a house in bridgeland

pretty pictures

2012-09-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

oh hey, long time no blog. sorry about that.

but as it turned out, once we moved in, we still had lots of things left to do - like decorate, put up curtains, and lay around on the couch in our underwear. almost a year later we're almost there, the only thing left is to tackle the natural dirt and native weed landscaping motif that's taken over the front yard.

since the last post we've had some great new neighbours move in next door, we made a new little person to fill our third bedroom and generally got on with the type of high-profile lives you lead when you decide to not put curtains on street facing floor-to-ceiling windows.

in keeping with our new high profiles, a big-time photographer asked if he could come to the house and take some shots. the finished product pretty much shows what the house looks every day... only slightly cleaner, 18% hipper and featuring way less of us laying on the couch in our underwear.

if you came looking for those types of photos, sorry about that.

won't you be our neighbour

2012-01-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

the other side is for sale. if you like what you've seen and read here, maybe you'd like to live beside us...we promise to be nice!

here's the mls link.
BridgelandHouse

thoughtful touches for things you touch.

2011-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

it's the bottom of the ninth. the end is near. we're dangerously close. there's nothing left but the crying. the fat lady is about to start warbling. yes, after finding witty ways to say it for what seems like months, we're officially in the final days of construction. the houses are almost* finished.

the final bits and pieces are coming together and every day there's a new surprise. most of which are shiny, smooth and smell like paint or sawdust.

one feature that's a family favourite already are the custom-made cabinets and vanities. the vanities are wrapped by a 3" thick border made of parallam, with the sinks placed on top.

in wood circles (where people, usually men, gather to talk about wood. ie: home depot) parallam is also known as timberstrand or lvl - laminated veneer lumber. it's commonly used for support beams and trusses because of its strength and resistance to bowing, twisting or shrinking.

it's not commonly used anywhere else. which is too bad because its actually quite pretty (wood circle note: the word 'pretty' is not often used in wood circles). we had it sanded smooth and given a high-gloss finish. so now in addition to being strong, straight and pretty, it'll be water proof.

not to be outdone, the cabinets themselves perform well in the "good-looking and useful" department, which is usually located adjacent to those wood circles we talked about before. they feature recessed finger grabs which were specially cut to fit your fingers like a glove. to tie the design in with the rest of the house we added an industrial metal backing in the recessed area.

moving out of the bathroom and into the closet, the folks in the wood circle are also excited about the closet and pantry doors. in keeping with our theme of reclaimed and interesting materials, we sourced vintage wood office doors from a downtown office renovation. we had them refinished and hung on industrial sliders that were sourced from the ufa. and you thought wood circles were just for city slickers.

up next we move in, forget about this blog, and spend our time in different circles that aren't so wood-related. and hopefully we get to do it with some cool new neighbours who love their house as much as we love ours.

*not to be confused with a commitment or firm date.

hardwood is hard work.

2011-08-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

my dad started his career as phys ed teacher. and since it was the late 70s/early 80s there were a lot of short shorts, high socks and whistles around necks at our house. if you did things wrong you were told to return to the starting line and try again. shuttle runs were considered fun, and if he could i bet he would have installed a peg board and climbing rope in our house.

actor portrayal of my dad.

i wasn't much of a gym guy in school, but i held my own at high school and junior high dances. i was a master of the close, but-not-too-close-in-case-there-was-activity-in-the-nether-regions, slow dance. to this day i can't hear guns n roses' november rain without starting a side-to-side hipsway.

this kid should be at least 9" closer.

my wife on the other hand was a school sport phenom. somewhere in northern alberta she still holds records for all the quadruple-doubles she posted in high school basketball. i don't know what a quadruple-double is, but at starbucks it would cost a fortune, so it's got to be good.

with this rich history and connection to gym floors it seemed only fitting that we install reclaimed gymnasium hardwood. our designer had it installed in another house and we fell in love with the idea. add to the fact it was a way to re-use and preserve wood that would otherwise go to the landfill and it was a no-brainer. we were lucky enough to find a company in town who specialize in building materials like this and they had just completed a huge reclamation project with 30,000 sq ft of hardwood.

our wood comes from the talisman centre for sport + fitness. it travelled less than 5km to get to us.

the floor was taken out in the fall of 2010 when the talisman underwent a complete renovation. it's birds eye maple and was in pristine shape, having never been sanded. the wood was divide into 5ft x 6ft pallets and stored in a shipping container after being removed from the centre.

our crew went above and beyond to remove the hardwood from the subfloor. this involved pulling the individual pieces off the subfloor, without damaging them, and then removing the staples that had secured the hardwood to the subfloor. to say it was a hugely time-intensive project is an understatement. we owe them beers for years to come for the extra effort they put in.

after removing the wood and staples, the pieces were bundled together and moved to the rooms they would be used in. the wood was then laid out in place, and finally secured to our subfloor with a new round of staples.

we tried our best to preserve the lines and markings of the floor, but once the heat and friction of the sander hit them, the oil based paint spread and smudged. we were sad, but as my dad would have said, "stop your crying and get back out there on the court." so we carried on.

after a few passes of the sander to smooth out the bumps, we're left with beautiful, brand new floors that also have a history to them.

hopefully the perfect setting for buzzer beaters, new attempts at canada fitness testing, slow dances, impromptu floor hockey games or whatever else might happen after dinner.

bricks and mortar. and cement board and reclaimed wood. and industrial steel.

2011-08-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

after 5 months of taunting and teasing the neighbourhood with plywood and moisture barrier we finally gave the people what they wanted - exterior materials.

the sides of the house are hardieboard, a fibre-cement product we cut to into 24” rows and painted dark grey (as you'll recall from our interior, grey was a popular choice).

the boards are bolted to the house using black bolts and feature a black metal drip edge under each row.

on all of the exterior walls we've incorporated sections featuring reclaimed and recycled hardwood flooring. this wood was pulled from our last house along with other homes in the area that were slated for demolition.

on the back of the house we cut the hardieboard into 6” columns and hung them vertically. we didn’t go with grey in the back…because that would be boring. for the north side, we chose a dark green. and for the south side we went with purple, because i love my wife and want her to always be happy.

industrial steel edgings will be used on all the corners. these edgings will naturally rust and patina over time.

and finally, the front of the house will feature brick walls along with the reclaimed wood siding. we chose harvard modular brick because we already had harvard-branded shingles, and it just seemed like a nice piece of cohesive branding to match the two. plus we liked the colour.

all of the materials and colour palette were chosen to reflect the history of the neighbourhood along with the new developments that are defining bridgeland.

up next, gym floors.

grey vs gray vs off-black

2011-08-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

let’s cut right to the point. there are way too many colours in the world of paint. we came to this conclusion when we started deciding on interior colours. it’s not that we’re against the vast selection. in fact we were quite happy to see how many ways we could slice grey. but it’s when we started looking at the names for these colours that we realized things had gone too far. if i was running the paint company it would be grey, a little bit greyer, much greyer, almost black, and so on and so on.

instead we went with tulle white and something esoteric silver. those are the main house colours. although I refer to them as grey 1 and grey 2. to the naked eye you can barely tell the difference. but if we ever do a magazine article or have particularly fancy dinner guests over we'll be able to talk eloquently about how grey 1 picks up the morning sun especially well at our latitude and how grey 2 reflects on the urban environment and our desire to help transform it.

grey 1 picking up said morning sun.

grey 2 reflecting the urbanism.

the upstairs rooms will each have some bright coloured feature walls to add some more fun. so far we’re leaning towards morning dewdrop and overripe eggplant. but you never know.

dry walls and wet pants.

2011-06-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

'here comes the rain again' has been the official song on the 'ole boombox at the house this spring... which is surprising for a building site with a lot of tough construction dudes. but i guess it just shows that even burly handymen have a soft spot for 80's synth pop. luckily for us, we were able to get the shingles and eavestroughs up before the wet weather got too bad. we went with black eaves and soffits, and a dark grey shingle called harvard slate - chosen because we're tough but also because we believe in post-secondary studies.

as the rain pitter-pattered on the tough yet smart roof, the interior work continued. we insulated with a combination of roxul and certainteed sustainable insulation for the walls and ceilings.

both products provide better insulation than typical pink fibreglass and are produced with reclaimed and recycled materials - roxul with slag stone while sustainable insulation contains 70% renewable content and an organic plant-based binder that has no formaldehyde, acrylics or dyes added.

it's the kind of product you wouldn't be surprised to see advertised with pictures of smiling children running through construction sites.

once the insulation was in and the children were home nestled in their beds, the drywalling began. the rooms really took form and we got our first true experience of the how the spaces would feel. lots of natural light on the main floors.

the vaulted ceilings on the second floors gives them an open feel.

and with 9ft ceilings even the basement feels not so basementy.

up next: drywall needs paint and we compile the longest known list of adjectives used to describe grey

we've been framed. and electricaled. and plumbed. and hvac'ed.

2011-05-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

first things first. apologies for the title. we've come to realize that the most difficult part of this blog is actually coming up with the headlines. if nothing else, this process has taught us that the guy at the sun newspaper who crafts those delicious puns everyday is a genius. a true modern hero.

but onto the actual reason for this post. the continued inner growth of the houses! it's been a flurry of activity lately, with all sorts of professional builder-type people scurrying around with supplies and tools and ladders and tims coffee.

the framers were in first, laying the groundwork for the future walls. after a few months of just wide open spaces, it was nice to see the rooms – and planned wide open spaces – take shape.

the framers were quickly followed by the electricians and plumbers, who benefited from having the two houses side-by-side. this way the different trades were able to be on-site at the same time without getting into any michael jackson-style gang dance-offs. (as an aside, how can one performer seriously have two videos featuring dueling dance gangs? that's just lazy.)

the lack of choreographed fighting means the electrical, plumbing and hvac have all been roughed-in with minimal blood being spilled or ligaments being strained.

next up... windows, doors, insulation and shingles. we'll be accepting title suggestions along with dance fight challenges via the comments section below.

raise the roof.

2011-04-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

first things first, if you didn't read the title with a hip-hop soundtrack playing in the background please take the time to go to your itunes library and fire up some maestro fresh wes or young mc and re-read it. there, that's better.

as is the normal process with houses, the roof went on shortly after the second storey. our roof won't be much different than most houses, but there are a few features we're excited about.

in building terms our roof pitch is described as 12/10. it was designed this way to match a number of the original homes in our neighbourhood. another way we're paying homage to the history of bridgeland.

we've also roughed-in electrical to the roof should we decide to install solar panels and utilize the two south-facing sides for future energy generation.

and finally, we took advantage of the natural a-frame shape of the roof on the inside of the house as well. the second floor will feature vaulted ceilings that come to a peak more than 11ft high.

which should make hip-hop or any type of music sound even better... as anyone who's seen spinal tap can tell you, it's always nice to go up to 11.

the second storey. a sequel.

2011-03-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

most movie fans will tell you the sequel is never as good as the original. of course there are a few exceptions - the empire strikes back comes to mind - but it's tough to come up with something new and exciting, using the same old characters.

we'll admit to some of the same worries when it came to our second floor. how could it ever match the joy felt when we first laid eyes on wooden frame joining icf wall? sure it would be higher, but the grounded strength of the first floor just felt so...grounded. this second storey would just be piggybacking on the first storey's hard work.

but then we watched the second floor go up and we must admit, it's pretty great all on its own. maybe it's the fantastic views from the bedrooms - downtown to the east, the escarpment to the south & west.

maybe it's the open staircase that leads you up. or maybe we're just suckers for new things.

all we know is the way things are going we're going to be way more excited about the roof than we were about rocky III.

a story about the first storey

2011-03-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

for a long time, people would tell us our house was a hole. and to be honest, that was tough to hear.

thankfully the weather has decided to cooperate and we've transformed that hole into a wood frame above a hole.

the ground floor flooring system and framing have begun. as with all construction, we are trying to be ecologically sensitive where possible. the tji joist beams (part of the flooring system) are made with recycled materials. and the icf common wall is a continuation of the icf foundation, providing greater sound and thermal insulation than a traditional wall.

most importantly, the design of a semi-detached features only 3 exterior walls - as opposed to 4 for detached homes. this greatly decreases the energy needed to heat the home. combined with some passive design features to take advantage of winter sunlight and summer shade from trees and the homes will both be substantially more efficient than conventional builds.

dinner at the 3-point line.

2011-03-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

it's been cold. and as a result, things are a little slow on the house front. turns out pneumatic tools don't work well when it's -35C. framing has started and we'll post about it soon, but for now some exciting news on the reclaimed materials front.

after seeing gym flooring used in our designer's last build we fell in love with the idea of reclaiming hardwood for our house. and after a few false starts and a lot of searching, we found some amazing gymnasium hardwood. we've secured over 3,000 sq ft of bird's eye maple from the recent renovation of the talisman centre. the wood is in great condition, and we'll have enough for both main and upper floors in both homes.

the wood was taken out of the gym in 5' x 5' pallets. we'll break the pallets down, remove the old nails and staples and then put it back together in the houses. after installation it will be refinished and depending on how it looks, we might even leave some of the sports lines intact.

no word on whether this will make dinner into an aerobic sport or not.

insulated concrete forms - a lesson in efficiency

2011-01-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

today's lesson in eco-home building deals with insulated concrete forms.

one of the most significant building decisions we've made is the use of insulated concrete forms (icf) for our foundation as well as the common wall (basement to attic).while icf is more expensive than traditional construction methods, it results in a more energy efficient home with greater insulation (both heat and sound insulation), increased structural strength and more comfortable living spaces than conventional homes.

icf is composed of interlocking polystyrene pieces, that lock together a lot like lego blocks.

as the blocks were stacked, rebar was placed within them to provide additional flexural strength. then the forms were filled with concrete.

unlike traditional foundation construction, after the concrete cures, our forms are left in place permanently.

in conclusion, the main reasons we chose icf are:

1. higher thermal insulation - because the concrete and foam are effectively sealed together, there is greater insulation value and less air leakage in icf structures. a traditional foundation with fibreglass insulation, studs and vapor barrier typically provides an r-value somewhere in the range of r-20. we can expect an r-value of r-40 for our foundation. since we plan on using the basement for living space, not just storage, the icf foundation will make the basement much more comfortable and usable.

2. higher acoustic insulation - we wanted to ensure that the two homes never feel like they're sharing a wall. with an icf common wall we have increased soundproofing all the way to the attic.

3. minimal waste - because of the locking block format, there was very little in the way of materials waste or overages. our icf was ordered specifically for our design and arrived straight from the manufacturer.

4. less material and labour - drywall can be drilled directly to the icf, removing the need for insulation, studs and vapor barrier.

that ends our lesson on icf, if you find yourself still wanting more information on the icf products we used and why they're a smart environmental choice, you can do some extra credit studying here: amvic building products

stay tuned next week for a history lesson on the historic neighbourhood of bridgeland's history.

something old. something new. (alternate title: let's wreck some stuff!)

2011-01-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

it doesn't take long to demolish an 875 sq ft house. all in all, ours was just a pile of sticks in the basement within a couple hours. by the afternoon a flat piece of land with a big hole is all that remained. but before we tore it down we spent time pulling out the things we loved. part of the process of this build will include reclaiming and reusing materials and items that stand the test of time. we're doing this for a couple of reasons:

1. first of all, this new house is about building something that is good for the neighbourhood, our family and if we want to get really ambitious, the world. so every little bit we can stop from going to the landfill helps. the ideal solution would have been to move the house to another location. we attempted this option first, unfortunately all the movers who viewed the house deemed it too small for their clients.

2. we like old stuff. not everything old mind you, but there's something magical about pieces and materials from different eras. especially when those materials are used alongside newer, modern items. so the new homes will include items that stood the test of time in other locations, and will continue to do so here.

from our old house we salvaged the hardwood flooring, some beautiful light fixtures and a pair of french doors. we'll use these items as feature points in the new houses, the kind of thing that might spark a conversation with visitors over a glass of wine. even better if the wine is a few years old too.

44 feet 6 inches. width ain't nothing but a number.

2011-01-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

our lot is 44' 6" wide. five years ago that meant nothing to us. but when the city re-wrote the planning policy for inner city homes, it became a big deal.

previously, to subdivide a lot, the minimum width was 50ft. however, in their efforts to increase inner-city density, planners found some interesting solutions when they looked at the numbers. the result was a new minimum lot width for side-by-side building of 44ft. when that policy passed, we happily found ourselves with 6 inches to spare. (insert your terrible double entendre here).

the reason for the change in minimum widths works like this:
- the minimum width size for a detached home is 25ft. in communities like sunnyside and bridgeland there are lots of lots this size.
- a 25ft lot with a detached home has 3ft of side setback on each side.
- put two detached homes on lots beside each other and you have 6ft in-between them.
- but if these detached homes are instead attached, you remove the need for 6 extra ft...take that 6ft away from a 50ft lot and you're left with 44ft.

side-by-side homes on these 44ft wide lots will end up being the same width as detached homes on 25ft lots - about 18ft... give or take a few inches, depending on your build (insert your terrible double entendre once again).

the old house

2011-01-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

we bought this house in the dark, cold winter of 2005. it had bad carpets, an ironing board in the kitchen wall, it smelled like cat urine mixed with cigarette smoke, and the ceilings were dangerously low. we ripped out the carpets and discovered hardwood, converted the ironing board nook into a spice rack and painted over the eau de feline marlboro. we couldn't do anything with the ceilings so we just pretended we were really tall whenever we were home. i particularly liked this.

the house was good. the neighbourhood was better. but as we grew and started to think about the future, questions popped up.
can we add another bedroom if we want two kids?
would a second story look silly?
are those pipes made of lead?
seriously, lead?
how much would it cost to do a complete reno?

the answers to these questions led us down the road we're on today. if we wanted a house that fit our values, our growing life, our bank account and yet was still in our neighbourhood, we'd have to find a unique solution.

an intense interest in infills soon developed, and we found ourselves on long walks that passed semi-detached construction sites.

the start

2011-01-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

welcome to a blog about a house in bridgeland.

this is where we'll document the project and tell the story of our new home. but it's not just about our house. after all, we're building a semi-detached. a duplex. a side-by-side. so whatever you call it, this is really the story of two houses.

maybe this will be the story of your house too.

or maybe you're just a curious sort who enjoys reading about the highs and lows of inner-city construction.

wherever you fit in, welcome. we hope you enjoy the ride.