Building permit submitted

Mark submitted our drawing set to the city last Friday. Engineer-stamped and everything. Cause for celebration. HOORAY! Only a year behind schedule. I had some friend remind me today, however, that we're not building a developer home here. Our expectations of how fast a house can be designed and built may be a bit skewed. This ain't that kind of house. We're playing the long game.

Hopefully we'll get a quick turnaround and an open-minded official overseeing our project. We're trying to do something different. And that can be scary to some.

Meanwhile, I'm in Vancouver with our daughters, visiting my sister. It's such a wonderful city. We've often thought about moving to Vancouver. Still do. It's such a wonderful city. Leading the world in healthy living. Building a passive house out here would be 'easy peasy' and a natural fit with the more moderate climate. If we can make it happen in Ottawa, we can make it happen anywhere. 

My dad

So I came across my dad's thesis in our storage locker last week. "Towards an architectural co-existence with the sun". I'm guessing this was around 1977 (?). He was always ahead of his time. Writing about passive principles and solar voltaics. 

He was a strong voice. One could argue, the father of green building in Canada, as we know it today. One of his first employees, Oliver, worked on the Saskatchewan House, renown in Passive House circles. In the early 90s, he was responsible for Ottawa's Minto-built Innova House, one of the country's first R-2000 houses and the first that contributed electricity back to the grid with its solar panels. He also brought the Energy Star program up to Canada and wrote the first iteration of the program. These programs, and their ease of adoption for developers have had large-scale impact on the quality and energy efficiency of the housing industry overall. One off homes, like ours, are great, but if we want real impact, it's made through existing channels and large developers, like Minto. 

When you're a kid, your parents are just your parents. What, they had lives before you came around? Only later in life were we getting glimpses at who my dad was before we came along and what he actually did 9 to 5. I'm so proud. Sure wish he was around to see us through our build. Miss you dad. 

Windows waiting for a home

So there may not be a hole in the ground yet (or even a building permit in hand), but our beautiful Gaulhofer windows have landed on Canadian soil. They are being held for us until the building shell is ready to receive them. The window in front in the photo is the lift-and-slide unit that will let out onto our rooftop patio, and bring in all of that gorgeous sunlight at the top of the house!

The windows are u-PVC with aluminum exterior cladding. We went with Gaulhofer for two reasons: one, the windows are beautiful, robust, extremely well built, and very high performance, and two, because of the exceptional service and attention we have received from Adrian at Herrmann's Timber-Frame Homes. I would highly recommend them to anyone without reservation. Although these are not the most affordable windows, I believe that windows are one element in particular that should not be nickel-and-dimed when building a home. Windows are the weak point in nearly any wall assembly, and are also unique in being one of the only elements of the building envelope that we will touch and interact with regularly as occupants. The feeling of quality to hand when opening and closing the windows will be a signature example of the level of quality I believe all elements of a home should aspire to. Couple this with thermal performance suitable for Passive House applications and you have a wonderful thing. The choice to put Gaulhofer windows in to our home was one of the easier choices we've had to make so far.

A quick progress update: we are expecting the structural engineer's review Monday or Tuesday, which means our permit process can get rolling again...