Finally, some progress

Well, arranging the financing is still plodding along at a snails pace (I'll provide more details about that once everything is finalized), but we have made some progress with the builder.

We do not want to enter into a contract with the builder until we have the financing in place, however, summer is marching on and we were worried about getting the house started on time. In about another month or two it will start to get more expensive to build, primarily because after November 7, a 7% winter handling premium is applied to the cost of concrete and any masonry work has to be heated to ensure the mortar cures properly.

So, we met with the builder today and agreed to start some of the necessary soil engineering studies. These studies take about two weeks to complete and cost about $2500, but are required before a building permit application can be filed. If the financing falls through (which I don't think it will) then we're out $2500, but on the other hand, we could be two weeks ahead when the financing does come through.

A word about windows

When I come across a pretty decent contractor or supplier, I like to talk about them.

When we were still researching the old design of the house, we did a fair bit of research into windows (given that we were looking at about a $45,000 bill for windows).

We checked with a couple of different window suppliers in Ottawa, but one person who really stood out for me was Paul LeDuc at Golden Windows in Kanata. He spent a fair bit of time with us and did a really great job of explaining the differences in window styles and materials. Plus, he was transparent and pragmatic about costs and quality. He knew we were trying to keep costs down, so he offered some good solutions, such as using more expensive windows in the main living spaces and using cheaper windows in the bedrooms. All in all, I found him quite helpful, even though we did not end up using Golden, because we decided to go with Uniform Construction.

In case your interested, here are some tidbits of information about the windows we investigated:

• Aluminum clad wooden frame windows are the most expensive, but also offer the widest range of colours on the outside and have a beautiful wood finish on the inside.
• Coloured vinyl windows are about 20% cheaper than wooden windows, but only come in about 4 colours on the outside and only in white on the inside.
• Plain white vinyl windows are about 30% cheaper than wooden windows and are white on both the inside and outside.
• from an energy efficiency standpoint, there is virtually no difference in the efficiency of wood or vinyl windows
• Marvin Windows also makes a window from a product called Ultrex, which is a fiberglass based product. The exterior of the window frame is made of Ultrex and the interior is made of wood. It costs about the same as coloured vinyl windows, and has a beautiful wood finish on the inside, but is limited to about 4 or 5 colours on the outside. Ultrex also has the advantage of being thermally stable, so the window frame does not expand and shrink as the temperature goes up and down.
• Wood doors look great but are twice the price of steel or fiberglass doors, primarily because the locking mechanism is more complicated (wood doors typically lock at three points to prevent door from warping, whereas steel and fiberglass door locks are simpler, locking at one point).
• Fiberglass doors now come in a range of faux wood finishes, some of which are remarkably realistic. Fiberglass doors also do not dent like steel doors can, but steel doors are stronger.

Foundation repairs

Here are a few pictures of the foundation problems we discovered in the house after we were able to rip down some of the walls in the basement. These and some other problems are what conviced us to build new rather than renovate. While anything can be fixed for a price, it was hard to justify the cost of these repairs while still ending up with a seven foot basement and a sloping floor.



In the image below, this crack was directly beneath a window. The wall did not have enough strength to hold back the force of the ground on the other side. To fix it would have required pulling out the window and pouring a new concrete sill heavily reinforced with steel, which would prevent the wall from buckling in. The cost was estimated to be as high as $5000.









In the two images below, a large crack (about 1" wide) can be seen running down the wall from the ceiling to the floor. Amazingly, the basement window is also bent, but the glass is not broken.

The image below is from the garage, where frost has made its way under the insufficiently insulated floor. It's hard to tell from the photo, but this whole section of wall is buckling inwards due to the uplift of the floor and the force of the ground on the other side of the wall pushing in. To fix it would require supporting the house above while the entire wall is ripped out and rebuilt. The cost for this repair alone was estimated at $15,000 - $20,000

It was interesting to hear from our builder some of the history of these types of cinder-block foundations. Apparently, when these houses were built in the '50s, poured concrete foundations were available, but were more expensive and required a trained crew. A builder could save some money by using cinder blocks because the blocks were cheaper than the equivalent volume of poured concrete and the builder's own workment could usually do the job.

Interestingly, today the situation is reversed and it would now cost more to build a cinder-block foundation (not that I think you ever would want to).

Hurry up and wait

One thing about building a new house, no matter how hard you try to hurry some things along, they just will not go any faster.

Almost three weeks ago we got a draft contract from the builder along with some drawings and technical specifications. We submitted these to the bank for review so that they could finally do the building loan.

Since then, it has been a painfully slow and unnecessary wait for a bank that has a funny interpretation of customer service (not to name names, but it's a national chain that hails from the province with the name New Scotland)

When I submitted the documents, I asked if there were any other documents I needed to submit. "Oh no," said the Bank, "we have everything." One week later I asked for a status update. "we need a letter of employment" was the curt reply". Within one business day I sent off the letter of employment and asked if they had completed the appraisal of the land. After two days with no response, and almost two weeks after submitting the necessary paperwork, I was on the phone to the bank manager seeking some answers. The bank manager agreed they may have dropped the ball, but then said the delay in ordering the appraisal was because they were waiting for documents from me! huh? This week, I finally met the appraiser at the house. Hopfully, by this Friday (three weeks after I submitted the paperwork) we may actually have a loan.

Once we have a loan in place, we can sign the contract with the builder and away we go.

The new house design

Well, here it is - the new house to be built by Uniform. It's called a Brantwood and it is an Arts & Crafts inspired house. Some of the details include:

First floor

• Large two-story home has four bedrooms and a generous front proch. A home with an open family dining and kitchen area overlooking the rear yard
• the two-car garage has direct access to the muc room and powder room with an opening window
• the standard plan features a private quite space retreat off the front entry alonw with a home offic/den (in reality, we will probably use the front "quiet space" room as an office and the middle room as a TV/toy room.)
• an oversized great room includes a fireplace and is open to the second floor

Second Floor:

• A large master retreat occupies one end of the secon floor. It features a vaulted ceiling, two large his/hers closets and a five-piece master bath with double sinks
• An oversized laundry facility comes complete with a large linen closet
• Three generous bedrooms have easy access to a common bathroom

What are we missing in this design that we would have had in the house designed by Linda Chapman?

• No mudroom off the front door so I can already imagine how messy it will be
• no walk-out basement
• less interesting architecturally
• the vision of the whole land and how the house integrates into it is not as strong as with Linda's house.

Otherwise, though, this house has all of the features we wanted and with a decent landscaping budget we can integrate the back garden into the home more effectively.

The Dream is dead! Long live the Dream!

Well, it has been a while since I last posted any information on the house renovation project. That’s because we have been going through a lot of machinations trying to come up with a design that we will both enjoy and afford for many years to come.

Earlier this week we told our architect and our builder that we are abandoning the project with them. The reason was simple. Cost.

We loved the design that Linda Chapman, our architect had come up with. It had everything we were looking for in terms of form and function, and it really took advantage of the slope of the land with the walk-out basement. Unfortunately, as we worked through the process, we found more and more things to fix in the existing house that would eat into our budget. First, we found that the floors were sagging or uneven in parts of the house, then we found major cracks in the foundation, then we found a section of foundation that was bulging inwards and needed to be replaced, then we found that the house had settled shortly after being built and had a 5 inch drop from one corner to the other. All of these things could be fixed, but the price was getting to high. I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on a renovation and still have seven foot ceilings in the basement, slightly tilted floors on the main floor and nagging doubts about the foundation. So we looked at building new instead.

When we calculated how much it would cost to tear down the existing house and build the house that Linda had designed from scratch, it came out at about just slightly more than the reno including landscaping. But, add to that taxes, permits and architect fees and total cost to build the house new came to about $233.00 per square foot. From what I can tell, this is still a pretty fair price for the house. Generally speaking, new build construction runs about $200 per square foot. But, bungalows are more expensive than two-storey houses, and houses with more bump-outs and wings are more expensive than simple square houses. Add to that the quality of construction, such as better quality windows, real wood siding, plywood instead of OSB for the roof and floors, and the price starts to go up. So all in all, I think that Rex Engel’s quote was a fair quote, for the house we had designed, but it was still too expensive for us.

So, since we were now convinced that we needed to build new, we went and asked Uniform Developments if they could build a house for us. Uniform has a good reputation in Ottawa as a builder, we like their designs, and they are one of the few developers that are also willing to do infill projects (we also checked with Tamarack, as we like their designs as well, but they only build on their developments). As it turns out, Uniform offered to build us a 2800 sq ft house for $161 per square foot plus tax. That includes demolition of the existing house, all permits and basic landscaping. We will add on about $10,000 of energy efficiency upgrades to bring the house up to an ESR rating of 80 and will budget about $20,000 for landscaping to make the sloping back garden more usable. All told, the Uniform house should cost about $200 per square foot including tax. That’s gives us some wiggle room to add in some kitchen upgrades that we could not have afforded with the house that our architect designed.

Now, it’s not like the Uniform house does not come with some compromises. They use cheaper white vinyl windows, CanExel hardboard siding and it’s a basic square structure without any bump outs. Still, it is an attractive design, and it is hard to argue with the savings.

So, that is where we are at with the house renovations. I’ll try to post some pictures of the new house design in the near future.

Ontario's new building code demands greater energy efficiency

Changes made to the Ontario building code will require that all new homes built after 2011 must have an Energuide rating of 80 or greater.

The Energuide rating system rates a house based on its energy efficiency. A rating of 0 represents a home with major air leakage, no insulation and extremely high energy consumption. A rating of 100 represents a house that is airtight, well insulated, sufficiently ventilated and requires no purchased energy on an annual basis.

A new house built to current code standards in Ontario will typically rate between 65 and 72. A new home with some energy-efficiency improvements will rate between 73 and 79. An energy efficient house, such as one certified to the EnergyStar rating or R-2000 will rate between 80 and 90. A house that requires little or no purchased energy will have a rating between 90 and 100.

Furthermore, beginning mid-2011, the Ontario government plans to make the EcoEnergy audit mandatory for anyone planning on selling their home.

These changes will make energy efficiency a much more important part of the home buying decision, particularly if the difference in Energuide ratings between two homes can be converted into actual dollar savings - something Natural Resources Canada is working on.

If you are planning on building a house or buying a house on one of the many new developments springing up around Ottawa for possession after 2011, you should check with the builder what the Energuide rating of the house is. If it is too low, or worse, if they don't know it could end up costing you thousands of dollars in unplanned expenses to bring the house up to the Energuide 80 rating before you can take possession.

Brian Hobbs has written an interesting blog post on this issue. Check out his post EcoEnergy Energuide Ratings - Most New Homes Only Marginally Better Than 80's Homes.