 713.00 kWh

Production: 300.0 kWh

Net use: 413 kWh

Cost: $95.23

Notes: November had a few -20 C days. We started turning on baseboard heaters this month too. And we fired up our wood stove.

If you want to track our production on the SunnyBoy website, click this link!

Xmas Dinner and window blinds!

2011-12-25T23:14:00.002-07:00

We had my family over for a Christmas lunch. It was the first time some

of them actually visited our house! [They all live south fo the river, so

convincing them to make the journey is like asking them to drive to

Fort Mac.

And for Christmas, I got my dad to help me install the
cellular blinds on our living room windows!

House numbers and canopy decking installed!

2011-12-25T23:03:00.002-07:00

With Rob's help, I was able to get all the carbonized wood for the main door canopy cut and installed! And after the decking was in place, I was able to screw our house numbers down! Yay! We are now a known location in the world!

They even look great from the inside!

Carbonized Wood Colour Testing!

2011-12-10T22:59:00.001-07:00

We have been using carbonized wood on our house with the help of Alberta Innovates Technology Futures. So, we are in full swing with the testing of workability, durability, and colour change over time. I made a couple of test-bed wood decking squares to see how certain finishes will take to the wood over the course of the year. Robert from AITF has been extremely helpful in pulling all of this together and coming by to test the colours with a light spectrometer. It only runs on Windows 95- and we only have a large, honkin' CPU and have to haul it all over the house where we are testing different locations for colour. I think I sourced a laptop- which will hopefully make this a whole lot easier...

I used four different types of finish on the test bed.

From left to right: acrylic latex paint, Behr Super Spar clear varnish,
a board left natural, polyurethan, varathane finishes.

So far, I think I like the Behr finish.

Here's our testing set-up. It ain't fun haulin' this around the house.

Robert in action.

It's a tight squeeze on one of our stair landings.
We used carbonized wood for the landing since
construction and it hasvbeen in place for almost a year!

Robert in action, again!

Exterior wood decking - this one will see direct
sunlight.

This wood decking square will not see direct sunlight,
as it is shaded by the guardrail.

One of my new chores: brushing off the PV modules when the snow
sticks to it!

Lovely surprise!

2011-11-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic surprise today! Esther Ferguson dropped off our house numbers! What a wonderful, brilliant gift, from the previous family that lived here. Wow- they look fantastic- I'm itching to install them- hopefully tomorrow after I ready the basement for the secondary suites inspection!

If you'd like to see more of Duncan and Esther's metal creations, click here: http://metalworkbyduncan.wordpress.com/

Baseboards, baseboard heaters, web boxes, guardrails and other details.

2011-11-27T23:50:00.001-07:00

I've been quite delinquent in posting of late! It's getting harder and harder to post, as I spend ever spare minute unpacking, cleaning, moving, and installing things. There is still a long, long list of things to do.

Last weekend, we had our first true test of how comfortable the house is when the temperature goes down to -20 C. It did fairly well- never dropping below 16 C inside without any heat on. On a sunny day, it would hit 22 C inside, again without supplemental heating. We mostly used the wood fireplace to get the house comfortable. I had also just barely wired up the baseboard heaters in our bedrooms. Phew!

Got these baseboard heaters installed just in time.

Clifton configuring the web-box to our internet line.

One of the nice things is that Clifton from Great Canadian Solar hooked up the web-box to the inverter, so we can view/post our daily power generation! You can see it by clicking here.

So, we'll endeavour to keep everyone posted on how well the system is working.

Another milestone was that we finally finished all the guardrails! Yay! So, here's Dan loading up the very last guardrail for the stairs!

Now it is much safer running up and down. Hooray!

My Bike Commute!

2011-11-10T22:52:00.001-07:00

I managed to bike home from work in just over 30 minutes! That's not even 3 times longer than my old commute. I hugged the top of the river valley and didn't dive down into the valley itself, and I peddled moderately- not full tilt fast. This was faster than taking the bus! When I biked the trails in the valley, my commute time ballooned to 49 minutes- partly because I'm outta' shape and the hills were killing me. My goal: by next summer, get the river valley trail time to 40 minutes!

Get the fire goin'!

2011-11-06T08:25:00.004-07:00

It's now cold enough to start up our wood fireplace. Last night, it was -8 C, and -11 C the night before.

The house has been comfortable on the loft and 2nd floor. It was +23 C on the loft floor and +21C on the 2nd floor, just from our solar gain/heat retention. We haven't turned on any electric baseboard heaters yet, partly because I haven't had time to wire them up! But a bit chilly on our main floor where we sleep, only getting to be 16 C. Serena made me get one of our plug-in heaters for the bedroom a couple nights ago.

So, we started up our wood fireplace and were amazed how much light if gave off from the flames. Adar pulled up his rocking chair to it, to read by the fire.

2011-10-30T09:53:00.001-06:00

Have I mentioned we have awesome neighbours? Dave, pictured here, and Mary are awesome. They not only have kept an eye on our place and alerted me when things go awry, but Dave has also been busy helping Allan, aka Malkovitch, with the exterior and now he's building decking with the heat-treated wood for our exterior carbonized wood experiment! Here he is the the 20-some panels of rough sawn 2x4s on a 1x6 sleepers he's made so far. With the exception of a few panels, we are going to leave them untreated on the roof deck. Robert from AITF and I are going to monitor and record how the colour changes over the course of a year. And hopefully, they will be durable as decking for a long, long time!

Photos courtesy of Mary G.

The first of the carbonized wood decking!

2011-10-20T14:05:00.003-06:00

Here are the first four pieces that our neighbour David made for our roof deck. David is planing down rough-hewn 1x6 and 2x4 lumber to create 3'x3' squares. It looks awesome! The colour is a nice medium brown too- we'll see how it weathers, stains, and fades. We are working with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures to test the durability of the heat-treated wood and hopefully make the case for a market for this material in Alberta!

Off to a posi+ive start!

2011-10-20T14:01:00.001-06:00

I was ecstatic when I opened up our electrical bill for the period of Aug. 21 to Sept. 21! We were a net generator of electricity! We used 263 kWh living in the basement- and with our trades using electricity to run their various saws, compressors, etc.
We generated 550 kWh, according to the utility bill. And our cost after all the rate riders, delivery charges, etc. was $3.26. I'm hoping the utility will PAY/credit US sometime!

Look Ma! The water boils in less than a minute!

Also in exciting news, we are having fun cooking our meals on an induction range. It was astounding how quickly water comes to a boil! Serena made pasta with a delicious bison meatballs, cherry tomato and garlic sauce. Yum!

Our first weekend upstairs!

2011-10-19T00:06:00.001-06:00

Yay! We made it upstairs last Saturday- moving from the basement suite to our house proper! We cleaned it just enough to get our beds installed and for the kitchen and bathroom to be workable. Now, we start the slow and steady unpacking, cleaning, settling in period. There are still hundreds of things left to finish up though. And I'm getting worse and worse at capturing everything with photos. I'm just keeping extremely busy doing all the little things around here.

I love how the kitchen tile catches the setting sun's colour.
& I'm hoping we have a less cluttered countertop.

Sunset earlier and earlier. * Sigh *

And last Friday, we got a nice stack of heat-treated wood
delivered! My awesome neighbour David is going to help
build our roof decking pavers! Yay!

Ain't it done yet?

2011-10-11T23:42:00.003-06:00

We're still living in the basement. And working. Finally, though, I can write a blog post because we now have internet access! Yay! It's been more than a month without internet service- unless I tethered my phone. But on the weekend, my data plan on the phone was tapped out. So, thank goodness today the Cable Guy who apparently lives in the neighbourhood came and installed our internet service! Amazing, how no internet kinda' does weird things to communication.

Anyway, here's the latest:

Yay! the corrugated metal is done! And you probably
can't see it, but there is a black mesh preventing birds from
roosting under the PV awning.

Yay! Malkovich fixed the bad dent on the exterior deck door!

The carbonized wood soffit!

Soffit turns into fascia.

The signed bit of fascia installed by our special guests!

Sunrise over Suncor. Or is it Mordor?

Exterior is 97% done!

Interior deck wall gets Hardie'd.

Another sunrise over Mor... I mean Suncor.

So far, our PV system says it's saved 2240 lbs of CO2.
Do you believe it? Does it know we use coal-fired
plants here in Alberta?

And today the bulk of the concrete
countertop was installed! Yay!

The orange sink looks awesome on the
charcoal grey concrete counter.

And we're very, very close to being able to use the
induction range. What should be our first meal?

Sarika & Dr. Suzuki Drop By!!!

2011-09-24T09:08:00.002-06:00

We were extremely fortunate and honoured to welcome Dr. David Suzuki and his daughter Sarika to our home for a tour! They are travelling across the country gathering stories for the Suzuki Diaries- and highlighting some interesting finds along the way. They brought their crew of the Nature of Things with them and visited the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence the day before. They wanted to see our re-use of materials like the brick wall, sub-zero-fridge doors, church pews turned to door casings and window seats and particularly our experiment with carbonized wood! They were keen to see how we used low-tech solutions for more ecologically friendly building. We were delighted to host them for a tour, while all the work was going on around them. It was an amazing day.

Dr. Suzuki & I talking about low-tech
solutions, the brick wall- and thermal mass.

He signed our inverter "For Mother Nature."

Even John Malkovich stopped by.
[Sarika made good friends with Allan,
who seems to have an uncanny resemblance.]

Sarika loved the SubZero pantry doors.

Adar got one of his books signed!

Group shot!

End-of-tour beers on the balcony!

Waving goodbye!

We were still buzzing at night and went for a walk to see if
the adrenaline would die-down. Serena took this photo from
the Goldbar bridge.

First Family Feast!

2011-09-18T19:55:00.001-06:00

We had our first family feast last night- to celebrate my Dad and brother's birthday. I wish it were in cleaner/tidier circumstances, but that's the way a sliding deadline goes.

** By the way, our blog posts are not as frequent as I'd like because we have no internet/phone connection at our new house. One of the stupidest, silliest mistakes was not to have a "mast & pulley" installed for the phone service. So, we'll see how much of an adventure that installation will be tomorrow.

Yum! bar-b-q dinner and more!

kids enjoying a make-shift bench.

Yay! Some siding finally on the south side. And look!
The metal is almost done too!

What can we do with extra hard wood flooring?

2011-09-07T20:23:00.001-06:00

There is quite a pile of off-cuts from our gym flooring installation. I'm wondering how we can best put it to use, as they are gouged, damaged or otherwise un-usable for a visually appealing floor...

So, do I lay them out on our garage floor? Do I plane down the old varnish and use it for fire wood?

Or??? Suggestions please!

The pantry doors are in!

2011-09-07T20:21:00.001-06:00

I'm hoping Serena is as excited as I am! The salvaged glass fridge doors have been installed on the pantry cupboards! Yay! And they look awesome.

Serena pined about a pantry way back last September... you can read about it here: http://chasingnetzero.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-get-my-pantry.html

Again, I am amazed that these beauties would have otherwise ended up in the dump. * Sigh *

Now, just some interior shelve supports to put up and we're ready to load'er up!

The first laundry spin!

2011-09-07T20:18:00.002-06:00

This is what we do for entertainment in a house with no TV. We watch laundry spin. Yesterday, we hooked up the new washer and dryer and were excited to watch the first load... for all of two minutes. But it was a milestone nonetheless, particularly after the ridiculous failed deliveries, damaged delivery and the craziness with Sears. So, finally, as is nice and sparkling clean.

LVL as the bathroom counter!

2011-09-05T20:30:00.001-06:00

The LVL that we re-used for the bathroom
counter turned out amazing. Dave found a
really cool way to bring out the wood ply in
the LVL by sanding off some of the stain. Not
bad for a material that would otherwise be
discarded as an off-cut.
It worked so well, that we are going do the
stair treads the same way.

Living in the basement!

2011-09-05T20:23:00.000-06:00

We have now spent our first week living in the basement suite, as work progresses in the main part of the house. The fireplace was installed. Some more doors were put in. Trim work progressed. And we even hosted our first guests last weekend for a couple nights. Carina and Peter braved the off-gassing fumes, dust and construction zone and tested out our pull-out couch!

Carina & Peter- our first guests!

The corrugated picking up the colour of
the sunset.

I love how the cedar screen creates
patterns on the corrugated metal at
the front door.

The pantry almost ready for supplies!

Child labour! Bringing up reclaimed brick for the hearth wall.
The brick is from the porch of the original house on the lot.

Putting the salvaged brick in "gabion" cages. I am dry-
stacking the brick behind the fireplace. Notice the metal
clip holding the cage to the wall- it was salvaged from all
the concrete ties found from the foundation stage!

Fireplace in place! and about 3 feet more of
drystack brick to go!

Yay! Basement countertops installed!

View from the pump-jack.

View DOWN from the pump jack scaffold.
Fun times.

We're spending the night!

2011-08-27T00:44:00.000-06:00

Can we unpack yet?

Tile around the main floor tub!

This sink is now plumbed! Yay!

Living around construction!

Shiny metal on the outside!

Yes, it may be a bit premature, but we're spending our first night at our new home. In the basement suite, as our bedrooms aren't quite ready. And it is doubly special, as it is the eve of our wedding anniversary! Darn good present to ourselves, if I say so myself.

We are anxious to live here. Especially since it looks almost ready. And we even have our very first house guests staying over too. Carina & Peter are visiting from Toronto- I offered a place when I optimistically thought we would be done and settled. They get to camp in our living room tonight. So, we'll see how it goes!

Another big push.

2011-08-21T23:04:00.001-06:00

Corrugated metal went up on the front and
north side of the house!

Main floor vanity hung! And I hope to use an LVL
[laminated veneer lumber] as the counter top, after it is
stained and epoxyed. The LVL was left over from the
framing of the roof!

The 2nd floor shower was started! The tile
installer built up the curb and slope to drain.

The Schluter drain installed.

The HRV preheaters were forgotten about during
the electrical rough-in. So we had to put in some BX cable
at the base of the loft floor that dropped down into the
HRV closet. Doh!

Here's the red-orange cast iron sink we salvaged from
an old house. It's put on top of the plywood that will be the
base of the concrete counter-top.

Range hood in place! We should have made
sure there was sufficient blocking before
drywall. Doh!

I added closet organizers to the front & back
door closets. They are already in use!

This is the small glitch that prevented us from
full-scale moving of boxes. The right side of
the gym floor is glossy finish, while the left
is matte. Hmmm....

Not a great photo- but this was an amazing
flock of gulls over our house and Gold Bar
park. I think there were thousands of them-
they filled the sky!

We've moved!*

2011-08-21T22:48:00.000-06:00

* No, we haven't moved in. We've only moved lots of boxes. And some furniture. And our beds and some clothes. But a number of things did not come together to move in this weekend.

1. We need sinks. No sinks were plumbed.

2. The loft floor needed to have its final finish- there seemed to be a glitch in the polyurethane mix and so half is glossy and half is matte finish. So we couldn't move all our boxes/stuff up there.

3. The pantry isn't finished. This is essential for Serena's moving in.

*Sigh*.

Super productive weekend!

2011-08-15T22:42:00.000-06:00

Basement kitchen. Almost done!

First coat of polyurethane on gym floor!

Thanks to my Dad, Greg, Tyler and David, & Dave, we had a super productive weekend. Now the basement kitchen is fairly close to being done, and most of the upper floor kitchen is put together. With one small hiccup. The drawer base doesn't fit next to the fridge. I can't believe it- it's 1" too big. Doh!

Almost all the lights have been hung, thanks to my Dad, who also put up the closet shelving/organizer in our bedroom.

Also, we moved our first trailer full of boxes over! Thanks to Matt, who lent me his truck while he was on vacation. I originally wanted to move in this weekend, as I was anticipating have full plumbing- but it was not to be. No sinks, no hot water. Next weekend, perhaps?

[I don't have a lot of photos because I kept busy getting things done!]

We have Plumbing! [sort of...]

2011-08-14T00:08:00.001-06:00

Jordan pipe-fitting the water tank.

The first flush ever!

Jordan from F&D plumbing worked this Saturday to get our plumbing fixtures hooked up! We had a few hiccups, as he forgot to bring his CC key and a leaky valve connection- as he grumbled at the not-quite-level concrete floors. He was able to still make it a momentous day! We have three toilets connected and one tub before stopping for the day. Hopefully by next weekend, we will have some of the sinks hooked up.

The toilets we used are low-flush Duravit and Villeroy & Boch toilets. I didn't install dual-flush toilets for a couple reasons. First, we were able to get an amazing deal on the designed-by-Philippe Stark 6L flush toilets. Two, we are planning for future rain-water toilet flushing. So, in our case, the cost of installing a cistern will be deferred until it makes for a more better return on investment. We already have the rough-in and separate piping for the rainwater harvesting ready.

Friday night work effort!

2011-08-14T00:05:00.002-06:00

Mike making sense of ikea instructions.

Rob & Felicity catching some air.

My Dad, Mike, Barry, Rob and our youngest visitor to date, Felicity came to help out Friday night! It was fairly productive with Mike being the task-master. Mike and Rob were able to hang the cupboard doors for the kitchen, and we built more Ikea stuff, and Barry was able to put in our first carbonized wood base boards installed, so the plumber can get toilets installed. Oh yeah, we hauled all the toilets and fixtures to all the bathrooms! Yay! One step closer to "modern amenities!"

First few corrugated metal siding panels are up!

2011-08-12T00:10:00.000-06:00

Allan put up the first few panels of corrugated metal on the north side of the building, adjacent to the basement suite door! And it looks awesome.

The only glitch was a miscalculation of the length of the wall, which was 14'-3". The metal panels came in a 14'-0" length. So, Allan made an wider 3" trim in one corner of the house, that most people will not notice.

Reclaimed gym floor for the loft [homeschooling] room!

2011-08-12T00:04:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty thrilled at how well the reclaimed gym floor turned out. Kudos to Dave, Rob and Dave for a great job so far. We still need to fill in some of gouges and gaps before varnish.

More kitchen progress!

2011-08-11T23:58:00.002-06:00

Yay! Barry hung the upper cupboards in our kitchen today!

I have to say the brilliant thing about Ikea kitchens are how easily the drawers click together. And how everything needs only a screwdriver and hammer to put together. And I had to return some items- as they were the wrong size. It was mostly painless, unlike getting the stuff all delivered to site.

Speaking of delivery challenges, Sears finally got the address right on the 3rd attempt to deliver the washer/dryer and new induction range. But this time, the delivery people refused to use the exterior stairs as they thought they were too dangerous.

And the bottom of the dryer was crushed. So I sent it all back. Hopefully, 4th time is the charm?

The guts of an HRV

2011-08-10T00:34:00.000-06:00

Kris Otto of Otto Heating and Cooling installed our HRV's and did a bang-up job. Here are the guts of the 3-195 HRV that does the bulk of the work! The diamond shaped things are the heat exchangers. Simple, really.

Kitchen progess [at least one of them]

2011-08-10T00:29:00.000-06:00

Barry just completing the first wall hung cupboard!

Brandy showing off her handiwork.

Today, Barry, Brandy and I made some good progress on the basement kitchen!

Only a couple setbacks:

1. Ikea gave us the wrong range hood cupboard- it should be a 30" wide by 24" high type- not 24" wide x 18" high. Doh!

2. Ikea didn't give us enough legs for the cabinet bases. Perhaps they though we were anchoring the base cabinets directly to the wall an only needed the front set of legs?

and if the rule is 3 trips to the building supply store to get enough parts/pieces, I think the rule for Ikea is about double that.

ENERGIZED! [or we have electricity!]

2011-08-07T00:28:00.001-06:00

Levi: "Let there be light!"

The energized after party!

Our bedroom lighting!

I am a very happy person. Levi helped get the house energized and tied-in with all the breakers on the upper floor and basement panels. Only a few more two pole breakers left. It is a glorious sight.

Sliding doors look Awesome.

2011-08-07T00:24:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Barry Westerlund, who worked on his birthday, and a beautiful Saturday afternoon, for installing the Pax sliding doors. They were bought at a bargain price of $99 each. Definitely, an offer I could not refuse, so we bought 5 sets. Happy Birthday Barry!

Kitchen building party! A great success!

2011-08-07T00:21:00.000-06:00

Kathleen & Randy putting together their
specialty: a 36" base cabinet.

Greg & Tiffanywhipping up cabinets!

Thank you to Randy Troppmann, his wife Kathleen, Greg and Tiffany for coming over to build kitchen cabinet boxes. They were cabinet building machines by the end of the day. We managed to build all of the wall and base cabinets for BOTH kitchens. Phew! Now to mount them on the wall and install and the doors, drawers, etc.

The kitchen boxes are on site!

2011-08-05T11:33:00.001-06:00

Where are the instructions?

Finally! After much telephone coordination, searching and moving, the IKEA kitchen is on site. All three skids of them. Thanks to Julie at Dynamex Courier in Edmonton, for going above and beyond, and finding our boxes in the IKEA home delivery area. No thanks to the unresponsive and unreachable IKEA home delivery staff that did not return phone calls, nor make any effort to sort this out.

Now I pray there are no missing or damaged pieces. And if anyone is not going to Folk Fest this weekend, and wants to help me build 2 kitchens, let me know! We'll have a big bbq party after!

HRVs in place!

2011-08-05T11:24:00.001-06:00

The basement HRV. It took a good portion

of the closet I alloted for it.

The main house HRV- it will hover above in a tall closet.

I still wonder how useful it will be, since I'd rather just open

a window to have fresh air.

Building the vanities, cabinets & sliding closet doors!

2011-08-03T23:57:00.000-06:00

I am very fortunate to have some great friends to call upon to help build a bunch of flat-packed furniture/cabinets and sliding doors.

It started last week, with Brandy and Robert helping build the vanities for the main floor washroom.

Then Tiffany helped build the tall high cabinet for the washroom on Saturday.

Leendert & Eleanor helped build our sliding closet doors. And Duncan and I finished 2 more sliding door sets yesterday.

Now just another couple sliding door sets to do- and two entire kitchens to put together!

Stacks of hardwood. Hard to imagine it will become a floor!

2011-08-03T23:02:00.001-06:00

Here are some stacks of hardwood that my friend Matt reclaimed from an old school gym! We have Dave and his crew pulling it all apart and then re-installing the hardwood as the finish to our loft floor. I am hoping it will be good just to leave with all the random gym lines intact! Serena loves the idea that this floor is in our home schooling workshop area.

Lights, Camera, Action!

2011-08-03T22:59:00.000-06:00

My Dad helped install fixtures and bulbs!

Leendert looking fashionable with our
bedroom fixture.

We had a flurry of activity on the weekend! Electricians were buzzing around installing electrical outlets, switches and some lights! But we didn't get fully energized, much to my disappointment. After two trips to the hardware store, we still needed some connections and bits and pieces. So, I hope we'll get it powered up by this weekend...

The cabinet building begins!

2011-07-29T00:33:00.000-06:00

Robert and Brandy came by tonight to help build the few pieces of IKEA cupboard boxes and bathroom vanities I bought. And they built it all in a couple hours! Brandy is a pro, having built mamy, many IKEA products before. I credit her Industrial Design training, Now only if the rest of the IKEA order shows up!

Delivery disappointments.

2011-07-29T00:29:00.001-06:00

Tight squeeze!

Apparently today was not a good day to get deliveries.

The IKEA delivery didn't show up at all, for our scheduled 5 to 9pm slot.

And the Sears appliance delivery was messed up. One set of washer and dryers went to the wrong address. Again.

And the induction range arrived with a broken glass top. Doh!

And then the delivery guys decided not to walk on the cardboard laid on the floor in front of them.

* Sigh. *

We did, however, receive the fridge, dishwasher, fume hood and one set of washer/dryer.

Progress. Peel and sticking. With Help!

2011-07-25T00:07:00.000-06:00

Tiffany & Levi looking busy.

Yay! Canopy is peel & sticked!

I re-did the peel and stick around the large
windows, as I found a leak in the heavy rains.

Tiffany and Levi dropped by today to help! We accomplished a good deal of peel and stick fixes.

First, we tackled the chimney flue enclosure, which has leaked in strong wind and driving rain. I poked my head in the chimney stack, and it appeared water was finding its way in between the fascia of the roof and the top of the OSB sheathing of the stack. The tyvek and red sticky tape didn't work to keep this water out.

Also, we peel and sticked the top of the large west facing windows.

And finally, we peel and sticked the top of the front door canopy.

And finally, it was a hot, dry day. I've had quite enough rain already!

Sunsets, rainbows, and refinery flares.

2011-07-22T00:45:00.001-06:00

July 20, 2011

Brightest rainbow I'd ever seen!

We've now been building this for
one full year!

Suncor refinery lighting up the sky.

Hardieplanks going up!

2011-07-22T00:38:00.000-06:00

Yay! Hardie-planks are being installed!
Thanks Chris W. for recommending Allan
from Citadel Exteriors. He's awesome.

We're using monteray taupe with evening blue
and timber bark accents.

The pattern spells out "Shafraaz, Serena & Adar"
in morse code.*

*Just kidding.

A World in Colour with Eco Spec Paint

2011-07-19T15:16:00.000-06:00

Our home interior is now coated in Benjamin Moore Eco Spec Paint!

This low odour, zero VOC paint is truly amazing. It looks gorgeous and doesn't noticeably off-gas. In fact, I can't believe it is interior house paint! I have allergies and am very sensitive to smells; I don't handle perfumes, colognes, or floral scents of any kind and paint fumes make me ill. However, I'm happy to report that I haven't noticed any discomfort or lingering scents in the air at all during house visits to view what the painters had completed each day.

It's amazing to watch these lifeless walls become so animated by the paint. Even the white primer had me all excited ;-) At last, our house is slowly becoming a home... now it just needs some guts and clothes!

Work bee!

2011-07-10T21:25:00.001-06:00

We had a very successful work bee today! I had lots of help with putting up strapping on the outside, peel and stickin' the last two windows and chipping mortar off the old brick. Chris, Robert, Zoie, Doug and Philip all came by to help! And they all braved the muck and rain and mosquitos. Troopers! Thank you for helping out!

Doug & Zoie working away! They didn't even take a break!

Robert & Philip strapping the wall.
I wish we did this months ago.

Philip peeling and sticking!

A nice stack of brick for behind our fireplace.

Many hands make quick work.

Wonderful, hovering bird!

2011-07-10T21:25:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, this bird [a brown hawk I believe]
just hovering over the river valley. The wind was quite
strong, so it just seemed to hang there. Waiting. Wow.

Minor earthworks to avoid major water ponding.

2011-07-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

Another ridiculous rain storm Friday and Saturday had me create some more minor earthworks.

This time, I created a small swale/stream to drain water away from the large pond created by the roof deck rain water draining down near the basement door.

I also covered up the window well as per Jim's suggestion with a tyvek shed.

Tyvek shed covering basement window well.

Small stream [on the left] created to the drain away the water.

Mystery hole that appeared
when I created a swale to take away
water. The water just drained into this hole.
Is it an old coal mining exploration hole?
A natural occurrence? Or something made by
an animal?

Phew! Flooding crisis narrowly avoided!

2011-06-29T23:24:00.001-06:00

Wow, Mother Nature! You are sure putting us through our paces.

It was good you rained my friend Arden and I out of our scheduled golf game!

Instead, we went for dinner. And it rained steady from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. After dinner, we decided to drop by the house, as Arden hadn't seen it since he helped me spread some sand around the basement, before we poured concrete!

And with a crack of thunder, it began to hail. And pour rain. In buckets.

And the rain began to fill the window well near the basement suite door. The same window that leaked in the last rain storm.

Torrential rain. We were soaked.

Thank god for Arden who immediately helped me dyke the water from further pooling near the window, then helped me bail out the window well so it was below the waterproofing membrane. I can't imagine what would have happened if we didn't drop by the house to check it out.

The lack of flooding is a tribute to Ken Albrecht, our cribber, who did an amazing job with the foundation! I am so glad I asked for a waterstop in the footing key. And perhaps it is the luck of our site- as the water, when it does disappear behind the ground surface, manages to go somewhere.

A few inches away from diaster!

I was concerned after bailing water out of the window well, why the newly installed sump pump wasn't working- and the sump pit was slowly rising dangerously close to the top. Thanks to Jordan, our plumber, who answered my urgent text message as to how to get it started. I'm not sure why it didn't kick on automatically. But it did start up when I plugged in only 1 of the plugs from the sump pump. Hmmmm.... Hopefully he'll drop by tomorrow to figure it out.

I am also wondering why the sump pit didn't fill more often- during other rains and snow melts. And why it didn't fill fast in today's down pour. Is the weeping tile clogged or plugged with sand? Is the water finding other courses below the surface?

And there she blows! Sump pump spitting
out the water!

Yay! A sump pit with a very low water level!
I am wondering why it hasn't filled more often.

Again, thank you so much, Arden- for helping me narrowly avoid disaster in the basement. I can't imagine the havoc all that water would have created had it come through the window. And we'll have to re-schedule golf! I owe you big.

Insulating for sound...

2011-06-26T23:05:00.001-06:00

When we were working in the basement last weekend, I was able to hear the painter and his music upstairs. This was not good, as I don't want to hear our basement suite tenant, nor would I like for them to hear us. So, I kicked myself hard for not putting in mineral wool batts before we drywalled.

So, instead, I really annoyed my taper/mudder. I cored about 80 holes of 3.125" diameter in the basement ceiling and my good friend Sonny helped me blow in recycled newsprint insulation into the joist spaces over two very late evenings. It took 9 hours in total. In hindsight, it would have also been wise to have added resilient channels. Kick me again, please. I should have known better.

Sonny workin' the cellulose blower.

Holey ceiling.

Finally, Slave labour!

2011-06-26T22:55:00.000-06:00

We finally got Adar helping out on site! He was good at
getting the little bags of insulation into the window.

And that's our neighbour David helping too.
Let me know if you ever need exercise.
We can put you to work!

Retaining wall/ window well in. But right over the screw piles. Doh!

2011-06-26T22:50:00.000-06:00

More silly mistakes at the house. This time the retaining wall installer placed the long side right on top of the three screw piles we drilled for the posts to the balcony.

Argh.

Now the fall back is to create a top bearing plate on the cap stone of the retaining wall, as it is too much work to re-do the entire wall.

This is why you should always meet your trades-person on site and review what to do before they start. Sometimes they don't bother to ask you a simple question that would have not created a huge headache. * SIGH *

Yay! Stairs to the basement!

2011-06-19T22:34:00.001-06:00

It was a busy Saturday- Nigel and I were able to get the basement stairs installed. I'm surprised only two of us managed to jostle the very large landing in place!

Is it level?

That is one heavy run of stairs.

Already muddy. Great.

Yay! No more ladder to slip into the basement!

Crazy colours! He wanted a blue ceiling!

2011-06-19T22:28:00.001-06:00

Adar wanted a deep blue ceiling for his bedroom.

And it is so.

Any guesses how long it will be that blue?

and green walls.

Our bedroom is less vibrant. Wrought iron
dark grey with "whitestone" grey walls.

Art niches in the stairwell!

"Startling orange" is the name of the colour.
We couldn't resist.

Nothing like torrential rain to test the building envelope!

2011-06-19T22:22:00.002-06:00

The rains this past week really tested our building envelope. I wish we had them before drywall and mudding, though! We have discovered three leaks. The chimney flue I have already talked about in the previous post. Two others emerged that need some repair.

One is the window in the northwest corner of the basement. The northwest corner receives the brunt of the weather, particularly driving rain. So, it was no surprise that without drip flashing at the base of the exterior wall, and no peel and stick around the windows that water found it's way in. Darn it.

Basement window- leaking through the bottom corners.

Amazing how much damage just a bit of water can do.

And then the bigger, more scary leak. At the electrical panel. Without an eavestrough, there was a lot of water falling on top of the power meter on the outside of the house, which is located on the north wall. And it seems that the exterior pipe that contains the main power line going down into the power meter needs to be caulked and further waterproofed. Since I put a tyvek cover on it, it hasn't leaked. So, hopefully it will dry out soon and I'll caulk the top of it. And I think I'll get some spray foam in where the wires bend into the house And get some eavestroughs in ASAP.

Not good. Water coming in the electrical panel.

This is the likely culprit.

Water hugs the wires and follows
the conduit inside.

It makes you wonder: how do spec-built or other "regular" on the market houses get tested/fixed for leaks? Do they bother to take out the wet drywall? Do they really find the causes/problem? I hope so.

Two steps forward, one step back...

2011-06-15T22:50:00.008-06:00

Puddle on the floor.

Water was hugging the flue stack.

New caulking on the chimney flashing.

Well, it's good we discover little flaws now I guess. When it rained all night and most of Tuesday morning, it revealed a little leak at the chimney flue. I found a nice puddle of water on the living room floor from where water found its way down. I called our roofer, Al Schreiber, who was great about coming over in the afternoon. So Al had a look and thinks it was the caulking around the vent pipe above the roof. He also put a better bead of caulking around the vent pipe flashing. I am still skeptical so we'll see if it will leak in the next rain, expected tomorrow.

Does it match my jacket?

I kinda' like it just white!

In a step forward, we are almost complete with mudding! And the painter Al Hood from Sky Blue Contracting started! Our walls and ceiling for the most part are a nice white colour of primer! I think we've finalized our colour selections for the walls. Adar was by far the most bold, choosing lime green walls and a dark blue ceiling. I'm pretty boring with charcoal and light grey. Serena, is well... We'll try to punch in some colour in places! I'll leave it at that.

Party's over! Now get to work!

2011-06-13T23:26:00.002-06:00

We are just recovering from our post-EcoSolar Home Tour glow. We had 177 people officially drop in on Saturday! Four people came Sunday, because they didn't read the date correctly on the website. We had a great time showing all who visited our place. It's coming together!

But there are hundreds of little things to do. I spend my time chipping away at them. Like tonight. I fixed the stud/drywall where it needed to stop short so a railing post could go in nicely.

And I relocated a junction box for a light that needed to be aligned with a kitchen light in the basement suite.

And I found more stuff for my taper to do! Like cut out drywall where it is covering a fresh air duct!

And I'm please to say we were able to get some new air barrier up on the back of the house. This time, it has some strapping holding it down! So, there is only a small section left to re-do. Phew! I'm glad, because it's suppose to rain for the next few days...Just 242 more things on the "to-do" list!

Railings in!

2011-06-03T23:55:00.000-06:00

Dan and Jeff from River City Metalworks dropped off all the panels and installed the guard rails around the loft opening and stairs! Now we can have people safely visit tomorrow! There will be a couple panels that didn't get their power-coat finish, but the important part is they are in place. And they are solid.

PV installation!

2011-06-03T23:49:00.000-06:00

Big Heliene 300 Watt modules.

Great Canadian Solar was keen to have the PV system installed ahead of the EcoSolar home tour. If you asked me last week, I would have said it was very optimistic to make it happen. We didn't even had someone to put up the siding that needs be to up behind the PV at that point. But somehow, the planets aligned- albeit with some weather challenges today.

Clifton, Ben and Chris persevered and there they are! Ready to be grid-tied!

The first one goes up!

Ready for the last one?

Bloody heavy inverter!

Chris, Clifton & Ben. Everyone survived!

Yay! 16 Modules ready to rock!

SMA Sunnyboy inverter up!

Guts of the inverter.

Screw piles / Building porches!

2011-06-03T23:39:00.000-06:00

Landon, Dave & Devon [& Will too] built our front and back cedar porches today in the wet, windy weather. What troopers! Ahead of that, we had to put in six screw piles- three for the porches and three for the balcony off the kitchen. It was quite a machine that drives the gigantic screws into the ground. It's too bad the soils are very silty clay around our house, as we needed extensions on the screw piles to get enough bearing pressure. So, they cost more than I expected. But it didn't involve messy concrete mixing/pouring, etc.

By 5pm, the front and back porches [with no steps] were done. They still have to finish them, seal them- but for tomorrow's tour, they are more than great!

Phew! Hardie-plank installed ahead of PV modules.

2011-06-03T23:31:00.000-06:00

"Boothbay Blue" siding glistening in the sun.

After Clifton put up the PV structure, we had to race to get the hardie-plank cement-fibre board siding installed before his team installed the PV modules. I hired Pelican Decks to help. Landon, Dave & Devon obviously do more than just decks! They were great to help me in a pinch, as I still don't have a siding company signed up...

The "snorkel" lift really comes in handy.

Happy Hardie Installer.

And that's the last piece!

PV structure is up!

2011-06-01T23:35:00.000-06:00

Clifton from Great Canadian Solar came by today. And it was bright and early at 7:30am to receive the Snorkel lift that would help make the installation of the PV awning structure easy. And the structure is up! It looks quite delicate. I imagine the PV modules themselves will help stiffen the entire thing. I hope we'll see it hooked up on Friday, a day before the EcoSolar home tour!

First railing in place! Getting ready for the EcoSolar home tour!

2011-05-29T23:36:00.000-06:00

Dan and Jeff from River City Metalworks came by on Saturday to start installing the metal railings. The frames have been powercoated and the mesh inserted and they look awesome!

Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties. It seems that one of the panels was made too large for the opening by 1/4" and we entirely forgot to have one of the straight panels made. Then one of the mudders stepped on another panel... So, Dan and Jeff have their work cut out for them this week to try and get them all finished. Fingers crossed we'll have them ready for the EcoSolar home tour!

Hmmm. someone likes the insulated roof.

2011-05-29T23:30:00.000-06:00

When I was on the roof deck, I noticed a couple birds fly out of a place under the soffit and overhang. I'm not sure what kind of bird it was. And then I noticed some bits of insulation on the roof deck. And then I noticed a larger hole on the end of the polyiso insulation board. I climbed a ladder to look for a nest, which was Serena's thought, but didn't see anything. I'll need to check with a flashlight later. I wonder if we can charge rent...

taping. mudding. mess making.

2011-05-29T23:25:00.000-06:00

stilt walker!

Taping has been going on strong for a good two-almost three weeks now. And it's messy. Black epoxy floors are not exactly black anymore. But I guess it's an art you can't control.

Drywall mud and dust has found its way into all the pits, cracks and holes in the epoxy floor. I sure hope it isn't gonna' be a pain to wash out. At least it shows me where we need to fill the floor with more epoxy!

Yay! Our Heliene Modules are here in town!

2011-05-19T22:03:00.002-06:00

Clifton from Great Canadian Solar sent me this exciting photo of our 300 Watt Heliene solar modules! Somewhere in Edmonton [location is secret!] there is a crate of 16 of these lovely bits of mono-crystalline solar cells, aluminium and glass with our names on it! Can't wait to see 'em up on the house! [But first, I need to get some siding up! Anyone know a good cement-board installer?]

And it comes just as we finished installing a PV sunshade at our building at work! Check it out here!

The first interior door installed! Yay!

2011-05-14T22:43:00.001-06:00

Old doors have square hinges, so they need
to be hand-chiseled.

My father-in-law, Dwain, came to town and we spent the day putting up one of the doors I salvaged from a house that was demolished last summer. I posted about the truck full of doors here! I want to re-use 19 doors in the basement suite for bedroom doors and closet doors. I was hoping it would be relatively easy. Ummm, not so.

First, we met to pick up the jamb & stop material at the local, very busy-on-Saturday building supply store. We unloaded the material. We moved the salvage doors from the garage and proceeded to bring them into the basement. Then we measured the rough openings. Doh! The framer didn't follow my drawings that showed all the sizes I wanted the rough openings to be. And the drywaller didn't realize that the closets would have doors- so he put drywall over the rough openings, thinking we would do typical bifold closets. And the salvage doors are all odd dimensions like 31.75" Or 29.25" Not 31.0" or 24.0" or anything regular for quickly hanging the doors on the jambs that are sized to the nearest inch.

Lovely, dainty litte Yale door knobs and
hardware.

So, we finished one door. And cut to size 2 other doors. And I spent a good while learning how to use a chisel properly [It's been a while since Industrial Arts class, way back in grade 9]. And this is why people don't bother to salvage/re-use as much as we should. It's a whole lot of work! But the results look great. And it's a great way to spend the day working.

Thanks also to Tyler to has carefully stored some doors for me as well as the hardware, which I picked up from him last night! Don't worry, I'll pay you back in other spare building materials!

The first interior door is hung! Yay!

Bloody wind.

2011-05-14T22:25:00.000-06:00

Our neighbour Mary sent me this photo. I was aghast.

The nasty wind on Thursday really wreaked some havoc at the Beverly Heights house. Our vigilant neighbour Mary sent me a photo to the left from her house. I was at work at the time- and couldn't get out of meetings. I tried to get our taper/mudder on site to tack back the tyvek, but he wasn't sure what to do, and how to climb a very tall ladder in high winds We ending up taking the un-attached part of tyvek down.

Lesson learned: only put up the air barrier when you know you will not encounter a wind storm, and do it shortly before the exterior cladding goes on!

We have epoxy floors! And some are black!

2011-05-09T23:50:00.003-06:00

Rough spots I want to fill in with another

layer of epoxy.

The first spot of black being sprayed down!

Right on the heals of drywalling, we had some help getting the floor epoxied on the basement, main and 2nd floor! They are really shiny! And the main and 2nd floor are black! We left the basement "natural" concrete, as it has an interesting "greenish/brown" colour to the aggregate and cement.

We still have to put down another [3rd] layer of epoxy, as I can still see some pits and rough spots that really need to fill in.

Looks like a space to live in!

Thanks to some elbow grease from Rita, Alex and Tyler!

...And drywall is done! On to taping & mudding!

2011-05-09T23:34:00.000-06:00

It sure didn't take long to drywall- a couple weeks and voila~ a house with rooms!

Ground floor hallway.
Back door in the distance!

Main floor washroom.

Ground floor stair landing. Now the basement suite is
completely separate!

Beverly Heights House on EcoSolar Home Tour!

2011-04-29T22:50:00.001-06:00

We're happy to announce that a month from now, we'll be opening up the house for the general public to tour during the Eco Solar Home Tour on June 4, 2011! See http://ecosolar.ca/ for more info! Hope we'll have railing installed by then! And maybe starting on fixtures? I guess you'll see!

Drywall has begun!

2011-04-29T22:36:00.000-06:00

I contracted out the drywall and now I am seeing the skeleton of the house being covered up, bit by bit. Spaces are becoming actual rooms. And some of the errors are becoming apparent. Like the placement of a few lights. I had to move 3 lights already and found a few junction boxes missing as the drywall went up. Ah, well. All part of the process I imagine.

Not without issues- we'll need to use acoustic
sealant to fix some of these tears.

Basement stairwell/entry area.

measuring/marking.

basement hall/kitchen area.

Poly Vapour barrier passes! Really? But we're not perfect...

2011-04-19T22:27:00.000-06:00

Wow~ another green sticker for passing the vapour barrier/insulation installation! But I must admit, I'm a little surprised. We have a bunch of gaps/holes in the vapour barrier and stuff we still need to fix. I found a bunch of places were we still need to use some [or a lot] of acoustical sealant to fix the vapour barrier to the wall. Or to something. And today, I spent some time taping up the slits the electrician made in the vapour hats of the pot lights in the attic. And I checked the loft floor windows. And I ran out of sticky tape. Doh!

Today, we had a couple of netzero home gurus drop by! Peter Amerongen & Bob Heath dropped by to check out our progress. I wish they would have came by a month ago! I'm sure they could have talked me out of using sticky red tape and had all sorts of suggestions. Like how to use acoustic sealant around electrical outlet vapour hats without using a half a roll of tuck tape to ensure a good seal. And there was a discussion about polyurethane vs. epoxy on floors. And a very helpful tip not to put anything against the triple paned windows on a hot day, as Bob has shattered the middle glass pane because of the super heated air space causing too much pressure. Weird. But it was great to have them over to talk shop. And hope we can all learn much more from each other.

Some work to do after pre-drywall blower door/thermal scan...

2011-04-08T00:16:00.001-06:00

Searching for weak spots.

Found a cold spot!

Cold spot behind some I-joist blocking.

We finished the poly vapour barrier installation- just after the blower door tester walked into the house today. Overall, it seems like the house is fairly tight. And very well insulated. When the house was de-pressurized by the activated blower installed in the door, the "certified energy evaluator" walked around with a thermal camera to show any weak spots. We found a bunch. The windows- and poly seal with tuck tape around them was the biggest culprit. So were the places were we used scrap pieces of insulation- rather than fresh/perfectly cut pieces. The blower door seemed to suck air right through the pieces of insulation. Wiring and pipe penetration were also obvious week spots, as were the I-joists and blocking that sit on top of the foundation wall. So, we went around with a red pen and marked all the locations that we need to re-visit. *Sigh* More work to do with that red sticky tape and acoustic sealant.

Yay! Another Green Sticker [for ventilation rough-in]

2011-04-08T00:04:00.000-06:00

Happiness is a green sticker.

We passed our ventilation rough-in! So, all the fresh air and exhaust ducts that go in and out of the 2 HRVs are good to go!

The dust making machine. Or, how the concrete floor grinding happens!

2011-03-28T22:34:00.001-06:00

The dust making maching. A.K.A. Concrete grinder.

The dust it leaves behind. Yikes.

This is what the concrete would look like
if we left it as is with an epoxy finish.

The epoxy will fill the voids and leave "character."

Lots of cracks, A.K.A. character.

Sealing the poly to the windows. This better work!

2011-03-28T22:24:00.000-06:00

Tuck the poly over the window sill and
under the window frame.

One of the tricks Matt showed me is how to seal the poly vapour barrier to the outside windows. Basically, you blow spray foam around the frame and then tuck the poly into the spray foam as it expands out and to the window frame, just below the drywall trim. The joint is then sticky-taped for good measure. The corners will be a bit of a weak spot, but considering all the other places in the house I've wondered about, it should be fine.

Allow the foam to expand over the poly, pressing it
tight to the drywall trim.

Is plastic and sticky tape the best we can do?

2011-03-28T22:14:00.000-06:00

I should have bought shares in sticky tape.

Seal all the gaps. Tedious, tedious work.

It seems like I've experienced an eternity of installing the poly vapour barrier and taping the seams/joints and all the holes. Shortly after we started, I really began to wonder- is this the best we can do for a residential-grade vapour barrier? It seems ridiculous in the low-tech use of plastic and sticky tape to prevent water vapour from getting into the cold side of the outside wall. In commercial construction, we use an exterior applied peel & stick membrane, and then put the insulation on top [also on the outside] of that.

Oh well. I really hope we have covered all the small holes, gaps and taped well enough around the electrical outlets, switches and duct penetrations. We're going to do a blower door test before drywall to check. Cross your fingers!

Story of the salvaged tub!

2011-03-20T21:53:00.000-06:00

I was able to salvage this awesome, 200 kg. Kohler cast-iron tub! Other than the old grout bits around the top, it looks brand new! It has great molded lines and even a sloped end for relaxing in the bath.

My friend Sonny and I spent one stormy night last summer ripping a bunch of stuff out a handsome, old home slated for demolition. It was a wicked thunderstorm- and it was kinda' creepy being in an old house, with no power- with flashlights only- trying to get things out of the place. That was the first time it really struck me of how much waste we create for no better reason than wanting something new.

We bashed the walls around the tub and pry'd it out. It took four people to carry it out of there- we had to wait until the next day to solicit help from the contractor. And it took four people to carry it into our place, after we dug it out of the snow bank where it spent most of the winter. I don't know how the plumber jostled into place. So, hopefully, we get some great further use out of it. And I won't reveal the other cool stuff we salvaged until later! Stay tuned!

Insulation, poly completion thwarted!

2011-03-20T21:41:00.000-06:00

Loft ceiling almost done.

I was hoping we would be finished the last bits of insulation and poly today. No such luck.

First, I slept in.

Second, Nigel called to say he couldn't make it.

Third, we found some lights that needed vapour boxes that didn't have them. The vapour boxes tie into the poly.

Fourth, I ran out of insulation for the loft ceiling!

Fifth- there is not enough time in a day...

And I won't even get started on trying to get door handles on the exterior doors.

We made a huge dent though! Thanks to Matt, Eleanor, Leendert, Deana and Nadir for lending a hand!

Vapour box [blue thing] are required for
lights on exterior ceilings.

Some gaps still need work. I need to spray foam in large
gaps to the outside here.

Basement looking good!

Height.

2011-03-15T13:49:00.000-06:00

There was an interesting article on CBC news the other day. It was about a house that one neighbour thought to be too high and that blocked his view. That storey has me reflecting on the process we went through to design our house and have it approved by the City and with the blessing of our neighbours.

It is with great neighbours and, the understanding of the land use bylaw, that has allowed us to build our house. Essentially it boils down to this:

1. We are building in a mature neighbourhood overlay, which limits heights to 2.5 storeys. Now the city reviews this height as if you were building a pitched roof- where the height is measured half way up the angle of the roof! Theoretically, you can build a house that would be about 34 to 36 feet high! Their rules are more strict for flat or shed roofs. You can review the bylaw by clicking here.

We limited the height of our house by building a "flat roof," and had to go to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board [SDAB] to argue that it would actually be lower than a pitched/gabled roof house. We could have built a 2.5 storey house with a gabled roof and NOT have to go through any of this extraordinary approval process. Luckily, we had the support of a majority of our immediate neighbours too! We had to seek the blessing of all our neighbours within 60m of our house- and we went even further, canvassing the entire block of people around our house. We even presented our design to the Beverly Heights Community League. We were extremely pleased that two of our neighbours even came to our SDAB meeting and spoke in favour of our house proposal.

Red outline shows the allowable, buildable area.
Notice also the tree branches in the background- the existing
trees on site shaded the neighbours too.

2. We built to a height that did not go higher than the previous, old scraggly trees that were on site and also created shade. We showed sun shadow studies that proved the shadow of the house would not be worse than the shadow of the previous trees that had to come down.

3. We are building higher- rather than wider. We have a small building footprint- in order to conserve a large part of the lot for an edible garden and green space. We actually only use 20.8% of the site area, which includes the existing single car garage on site. The land use bylaw allows you to use/build up to 40% of the site area when you include the garage!

4. Like many other houses on Ada Boulevard, we built the house in order to maximize our view to the river. Our house is the last [or first] house on Ada Boulevard- which is lined with houses of various stature and heights. We consider our house as one of the variations of houses along this lovely boulevard- some of them that take a "modern" design aesthetic.

We are grateful for the support of our neighbours and the Community League for helping us gain the approval to build! We hope to be good neighbours and we will endeavour to make a positive impact on the neighbourhood we will call home.

Time to Poly!

2011-03-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Red line shows the vapour barrier. We placed a
small strip behind the I-joists so we can keep it
continuous on the interior stud wall.

Loft floor poly'd up!

Matt & Nigel placing the vapour barrier.

We are 99% done insulating! Today, we [Matt, Nigel & I] started to put up the polyethylene vapour barrier on the walls that were ready. We only managed to get about 20% of the house done. Lots more still to do!

So cold. This winter seems to be dragging on and on...

2011-03-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

Morning of March 8, 2011

The fog is from the Goldbar wastewater treatment plant.

It was -20 C almost all week. When will winter end?

Only just today has the weather been more pleasant at -7 C.

When I was at the house, I measured the inside temperature on the 2nd floor at 4 C, the main floor and 2 C and the basement, where I have some electric heaters, at 5 C. I guess the 4 small heaters can't keep up with heat loss calculated at 12,000 Watts!

Railing getting fabricated!

2011-03-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

The steel frame will be powder-coated black in colour.

The hexagons are a "landscape fencing" material I found
at a local home building supply store!

River City Metalworks is fabricating the metal frame for the stair railings, bridge and loft! I was able to catch a glimpse of this prototype earlier this week.

Insulating, insulating and more insulating.

2011-02-27T15:16:00.001-07:00

Piece of ice found on a corner of a bag of insulation!

Enjoying the deep window sill.

Basement cavities filled!

More basement cavities filled!

Loft floor looking good!

How best to insulate behind an electrical panel?

Stair well done!

Blown-in foam failure.

We are getting close to finished on the insulation. I was happy with the good progress made over the past week. It's now mostly the main floor and basement that need the last bits stuffed in and the last interior stud cavities filled! With some luck, we'll wrap up the last of it this week.

We did have one hiccup. The Dow froth-pac spray foam insulation didn't quite work. We wanted to insulated the small gap created between the I-Joist and the cross framing of the roof deck. It did all of two I-Joist cavities and then one of the canisters jammed up and it was too late before we noticed it wasn't working. So there is a tonne of goop dripping to the ground that didn't work.

I had a great deal of help on Saturday! Thanks to Eleanor & Leendert for showing up after a morning cross-country ski. Matt, Derek, Deanna, Nadir, and my neighbour David, and Zoie & Doug all came to help too. Not only did we get a good amount of insulating done, they also helped scrape the last of the ice out of the basement, sort the recyclables/usables [metals, wood, etc.] from the waste and cleaned upand organized the mounds of scrap stuff everywhere! I am very thankful great friends and family who aren't afraid to get a bit messy for us. Cheers!

This week's progress: More insulation! Passed rough-ins!

2011-02-21T20:44:00.002-07:00

Plumbing stack passed!

It was another good week of progress at the house. We passed the electrical rough-in inspection as well as the plumbing stack inspection! Yay!

There was also a good amount of insulating done with lots of help. Thanks go out to Nadir- my enthusiastic friend who helped me on a chilly Sunday! And Nigel who wanted to work the weekend!

My electrician can do long division!

Stair niche #2 and look, wall cavities are filled with insulation!

Stair photo niches framed in!

The white tube is for the PV power conduits!

Left over wood was used for blocking for cupboards!

Sunset #1.

Sunset #2 a few moments later!

How to re-use these? [bits of tyvek, peel & stick wax paper]

2011-02-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

How would you re-use odd bits and
pieces of Tyvek?

Or the waxy paper backing for
peel and stick membrane?

Slight envelope problem... or window seal?

2011-02-14T22:57:00.001-07:00

On Sunday morning, I saw a large amount of water dripping onto the stairs. I am hoping it is because the tyvek is not sealed to the underside of the roof flashing. The wind was wickedly breezy on Sunday, so it essentially was blowing the roof water in behind the tyvek. Which then got in behind the nail fin of the window. That's theory number 1. I hope the fix [as we were always intending] is basically to use a peel and stick wrap at the top. Hope so.

Water dripping on the stairs.

Need to seal the gap between roof flashing and tyvek.

Water was observed under the window sill.

Did roof frost melt and create
a large amount of water?

Weekend work frenzy!

2011-02-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Igor adding blocking to support a light.

It was a busy weekend at the house! My friends Eleanor and Leendert helped with insulating, and Matt, Nigel and Derek were getting the house all wrapped with Tyvek. And Igor and Joe made good progress on the electrical rough-in. On Sunday, Zoie & Doug helped scrape the remaining ice out of the main floor. Derek was also around to install the steel posts for the guard rails and started on the blocking for the closet doors and washroom accessories. And the electricians were back to continue on. So, lots of work! But we barely made a dent in the insulating scope!

Joe adding a junction box for the fan.

Freshly installed pot lights in the loft ceiling.

Post for railing. Slightly askew. Doh!

Lots of insulatin' left. As far as your eye can see.

Wrap it up!

2011-02-12T21:04:00.002-07:00

The house is almost completely wrapped with an air barrier. The last bit under the balcony will be done after the columns are put in to hold up the balcony. We used a peel & stick strip around all the window and door openings to seal them tight. The red vertical strips are the tuck tape lines sealing the tyvek vertically.

Rough-Ins happening!

2011-02-05T21:21:00.001-07:00

Spagetti-like tangle of water lines and wiring!

Wow. I went away on business for a week, and to my surprise, there was a flurry of activity at the house!

The rough-ins for ventilation, plumbing and electrical are well underway! There are a few things that need to be relocated- but that was to be expected, since I haven't been on site daily to provide input.

And the roofing is pretty much done, with the top asphalt membrane now torched on!

Dance of the black pipe [above the HRV closet]

HRV supply & return lines.

Electrical code words.

Add sink here.

See that? That's a 2-ply MBM roof under that layer of snow!

All this waste...

2011-02-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

I am getting concerned about the waste we have created. Even with a desire and effort to minimize waste, we have created so much of it. I can't imagine what a regular house creates. These pictures are what our house construction process has produced to date. Lots of plastic. Lots of scrap and tiny bits of OSB and LVLs and plywood. Sawdust. More plastic. Little bits of Roxul that isn't much good for stuffing into any places I can think of. Lots of bent, twisted nails. Even more plastic. Gosh, this is insane. How can we claim to be low-impact?

Design Specifications

2011-02-01T22:15:00.003-07:00

Here are a few specifications that help reduce energy consumption and achieve lower impact on the environment:

* All electric loads are minimized to reduce consumption. Appliances, lighting and all electric equipment are sourced to minimize power required. For example, an induction range/oven is sourced for kitchen.

* Super insulated, double stud walls: the cavity between the studs are filled with 15" of Roxul mineral wood insulation for an R60 wall. A rim board [and it's associated thermal bridging] has been eliminated by the use of a balloon framing technique. All the roof and floor loads are carried by the interior stud wall.

* Super-insulated roof: the roof have 6" of polyisocyanurate insulating board that is covered in a 2 ply torch on modified bitumous membrane [typical on commericial flat roofs]. There is a further 14" of Roxul batt insulation in between the roof I-joists creating an R70 roof.

* High thermal mass with 2" concrete topping on the main and 2nd floor. This thermal mass will help reduce the temperature swings inside by storing thermal energy in the concrete.

* 4" of rigid insulation under concrete basement slab. This is to reduce heat loss through the concrete to the earth.

* Large triple glazed, fibreglass-framed windows with films that allow passive solar gain on the south and a different film to help insulate further on the east, west and north sides. There are only 2 windows on the north side of the house. Passive solar heat gain is expected to provide about 30 to 40% of the heat required for the house. The fibreglass frames have a similar co-efficient of expansion and contraction as glass, so the the seals between the glass and the frame, theoretically, should have better longevity.

* Natural ventilation through operable windows, placed in rooms for cross-breezes to help air flow.

* A stair tower with windows at the top and bottom to encourage "stack effect" for natural ventilation.

* Use of only electric systems- no gas line was installed. One energy source for heating and power was sourced in order to avoid additional "connection fees, transmission fees, riders, etc." that would have been the case with gas. Electric connection to the power grid also allows for a PV system to provide surplus power to the grid. Even though electric heat is created by coal power plants, the heating energy that will be required is relatively low, so that it is a not a large carbon creating source.

* Low flow water fixtures [toilets, aerators, faucets, etc.] and with a grey water system roughed in for future, possible rainwater use for toilet flushing.

* Selection of low volatile organic compound [VOC] or off-gassing materials. Also, use of re-used materials [lighting, doors, etc.]

* More to be listed as installation occurs!

Waxwings

2011-01-25T13:51:00.001-07:00

Near the end of December our neighbourhood was flooded with waxwings. Flocks upon flocks! As I couldn't get close enough to them, I could not distinguish whether they were Bohemian (which is my guess) or Cedars. Migrating waxwings in such multitudes are quite the site, it was absolutely amazing; the trees appeared to grow new leaves...lol, brown ones... and the skies heaved in dotted waves.

And, yes, there are tons of rowan/mountain ash trees in our neighbourhood with at least two in our own yard. It never occurred to me that birds might fly into our house windows as we never had that issue in our current home. We will try silhouettes and certainly shiny objects. We'll use printed out silhouettes unless/until we can find static clings (I'm just not fond of the idea of tape residue on the windows). And I'm thinking of reusing old cd/dvd discs for now and crystals when we move in and things are more settled.

I want the birds to enjoy the trees, but not be negatively affected by our home!

Can You Spot the 2 Disgruntled Magpies?

Chimney installed!

2011-01-22T21:24:00.003-07:00

The guys from Future Fireplaces installed the chimney to our future wood stove! I had to shave the I-Joists myself, as they don't touch structure. The trimmed I-joists will get some new plywood on either side to give it back some of it's strength. The chimney pipe will be enclosed and hidden on the roof deck level by the roof soffit that comes down to be a fascia.

Pipe penetrating the soffit.

The black drop box.

This is where they figured out the distance
the pipe should be from the interior stud wall.

Insulating Party!

2011-01-22T21:14:00.001-07:00

Leendert scraping out the ice.

Sonny stuffs the cavities.

Eleanor cutting the Roxul.

We started insulating the outside wall cavities! And when I say "we," it is due to the great help I received from Zoie, Doug, Sonny, Eleanor and Leendert! We managed to scrap and chisel out the ice and snow from the loft and 2nd floor- and began stuffing the stud spaces will R12 Roxul insulation. Since I have help with the labour, it's better than the cost of blow-in cellulose. Hopefully, Matt will be able to take over some of insulation work, as I have a business trip to Ottawa this week.

Night time insulatin'.

Doug cuttin' er up!