House Build - We are in!

 I wrote this in my last house build post on October 29, 2022

"...we do feel that the end is at least in sight now. Maybe three more months should do it"

Ha! It took another seven, long, excruciating months. We finally moved in on June 1, 2023. We love the finished product, but, are we glad to see the end of construction. It took way too long and cost way too much. If we'd known just how long and how much we probably wouldn't have started.

We purchased the building lot in January 2021. As I wrote in The Phantom House it took almost a year to get the project off the ground and almost 2-1/2 years start to "finish". Site preparation started in February 2022 and from there it was a fifteen month slog for the actual house build. The structure had many prefabricated components (wall panels and trusses). I'd still recommend this form of build instead of "stick-built" on-site as it offers quality, precision-built materials and theoretically anyway, a quicker build process.

Although we weren't "hands-on" that much during the structure build, most of which required skilled labour, there was much work of another kind that did take up most of our mental energies and time. Design, product research, budgeting, sourcing, purchasing/order logistics of the finishing materials was more problematic than expected as we were committed to building small (for North America anyway), energy-efficient and low-maintenance. After all, we've been living on boats for the last thirteen years and in just a 26 ft. boat (our Nordic Tug 26) for the last two. Anything larger than 250 sq ft would seem palatial to us (and it does). We learned that building small in North America is actually more difficult (and expensive) than building large (the norm). It took forever to source out "stuff" that would fit our design parameters. Most of our products ended up being of European design (think $$). We wanted to build quality rather than quantity and I think we achieved that. The main living area is just 922 sq. ft. with a lower-level guest suite of 250 sq. ft. The bonus is the attached double garage. The space suits us perfectly.

Rather than continuing to whinge, after all we have been very privileged to custom-build a house designed just for us, we'll let a few photos show the result. We are very much enjoying living in this central Vancouver Island location, close to the ocean and so close to nature yet with all the conveniences of urban life. It's nice to have a home base again, having an address makes life so much easier. As with any house there will be ongoing projects, the landscaping still needs major attention, but, it's nice to be able, once again, to think of future projects that don't involve house building!

(Photo Credit: Oakehart Construction)

The captivating view is ever-changing. Every few weeks a container ship arrives into Port Alberni's deep water port and we can see the logs being loaded. The small-craft marina where we keep our boat is just down the hill within walking distance as are some very nice shops and restaurants.

The self-contained guest suite is approximately 250 sq. ft. and has a separate entrance.

This massive retaining wall, a necessary, unexpected cost was definitely a budget-breaker.

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House Build - Progress Report

It's been almost three months since I reported that the windows were now in at our house build in Port Alberni. At that time, we really thought we might be occupying the house by now. Instead, we are still waiting...waiting...and waiting. Sure, a few major hurdles have now been passed, but, there's still a very long way to go and we are frustrated. As we've experienced before, there is always a lot of waiting involved in house building, the general contractor only has a limited number of workers and most of the jobs are sub-contracted out to independent firms. This year, after Covid lifted, the pent-up demand for builders was enormous. A lot of contractors took on more work than they could possibly handle effectively. Staff shortages didn't help. Then, instead of concentrating on one job at a time, they tried to keep everybody happy by spreading themselves thinly. This doesn't work. It only leads to more frustration as, in a two-week window, maybe you'd be lucky if your job got one or two days of attention. To make it worse, you'd never know when they would be showing up, or, how long they'd be staying. Promised arrival and completion dates came and went. Weeks seemed to slip by and the occupancy date with it. Everybody was apologetic and seemed to be trying their best, but, nothing ever seemed to get done.

Having said all that, we do feel that the end is at least in sight now. Maybe three more months should do it, but, don't hold me to that! Until then, the days/weeks continue to pass, as they do and future plans (for cruising, or, otherwise) are on hold. 

A few things did get done. Our electrical, water/sewer and gas services have all been connected. Perimeter and slab drains were installed and the slab (garage/suite floor) was poured. The weather was very hot at the time and before we could get these jobs done, we first had to evict a doe and two fauns (deer) that had taken up residence in the cool, concrete environs of the lower level of the house. They are still in residence, but, thankfully no longer inside the house. We'll probably end up hating them when they inevitably start to munch on our eventual garden, but, right now, we love seeing them around, so pretty. There is a black bear around in the neighbourhood too, but, we haven't seen it yet, just the evidence. We did run into a young one (not literally) on the Alberni Inlet walking trail the other day. Luckily, it took one long, squinty look at us and exited quickly off the trail and into the bush.

In addition, the finished roof has been installed (standing seam metal sheets). Backfill to the foundation and exterior grading was completed. Exterior doors were installed (nice that we could lock up now). Both the plumbing and electrical rough-ins were completed. After not seeing anybody onsite for weeks, both trades showed up at the same time and had to work around each other, typical!

The base for our radiant floor heating was installed. We're doing a Schluter system which requires the laying of styrofoam panels (Bekotec) into which the hydronic pex tubing is routed. A cement-based screed is then poured on top. Later will come the addition of an uncoupling membrane topped with ceramic tile, but, that won't get done until much later down the line.

(Photo Credit: Oakehart Construction)

(Photo Credit: Oakehart Construction)

The critical path to completion now is: insulation->drywall->interior paint->floor tile->cabinets and fixtures/finish. Parallel to the critical path we also need to get exterior siding on and the heating system finished along with a bunch of other miscellaneous tasks. It doesn't sound like much, but, who knows when it will be done. We're resigned to the wait, what else can we do? Even though the waiting has taken any enjoyment we might have had from the building process, we're thrilled with the house so far. All the spaces feel right, actually better than anticipated. We're confident that we'll be very happy with the finished result, whenever that might be...stay tuned...

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House Build- Windows are In!

Our house build pace has been painfully slow, but, now that the windows are in, it looks like there has actually been some real progress. The recent heat wave hadn't been helping. The window crew was installing in temperatures of near 40C. Even our site's cooling afternoon sea breezes weren't enough to keep them cool and we really appreciated their hard work in uncomfortable conditions to get us to this stage. Weather has cooled a bit now, hopefully that will help to speed up the pace and our move-in date!

The house wrap and roof membranes are also on which means we are pretty much weathertight now. Once the concrete floor slab is laid and the doors are on we'll be at lockup stage and about 1/3 complete. Still a long way to go, but, we'll get there eventually.

The windows are by All Weather Windows, Apex Series. We're loving the look of the black acrylic wrap and wide trim on both inner and outer surfaces. We didn't actually see them before we chose them, so, we're happy that they turned out as imagined. The square, 'four pane' windows were tricky. We would have preferred an awning window, but, they were out due to egress requirements, so, we decided on a casement window with simulated divided lights and special egress hinges instead. We think they turned out well.

The 'letterbox' window in the kitchen will be totally framed by cabinets. Hopefully, it will turn out as we imagined.

A sliding patio door (only five feet wide, but, functional) leads from the kitchen out to the elevated sun deck.

The tall living room window is so long it had to be packed separately and the crew commented (more than once!) on how difficult it was going to be to hoist it into place, but, they did it and we love how it perfectly frames the view of tall trees adjacent to the deck and house.

The west-facing, floor-to-ceiling window wall allows us to see the sky, across the Alberni Inlet to Arbutus Ridge, north to the Beaufort mountain range (still with snow on top in August) and south down the Inlet. Sunset views should be spectacular.

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House Build - Structure is up!

After the footings/foundation were complete there was another week or so of effort to dig trenches, lay drainage tile and connect up our sewer/water lines. Then, we waited for the materials package to arrive so that the actual house construction could start. It had been a year and a half of effort to get this far and building the actual structure seemed to be almost an afterthought after all the work that had gone into the preparations to be able to receive it. 

We'd hoped that purchasing a custom home materials package from Pacific Homes with most of the components pre-built in an indoor production environment would pay off in both quality and weather-dependent construction time. And so it was. Only ten working days in the capable hands of just two experienced framers from Oakehart Construction (of Qualicum Beach) and there it was. It was amazing to see it come to life with the spaces and views taking shape, just as we'd imagined them in our heads for so long. From the living room, we'll have this great view of the  MV Frances Barkley as she makes her thrice-weekly journeys down the Alberni Inlet to Bamfield.

Here's a day-by-day photo sequence of the ten days of construction.

Day 1

It was an absolutely dismal day with drenching rain when the truck and crane pulled up one early morning. It was just another "Juneuary" day, part of the cold/wet/long spring we've been experiencing this year. It wasn't that cold though and it couldn't dampen our mood. Finally, it seemed like we were actually going to start building a house!

Day 2

All the lower level walls are up, we couldn't believe the one day progress. Note that the wall panels are pre-insulated.

Day 3

Subfloor joists constructed.

Day 4

Another truckload of materials arrives and the window wall is standing.

Day 5

Floor sheathing is on and interior walls are starting to take shape.

Day 6

Mostly together, but no roof trusses yet.

Day 7

Trusses are in.

Day 8

Roof sheathing is on. It's not a large living space, but, the vaulted ceilings should make it feel spacious.

Day 9

Lots of sunshine streaming through the west-facing window wall.

In the kitchen, there'll be a large, elevated sundeck beyond this patio door. West and south exposure will give us lots of sun. It also catches the afternoon sea breeze that starts up every afternoon and funnels up the Inlet. It is delightfully cooling in the hot summer weather that has finally arrived.

Day 10

Structure done. Next steps are interior stairs, windows, doors, roofing and siding. All materials are already on-site and it shouldn't be long before we're weathertight. Then, all the interior systems can be installed, a lengthy process with a lot of detail to work through. At this point, we're probably at least a couple of months from occupancy. That assumes immediate availability of sub-contractors and materials, a big ask in these days of labour shortages and supply chain issues. We'll see...

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House Build - Footings/Foundation

Next step in the build, after preparing the lot, is to place the concrete footings and foundation walls. In our case, we only need concrete foundation walls on two sides of the structure as the other two sides are fully exposed and will be built using standard wooden stud construction. In this picture you can see where the dirt stops and the gravel starts. The gravel area has been totally excavated down to the hardpan, refilled with crushed gravel, reinforced with layers of landscape fabric, tamped and all held back from going down the hill with a huge, ninety foot retaining wall.

Wooden forms are built and the concrete is poured.

Once the footings set up, the wall forms can be built.

...and then poured

Now, it's all cleaned-up and ready for the structure build to start. We can't wait!!

 

While we are waiting for the next phase to start, it's fun to visit with some of the new neighbours...

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House Build - The Wall

It's been over two months since I last wrote. Our house build progress has been slow, but, steady. First, the ground was poked and prodded by our geotechnical engineer to determine the location of the 'hardpan'. Unlike in Ontario, where the Canadian Shield predominates and solid granite is usually easy to find, in British Columbia, to locate a suitable place for house footings they look for the top of the glacial till layer where the ice-age glaciers scraped the soil clean leaving a hard, dense surface. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that the hardpan layer was close to the surface and easy to find on the north side of the lot. Where the lot started going downhill on the south side of the lot, the layer was deep. It wasn't just bad news, it was very bad news because it wasn't just a matter of excavating a trench through the soft layer and putting in a wall. All the loose soil underneath and adjacent to the house location had to be removed and replaced with a new gravel mix that could be compacted into a dense, stable, supporting layer. 

And, so it began. The dump truck came and went fifty-five times! It took away twenty-seven loads of beautiful, rich, topsoil and replaced it with twenty-seven loads of crushed gravel. Drains were laid at the bottom of the pit. Each load of gravel was spread out and compacted using a hand compactor. Between each layer landscape fabric was laid, which helps to stabilize and link together the whole construction. We needed six rolls of fabric, each was $1,500. The first load of blocks arrived and the wall started to take shape. 

Two B-train loads of blocks were required, 152 blocks in total. Each block is 40 inches x 20 inches, weighs 1,200 pounds and had to be placed with an excavator. 

We knew we might need a retaining wall, but, we didn't think it would need to be this huge. It ended up ninety feet long and in places is ten feet high, all backfilled with new ground material. Over half the wall is buried, so, it doesn't look that massive from the downhill side and from the uphill, house level side there will only be about a foot visible above-ground. We did gain some extra usable level ground with the wall build, one small blessing. Although it took over 10% of the entire house budget to build, there was very little satisfaction once it was done, it was just a necessary evil before we could get on to the actual building of the house. 

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