More waiting and more planning.

It's been awhile since I last wrote, because we are STILL waiting for our building permits!  Although, we did have some activity, in the week before Christmas, when we managed to narrowly escape a Site Plan Approval application. All I can say is "WHEW!"  Best gift I recieved by far this year! If it hadn't been for Al down at City Hall (and his retirement on December 31st, no doubt!), we would likely be stalled in the black hole of permit processing for another 4 to 6 months (never mind the new application package copied 20 times, no less, and the $2600 fee).  We got LUCKY!

So while I'm waiting I'm still planning.  That never stops it seems.  I'm researching heating and air conditioning options, looking at kitchen designs and flooring ideas.  Pinterest and Houzz are getting a lot of visits from our computer these days!  I was really hoping to do a geothermal heating and air conditioning system but am leaning now towards a boiler with in-floor heating in the basement, main floor and bathrooms and radiators in the bedrooms. 

The biggest factor is probably cost.  We would need at least 4 x 200ft. holes dug in our front yard for geothermal and the cost for this is in the range of $40,000 alone! The other downsides to geothermal (for us) are: 1. the loss of head room in an already low basement because of the larger than normal ducts required and 2. the noise of a forced air system.

You can do hydronic floor heating with a geothermal system, but you would still need to install the ducts for the cooling side.  I think we'll just have to think of other ways to make our home more energy efficient.  It is a real drag that the "greenest" options are still so darned expensive!  Frustrating, in fact!

But on to the fun stuff!  I am in love with Claire Stubbs' home featured in Canadian House and Home. 

 

Those walnut floors are just so super gorgeous!  There are different opinions on whether or not 3/4 inch hardwood floors should be installed over hydronic floor heating tubes so we're not sure if these floors or reclaimed wood floors (my other flooring love) will work for us.  Fortunately there is a beautiful engineered walnut floor that Torly's makes that might work instead.  I'll have to look into this a bit more before we make any decisions.

Summit Designer - Cabot Trail Walnut

Windows

I'm hoping we'll get the building permits in the next couple of weeks (although I've been told the Ravine Protection permits take longer) so I've been thinking of ideas for some of the bigger items we'll have to decide on.  First up, windows!  This has been a bit of a problem for me since I was hoping to keep a more traditional look at the front of the house and make it modern in the back.  Transitioning is difficult.  I'm thinking the best approach is to use the same materials front and back but in a different way.  The windows, though, will have to be pretty uniform throughout. 

I have a thing for black and dark grey exterior windows.  Or maybe it's really a thing against stark white windows, I'm not sure.  I also love the look of wide open panes of glass with no break, but this makes so many of them too big to open.  Hmmm.  Here's a few that I just love....

Steven Gambrel via Canadian House and Home - love, love, love the black factory-style window but not sure about breaking up the view. 

         
c-o-a-s-t-i-n.tumbir.com               rlarchitect.com                               1.bp.blogspot.com
Examples of open, black framed windows.  Love the clear view!


dwell.com
Aside from the bars on the windows (yikes! Imagine living like that.) here are some black windows with a traditional red brick facade.  Love it!





johnlumarchitecture.com
My fav colour combo here - black, white, grey and natural wood.


Portal Design Inc.

And then again, here's another look I love -- natural wood doors with (gasp!) white windows.  But they're really good looking white windows aren't they?  I'm not keen on wood exterior windows for us (although they are super gorgeous!) because of the upkeep and cost, but the more I look at this, the more I think it's the way we should go.  Very simple with the wood doors as the stand-out feature.

Coates Design Architects
Here is a charcoal grey exterior window with a natural wood interior-- perfect!

waiting on the permits

We have unfortunately had to let our contractor move on to another job.  The planning and permit process is taking much longer than anticipated.  We want to dig out an area in the backyard to allow for a basement walkout and this has opened a whole can of worms.  First of all we now have to get a separate permit from the ravine by-law department because we want to change a portion of the grading.  This has been a big job since they require a site plan, a grading plan, an arborist report, and a geotechnical report!  And secondly, the digging out would expose a whole section of the back foundation wall which has to be 4 feet under ground.  So, how do we deal with that?  Well, after much deliberation and weighing of our options, we have decided to underpin the back of the house.  Might as well do it right!  We do plan to live in this house for a long time.  So after almost 3 months of planning (and finding the right people to help us out with it) we should be ready to submit our plans this week.  I hope!

some demo pics



living room




2nd floor



So this is what the house looks like these days.  The kids think it looks haunted, but I only see open space and so much possibility.  I will hopefully be able to share my floor plans sometime soon. 

Because we are on a protected ravine, we have to get a separate permit from the city for any changes to grade or removal of trees.  We love the trees and wouldn't want to harm any of them, but we would like to change the grade on the top portion of the backyard to allow for a basement walkout.  This week-end we are preparing the grade plan for our permit application.  Gigi is bringing over his theodolite and will do most of it for us.  I'm sure if we paid someone to do this, it would be done in no time with GPS, but we are trying to save money every step of the way here and so we'll do it old school style!

Demo done! Mostly

We are done the non-structural demo of the house. There are now no walls, ceilings or floors left. Makes you look at things differently. 

With all the walls open, we really are starting from scratch. I've been thinking of Eco friendly options for the house and I'm currently looking into geothermal heating and cooling. I know 2 families in our neighbourhood that have installed geothermal systems and have to discuss it further with them. It currently seems like a good option for us since we have a large front yard for digging and have to replace the furnace anyway. The rebates, I'm told, are pretty substantial which makes the whole idea more attractive.

Pre-permit demo almost complete

The non-structural demo is almost complete now. This is the beginning of the stage I love. You can really see what the place is going to look like. There is also no turning back now! We found a couple of treasures in the wall last week. Photo negatives, a little carved boat, a booklet, an old toffee container, a signed menu from Child's Restaurant, lots of newspaper from 1920-1921, and (to my 9 year old's sheer delight!) a little hidden staircase. It's all so much fun to imagine the life this house had before us.

planning takes so long

I feel like we are moving so slowly on this reno, but so many people I've talked to seem to think the opposite. One friend who has just recently completed a year long reno said that it took her about a year to do all the planning -- before they even lifted a hammer! Anyway, we have done quite a bit of surface demo on the first floor and basement.  Without the permit, that is all we can really do but we wanted to move things along and Gigi wanted to see what was behind the walls and ceilings.  After a few discussions with architects and with two architectural technicians, we have decided to go with the latter since I have already done the space design myself and have a good idea of what I want.  The fee difference is about $30-40,000 compared to $3-4,000.  This is the main reason for our decision!  The designer we are going with is also a structural engineer and he will design the beams and supports for us as well as do all the permit drawings.  We're all pretty happy with this direction now.