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 ...
Things have been a little slow around the house this past week (‘tis the season, right?), so there hasn’t been much progress of late, however I did manage to climb up on the roof again to take a closer look at the completed roof and sun tunnel installation. As I mentioned previously, we have two Velux _“Rigid ...
We began weatherproofing the roof this week, despite a continued beatdown from Mother Nature. The sky has been perpetually grey and in between the snow and rain, we’ve been rolling out and torching down a SBS modified bitumen membrane (I know you want to say that 5 times fast). We’re using a product called TorchFlex, which is ...
One of our goals with this project has been to construct the most energy efficient and eco-friendly building envelope possible. This has required that we pay close attention to the various insulation values and invest in the most efficient HVAC system we can afford. Regarding the insulation, it’s looking like we’ll have the following: ...
The 2nd of 5 articles I’m writing for the Globe and Mail was published today, in which I reflect on our environmental commitments. As I mention in the article, one thing I’ve learned during this project is that ‘being green’ means different things to different people. I’m sure people will take this opportunity to criticize what we have or haven’t done with our project, but I thought it was important to start a discussion about the broader topic. So I’m curious, what does being green mean to you?
It’s been a few weeks, and we’ve made quite a lot of progress on the house. We had evaluated a number of manufacturers, but ultimately decided upon Nudura for our ICF foundation. Paul Stevens and his crew from Stevens Construction handled the formation and pour of the foundation, and by all accounts they did a smashing ...
Well, for those that watch the evening news, you probably just found out that we don’t exactly qualify for the ecoENERGY rebates that we once thought we did. I’d been contacted by CityTV a number of weeks ago about wanting to come and record the demolition of the house. After it went down, I was interviewed ...
I’d read very little about drain water heat recovery (DWHR) systems prior to this weekend, but after seeing it referenced in some Energy Star documentation I decided to look into a little further. Put simply, a DWHR unit captures heat from your waste drain water and redirects it back into system. It’s estimated that it can ...
I’ve already discussed the benefits of using ICFs for our foundation, but we’re now considering using them to construct the entire building envelope. We had originally expected it to be cost probative, but after getting a few quotes it appears to be comparable to traditional stick framing with spray foam insulation, which makes it far more palatable than ...
In order for us to qualify for the ecoENERGY grant program, Dritan Sahatci of GreenTech came by the house today to administer an energy audit. The audit was incredibly straightforward, cost $341 (although we’ll get $150 back) and took all of 90 minutes to complete. Dritan inspected the insulation in the basement, walls and attic (which was ...
