How long will it take?

Mark and his partners are busily working away on our construction drawing set. When they are complete, they will represent a rather large milestone in the project. Mark claims he is going to be finishing them tonight, post power nap…if he ever wakes up from it. I don’t blame him for taking a nap — he is running two companies, building a house and has a baby, a two-and-a-half-year-old and a fancy lady, after all. There aren’t enough hours in the day. He should get a bit of a breather once they are complete as they’ll be in other peoples’ hands for a short while.

The construction set will go to:

1. Our builders for more accurate costing
   Mark and I chose one of our builders, Cornelis Grey, back in the fall, before the redesign. We did this because we wanted to establish an open, working relationship — one where we could share ideas back and forth and ensure the project would be cost effective. Our other builder, Green Giant Design Build, was recruited because traditional builders simply can’t compete with pre-fab construction prices. So the two of them will be working in tandem. They are already very familiar with the design and have given us a couple cost estimates, but the construction set will go in to even more detail than they’ve already seen. The more detail and knowledge they get upfront, the more accurate they will be able to cost, resulting in what we hope will be fewer $$ surprises. This round of costing will be the 'fixed' one we sign off on.
2. The city for building permit
   We’re not seeking any amendments to zoning or building code so this should be a fairly smooth process. Or at least we hope it will be. You never know…I imagine leading in to spring there will be quite a few applications in which might generate a bit of a back log. Mark estimates 2–3 weeks. We already have an application open with them from our initial design back in the fall, so theoretically we’ll be able to submit these drawings under the same application. As a side note: I hope that in the future, municipalities will make an attempt to fast-track green builds like ours. There are no incentive programs or rebates for us do-betters, the least they could do was not stand in our way of getting it built.
3. The appraiser assess value
   As part of our construction mortgage, our house design needs to be appraised at a high enough value for the bank to dish out the funds. Our banker whiz is Etienne at DesJardins. Another side note: We often hear talk about green building being between the architects, builders and clients, but many other professions and institutions are involved as well. If the market is going to shift, change needs to happen with them too. Banks and real estate agents do not yet see the added value that building a Passivhaus brings nor how to market them. The appraiser wants to know what we're installing granite and hardwood nevermind r-values and energy efficiency. 
4. The Passivhaus Academy for energy modelling
   Mark is continuously editing his own Passivhaus model (where he inputs a whole bunch of variables related to our house into a computer program which then generates an estimation of energy consumption) and the model appears to be performing well. Mark is a certified Passivhaus designer, but for a house to become Passivhaus certified, it has to go through an additional verification check by a third party. We have decided to use Ireland-based Passive House Academy, where they’ve been certifying these things for years now. Having them look at the house at this stage is called a Design Stage Assurance. This should also take approximately three weeks. It’s not strictly necessary but it makes us feel a whole lot more comfortable knowing it will meet the standard before starting construction. They will look at the house again when it's finished and tested.

Earlier I mentioned that Mark would be gaining some breathing room once the construction set wraps up. I, however, will be holding my breath as we wait for the green light. I might have to add an addition on to Mina’s cardboard house as an outlet.

Finally...how long will it take? I’ve added a rough timeline to our numbers page. I’ll be updating and modifying it as more info comes in and as we progress with the build. Have a look-see. We've marked the start of the project as December 1st, 2014. This is when we decided to start the re-design so that it reflects the design/build process. Mark is cautiously optimistic that we will be in the house by Christmas of this year. Wouldn't that be nice. Time will tell.

Model house

What started out as a fun little project for our daughter has into something...more elaborate. Mark has had nothing to do with this one. I think it's a result of "I just want to get started already" frustration and the fact that, right now at least, the build is completely out of my control. A cardboard house is something I have control over (with my daughter's supervision, of course). 

The house factory: an adventure in pre-fab

We took the kids to check out the "house factory" yesterday, aka Green Giant Design Build's assembly shop, which is just outside of Picton. The owner, Adam, is just putting the final touches on it. It will be up and running this spring and our house will be one of the first off the line. 

The basic shell of our house will be made in Adam’s factory, loaded on to a truck, and assembled on-site in a matter of days (vs. weeks using traditional construction techniques). There are some major benefits to be had by going this route, not the least of which is cost. 

All the building stuff is very cool, but I’ll let Mark or Adam discuss it in more detail as construction approaches. 

Meanwhile, I’ll tell you a bit about the factory building itself. Adam’s shop is tucked inside an old airplane hangar that was once part of a WWII Army Barracks. The whole scene is surreal. Row upon row of identical, weathered, old, shingle-clad buildings – all of which are now commercially rented out, though you would never know to look at them. It looks like a ghost town. Inside the airplane hangar was a treasure trove of random objects like: the Niagara Falls fire truck, pair of Airstream trailers and heating ducts from a cement factory. So very bizarre and fascinating. Take a look at the pics.

Our zero energy house

Back in November, before commencing the redesign, Mark and I thought we needed to feel more connected to our land. So we camped out on it! The girls were safe and warm in the house with my mother who was visiting from Vancouver.

If the house build goes awry, the tent will be our fall-back. Do you need a permit for a tent? I bet the neighbourhood association would have something to say...

No furnace

Our new furnace

This winter has been a particularly harsh one, with record breaking (and soul breaking) cold temperatures. In our older, traditional neighbourhood rental home, we’ve often had the furnace cranked up to 23° and have still been suffering from cold toes and sniffly noses. Even with a higher efficiency furnace, our Enbridge bills have been hefty this year.

It seems unfathomable that we could live in such a climate without a furnace. But apparently we can. We will not be installing one in our new home. Neither will we install in-floor radiant heating or a pellet stove. Nothing, nada: zilch. The heating requirements of our home will be mostly satisfied simply by living in it — heat from our bodies, cooking, bathing, etc. The size of heat source that we will need to make up that last little bit of heat will be only about as big as the collection of candles you see above.

Impossible you say? Wrong. One of our builders, Casey, built himself a Passive House last year in Manotick and tweeted this earlier this week: 

Energy cost for the coldest month on record in our 3000sqft #fossilfuelfree #passivhaus = $10.63 What do you think @LeoDiCaprio #WeNeedMore

Pretty impressive. I won’t be missing those Enbridge bills.

Another nice little tidbit: a Passive House can't freeze. So no worries anymore about having your furnace konk out or power go down during the middle of a polar vortex. Take that ice storm '98! What'd I tell you: makes sense.

The functional program

Defining your functional program is step one when working with an architect. It outlines what you need, or think you need, in your home. That is, the building blocks required for your particular use – how many bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. Square footage is often included as well. Most North Americans think super-size, because it’s the norm – remnants of the American dream – who knows. According a report by the CHBA, in 2011, the average size of a new, single-detached house in Ontario was 2,000 square feet. This is the number I had in my mind for our house. I don’t think I questioned or understood why. Was it because it was imbedded in my psyche from browsing MLS listings? After learning how much it costs to build (usually calculated as a cost per square foot price), that’s when I started to really question what my preconceived notions were of what I required in a home.

The first thing to bear in mind is this: there’s a big difference between space and well-designed space. If a space has been thoughtfully considered, 1,500 square feet can easily feel like 2,000 square feet. The smaller the footprint, the less it costs to build, the less it costs to operate and the less time is required to clean. Yes, yes and yes.

The functional program we came up with for our house was fairly conventional: all the usual suspects — with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The floorpan the architects developed is so very efficient that they’ve managed to comfortably fit it all within approximately 1,400* square feet. That’s a 1,400 with an asterisk because we’ll also have the basement, with our backdoor entry, and the loft space on the third floor, which includes a bonus rooftop patio. The large window in the main floor living room will open up to the outside, extending the house even further in the summer months. We've also included a garage in the grand design, which we'll tackle down the road. (OK, so really it's probably about 1,700 sq ft –– is that right Mark?)

It’s no Tiny House. But as minimal as we like to think we are, we are not. We have two kids and plenty of hobbies. That is to say: we have stuff. There will loads of clever storage solutions built in to this house for our stuff in the hopes that we can abide-by/aspire-to a minimal aesthetic. Needless to say, storage was part of our program as well. Oh, and there was one last thing that was part of the brief: zero maintenance. Maybe I'm lazy, but I can think of a whole lot of other things I'd rather be doing than tinkering with our house. So materials and finishes must abide by this principle. And that is what the architects (Mark) had to work from, from a technical standpoint. Combine all those with a concept, or parti (architect lingo), and you've got a house that is more than just a house — it's our house.

Event: The Economics of Sustainability

Last night I attended an event put on by CSC (Construction Specifications Canada) with Mark. It was on “The Economics of Sustainability”. A hot topic, seeing as how the event sold out and many discussions continued to take place well beyond ending time. 

I really enjoyed what Nadine Gutz had to say. She’s from a company called Interface, which makes carpets from recycled nylon. And hearing from Economist Rob Conboy at Better, which is trying to get the ball rolling on financing sustainable building practices in the US. This is hugely important because there will be no widespread adoption unless the economics make sense.

Gunter Lang, from the Passivehaus Network in Austria also spoke. He's been building these houses for 20 years now and walked us through some European Passivhaus projects. Did you know that in Brussels, all public buildings MUST be build to Passivhaus? In Vienna, they are building Passivhaus skyscrapers? And in Heidelberg they are building a whole 7,000 unit community, including grocery stores, schools and even brothels, to Passivhaus? It's so commonplace over there. It wasn't 20 years ago. We're on the foothills of the revolution over here. 95% of the evening’s conversation ended up being about Passivhaus. Wow.

Adam Cronk, from Green Giant Design Build, introduced our house and our blog. I love this guy. His mandate is to “embarrass builders” by showing how affordable it can be to build by building pre-fab. Hip hip hooray. We are super excited to be working with Adam on our project.

So now the community knows about our blog. It's really happening. And I feel very excited by the level of enthusiasm there was at the event last night.

And now for some comic relief:

Slide from Gunter's presentation. An advert for Passive House from <can't recall where>. Apologies to those whose heads I've cut off.