As I mentioned in a previous post, we were unable to obtain a Real Property Survey from the vendor when we bought our house. And, unfortunately, you cannot apply for a permit from the City of Ottawa for an addition to your house without having a survey. Furthermore, if the planned addition is larger than 500 square feet, then a topographic survey must be submitted with the permit application. In our case, we also required a topographic survey because our land slopes downwards at the back and we are toying with the idea of a walk-out basement or a series of terraced patios. In order for our architect to plan this, she needs a topographic survey to determine exactly what the elevations are.
Just before Christmas, we received the survey report from our surveyor. On the plus side, we now know that we have no property irregularities, and our architect can begin drafting up some conceptual ideas for the house. On the negative side, it cost $2625.00 to have the survey completed.
Now, you may well ask why didn't we just have the survey done as a condition of buying the house, and, thereby, save ourselves almost $400 in title insurance premiums. Well, the simple answer is timing. It took four weeks to have this survey completed, from the moment I contacted the firm, to the moment they delivered the report. There is no way the vendor would have settled for reciept of a survey as a condition of sale, given the trouble we had securing sufficient time from them to get financing in place. So, we had to pay for title insurance and then pay to have a survey done.
If you are interested in knowing what hoops you must jump through with the City in order to build an addition to your house, a pool, finish your basement, etc., the City of Ottawa has an informative Homeowner's guide for small projects, which outlines all the steps involved and a useful Residential Construction Checklist. It's good reading before you begin.
Showing posts with label online information. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online information. Show all posts
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Free information to read before starting a renovation
There are no end to the books and magazines at the local book store on renovation and design. Unfortunately, just about all of them focus on how beautiful the house looks when the renovation is complete. Precious few deal with such mundane topics as how to hire a contractor, renovation contracts, air-leakage control, and so on.
Fortunately, there are a couple of government sites we found with great little booklets on just these topics.
The Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation offers a number of great booklets, including a "before you start..." series. These booklets outline a number of things you should know before you start renovating your basement, building a new addition, doing an energy-efficient retrofit,repairing your roof, replacing exterior walls, insulating your house, and many more. The pdf version can be downloaded directly from the site, or a free printed version can be ordered by calling the toll-free number.
Natural Resources Canada has a large portion of its website dedicated to residential improvements. The site has information on applying for grants and financial assistance, choosing appliances, picking heating, cooling and ventilation equipment, windows, doors and skylights, along with information on the Energystar program and the R-2000 building standard. There are tons of publications that can be ordered for free on topics such as controling air-leakage and improving window energy efficiency.
Both of these sites are great sites to check for free information before begining a renovation.
Fortunately, there are a couple of government sites we found with great little booklets on just these topics.
The Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation offers a number of great booklets, including a "before you start..." series. These booklets outline a number of things you should know before you start renovating your basement, building a new addition, doing an energy-efficient retrofit,repairing your roof, replacing exterior walls, insulating your house, and many more. The pdf version can be downloaded directly from the site, or a free printed version can be ordered by calling the toll-free number.
Natural Resources Canada has a large portion of its website dedicated to residential improvements. The site has information on applying for grants and financial assistance, choosing appliances, picking heating, cooling and ventilation equipment, windows, doors and skylights, along with information on the Energystar program and the R-2000 building standard. There are tons of publications that can be ordered for free on topics such as controling air-leakage and improving window energy efficiency.
Both of these sites are great sites to check for free information before begining a renovation.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The not so big house
Having purchased a house in Ottawa to renovate, the next task was to come up with ideas for what we wanted to do with the place. We had already thought in very broad terms about adding more space, either by going up and adding a story, or going back with an addition. However, we needed to drill down into some of the details of what type of functionality we needed.
For inspiration, we turned to the usual array of renovation magazines that can be found at any local bookstore. However, two of the most useful books that we read were Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House and Creating the Not So Big House (Susanka has published a suite of related books on not so big remodelling, design and even on how to live a not so big life).
Susanka's philosophy appealed to us. While we did not know what the house should look like, we knew we wanted to stay within the character of the neighbourhood, which is dominated by 1950's era 1 1/2 story victory houses. Some of these homes have since had a second story added on, and many have had additions built on the back or the side. However, the neighbourhood's character is one of smaller houses with larger setbacks on streets where large mature oak trees provide the initial visual impression, and not rows of starter castles. Thus, rather than build a new McMansion on the site, we opted to build something smaller, more tasteful and with better space utilization. Susanka argues strongly that it is better to try and reduce the amount of space and instead put the extra money you saved on space into fine details and better quality finishings. But, to achieve this, the function of each space must be clearly understood.
Susanka's books are great for helping to understand how space is used in a home. In fact, part of the reason she wrote these books is because she felt that while people intuitively know a good space when they are in one, they lack the language to be able to describe such a space to an architect. Through photographs, illustrations and extensive descriptions, Susanka discusses basic concepts such as shelter around activity, interior views, doing double duty, a place of one's own, visual weight, framed openings, and spatial layering. Through discussion of these concepts, she takes the experience of living in a house from mere shelter to the art of dwelling. For example, if you arrange a space so that you can look along the diagonal, from one corner to the opposite one, you are looking along the longest view available, which makes the space feel larger than it actually is. Or, for example, if you use a series of openings and surfaces, implied or otherwise, to subtly break the perceived space into segments, it will have the effect of making the space feel larger.
Susanka's ideas are based in large part on an earlier book called A Pattern Language. Despite being published in the 70's, the ideas in this book by Christopher Alexander are as valid today as they ever were. Alexander believed that the way we intuitively use space in our homes, neighbourhoods and towns can be described by a series of repeating patterns. What was really weird is that when I read A Pattern Language, I instantly recognized some of the patterns in the way I live, even though I had not consciously attempted to arrange my living space in any of the ways described in the book. For example, Alexander describes the concept of a Children's Realm - a space occupied primarily by children in which, when adults enter they feel like visitors. In fact, our kids have carved out a space in the living room where all their toys are that is bounded on three sides by walls and chairs. Even though there was no conscious effort to give them a separate space, a new space has emerged in which adults definitely feel like visitors. A pattern language is a great book to read if you are thinking of designing a new home or undertaking a major renovation where everything will be gutted down to the exterior walls.
After reading A Pattern Language, I started to think about the types of patterns of space I would like to see in our new house. As you can see from the graphic below, they are centred primarily around three concepts: Common area at the heart, the couple's realm, and the children's realm.
Then we came up with a conceptual floorplan for the house that tried to take these ideas into account.
At the end of the day, this plan is only conceptual to allow us to organize our thoughts and to convey to the architect the scope of the project we want to undertake. However, we are very much looking forward to seeing what ideas the architect comes back with.
For inspiration, we turned to the usual array of renovation magazines that can be found at any local bookstore. However, two of the most useful books that we read were Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House and Creating the Not So Big House (Susanka has published a suite of related books on not so big remodelling, design and even on how to live a not so big life).
Susanka's philosophy appealed to us. While we did not know what the house should look like, we knew we wanted to stay within the character of the neighbourhood, which is dominated by 1950's era 1 1/2 story victory houses. Some of these homes have since had a second story added on, and many have had additions built on the back or the side. However, the neighbourhood's character is one of smaller houses with larger setbacks on streets where large mature oak trees provide the initial visual impression, and not rows of starter castles. Thus, rather than build a new McMansion on the site, we opted to build something smaller, more tasteful and with better space utilization. Susanka argues strongly that it is better to try and reduce the amount of space and instead put the extra money you saved on space into fine details and better quality finishings. But, to achieve this, the function of each space must be clearly understood.
Susanka's books are great for helping to understand how space is used in a home. In fact, part of the reason she wrote these books is because she felt that while people intuitively know a good space when they are in one, they lack the language to be able to describe such a space to an architect. Through photographs, illustrations and extensive descriptions, Susanka discusses basic concepts such as shelter around activity, interior views, doing double duty, a place of one's own, visual weight, framed openings, and spatial layering. Through discussion of these concepts, she takes the experience of living in a house from mere shelter to the art of dwelling. For example, if you arrange a space so that you can look along the diagonal, from one corner to the opposite one, you are looking along the longest view available, which makes the space feel larger than it actually is. Or, for example, if you use a series of openings and surfaces, implied or otherwise, to subtly break the perceived space into segments, it will have the effect of making the space feel larger.
Susanka's ideas are based in large part on an earlier book called A Pattern Language. Despite being published in the 70's, the ideas in this book by Christopher Alexander are as valid today as they ever were. Alexander believed that the way we intuitively use space in our homes, neighbourhoods and towns can be described by a series of repeating patterns. What was really weird is that when I read A Pattern Language, I instantly recognized some of the patterns in the way I live, even though I had not consciously attempted to arrange my living space in any of the ways described in the book. For example, Alexander describes the concept of a Children's Realm - a space occupied primarily by children in which, when adults enter they feel like visitors. In fact, our kids have carved out a space in the living room where all their toys are that is bounded on three sides by walls and chairs. Even though there was no conscious effort to give them a separate space, a new space has emerged in which adults definitely feel like visitors. A pattern language is a great book to read if you are thinking of designing a new home or undertaking a major renovation where everything will be gutted down to the exterior walls.
After reading A Pattern Language, I started to think about the types of patterns of space I would like to see in our new house. As you can see from the graphic below, they are centred primarily around three concepts: Common area at the heart, the couple's realm, and the children's realm.
Then we came up with a conceptual floorplan for the house that tried to take these ideas into account.
At the end of the day, this plan is only conceptual to allow us to organize our thoughts and to convey to the architect the scope of the project we want to undertake. However, we are very much looking forward to seeing what ideas the architect comes back with.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Getting zoning information and old air photos of your property
If you are thinking of purchasing a new house in Ottawa, the City's eMap service is a great information source to check before you go to see the house.
From eMap, you can find out where the property lines are, zoning, frontage, depth and area of the lot, the ward and councilor and even the garbage pickup day. Of particular interest to look up are the old air photos of the property you are interested in. Typically, high resolution air photos from 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2008 are available. If an addition has been added to the house in the last few years, you may be able to see it on the air photos (which may then prompt you to ask the seller if they had permits).
The map will also tell you the zoning of the property. This is good information to know before you purchase. You don't want to buy a nice detached house on a quiet street only to find out it is zoned for high density housing and that most of your neighbours' houses may be torn down to make way for semis or townhouses. It's also helpful to know who your neighbours might be. That open field behind the house might be nice now, but it could be zoned for commercial activity and the next thing you know, there is a strip mall there.
The city of Ottawa website offers information on interpreting the zoning. But generally, if you are buying a residence, the zoning will most likely be R1, R2, R3, R4, or R5. R1 is the lowest density (restricted to detached dwellings) and R5 is the highest density (including mid-rise apartments). Specific information on zones, such as the purpose of the zone, permitted uses, subzones, and provisions - such as required setbacks from the property line - can also be found on the City's website.
The provisions of the zoning are a great thing to check before you make an offer on the house, particularly if you are planning to renovate. Your great plans to add a big addition on the back of the house may be scuttled when you find out the minimum rear yard setback is 6 metres or the maximum lot coverage is 25%.
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