Assembly instructions
This is how our factory-built house will come together. There will be 15 wall panels, three floor panels (one framed on-site) and three roof panels. Easy peasy — alan key not required.
Ikea would be proud...
3 tools to help us stay organized
Binder (above) and OmniPlan timeline (below)
In order for us to successfully GC our house build we’ve got to be mega organized. We’re getting there. We have assembled three key tools:
- The binder — our physical catch-all for anything and everything house related. Quotes, invoices, business cards, drawings — you name it.
- The project plan — we’re using OmniPlan for the project scheduling — to help us visualize tasks and timelines with its fancy dance Gantt charts
- The master budget spreadsheet — we’re not just using any old spreadsheet here — our spreadsheet is on steroids. Mark has created a user-friendly and powerful Filemaker database. It keeps track of all quotes and costs, compares numbers against our budgeted numbers and will act as our main digital repository.
There may not be a hole in the ground yet, but we’re getting the ducks lined up so that we can *hopefully* hit the ground running once we get a green light.
GC’ing our own home
It's not a Meghan and Mark blog unless awkward photos are involved
You may have noticed that our site has been rather silent over the past month. That’s because we have been contemplating and figuring out how exactly we are going to build it, and equally importantly, how we are going to pay for it. After much deliberation, we have decided that we are going to take on the general contractor (GC) role of our build. It’s not something we were that keen to take on, seeing how are lives are more than busy as-is, but we see it as our only choice. It is the one thing that will dramatically cut costs for us (by at least 25%—if we don't screw it up). While we appreciate the service and value that a real General Contractors can bring to a job, it’s just not in the cards for us. Besides, we like to get our hands dirty.
It will be an invaluable learning experience for Mark, as the architect. Speaking of acquiring new skills as an architect, he has also taken it upon himself to draw up the structural panels that determine how our house will come together using a panelized pre-fabricated system. This is the step that has been stalling us and is what the city has been waiting for. Our house is deceivingly complicated and was causing some trouble for our builder. Rather than wait, Mark ploughed ahead. It was a worthy exercise to undertake by the sounds of things. Understanding the structure and where each and every truss is, he can see that moving a window half an inch to the left means that the house becomes significantly easier to build. He can then adjust the design accordingly. Neat stuff. Hopefully he’ll write about this.
So there you have it. We are the builders. Our blog will become ever the more fascinating. Now that the structural is near-complete, we should have everything the city requires for permit by the end of the week. We’re starting to get excited again.
HST rebate
Good news on the HST front: we will qualify for the new home rebate. After the house is built, we apply and can get up to $24,000 back. Boo-yah! That helps.
April turns to May
The warm weather has arrived. Our lot is ready and waiting for our house. We’re hoping for a start date soon. While there may be no signs of progress from the lot, much has been going on in the background. Here’s a little update on what we’ve been working on since the snow has melted.
As I mentioned earlier, our drawings are in for permit. Our permit is being help up at the moment as the city is waiting for us to provide them with some technical details. We are waiting for our pre-fab builder to provide us with these missing details. We’ve been bugging him and he keeps saying ‘they’re coming’. We’ll see. Hopefully we can connect and sort this out ASAP. You reading this Adam?
We met with our Kitchissippi ward Councillor Jeff Leiper, thanks to a suggestion from one of our followers. We introduced him to the project, to the Passivhaus standard, and got him interested in what will potentially be one of the first homes certified under Passivhaus, and certainly one of the first infill projects to pursue the standard. (I say potentially, because there may be a couple others going for certification this year). We also brought up the issue of waiving or lowering development fees for projects like ours that will put significantly less stress on the city’s infrastructure. He agrees it’s a good idea, but we will likely never realize the benefits of lobbying this issue with our build. Perhaps we will be paving the way for future builds. Urban infill development is a contentious issue. Done poorly, it has the potential to really alter the fabric of a community, in a negative way. Clearly, this is not our intent, which is probably why Jeff was interested in hearing about our project. People in our corner of Hintonburg are passionate about where they live. And so are we.
On the subject of HIntonburg-ers, A couple weeks back, we invited our immediate neighbours over to walk them through our designs. We want to ensure relations are kept neighbourly. Unfortunately, they’ll have to put up with some construction mess this summer. The orange house was built only a couple summers ago, so they’re definitely sympathetic to the cause. And hopefully our yellow house neighbours will be too. I think they can appreciate that we considered all three houses — how they work together and react to one another — in the design. We couldn’t have asked for better neighbours.
And finally, we’re still negotiating scope and prices with a GC to help us get started on phase 1 — site prep through to interior framing. The build is getting real. We’re looking at costs in earnest and at ways to bring them down.
Start date? It’s still TBD. We’re anxious to get this ball rolling rolling rolling. Stay tuned.
Going off-grid in the city
Elon Musk announcing the Tesla Home Battery. Image courtesy of GeekyGadgets.
There are three utilities that conventional urban homes take advantage of: electricity, gas and water/sewage. Going completely off-grid would imply ditching all three. But primarily, when the term “off-grid” is thrown around, it addresses the electrical grid.
Electricity
It’s incredibly frustrating to open up a hydro (electricity) bill. Half the cost is for delivery and fees alone. We already pay some seriously high rates for electricity in Ontario, which are only set to skyrocket in the near-future by as much as 40%. So much of our energy is nuclear, supplied by ageing power stations and is delivered via grids and infrastructure established half a century ago. There’s no shortage of uncertainty. Sure would be nice to go completely off-grid — to smugly sigh and sit back as the politicians and utility companies mess about.
Alas. We will be plugging in to the grid. For the following reasons:
- Capital costs. The grid is right at our door step and so the costs to connect are fairly minimal compared what they would be if we were to set ourselves up off-grid. If we were in the country, going off-grid would be a no-brainer, since the cost to connect would be significantly higher.
- Space. Even though our energy requirements will be 80-90% less than an average home, we would still require a decent-sized array of solar panels to power it. This can be tricky on a small, urban site.
- Storage. Solar panels only produce energy when there’s sun. But we often demand energy when there is no sun. The supply does not always keep up with the demand, and visa versa. So there has to be a storage solution. From what I understand, the storage process is inefficient— lots of energy gets lost in the process.
Planning for the future.
There is hope that we will be able to go off-grid (or at least become partially self-sustainable) in the near future. Tesla is set to announce their home battery technology at the end of the month. We are anxiously awaiting the details. According to theverge.com,
“The technology promises to store things like solar energy or potentially a mix of that and cheap electricity during off-peak hours, helping keeping state power grids balanced and trim bills by 20 to 30 percent for some customers.”
That would solve our storage issues. The space for our solar panels has been ear-marked for the roof of the garage that Mark has designed in to the master plan. The capital costs would definitely be the largest obstacle to overcome. Government incentive programs would go a long way here.
Mark has been coveting a Tesla car since its debut. And now the Tesla house.
What about those other utilities?
Gas. We will be fossil-fuel independent. Hooray! We won’t be bringing a gas line in to our house. We won’t need gas for heat or hot water. For water, we are going with an efficient electric heat-pump hot water tank.
Water and sewage. It just makes sense to connect to water and sewage in the city — to guarantee clean drinking water and treatment of waste water. I don’t think that the building code, nor the city, would even permit otherwise. What doesn’t make sense is that we flush our toilets and water our lawns with clean drinking water. Our house will be grey-water-ready. We don’t have the capital to get it going yet, but we don’t want to preclude it. What this means is that one day, we will be able to flush our toilets with used bath water instead of clean drinking water.
In short, we won't be going off-grid. We'll be 1/3, with a lofty potential for 2 out of 3. We’ll take it. And do everything we can to future-proof our home against rising energy prices.
Working with an architect
Hey meow. I'm an architect.
When considering your options for building a new home, make sure working with an architect is one of them. In Ontario, a building under 3 stories does not require an architect’s stamp. That means you can download your own house plans off the internet or hire a draftsperson to draw them up for you. Both of these seem so incredibly inadequate to me after working with them on our house.
There is a bit of a stigma surrounding architects: they either cost too much or the build ends up costing too much because there's a disconnect between the design (architects) and the build (contractors). Do your due diligence and neither will be the case. Whether its a basement reno or a new build, consider talking to an architect. Doesn't cost anything to ask and, if they're any good, they'll help you define a beautiful space you never knew you wanted and couldn't imagine living without.
Choose the right architect and the money spent on their services will more than balance out the value and enjoyment you will get out of your house. Don’t be put off by the copious amounts of black in their wardrobes. These fine professionals are incredibly smart and generally under appreciated. They will get to know you and how you live intimately. They’ll practically become family, or in my case, will be family.
Grant over at PNP wrote a post on this very topic (architects, not fashion). Have a read.
Soft costs hit hard
As we’re getting costs and quotes in, I’m putting together a spreadsheet. There are some numbers I really dislike: the soft costs. The fees. And the HST. Oh the evil that is HST.
We initially thought we ‘did good’ by buying empty land. By doing so, we wouldn’t have the headache or the costs associated with a demolition or renovation, which could easily amount to 50K or more. HST, however, negates any potential savings. We had to pay HST on our land. If you buy a used house (even if you’re just going to demo it), you’re off the hook.
Building is expensive. The soft costs are a major culprit. Half the build cost is for services. Services which we now pay 13% on. Argh. The City of Ottawa has an $18,000 development fee they’re going to zing us with if the permit goes through. That’s on top of our $1,800 permit application. We are building a house on an urban lot. Why? What for? The $18k doesn’t even include road closures or bringing services (hydro and water) to the lot.
The numbers are frustrating. What to do? We’re working hard on bringing our build costs down, but no matter how well we do on that end, the land purchase doesn’t change, the fees don’t change, and HST will be added. Death and taxes: what're you gonna do?
So here’s a little tip: buy land for as little money as you possibly can. Duh, right? If we wanted to build outside the downtown core, we would likely not be feeling the financial squeeze we are by buying an expensive city lot. If we took our exact house and built it in Saskatchewan, we’d immediately cut costs in half. Maybe a move is in the cards? Just jokes.