Square footage and magic

Window bench

Apparently we've been misleading people when they ask us 'how many square feet' our house is. We've been guesstimating it at around 2,000 sq ft, when in actual fact, it's only 1,530. It just feels like a very generous 1,530, which, in my mind, so clearly establishes that good design can make a space feel larger.

Square footage is a funny thing. We understand it as a measure of how big a home is — how much usable floor space there is. Stairs and unfinished spaces are not included in its calculation. Neither are the open-to-below spaces, like we have in our house. So although the floor plate is around 900 square feet (30' x 30'), actual usable space is less than.

Square footage also comes in to play when you talk about costs. It's common to break down the cost of a build into a cost per square foot measure. This is an altogether different calculation, measured using outside dimensions. Maybe another discrepancy in our estimation has something to do with the fact that our walls are so thick. 

Those thick walls are one of the key design features that make our house feel so much larger. Each and every window takes advantage of them, which is where the intersection of passive house principles and good design principles align. For example, in our kitchen, the entire 20' length of the window will be fitted with butcher block in the sill to double as a counter and become any chef's dream prep space. With our sliding doors, the floor actually bleeds through the wall, until it meets the glass, effectively extending our floorspace by an extra two feet. And in our master suite, we have a picture window with a sill at bench-height, which we're building out further to become a comfortable, cushiony, window seat. So we're reclaiming square footage with these little tricks, even if they're not technically considered usable square feet. Magic!

Also, don't ask me about our build right now. I am sooooo ready to be done. Still so much to do. I'll talk about it when I'm in a better emotional state. 

Construction weeks 26 & 27: windows and air barrier

We have windows! The Hermann’s installed those that could be man-handled and lifted into place by hand on week one, and the remainder on week two with the help of a crane.

Getting the house sealed in and weather proofed is holding us back at this point so it feels good to have them in place. And damn they’re fine. Feels like a legit house now. It’s a thing of beauty.

The crew also finished off the wall cavity insulation and started installing the air barrier, which is a layer of OSB (oriented strand board -- comes in sheets like plywood) that gets taped at all the seams with a special Siga membrane tape.

And some photos:

Window delivery

Our glass

Mark and Andreas trying to give high 5s while holding up a 2000 lb window in place

The thickness of our triple-pane kitchen window. NO backyard baseball games.

Kitchen window install -- Justin and Andreas

Rear elevation avec les windows

Front elevation with temporary door

The loft window lift-and-slide

What else of news?

There have been some headaches around getting our second construction mortgage withdraw because our unconventional build is being treated as conventional. We hope things have been ironed out, but have yet to receive the monies in our bank. This is a longer blog post for another time. Argh.

Now our shell is 95% complete. There are still a few items outstanding:

• our attic and flat roof need insulating (blown-in cellulose)

• some wood fibreboard is missing on the outside (because of how the walls were lifted)

• some weather-proof taping to be done on the seams of the wood fibre board

We need to start making decisions ASAP on a lot of things. Our kitchen will need 10–12 weeks at the factory, which means we are already behind the 8-ball. Our lighting and plumbing fixtures need sorting too. We have yet to make these decisions and already decision fatigue has set in.

If I’ve made light of building a home, in any way, you have been misguided. It’s not for the weak of heart or will. One the one hand, I’m ecstatic to see our home coming together and to reach these huge milestones. One the other, there is still so much to do. It’s a massive source of stress. In some ways though, it feels like the homestretch (before the homestretch). And when I walk into our home, I am in complete awe. I love it so much, which definitely helps to ease the stress. Looking forward to ticking some key decisions off the list.