Once again, I have to apologize for my lack of updates. What’s it been… 3 months? It’s embarrassing how much time I’ve let slip by. I’ve received a number of emails inquiring if we’ve run out of money or if I’ve given up on blogging—Thankfully, I can say it’s neither. Work has become entirely consuming, ...
I must admit, choosing the species of hardwood was actually quite difficult for us. If you haven’t had the luxury of walking into a hardwood store (or looking online for that matter), you’ll quickly discover that there are thousands of options to choose from. For us, we wanted something that was strong, aesthetically pleasing and cost ...
I certainly need to make a point of posting more frequently, but I’ve been somewhat busy these past few weeks. I suppose that’s a lame excuse, but I figured “my dog ate it” wouldn’t exactly fly… It didn’t take much time for the installers to mud, tape and sand all of the seams. I ...
It’s been 222 days since we began construction, and we finally have drywall. I’m actually shocked how quickly everything was installed—The insulation and vapour barrier was delivered on March 21st and subsequently installed on the 31st. Drywall was delivered on April 1st, and installation was completed this afternoon. They still have to mud, tape and sand everything, ...
Our ICF foundation has 2 5/8” of foam on the exterior, which created a minor aesthetic challenge for us. To ensure everything was flush once we added the cladding, we needed to strap the exterior walls out to compensate. The ideal solution would have been a continuous layer of rigid foam (for complete thermal break), ...
I suppose I could have come up with a slightly less cliched headline, but whatever… our stairs were installed yesterday and I’m pretty excited. We went with white oak for the treads, which will eventually be stained a dark brown (at least that’s the game plan at the moment). My wife and I had contemplated walnut ...
When it comes to insulating a roof, there aren’t many options… and in the case of a flat roof, the options are even fewer. A traditionally pitched roof has a large ventilated space that sits between the insulation (typically cellulose or fiberglass) and the top of the roof. With a flat roof, there obviously isn’t room ...
Most of the electrical has been run throughout the house, although we’re not quite finished yet. The city is coming this week to connect the meter, and the panel hasn’t been installed yet… but everything else is looking pretty good. While we had outlined an electrical plan very early on, you really need to walk around ...
In what I expect will be an ongoing series of cost-related posts, today we’re going to a closer look at the windows we selected and their associated costs. We have a total of 35 windows in the house, plus one sidelight next to the front door and two french doors in the kitchen. All of the ...
Sure, things slowed down as we approached Christmas, but with New Years behind us, there’s definitely been some action at the house and it appears we’ve fully awoken from the holiday-induced coma. The plumbing is well underway, with most of the drains and vents already in place. As I mentioned back in May (I can’t believe ...
