Week 22: Final(ish) Floorplans

After the big weekend last weekend i treated myself to a weekend off and went for another training hike, this time carrying my pack at about 70% weight. I managed about 15 km return with a break to enjoy the falls before returning in 5 hrs with friends. We didn’t set any records and i got a few strange looks with my huge pack, but we weren’t the slowest people on the trail so i feel a lot more confident about the hike in August. Really, it isn’t the best time to be planning this but what the heck. It sure was more fun than stacking bricks let me tell ya!

Next weekend Sarah leaves to visit her parents for the first time in almost 2 years. I am staying behind because of the pandemic and it will give me a chance to take the wall and chimney down in the kitchen. It is going to be a lot of work but at least i will be able to stand! Perfect timing for Sarah’s trip though because this is going to be the most disruptive prep work so far. I feel pretty confident about it after the top of the chimney and now that i am vaccinated and the health guidelines are loosening up a bit i have had some offers of help. Ideally it will take a weekend so i can go hiking the following weekend.

Last week we got updated floorplans from the architect but he recommended we reduce the depth of the house by a couple of feet to leave more space for a laneway house. Part of our plan is to not do anything that would prevent us or the next owners from further development and when the land costs so damn much, most people would rather maximize revenue than garden space. While we can fit a small laneway the way we have it now, a couple of extra feet will make it so that the two places are not sitting right on top of each other. I went and did some measurements based on the plan and we agreed that we could shrink things down a little as long we took some space out of the suite and it didn’t all come out of our laundry and storage space. The covered deck is planned as 14′ x 13′ which is bigger than we had expected and total deck depth will be 20 feet so it isn’t like we are going to be cramped. We reviewed the revised plans today and with the exception of a tweak in the kitchen layout that we should have mentioned last week before he took off the 2′ we are happy with what we have worked out. Since we had to move the wall in the kitchen we got him to add a pocket door. Our friends Jeanette and Dave in Victoria have one and since I am an early riser and Sarah is not, this will allow me to putter in the kitchen without risking the wrath of an untimely woken spouse. This almost makes the cost of the wall worth it.

He also showed us how we could get over 35′ of floor to ceiling shelving in the laundry room if needed and allayed my fears that we didn’t have enough storage. I don’t think we need all that but it is nice to know that it is an option. I keep finding things that a) would be nice to get out of the way, or b) are stashed in areas that will be part of the suite. I am sort of freaking out we are going to get done the reno and be tripping over our stuff. I suppose we could throw some stuff out but that is crazy talk. Next step with the Architect is to plan the exterior and site plan so we should get some 3d renderings in a week or two

We had a visit from Dean the Builder (DtB) before the long weekend because he was working on a job in the area and arranged to stop by on Friday afternoon. I shared the plans we had from the architect and we discussed a few options. While we had been wanting a glass roof on the covered porch he has suggested that we build the structure to support glass but install fibreglass or plexiglass panels for now. That will get us through a decade or so until we can afford the 200 sq feet or more of custom tempered glass. That will help offset the cost of moving the wall in the kitchen. Lumber prices are also at historic highs right now which is going to be a problem. While we had been planning on cedar siding but DtB suggested it might actually be cheaper to get Hardishingles. We will likely need them for the side of the house anyway so why not use all the same product. I love wood and but the idea of having the same look in a product that is pre-painted, fire, and rot proof is appealing. Less maintenance means more time for hiking. It is funny how all these ideas you have before starting a project start to change as the reality sets in.

We also discussed my plan/desire to add insulation on the exterior. It gives a good thermal break and can be part of the rainscreen. Even if we blow insulation into the living room walls we won’t have much R-value so an additional R5 on the exterior will make a big difference. We also still have 2×4 walls in the bedrooms and while insulated, they could be better. My challenge is what to do about the window sills? Even with the thinnest Comfortboard at 1″ we still have at least an inch for the rainscreen system (he rattled off a bunch of numbers, i think it was more like 1.5″ inches for the rainscreen as we need vertical pieces for the air gap but then need horizontal pieces across those to nail the shingles too. This is really why i need to keep up to date the blog. Or take notes. He’s hard to keep up with as he has a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I am really enjoying talking through the project and he is really supportive of me tackling as much as possible.) and then we need shingles on top. To keep our heritage grant we need to keep our original windows that still exist (all 4) and we don’t have enough room on the sill to allow for the exterior insulation and rainscreen. I suggested just flashing and caulking (he was kind enough not to laugh but i am sure he had a good time sharing my crazy idea) but DtB suggested taking off the trim and then cutting out the frames (they are just nailed to the wall after all), and just pushing them an inch or two out to make room then trimming up the sider sill inside. Brilliant. So now i have to convince Sarah to let me trash every room in the house. I wonder how long until she reads this? The main focus will be the west and front and we are already planning on replacing the front window and door so perhaps it won’t be that much extra disruption. It’s only 3 additional windows. The other thing is that the rainscreen and siding is technically in a second phase after the house is back down on the foundation and the risky parts of the job are done. Like the wall in the kitchen.