|
Hello HCH (The forum formally known as DIY). I'm an AI regular and have just recently bought a plot of land with the intent to build a home on. I like to consider myself handy but I'm definitely more theory than practice at the moment when it comes to building and working on things that don't have wheels. If you're so inclined you can read about my exploits over in AI *CLICK HERE* The purpose of this thread is to hopefully entertain all of y'all by sharing my home build adventure and to hopefully spark some discussions and hear your suggestions for things to consider. To give some background on myself and my family, my wife has some mobility issues that necessitate the use of a walker and potentially a wheelchair in the future. We are also expecting our first child this summer. Due to our health situation we're planning a generational home with my parents moving with us into the new home, it'll work for us as we can better support each other. But with that our home has to accommodate 5 people, two couples and new baby. We're going for an accessible home to meet our current and future mobility needs, so we're planning to install a motorized stair-lift chair between the main floor and basement, and some provision for a future elevator if our needs change in the future. The main floor will be all one level with no steps to aid in getting around. Planning on things like in-floor heating via a boiler/hydronic system as well as forced air to get some fresh air and to allow for A/C cooling in the summers. As mentioned, we bought what we feel is a gorgeous riverfront property a few minutes away from the city, just over 1.5 acres and sloped to the river. It was a risky purchase but thankfully paid off, we engaged an architect to design our new home and we made a conditional offer with our conditions essentially boiling down to us knowing that the land is buildable and being granted approved variances. The geotechnical report (because of the proximity to the riverbank and the elevation meaning it was within water managements jurisdiction) is quire onerous and had cost the seller $20k, through the negotiation we essentially split the cost if the results were favorable, which it turns out they were. Anyway, the below will be the base for where I will attempt to build my dream home. Or a winterized tent (depending how my budgeting goes...). I'll be lurking in DIY for a bit to learn a little bit more about home construction.      It's a roughly triangular shaped lot with just under 300' fronting the road, it's a very dreamy lot in my opinion which is why we bought it. Did our due diligence so I hope there's no big surprises that occur during construction. Plan is to finish the design this year and begin construction in 2022. I'm a huge fan of exposed lumber and natural stone accents, and from what I gathered looking online at way too many different homes, I think what I really like is a modernized craftsman style. We shared about 200 idea photos with our architect as well as a sketched out floorplan we came up with and I compiled a set of room data sheets which helped explain what we had in mind in terms of rooms, their expected uses, and various requirements. Our architect went to work and got us a quick sketch to make sure we were on the same page.  This is definitely a style I can get behind, I love the large window wall into the common area which will give a great view of the river. We went ahead with some floorplans and after a number of revisions we have the following which we used to apply for some variances to allow us to build closer to the road and stay as much out of the flood zone as we could.  We're hoping to respect the topography and the natural beauty of the lot so our plan is to keep the existing trees on the lot and building around them where possible. The home is placed roughly perpendicular to the direction of the slope so that it evenly cuts into it.  We're planning a single story home with a walk-out basement. The section view below shows a crawlspace but now with the results of the geotechnical report we'll be going with a slab on grade approach.  We're still tweaking the floor plan but I think the exterior of the home will be roughly this shape with some tweaks to some of the spaces. Our Architect is recommended looking at an 'ICE' panel construction (Insulated Composite Envelope panel). I haven't run into these in my professional life, but from going through the marketing stuff and whatnot it seems like a not terrible idea for the building envelope. https://gsbp.ca/  Essentially it's expanded polystyrene with steel stud framing. So think styrofoam with metal studs throughout but not bridging interior to exterior. quote:The Greenstone ICE Panel is an Insulated Composite Envelope Panel – a new, technologically advanced building envelope developed in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. ICE Panels are an engineered combination of EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) and steel stud framing used in residential and commercial construction applications. The panels use two independent structural frames bonded together with EPS to create a strong, durable building envelope with no thermal connections and a life cycle that will last generations. According to them, the effective R value is pretty stellar.  And it gets better once you look at the full wall system.  Our Architect is telling us the material cost is higher but the labour cost is much lower. Supposedly you get a factory trained tech and a group of 4 people can put up an entire house fairly quickly as it's all premanufactured and it's like very large sized lego.  For our home we'd be looking at a similar construction to the example 'Sturgeon Lake House" with the roof and envelope being these ICE panels and then some larger lumber for supports and structure.  I really like the look of exposed timber, and I like the idea of the simplicity of putting it up and the good thermal perfomance, as well as being an all-in-one style without a discrete vapour barrier.  Any thoughts or experience with these sorts of products? Our current home is traditional stick construction and so far everything I'm seeing is positive for this 'ICE' panel construction. Just don't want to get caught up in marketing hype or if there's some glaring flaws I'm not seeing with such a system. In my AI thread a poster brought up pests seemingly liking to burrow into the EPS, which looks like the risk can be mitigated with careful planning and some physical barriers like a thin metal plate to prevent pest intrusion. I know I will have a ton of questions, and my post is light on info, so if you want to know something, just ask!
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2021 04:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 12:39 |
|
|
Ooo new house thread! Congrats on putting the horse before the cart in that you have already completed two crucial steps: acquiring land on which to build and retaining an architect! I don’t know anything about ICE construction, but I can talk a lot about design. From the architect’s sketch and you wanting a modernized craftsman style, seems like prairie school is what you’re after. It’s basically proto-modern Craftsman, often with flat/shallow hipped roofs, lots of natural stone and wood details, cool windows everywhere, and emphasis on integrating with the natural landscape. If you haven’t already gone through prairie school inspirations and discussed using these influences with your architect, I highly recommend doing so. I know it’s still early in the process so stuff is subject to change and evolve, but a few remarks layout: the basement stairs seem kind of in the middle of everything. If these were stairs going up to a second floor, that’d be one thing, but with them going down it opens up a weird chasm in the middle of the living room. And a note on master bedroom 2, if this is going to be a multigenerational house, I’d try to put it on equal footing with master 1 and give it an outside entrance. I think having direct access to outside for both masters is a good thing as it gives both adult couples more autonomy and separate access to their own little zone and they’re not captive to the rest of the house, if you get what I’m saying. I think what’s preventing that right now is that too many bathrooms have riverfront views instead of bedrooms. Those things said, it’s already vastly superior to your average stock plan. Also it’s awesome that you’re able to build a house from the ground up to appropriately accommodate mobility issues. Designing from scratch for accessibility seems way more ideal than retrofitting an existing structure. The circles in the floorplan are wheelchair turn radiuses, right?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2021 08:09
|
|
|
Queen Victorian posted:
Looked this up and it looks we have it covered in our inspiration photos, but it's good to know what the proper terminology is for this. Queen Victorian posted:Also it’s awesome that you’re able to build a house from the ground up to appropriately accommodate mobility issues. Designing from scratch for accessibility seems way more ideal than retrofitting an existing structure. The circles in the floorplan are wheelchair turn radiuses, right? We quickly deduced that building from scratch was the way for us, we checked out home listings but the renovations to adapt the homes would end up costing us more in the end than just building it ourselves with accessibility in mind. Especially considering the housing market here is rather hot at the moment and prices seem blistering high. The circles are indeed the wheelchair turning radii. We'll have to figure out how to shuffle stuff around, the casm of the basement stairs should likely move as you commented, going to have to sit down with the family this week with the plans and see what we can come up with and markup. I appreciate the input!
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2021 18:12
|
|
|
Ground floor in this thread. Great poster, cool cars, baby on the way, what could be better? I grew up in a SIP house (a geodesic dome with 2 wings), and my father had a 30x60 SIP shop. Not quite exactly the same, but very similar. This was in WV, where termites and carpenter ants are a real issue. We solved it by injecting permethrin around the foundation and deep into the soil around it's, using a proper-height foundation, and maintaining the requisite vertical separation between landscaping and siding/trim. The energy efficiency was incredible, but there were some issues. If you're interested, I'll write a long form post about them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2021 04:37
|
|
|
I'd love to hear about it, effort-post away! My current take is that it would be worth using the 'ICE' panels for the benefits and being mindful of their drawbacks and designing around them. The better informed I can be, hopefully the better I can mitigate the risks.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2021 17:41
|
|
|
Updated Floor Plans incoming! Main Floor Plan:  We were presented with some options and we like this one the best. We give up the walk in closets for reach-in to give MasterBed 2 access to the deck, but from an accessibility standpoint I feel reach in might actually be better and easier. Double door entrance into MasterBed 1 is gone as well, but I'm fine with a standard 36" door into the room. Other notable changes are some added space on the far side of the garage to allow for toolboxes and workbenches to go in, Stair has been relocated, and it makes sense to do a rough in for a future elevator by where the stairs start. I think with this the main floor update we are getting really close, maybe a minor tweak around the ensuites but otherwise I'm happy with it. Onto the basement!  This was their first stab at the basement with a few options presented around this layout. For the home theater I am wanting to have a golden trapagon room for the setup. I've always liked nice sounding theaters and we have a current home theater with a projector and 120" screen and good speakers, but acousticly our current room is not ideal. This should be a huge step up. Not sure if the modified golden trap suggestion is going to affect acoustics too much, any audio goons in the house?  With us liking the other option for the stair location, this is what the entrance to the basement will look like:  And last but not least, one thing I really really enjoy is a spa circuit, alternating between hot and cold, dry sauna, wet steam room / shower combo, soaker tub for cool soak, and access to the outdoors to jump in the snow for the full nordic experience. I think with our budget this is mostly going to be rough-ins at this time. We have a third Master Bed shown down here to provide options and potential family expansion.  What I've noted in red is what I think of the particular spaces. Critiques, comments, concerns all welcome. Help me not make mistakes!
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2021 00:47
|
|
|
Oh cool, updates! I have some comments and questions. Too lazy to do fancy multipart quoting so I’ll just go in sections. Main floor: I like the changes. Stairs are no longer making a big hole in your living room and master #2 doesn’t feel so obviously second fiddle because it now has its own deck access. The bedroom exterior doors are all French doors, right? Because river view and all that. (Of course you’d have blinds on them for privacy and sleeping in.) On the walk up closet, yeah it feels more accessible because you wouldn’t have to navigate a walker or wheelchair into a separate small room. For the folding doors on the walk-up closet, can you get motorized ones? I’ve encountered so many suboptimal folding/sliding/accordion closet door styles that suck to operate as an able bodied person and would no doubt be inoperable for someone with a walker or in a wheelchair, but I guess if you have the folding doors on high quality hinges (without tracks that can get jammed) and weak/easily operable catch mechanisms then you’d be just fine. Home Theater: I’m no audiophile or home theater expert, but would the room shape even matter that much for a relatively small space like this full of people and seating as long as you have good surround sound that’s optimally placed and configured? I always figured that room shape and placement of reflector things and whatnot were concerns for huge symphony halls and poo poo. Also, what is the use case for the home theater? Is it just for movies or is it for all your TV screen needs like news, mindless TV watching (HGTV et al), video games, etc? Will there be another TV in the house? Multiple others? I’m curious because I’ve always lived in a single TV household. My parents built a sweet home theater/glorified TV den in their basement and it is now the location of their one TV, so the room is set up very conventionally (couch + coffee table) rather than having theater seating, so it feels like a normal room rather than a special purpose room that’s reserved for viewing films exclusively. My husband and I are doing a very similar setup - normal TV den couch + coffee table configuration with high end surround sound and a good flat panel. Personally speaking (and please tell me to gently caress right off if you disagree), I’ve never liked the idea of home theaters set up to mimic real movie theaters with the little rows of theater seating and such. It feels restrictive and kinda pigeonholes the room. I vastly prefer a glorified TV den setup in which there is a monster sectional with tons of cushions and detachable ottomans and fuzzy throw blankets, end tables and maybe a coffee table for drinks and snacks, counter height beer fridge (high end ones are silent) and possibly a wet bar in the back, etc. Much better optimized for social viewing (i.e. sports and multiplayer video games) in my opinion, and also gives you the option to watch something lying down snuggled up under a blanket if you just want to veg, to cuddle as a couple, have some shared snack bowls everyone can reach for, have a ton of floor space for kids, and so on. Or this could just be me - like I said, I grew up in a house with one TV, and said TV was shunted off to the den and forever banned from the living room, and I still think in terms of one TV, so I want the environment for that one TV to be super indulgent and comfy and unapologetically media-centric, because I don’t want to compromise my living room (also I have like the worst living room for trying to place a TV). BUT if you also have a TV in your living room for casual/social watching, then that covers a lot of your bases and the full blown theater with theater seating makes more sense. General basement floor/sauna: so is that third master suite going to be built out initially? Or is the mention of roughing in just for the sauna? Honestly I would not swap the bathroom/sauna location with the downstairs bedroom because it would turn the bedroom into a drat cave by putting it mostly below grade (from the looks of that side elevation) - it’s already underneath the upper deck so you need all the light you can get. If you move it to the corner and don’t change any outer walls, you reduce natural light. What about swapping the tub and sauna so the sauna also has direct outside access? Or do you generally not want two doors on a sauna? (I am not familiar with saunas) Speaking of being under the deck, I’d try to make that whole area feel “finished” and welcoming - you want a snazzy covered patio vibe and not underside of a deck/crawlspace vibe. Good looking rafters/columns, permanent lighting, etc. As for that seating area, what’s the use case? When my dad was designing our family house rebuild, he originally had some little sitting area/reading nook in the upstairs hallway. An architect friend laughed at it and told him to just add another bathroom instead. Now one of the bedrooms has an en suite bathroom that it didn’t have originally, which makes it a fine guest room, and never in 25 years since the house was (re)built has anyone at any point ever had the thought, “gee I wish there was a sitting area in the hallway”. Since you don’t seem to need any additional bathrooms, what I’d do is give that space to the bedroom so you can have a sitting area in the bedroom (and so it’s bigger and feels more apartment-like to compensate for it being in the basement), or if you don’t need to have it as a bedroom yet, dress it up like a library or wine cellar or whiskey tasting room or something. Doing that will make indoor access to the sauna not feel like traipsing through a private space. And I guess an additional idea would be to add a hookup to the sitting area that is now in the bedroom so you have the option of easily turning it into a kitchenette in the future in case you ever need a self-contained in-law unit and/or your folks want additional autonomy down the road. Some of our friends bought a relatively new construction house with an unfinished basement, but the basement came equipped with a proper egress window and capped off hookups, which makes it extremely easy for them to build it out as an additional bedroom with full bath or in-law suite or whatever. This was a huge plus for them when buying the house. I love the idea of literally building in additional options for rooms in case you want to add/change functionality later. Not that much of an extra cost when you’re building and if you find you really do want that extra bathroom/kitchenette/whatever in the future, it’s way less of a headache to install because it’s just fixtures, finishes, and millwork and not ripping poo poo apart to install necessary plumbing after the fact. Wow that got long. Hope it’s helpful and not a rambling pile of nonsense.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2021 19:56
|
|
|
Long is good and appreciated! Main Floor Our experience with folding doors has been decent. Our current house has some rather cramped walk-ins that are more like a really deep reach in and have the french folding doors. The ones we have in the main bedrooms are decent quality and haven't given us trouble. The ones in the basement we got at a later time and they are much more problematic, and tend to fall off their rails. Will have to figure out what we're doing exactly for doors, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Sliding doors might be an option as well but I don't know how much I like the look of them. Home Theater We're huge into watching movies and 'prestige' series (to give you an idea, we have racked up about 1500 hrs a year between us and my parents). In our current home we have a home theater setup in a relatively large room (20'+ x 13') with a 120" screen, projector, HTPC, and 7.1 paradigm reference speaker system. We have two rows currently with a couch in the front and a loveseat in the back. The couch sees the most use but we do occasionally use the loveseat. I agree about the laying down and cuddling, we'd be looking at a more of a 3-seater that can also recline rather than what you traditionally think of as those individual 'home theater' seating. Our architect seems to have just shown those for reference, and dimensionally they're not that different so meh. This room would be 100% focused on movies, "prestige" series, and maybe the rare game if I ever upgrade from my Xbox 360. We're not huge into televised sports but on occasion do get into it. The 'primary' place to watch mindless TV and whatnot in a more a social setting will be in the great room. The box that's shown on the right side is meant to represent a stone wall feature that will house a TV on the project north side, and to the south is an indoor/outdoor fireplace. We also have a fireplace in our current home and a firepit and we regularly sit by the firelight. We have about a cord of oak for burning in our fireplace and about 2 cords of pine for the outdoor pit, so I forsee us using this quite a bit. In terms of effect, I couldn't tell you truly. Hard to tell how much of it is audiophile woo or reality, but supposedly this shape of room helps with dispersing the reflections and gives a very nice acoustically performing room. You can mitigate a lot of it even in a standard walled room by picking appropriate dimensions which helps avoid 'beating' where at certain frequencies the rooms resonates which in turn affects how it sounds. I did get the idea from reading too much of the AVS forums and this: http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_golden_trapagon.php and while I hope to be relatively immune to the bullshit, I realize I might have fallen into a pit here. From my physics background it makes sense in terms of how it will affect dispersion and wave reflections but whether it actually has an appreciable difference for the listener vs a more square room with some treatments, who knows. General This is from an earlier render the architect sent through, but the current grading plan would result in a good amount of that portion of the basement being above grade and the opportunity to put in some more windows on the front and side. I also hope to maintain the deck access which should help with ensuring it doesn't feel too 'cavey'  With that, those are some great suggestions and will have to look at it in more detail. The sitting area was something the architect threw in as it was a space they werent sure on, and it was shown as part of the option for moving the stairs. I do think it's likely to be a less used space as you mention and that it likely would be best to reconfigure things. The plan is to get as much of done as the budget allows, but the first cuts will be happening in the basement if budget will be tight (from my professional experience, it likely will be. There's always something that pops up or is more than you expected). The deck for sure will need to have some lighting underneath, I'm planning on engaging my firm and I chatted with one of our most talented lighting designers and she seemed pretty excited about the project. I've done a number of comercial lighting designs but she's got a lot more experience with residential and architectural style lighting vs my experience that has been focussed more on industrial and office fitups. I'll re-read your post to ensure I digest everything but these days I have been light on time, so if I missed responding to anything I appologize. I do appreciate the effort for the long posts and the great suggestions and comments!
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 04:39
|
|
|
Great project! You mentioned an elevator and a preliminary location near a staircase. I'd recommend treating that as an option that you want priced out and designed when you discuss it with the architect/builder and then just take it out of the project near the end if you don't want to put it in yet. The reason for doing this is simple - you want to make sure the home is designed for an elevator that actually exists. Twice I've been asked by an aging client to price out installing an elevator into an existing home that was 'designed for an elevator' just to find out it wasn't really designed right. In one case the floorplan area for 'future elevator' was not large enough for any stock elevator. In another there was room for an elevator, but the equipment closet wasn't accounted for. There are also circular non-ADA (are you in Canada? This still kind of applies - I'm sure you have some regulation that guides elevator design) elevators that are easier to retrofit - but you still need to plan for them. And I'm not sure they're even a good idea, since the 'non-ADA' part of the equation means 'wheelchair does not fit'. Have your architect design into the home a specific elevator, that way you know at least the bare minimum requirements are being met for the future. Having your kitchen, bathrooms, etc. designed in detail for wheelchair use is a good idea. Or, at least understand what portions you will alter if that time comes. For example, you might specifically design the kitchen island to be replaced with a lower height one in the future, without replacing all the perimeter shelving. Sames goes with bathroom vanities, perhaps you install some cabinetry that a wheelchair can tuck under while using the sink now, or at least plan the vanities so part of it can be replaced without requiring the room to be taken apart. The EPS panels look pretty cool - they solve the issue with SIPs where moisture from air leakage would de-laminate the OSB. Neat looking product.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 00:20
|
|
|
I appreciate the feedback, I did some reading online and found an elevator I like the look of and should work for our purposes. Turns out the architect has worked with a local vendor that sells the particular model I chose so we'll be reaching out to them and get a better idea of costs involved. Yes, we're in canada, but in terms of codes a lot of canada is just "---> whatever the US is doing, with maybe some small changes" from what I hear. Got the updated plans from the architect and I think we have settled the floorplans, I'm very happy with how things have turned out so far.   It's a very nice open floor plan, plenty of space for our growing family (and some room to grow if things change in the future). I'll be going through the fun process of applying for all the permits and figuring out what the next steps are. I am thinking it makes sense to try to get the foundation poured this year and let it sit over the winter to allow us the maximum time in the spring to get going with construction, but just having to flesh that plan out and be more certain of what we would need to do in terms of coverings / where in the build process to pause for the winter so that we don't end up with issues of thawing and freezing water causing issues...
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 03:58
|
|
|
Bajaha posted:I appreciate the feedback, I did some reading online and found an elevator I like the look of and should work for our purposes. Turns out the architect has worked with a local vendor that sells the particular model I chose so we'll be reaching out to them and get a better idea of costs involved. Maybe swap the mechanical room and cold storage room? If that's just going to have your HVAC and stuff (not laundry), then having to go through the storage room to get to it sounds less annoying then having to go through a storage room to get to a different storage room?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 23:25
|
|
|
Bajaha posted:I appreciate the feedback, I did some reading online and found an elevator I like the look of and should work for our purposes. Turns out the architect has worked with a local vendor that sells the particular model I chose so we'll be reaching out to them and get a better idea of costs involved. How do you get from the outdoor seating on the top level to the outdoor bbq kitchen under it? Does it matter?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 23:30
|
|
|
Cold storage should be in the corner, the idea is that it's an uninsulated room so I would want to maximize its exposure to the concrete walls. Primarily it's for keeping preserves, dry goods, and an overflow for storage, one of the previous plans had the wall of the storage room pushed back a little so that when facing the front of the house you would have cold storage to your left, storage straight ahead, and mechanical to the right, but I felt that just added a corridor like space that wasn't very useful. My thinking is that cold storage is more rarely accessed and with the setup of the doors you aren't losing too much space, functionally both spaces are 'storage' so I like having it all together. Mechanical space will be boilers, hrv, air handling, hot water tank, and pump equipment. It's rural so we will need a well, and there is municipal sewer but it's low pressure so will require a 2 stage holding tank and pumps, and depending on the elevation of the tank may require pumps to handle the waste water from the basement floor. It's a generous space so if we turn out to not need it the we'll have to see what to do to reduce it. Regarding deck access, the only planned method is either through the house, or around the north side where the grade lets you walk down the slope to get to the lower deck. I do like the look of spiral staircases, but they are terrible in terms of being usable, and with the difference in elevation a traditional stair is going to be quite long. Potentially might be able to get something in on the south end, but will need to mull it over. We would also likely have some lounging chairs and whatnot on the lower deck which should allow for a laidback bbq on the lower deck, and the table at the upper deck can be used mostly for having a normal family dinner outdoors, as it has good access to the kitchen.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2021 02:53
|
|
|
Bajaha posted:Cold storage should be in the corner, the idea is that it's an uninsulated room so I would want to maximize its exposure to the concrete walls. Primarily it's for keeping preserves, dry goods, and an overflow for storage, one of the previous plans had the wall of the storage room pushed back a little so that when facing the front of the house you would have cold storage to your left, storage straight ahead, and mechanical to the right, but I felt that just added a corridor like space that wasn't very useful. Ahh, I didn't realize that's what cold storage was! That's a pretty clever idea. Is the bottom of that staircase going to be sufficiently big to use with a chairlift? If the chair is down there, is it going to be uncomfortably narrow for other people to use?
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2021 23:14
|
|
|
I would think so, most of the models I've seen fold up, and even unfolded, the staircase is a generous 4' wide so should be enough room to go around it. In other news, a big lot means big work, and we started working on prepping the area for construction.  Doggo approves all the trips to the new lot.  With that we cut down a number of the overhanging branches and leaning trees to avoid issues in the future. Our worry is that once the house and garage are there, removing those trees will be a pain and with them overhanging or being weighted towards the future home, if there is a good storm they are liable to fall onto the roof and that would be $$$$ not to mention the headache. So out comes the chainsaw and buzz it all off. Managed to avoid Youtube fame and everything went well with no damage to self or property. Sorry guys.  Unfortunately, it looks like some of the trees weren't in the best of health, we found a few that heartwood rot and two which were ravaged by carpenter ants. Looking closer at what's remaining, we'll trim off any branches where there is exposed inner wood or the bark looks damaged. It'll mean more trimming that we hoped but if they're not healthy I would rather take them down in a controlled fasion rather than letting things go naturally, and potentially falling on the new home.  Didn't really take a good before pic, but this is about as good as it gets from my earlier shots of the place:  Otherwise, some more shots of the doggo: (the bigger the stick, the better)   Also, we've planted about 18 evergreens so far, and will likely plant a few more today. Will probably remember to take pictures eventually...
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2021 16:57
|
|
|
Continuing on with the yardwork. We're now up to 25 trees planted, a nice mix of fir, spruce, pine, and a few tamarack thrown in the mix for fun.  With a bunch of new saplings it means we need to water them regularly. When transplanting we always mark north on the trees and make sure to plant them in the same orientation, and they need a proper good soak to ensure the roots get the water they need, not a light watering. With no well on the lot yet, and it's annoying running to the river to grab water, we bring our own from our rain water barrels at home. 25 trees means 25 4L containers of water.  And yes, I'm very much of the mind that if I have a practical vehicle, it's going to be used like a practical vehicle. You can fit a good number trees in this thing.  We'll likely continue for the next few weeks before trees start their growing season, in our experience transplanting works best in the early spring. Otherwise, as mentioned previously we were disappointed to see some of the trees we had to clear out having these health issues. It's good in the sense that the diseased tree was cut, but not great in that it looked OK from the outside so the health of the others is suspect. Heartwood rot:  Carpenter Ant damage (or termite, I'm no expert). We did not see the occupants so they're either gone, or residing in something else nearby.   And do we have any arborists in the house? We saw this on a number of the smaller limbs. It kinda looks like heartwood, but darker than I would expect and the twigs 'snap' pretty well which I wouldn't expect from healthy trees. Also, these are small branches, I wouldn't expect to see heartwood until they thicken up more. 
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 01:55
|
|
|
Great thread, looks like an amazing house incoming. I would think pumping water from the river should not be that big of a cost to get a water pump and hoses? For example a lot of the small fire trucks I import never had a water tank, they have a pump and siphoned to use available water. I know even harbor freight sells water pumps, I’d rather do that than spend the effort filling 25 containers of water on the regular!
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 02:06
|
|
|
It wasn't bad with 6 trees, was ok with 12, getting annoying with 18. Now with 25... Yeah I think you're right a pump is in order. Going to make a trip to princess auto and see their 1" pump in person. I figure 200ft of discharge hose, and 40ft of inlet hose should be sufficient to reach everything.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 03:09
|
|
|
Agreed, that's pump time. HF's 2" pump comes with a giant strainer setup so you can just chuck it in any body of clean-ish water and it won't suck up anything the pump can't deal with. It is loud as gently caress, though.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 03:13
|
|
|
IOwnCalculus posted:HF Well, yeah. How else would your neighbors know you cheaped out and didn't buy a Honda? I kid, I kid. Trash pumps are all loud as hell. We ran over of the HF models in salt water for a solid couple of years and it did fine.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 12:13
|
|
|
sharkytm posted:Well, yeah. How else would your neighbors know you cheaped out and didn't buy a Honda? It came with the house and the neighbors are apparently quite familiar with the racket it makes  It's hard mounted in, I might eventually build some form of enclosure for it (or replace it with an electric, they even ran wiring and receptacles out to it!)
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2021 15:31
|
|
|
Goon status: Not in a well.  Canada's finest, POWER FIST brand! Cheap-ish and cheerful but it seems to work well enough. Surprisingly not that loud. https://i.imgur.com/oSEC0nX.mp4 This confuses the doggo. 
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2021 03:41
|
|
|
Nice!
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2021 14:15
|
|
|
Bajaha posted:Goon status: Not in a well. "This is not a stick"
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2021 02:14
|
|
|
I'm well on my way to having my own personal forest, we're up to 47 trees planted and still going. I think this coming weekend is the last opportunity we'll have before we have to wait until next spring.  We're planting them to give us a wind break from the north, some additional screening from the road we're fronting, and a living fence between us and the southern neighbors to help distinguish the property line.  I might've mentioned before but we're planting a nice variety of spruce, fir, pine, and tamarack. I joked about it but with how lumber prices have been going, I might have to just grow my own. The river has been rising steadily and is up to about it's normal level for the summer. With that, the princess auto foot valve is not great about not clogging up with leaves and other debris causing the pump to greatly reduce it's output. Queue the music! Bring out the tin snips, take a gas furnace exhaust flue cap, throw in a buttload of zipties and the delicacy of a trained ape.  Improved the design with some fine mesh wrapped around to keep the smaller stuff out and I think we have a winner. Keeps the flow clean and strong.  There is a lot of work, beyond just planting and watering, with the existing old growth trees I put in about 150-160 fertilizer spikes. You work up quite the sweat doing that. My method has been to sledge hammer a crowbar about 8-10" into the ground, move it around to get an approximately 2" hole and plop the spike in. They're slow release so apparently they'll get absorbed over the the next 12 weeks and hopefully give everything a good start to the year. It's a lot of work but the view is killer.  And as always, doggo finds the biggest sticks and insists I throw them for him. 
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2021 02:47
|
|
|
Awesome you got that working. If it still gives you problems I just want to point out the kind of things we using the fire service for drafting water out of creeks and rivers: https://www.edarley.com/float-dock-strainer/ It's a floating dock, so you can kinda just send it out there with your suction hard sleeve and have it float on the surface.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2021 03:09
|
|
|
Neat! That would be ideal as you'd avoid the floating stuff and the dredge at the bottom. Going to see if I can MacGyver something if my current setup fails me. So far so good though.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2021 04:50
|
|
|
Very jealous of not being able to watch the sunrise over that river every morning.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2021 14:11
|
|
|
It'll be great once we have the house built! This weekend was a rather busy weekend. 10 more trees, lots of grass cutting, some tree felling, I drilled some holes, and lots and lots of watering. So now that we're up to 57 trees planted we are done for the season we will continue watering them every other day for the next few months and cross our fingers that they all get established.    As I've previously listed we have a good variety of trees, but unless you become interested in trees, every conifer is just 'pine' or 'christmas tree', so let's delve down into the details: Tamaracks are one of the prettiest conifers in my opinion. Their needles grow in spurs off of the limbs and they're the only local conifer species that loses its needles every fall. Before the needles fall off they turn into a very nice strong yellow, giving some fantastic contrast against the other evergreens.  Next up is the classic conifer that most people think of when they hear 'christmas tree', Spruce! These can be identified by their needles which grow all around the twigs. Various species of spruce can be found in Manitoba, typically they can be identified by the tint of their needles. I believe we have a mix of blue, white, and black.  Firs are similar to spruce, except their needles grow in one plane, rather than all around the twigs.  Last but not least are the Pine trees. These ones have bushier needles, and tend to grow in more creative forms rather than the classic pyramidic 'christmas tree' form. I believe we have a mix of Red and White pine planted.  Now, onto the fun. Once again I managed to avoid YouTube fame and managed to cutdown a large spruce without too much drama. Step 1: attached various ropes to help pull the tree in the desired direction.  Step 2: Apply torque and chainsaw. Steer clear of area of danger:  Step 3: "Will it Blend?" / "Some assembly required"  Step 4: What kind of eldritch horror is this?  I want to get rid of this stump that will eventually be paved over with asphalt, but being lazy, I don't want to expended too much effort taking this thing out. Apparently you can kill the stump and make it simpler to remove by drilling a bunch of holes in it, filling it epsom salt, and adding some water. Hopefully this is legit and not some woo, I guess time will tell. With the fence cleared out as well, it's starting to take some form where the main approach to the property will be. I've sent quote requests to a number of well reviewed local companies that advertise they install culverts so we'll see where pricing comes back and we can start using this entrance. It's traversable by our cars but it's close, the approach angle is a bit aggressive so the soft-roader SUVs we drive.  See below, not exactly crazy ground clearance, but the AWD on them means we can park and start from anywhere on the lot without spinning wheels.  Last thing approach related, at the front we have this tree which is looking rather poor. We've put fertilizer spikes around it and have been watering the large trees semi-often as well so hopefully it turns around although I'm not holding my breath on that. Will leave it this year and keep an eye on it. This should be a good reference to see if it's improved throughout the season.  So with that, it's time to sit back and enjoy the view after a weekend of work. 
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 02:10
|
|
|
Bajaha posted:Tamaracks are one of the prettiest conifers in my opinion. Their needles grow in spurs off of the limbs and they're the only local conifer species that loses its needles every fall. Before the needles fall off they turn into a very nice strong yellow, giving some fantastic contrast against the other evergreens. Those look amazing. I've seen them before and didn't know what they were called. That place is going to be awesome when all of those trees start taking off.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 03:41
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Those look amazing. I've seen them before and didn't know what they were called. This. Bajaha, I love that you've figured out the property lines and just started planting trees. I'm always sad when I drive by a house, new or not, and the whole lot is clearcut. The watering process looks like a ton of work, but I bet it's going to be really rewarding!
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2021 04:39
|
|
|
Alarbus posted:This. 100% agree, nature is awesome and we would be better off if more people embraced it. We have a family friend who supposedly loves gardening and plants, and yet he paved his entire front and rear yards to make sure the plants stay where he wants them... I just can't wrap my head around that. The lot is just pure Zen. It honestly feels like being on vacation when we are at the lot and that is just an incredible feeling.    Re: trees taking off, we have good news! Most of them appear as though they will make it, we have lost 4 of them so far, and two more are iffy but will continue being watered and cared for until we see them dry up. Many of them have some very nice strong new growth and are acclimating really well.  So with the 4 that did not make it, we removed them, and since it's too late in the season to transplant trees we simply bought some, 5 to be exact, net tree count is up to 58. We went with 5 small blue spruces.  As mentioned, the earth here is fantastic. Beautiful black earth.  and positively filled with earthworms.  I've got to grab some more recent and higher quality photos this weekend, but before then, we got an update from our Architect with some elevations for the home. Can't wait to see the 3D model for it. Going to have to review the roof plan a little more and see if there's anywhere we can maybe simplify. I do like the dormer above the entrance, and the dormer on the garage allows for a mezzanine to be added so while it does complicate the roof I do like the idea of it being there. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2021 01:07
|
|
|
Earthworms are an invasive species tho in america 
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2021 06:23
|
|
|
I did not know that, I have an Eastern European background and was always told earthworms were a good sign of healthy soil. Not sure if it ever came up in any of the biology courses I took throughout the years but I must've forgotten if it did. Looking it up, it seems like the most destructive species are the ones that are the largest due to them not being a good food source for the young of various species, and otherwise their effects on the forest ecosystem particularly for hardwoods which have trouble taking root without the layer of decay at the surface. On the flip side, it does seem like they are beneficial for gardens and lawns as they essentially help create that nice black earth by breaking down organic material. This being along the river and multiple popular fishing spots in the surrounding area I would think there's a good chance these were introduced by fishermen releasing bait over the years. Supposedly there's nothing that can be done about them so  the existing trees look healthy enough so it doesn't seem like they're doing too much harm to the conifers at least.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2021 16:56
|
|
|
Bajaha posted:100% agree, nature is awesome and we would be better off if more people embraced it. We have a family friend who supposedly loves gardening and plants, and yet he paved his entire front and rear yards to make sure the plants stay where he wants them... I just can't wrap my head around that. They’re only invasive north of the 45th parallel, or at least the only problem. And in the end probably be better off for the post global warming shift to lose latitudes anyway. You need more than just miserable loving pine trees
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2021 08:08
|
|
|
Dejan Bimble posted:You need more than just miserable loving pine trees  (Conifers are great, the mix of spruce, fir, pine, and tamarack gives some nice variety of colors and shapes. Deciduous are great but gently caress having to rake leaves in the fall... we'll end up with some ornamental leafy trees once the house is built but I want to keep them to a minimum) Life is busy. First and foremost, we went from this:  To being full fledged parents with our very own bundle of joy.  Parenthood is challenging and the amount of time I thought I would have was severely overestimated. Eh, we learn from our mistakes. Overall the miracle of childbirth went about as well as we could have hoped, it went very very quickly and is a good story we'll have. The evening of we actually spent a relaxing time at our property fishing.  In other news, I bought a tilting utility trailer for a decent price and immediately added an electric winch to automate the tilting process. It'll hopefully serve us well with the upcoming build. It's already been useful transporting a lawn tractor so we don't have to borrow our neighbors all the time. It's a 2013 model, galv construction with a wooden floor, and new bearings and tires. Pulls well enough from what I can tell.  Prior to the whole drought like conditions we had some bonfires to clear out the small trimmings and whatnot.  And still spending a good amount of time running the hose around and pumping water onto all the new trees. It's been super dry here for the last month and a bit, actually seems to be that everywhere as there are a bunch of forest fires across the country.  The AI in my leaking through, I had some fun and got matching graphics on these two.  So with the cars sorted I've rethought the garage, and I think the latest revision is much better than what I had before.   As the parking lifts are future, I went ambitious with the cable actuated bendpak. I like it simply because it's only 4 posts and gives the most open footprint when the platforms are lifted. If I went with two 4 posts there would be a lot of obstructions in the way with 8 posts total that the double door wouldn't really be practical anymore. The single post one seems decent as well and a much more budget friendly option, but wasn't sure if I would want to have them mirrored or both facing the same way so that the post is on the passenger side when driving into the garage. Basement garage is more built-in shed than garage. Plan is to have it as an unconditioned space, we will need structural slab above it, in particular with the lift there, but with how the grading came out I want to utilize this space rather than have it just be fill and a retaining wall. I was thinking of adding a garage toilet room as was suggested in AI and/or garage journal, then flip flopped between urinal and toilet, and now I'm thinking that it'll be best to keep it open. The sink will be for cleanup prior to entering the house if you need to use the facilities while working on something. Also, garage mezzanine was added, and I think it would work better at the back of the garage rather than the front. Finally, I have some slightly updated and marked-up elevations. Want to reduce the amount of cultured stone to help with the budget a little, and the garage roof is now simpler. Undergarage area I'm thinking swing doors are more appropriate, roll up doors don't really add value there.   
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2021 05:41
|
|
|
Congrats on the new little one. They are going to grow up in an awesome house. Garage looks a bit small though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2021 00:47
|
|
|
Thanks! Things are moving along, slow, but moving. I've been sleuthing Kijiji for home and garden materials and found some real slick deals. First up we found a good amount of tyndall stones for free. Just need to put in the sweat to load them and unload. Took two 6'x12' trailer loads a few layers deep to move it all, and even at that I suspect I might have pushed the limit of what the trailer was rated for.  For those playing at home, Tyndall stone is a bit of a local speciality. I believe it's only been found in Canada with the mine just north of Winnipeg being the place where the majority of it is mined. It's neat looking, essentially limestone with dolomite veins throughout. It was formed 450 million years ago and the veins are from the various marine animals burrowing through sediment. Neat! https://canada.constructconnect.com/joc/news/resource/2017/10/tyndall-stone-a-bedrock-of-manitoba-architecture-1027752w With all that work done, being a masochist I looked for more. Found a lot of landscaping bricks and managed to get the lot for all of $150. Once again sweat equity is being put in. And believe there was a lot with load. It stacks nicer but overall there is a ton more. estimated around 600 ish bricks (too tired to count it as we were going.) Ended up being a full day's work to move this stuff, three loads in the trailer and of course they were as far as they possibly could be while still being technically in the city. Not that I should be complaining, paying retail would have been easier but much much more expensive.    Overall, it's a very comfy way to move heavy things around. 10/10 would haul more stuff with it.  Which it turns out, I should do more often. I'm getting signs that I haven't driven it enough.  With Fall coming quick, and winter soon after. We bought a good 15-20 yards of mulch and got the whole family working,  Tried our best to keep these donut shaped and not vulcano'd around the trunks. Hopefully this will make weeding these parts a little easier.  Could use a little more around the large groups, we focussed mostly on the    And almost out of nowhere, the trees starting changing and fall had started. I hope I don't ever tire of this view.  Obligatory Dad-admiring-his-grasscutting post: https://i.imgur.com/fZ0PQNQ.mp4 Little fabric shed does its duty, we'll see how it holds up over winter. The reviews are mixed at best, but it was cheap and it's in a relatively sheltered spot so hopefully it's decent.  More Kijiji sleuthing and I found these printed accent boards. Should work well for some space in the new home. Price was right so we'll find a use for them.  And managed to start moving some stuff to the new lot, we have literal tons of firewood that needs to get moved. So bit by bit we'll move it.  Turns out, I should have checked the lugs when I bought the trailer. Some of the lugs must have not been torqued to spec and loosened off, and my generous loading of the trailer over the last many trips probably didn't help them either. I suspect what happened is they backed off, there was some movement between the wheel and the hub, and once one stud let go it was a cascading failure. In any case, I had the fun experience of tootling along, when I heard a noise and felt a jolt, looked in my rearview and saw sparks, and shortly after I looked forward to notice my trailer tire passing me on the right, swinging left and going across both lanes, through the median, and then across both oncoming lanes before coming to a rest in a farmers field. Thankfully oncoming traffic was far enough away that the wheel made its trip uneventfully.  Went home, grabbed tools, and got to work. Had a spare hub at home which was great and the job was going swimingly until the inner wheel bearing inner race decided it wanted to stay attached on the hub. I went at it with a sledge, heat, and anger and it would not let go. I did manage to move it a few mm but it was fighting the entire time. This stupid thing turned a 30 minute job into 5+ hours into darkness at the side of the highway.  Had family bring out some more tools and they were able to find a 3 jaw puller that was large enough and the race came out. You'll notice on the previous photo the axle stub is chewed up. That was not me, it was the previous owner and it looks like they attacked it with chisels rather than using the correct tool, i.e. the puller. The stub is knackered and it was a bear to get the new bearing to seat. Did my best and limped it to the lot. We unloaded the wood later in the week and them limped it home. There's no kill like overkill so I ordered a new axle, suspension, hardware, etc etc. Unfortunately the standard stuff available at princess auto was not the right dimensions so I returned it and now I'm seeing who can fab one in town or has one in stock.  You'll notice the bolts holding the suspension to the axle are a little shorter than normal.  The non-galv metal on the underside is rusty as poo poo so I'm happy with my parts cannon approach to the refresh and just saying this is all scrap and replacing with shiny and new. You can see what the mounting hardware should look like when you look on the side that hasn't been dragged along the highway. One key thing to note, the hub on the left side of the trailer is the original, and it has a good amount of axial play. So much for the previous owner stating it had new hubs and bearings installed (plural), seeing as I dragged it for all of 100-200m before coming to a complete stop, I suspect the 'new' side was previously dragged along the highway.  No matter, it'll all be new underneath once I find a new axle. Going with the same 3500 lb rated axle but since I have a car that can handle an electronic brake, I'm hoping to hunt down an axle with an electronic brake. Keeping with the theme of overkill I ordered 14AWG coloured wire, full set of LED replacement lights, good ol' split loom, a 7 pin pigtail with a nice junction box on the end, and a cheap female plug to mount on the trailer to hopefully prevent corrosion at the connector when the trailer is not in use. Plus side is I will have a braked trailer, and it'll charge the winch battery when connected to the car. Anyway, got the axle off the car, the old suspension bolts were rusted solid. Two needed to be cut off with a grinder, and the other two came off with a combination of penetrating fluid, heat, and impact. They fought all the way out though.  Turns out the standard stuff available at princess auto is not the correct measurements, so I ordered a custom axle from a local manufacturer and once it arrived I got onto grounding the hovering trailer. With the axle I also picked up some heavier duty accessories. The astute viewers will notice I missed a step here...  Upgrading from the old 3 leaf setup to a 6 leaf setup. Rated for 3000lb each and 5200lb combined (not sure why the math isn't just L +R but that's what the online page for the part says) Went with 3" solid axle instead of a 2.something inch one like the old one. The hubs are still the 3500lb models due to my current tire/wheel combo being a 5 lug pattern. If I wanted to upgrade to a 5000lb axle it would need to be new wheels and tires, and well considering the rest of the frame is designed for 3500lb, the upgrades should be enough for the occasional generous eyeballing of load weight. Old and crusty vs New and shiny. I think I mentioned it before but since the cayenne has a 7 pin connector, and I have a brake controller installed, I will be re-doing the entire wiring and adding in a brake circuit and charging for the winch battery.  Being in a rush to beat the setting sun and the curse of DST where we lose an hour of evening sunlight in favor of ???? (It's still dark when I get up to go to work so personally I'm not very fond of the time change), anywhoooo, I forgot to take any pictures of the rest of the process and the completed trailer.  And just in time since today was all day rain and snow. I sure know how to procrastinate and leave it right to the very end  And so for now, winter has finally arrived. We should be getting close to IFC for the architectural drawings, at which point I'll get working on the MEP drawings and permits. Have a good number of quotes from contractors for various scopes of work, going to have make some decisions soon and confirm who I'm hiring so that things get lined up for a spring 2022 start. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2021 04:37
|
|
|
helno posted:Garage looks a bit small though. I took this to heart and made it bigger.  We're at the pre-IFC set now. I think we have all the little details sorted and everything is about as good as we can think of. Pushing the garage another 4ft and scooting the rear wall along rather than widening it means we have a little more clearance from the grove of trees. The under garage storage area is nice and big (I'm sure the mess will expand to match the space available, but I guess just means more room for mess!) Got the details for the generator sorted out, some minor changes like the mop sink in the mudroom, revised shower in the basement, and probably some others I'm forgetting since the last time I posted.  Changed up some of the exterior finishes from the previous few sets as well.  And of course, more windows! and some VE with the rear finishes with the assumption that cultured stone > shakes / metal wood-look siding > acrylic stucco > grey stucco > cement parging.   And with that, I'll probably be fairly quiet until spring once things thaw.
|
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2021 04:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 12:39 |
|
|
Those view photographs are amazing. I can't imagine getting tired of it, either. And I loved "sledge, heat, and anger".
|
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2021 17:40
|
|
