Cast Iron Soaker Tubs

I'm a big fan of those old, clawfoot soaker tubs. The ones found in old, decripit houses. I've had two of those (houses and the tubs that go along with them), but funnily enough, I've never actually saoked in one before.

Oh, how I long for that day.

My Tuxedo project had one, and I had fully intended to restore and install it. That is, before the house got bought out from under me (by the offer I could not refuse).

Now, with my Inglewood project, I've inherited another tub. A five and a half foot beauty, which I shall also try to refurbish and install in the ensuite bathroom.

For anyone who wants to buy a cast iron tub, there are a few options. 1. Buy the house, and with any luck, the tub comes with it. The one I had in Tuxedo actually got written into the offer to purchase, otherwise I would have grabbed it for some other project.

2. Get an old one from Tim's Reusables, here in Calgary. (Bay B 336-35 Avenue NE, 276-1616). He's got a five and ahalf footer going for $1000 and a smaller, five footer for $500.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Once you have it, you need to refinish the puppy. And for that, I've found Charly, who runs Baths from the Past.

This is a really funky place (take a look at the gallery for evidence of that). ANd now, all of a sudden, I'm contemplating some alternatives to the simple, elegant white porcelain.

Thinking... This one looks cool.




The refurb will cost between $400 and $1000 depending on how funky I want to go. Still thinking...

It's Time For An Update

Tuxedo is no more. I got an offer I could not refuse. And as it turns out, I didn't refuse it.

I chose one in the hand over two in the bush, and moved on.

Never fear, though, fair readers. All four of you. I know have two projects oon the books, both of which will have some interest to anyone who is building or renovating.

Project One
I have bought a dumpy bungalow on a 50 foot lot in the good area of Bowness (minutes form the park). Not on the river, but close enough. It was the last 50 foot lot for under $250K in Bowness (they're now going for $280 to 300).

The plan is to raze the bungalow (it has no basement, so that will be fairly simple and inexpensive), subdivide the 50 foot lot into two 25 fooot lots, and build a large, quality, side-by-side duplex. We call them semi-detached back east.

On the output side, $250k for the lot (and the raze) plus $250k to build the two semis.

For inputs, each semi should sell for $450k. Do thee math; there's a little bit of upside involved.

This project is going ahead; I have asked for (and received, thankfully) a one year extention on my sabbatical. I'm due back to work (teaching, remember) in September 2007. Without the leave, I would have had to make the decision about whether to resign my position; now how stressful would that have been? I have 15 months to make it so.


Project Two
I have just bought my dream house. Actually, it is a dump. And smells like cat piss. And, just to make things even worse, I bought it for $41k over list price.

But it is in one of the top ten neighborhoods in Canada.



On the rest of the plus side, it's in Inglewood, on 8th St. Possibly the best street in Inglewoood. On one side of the street (well, past the final row of houses) lies the Bow River. On the other side of the street is 9th Ave. and the funky shopping district. Another plus? It's one of the few two story, brick homes in the neighborhood, and it's on an oversized, 43 foot lot.

In short, it's sweet. But smells like cat piss. But hey, top ten has got to count for something.




The plan here will be to do extensive renovations (gutting to the studs), throw a porch up front, and a small addition on the back. With any luck, $100K creates a $650k Inglewood showhome.

So... two projects. A reno and couple of new constructions. It's going to be a busy year. Oh, and I leave for Italy (a month in Tuscany) in five days.


Stay with me here - it's going to be a hell of a wild ride.

In the swing of things, indeed.

So, at a time where I should be hips deep into the foundation construction process... I'm so not there.

I've sold the property. I will not be building my house, for which I have already commissionned (and paid for, I might add) plans and the beginnings of demolition.

Basically, what happened is this: in the hyper inflated real estate market that is Calgary, I got an offer I couldn't refuse. Recall that I bought the property in March last year for $148K I spent perhaps $2K in labour to gut the place, hiring my kids and my kids' friends (and other various and sundry). On top of that, I spent another $1k on various permits and charges, and $1800 for plans for the infill.

I was hoping to build for $120k, which would bring my costs to $270K, and sell for maybe $350k. Maybe even more in a year down the road, when the house got done.

Well, I got half of my potential profits right here, right now without doing anything more.

So I took the easy way out, and sold.

I actually had several offers on the place. The first one had two conditions, so I accepted a backup offer, to fall into place should the first fall through. Guess what? The first one fell through. On financing.

The second offer has fallen into place quite nicely, with a selling price $3k higher.

But I also bought something to replace, and this one will be nice too... a double lot – 50ft wide – onto which I will now build a side-by-side duplex (semi detached, for you back easters).

Now the design process begins anew, as I seek a plans for a 21ft wide duplex.

Yippe.

Back in the swing of things

I've returned from my Christmastime hiatus in Toronto, and already I'm armpits deep in details of what I shall call Phase 1 - demolition, excavation, and foundation.

To wit, I've rounded up a number of contractors, quotes, and details that will set me up to get framing started around March 1. I've got to get as much done before April 13, when I head out to Italy for a month. Priorities and all.

Here's a list of the individual jobs/contracts that i'm looking to write:

1. Service kill and reconnect. I need to dig up the street and reconnect to the water mains and sanitary sewer with modern pipe. The old stuff is from 1912, and has got to go.

2. Demolition Permit. So far, I've spent $190 for gas cutoff, and am saving up for the water/sanitary kill bomb that will no doubt suck me away real quick. Electricity gets cut off for free.

3. Development Permit. A fast-tracked approach for "modest development" should go through in 2-3 weeks. Looking ot get that in by early next week (January 16)

4. Excavation. I need to dig a bigger and deeper hole for my house. 8 foot ceilings, so 9 feet down, 20 feet wide by maybe 60 long. Same folks might do the backfill for me as well.

5. Cribbing. These are the guys who build the forms for the concrete foundation. I'm getting quotes for this around $20 a running foot of foundation, which will come out at $2900 in my case.

6. Concrete. I've learned to the difference between 30 MPA type 50 and 32 MPA concrete. Basically, it will come down to my soils. Might have to get a soil compaction test done. AT any rate, the costs here are running about $200 per cubic metre of concrete. I pay a premium of about $16 per metre to supply heat to help it cure in the wintertime. 40m^3 of concrete needed (approx) equals $8000.

7. Plumbing Rough-in. I have to install the sewer and water lines in the right place.

8. Weeping Tiles, Waterproofing. These need to be installed on the outside of the foundation before backfilling can occur.

9. Flatwork. After the house is enclosed and dry, I can get the basement floor poured. The concrete pad for the garage too. When it warms up.

Phew! I've lined up multiple quotes for all of these jobs. Some contractors want to or are able to do several of these jobs, so it will be hard to compare apples and apples. And of course, do I trade a few bucks in savings (possible, but not absolute, if I choose different contractors for each job) for convenience factor of one guys getting multiple things done.

This house building thing is complicated. A million and forty seven details to keep track of.

A Tour Of The First Floor

The goal, you will recall, is to design a house that will come in under the guidelines of "modest development" for a development permit. The largest, biggest bang-for-the-buck building I can quicktrack through the system.

This is the first floor. 850 square feet of modern, functional living, and, if I may say so, funky design. I came up with the floor plan, and my draftsman Sig did the rest, adding a few embelishments along the way as well (which I'll point out).

The main entrance to the house is at the bottom left. There is a 6x8 covered entry with a 4x11 covered porch throught he front of the building. (Forgive me, but even being a metric boy, the building biz is the one sphere in which I cannot get away from feet and inches. It bothers me to no end.)

The living room is 10x20, and features the bow window to the east, and a huge window to the south (the house fronts south). The stairs up to the second floor will have open treads, and I'm thinking glass bannisters just to keep it nice and open. The ceilings here are nine feet.

Separating the living room from the dining area is three way gas fireplace, and a sitting area around it. I would love to have a wood burning stove, but my RE agent says that gas sells. And so I will.

The sitting area features a slightly raised ceiling (another 2 feet), which corresponds with a raised loft above the second floor. That will be clear when we go upstairs.

One feature Sig suggested was a nook for a buffet in the dining room, which we included. Glass block windows frame that nook.

Everyone likes an island. The kitchen features a peninsula, but I'll reassess that once I get a better feel for the space after framing has been done. Past the Dining room is a sunroom which should back onto a real nice back yard. French patio doors open out to the back deck.

Also on the first floor is a two-piece bath, nestled between the kitchen and the stairs down.

I'm still deciding on interior features and such. Hardwood floors are going down everywhere, except the kitchen and entrance, which will have tile of some sort. A crown moulding would be nice, but I'm not sure how it will work with the open concept here. Colours, textures, and other details will be decided when I decide. In other words, last minute.

Step One: Complete

As of today, the first major step is completed: the design.

I know I've talked a lot about design in an abstract sense, but after four meetings with Sig, the draftsman, she's nailed down and ready to submit for a Development Permit.

And just to give you an idea of what the house will look like form the street, well... take a look.



Thye style, if I had to pigeon-hole it, would be Nouveau Craftsman. Moderately steep roof lines, a bit of a dutch gabel up front, and lots of interesting variety to the facade. A nice covered porch area as well. Windows will likely be metal clad with those craftsman style simulated divided lites along the top fifth or so. Double hung, of course.

Finishing materials are of three varieties: preserved natural cedar shakes, smooth stucco, and cultured (read artifical) Rundle limestone. I'm thinking dark grey or black asphalt shingles and trim, and a dark mustard-yellow paint for the stucco.

From the front elevation, you can see the dormer on the second floor loft, and the cantilevered niche coming off the first floor. When we look at the floor plans, they'll make more sense.

Say Hi to Sig

Meet Sig. He's my draftsman. An architectural technologist, actually, who is going to transform my design ideas in floorplans, elevations, and working diagrams, for the big bad city.

Having someone like Sig who is familiar with what we call "modest development" and infill design is actually quite important for me. I am hoping to quick-track the development permitting process by submitting to some very strict building conditions.

What kind of conditions?

• Allowable Footprint (area) = (site area-41m^2) x 33% or less than 45% of the lot area, whichever is smaller
  
• Side Yard – 1.2 m on both sides, giving me a 17' wide house
  
• Maximum Height – 8.6 m, but less on the sides to decrease shadow impact
  
• Dormers (of which I have one) – not more than 3 m in length, no more than 1.2 m higher than building plane, less than 3 m^2 in area above the building plane
  
• Fronbt Facade – a 2m or longer portion to project forward or backward by at least 0.6 m
  

Yadda yadda yadda.

So it's a bit of a back and forth effort between Sig and I. I went over yesterday to see his preliminary plans and thoughts, and will be going back tomorrow morning to check our some elevation ideas he has. We're under a time crunch here, as I want to get the Development Permit underway next week, and the construction permit in place by January

The photo below shows some detail (feel free to click on it). Tomorrow morning, we start making irreversible decisions.

The process continues.

Back To Destruction

The temperature of late has been rather cold. It is Calgary, after all. But my poor house, all deinsulated and unheated, well she's been a bit cold too. I had disconnected most of my plumbing during the initial stages of gutting, but there's still a downstairs tap and toilet that I left connected. Now, after a week of -15˚C weather, she's frozen solid.

But being Calgary, we're about due for a nice chinook, described over here, and now I'm afraid of the remaining few pipes bursting and making a swimming poll in the basement.

Or skating rink, as the case may be.

It's time to commit to the project, and get the utilities terminated.

That's not as easy as it might seem. You don't just call up the city and say "please shut of the water". No, first you need to get a demolition permit.

The process is this: apply for a demo permit (with all the supporting documents), get an official looking form from the the permits desk, then go to three locations, and have water, electricity and gas utilities all sign off on them.

See, the utilities (Atco, the City itself [for water] and Enmax) won't do anything without a permit being applied for. So off I trudged (actually, I took the bus, which is chronicled here, which made my inner environmentalist happy.

The process seemed like it would be fairly painless, and the city is good in communicating exactly what it requires through a series of checklists for each step. For a demo permit, I needed two colour photos (fore and aft) of the building I'm taking down, the area of the building (footprint), a demo contractor, and a separate checklist making sure that no trees would be damaged in the process. None will be, since there are none on the property.

I arrived at noonish (thanksfully, the counters are staffed at lunch), and after waiting for fifteen minutes for my number to come up, spent another fifteen with the counter staff, and then guess what? I was done.

$65 lighter, but done. Relatively painless.

Now all that needs doing is to fax the form off to the three utilities (at which time, they should disconnect them all), then bring those forms back to the city to get the permit.

So two trips, and about two hours fo work to get this part of the job done.

Onward, Great Design

I interviewed three draftsmen (yes, they were all men), and have settled on S.N. The most important criterion was his proximity to me – only 10 minutes away, and also in the northwest.

Well his price was good too, between 2450 and 3450, depending on the kind of plans he needs to draw up. My goal is to go with something called "modest development" which sets limits as to sideyards, setbacks, building envelope, and footprint. The benefit is that if I meet all the criteria, "a permit shall be issued". So no dickering around with the neighborhood association, neighbors and the like.

I should remind that my lot is in what is referred to as an "established community". That means that there are some design and development restrictions, moreso, say, than if I were outside of the downtown core.

The other bonus is that I should get my development permit in about two weeks, ratehr than six to eight for the full blown permit.

So I left my initial design ideas, measurements, floorplans and the like with S.N. last week, along with an $800 deposit. But to get started, he also needs a few other things. First off is a utilities survey showing the depths of water, sewar and gas lines. He's going down to City Hall anyways on another project, so he'll take care of that.

He needed a copy of my RPR, or real property report as well. This is a survey showing existing buildings and lot sizes and the likes. Most real estate transactions out here call for an RPR being produced by the vendor, whereas out east, title insurance seems to be more common.

The final thing he needed (and something I hadn't planned on) is a grades survey of the lot. Although he can get started on the floorplans and basic design right away, he needs to know the levels of the lot before he can do elevations.

My entreaties that the lot is flat, nothwithstanding.

So off I've been the last two days looking for a surveyor who will come around and do the deed for me. I was warned that surveyors are stupidly busy these days, and to expect to pay $500 - $1000.

Yikes... looks like expenses are gonna pile up quickly.

I found someone though, and all is well. They're have it done in about a week, and the cost is a mere $350 plus GST.


So now I'm beginning to establish a bit of a timeline

Meeting with the drafters

When I was in grade 7, I decided to be an architect. Thanks the Lords of Cobol I didn't get into UofW (I got into Urban and Regional Planning instead), 'cos I'd be dead of starvation by now. Or stocking grocery shelves.

I worked feverishly over the weekend to get enough of a plan together to show the folks who will convert my plan into elevations (for the Development Permit) and plans (for the building permit). Basically, I cam up with the ideas, and I need someone to make them possible.

And to fix any amateurish mistakes I might have made.

So far I've interviewed three, and I think I have enough variety to make a decision.

The first guy I talked with works out of a dingy little office in the southeast, made me wait for five minutes while he found some samples narrow houses he'd done before (yes, he knew I was coming), but beyond that, he seemed nice, experienced, and would do it all for $3000.

The second guy works out of his walk-out basement office, has 25 years of experience, and seemed open to my ideas. He had a variety of his work out and ready to look at, and it looked good. $2500-3500 – he'll get back to me.

The third outfit I interviewed was a larger company, with a staff of six or eight. Once again, lots of experience, and a very professional looking office. Two folks sat down with me, and seemed to like what I had come up with from a practical point of view, and had some hints for me (like getting a services profile form the city, showing sewer lines and such). This price was a bit more though – $2000 for the development permit drawings (which I think they overestimated, since I don't need something called a "street context") PLUS $1.50 a square foot of livable area ($0.75 / ft for basement).

This will work out to another $3000, for a grand total of $5000+

I think I walked out of that last office knowing my decision. Bigger office = more overhead, higher prices, even though they have more collective experience.

I've got to say that I stressed a little bit going into these. I was worried that my own plans and ideas would appear amateurish and that they would nod knowingly, and reply with "can I make a suggestion?" As it turns out, I do have some knowledge about structural issues, and they seems impressed by that. And they liked the design I had come up with – not the standard two story cookie cutter house.

So my choice, Sig, will be out of town for a few days, and I anticipate getting started next week dark and early. Three weeks to get elevations and mechanicals for the development permit, which will take another three weeks or so.

By then, construction plans will be ready, and I can apply for the construction permit.

The house is not for me, dammit!

More design issues.

I need to always keep in mind that I'm not building this house for myself. Whatever my design ethic might be.

Facts are facts; when it comes to new house construction, in order to maximize profits, bigger is better. So despite my wanted to create a nice, 2 bedroom 1200 sq. ft. (130 sq. m.), environmentally sound little place, if I want to make any money on this project, I need to go big, or go home.

Going big means maximizing the footprint. And doing that means about a dozen different, mutually inclusive calculations, as set by the City Planning Office. Mutually inclusive means that my house dimensions need to adhere to each of the conditions.

Stepping aside for a second, I have two options. The first involves a fastracked development permit (because Tuxedo is an "established" community, and the have standards, dammit). If you meet all (and I mean all) of the requirements for fotoprint, building envelope and setbacks, then they must issue you a permit, and that usually takes a couple of weeks.

Option 2 is to do the long-track development permit process, which means community invovlement, meeting with the neighbours and the community association. Because they have standards, dammit. This way can take 2 to 4 months. And the outcome is by no means certain.

Not willing to do the latter. And so I have to maximize size while still sticking to all the conditions.

Confusing. And I still don't get to build the house I want to. I always have to remember that I am not buying this place. I am designing and building for someone else.

It continues with design

Destruction seems to be taken care of. I have a few quotes in my pockets, and they seem reasonable.

I have been tooling around with some designs myself. Not that I have any particular expertise. Well I do, I guess - I trained as an Urban Planner/Designer, so I have a sense and awareness of space, and I can visualize the big picture fairly well. I have been drawing floor plans and elevations since I was a kid. Qualified? Hell yeh!

So now I try to find a draftsman to put ideas to paper for me, cos I sure as heck cannot do working drawings or such. Now of course, this will be a little intimidating, because even though I have my ideas, I worry that they might seem amateurish or borderline irresponsible when laid before they eyes of a professional.

I'll just have to suck that up and takes my chances. In fact, a key criterion by which I will choose a draftsperson is how open and amenable to my ideas they are. And yes, I do have a few.

For example, I want to use new school smart framing ideas as recently presented in Fine Homebuilding. Ideas like this make a lot of sense to me, but are likely to run into obstinance - or worse - by my framing crew.

I am going to start a budget page soon, as soon as I can figure out how pages work on Blogger.

It all begins with destruction

I surveyed some "home destruction specialists" over the past few days. No, not some cute blonde gal who will come in and make mischief (already got one of those), but a company who will take down my old bungalow, and cart it out to the dump.

Seems it will cost about $5000 to do the deed. My mom made some good points about not doing it until I am ready to bring the foundation guys in. Best to avoid a big hole that might attract higher insurance premiums, water and stray kids. So I'll hold out on that a bit.

I have been playing around with MacDraft trying to come up with a cool narrow house design. I have 17'1" to work with, but for obvious reasons, I'll go with 16' even. And try to avoid any semblance to a mobile home.

I think I have a nice idea. So I'll finalize that over the next few days and try to find a draftsperson to commit it to a plan that adheres to the National Building Code.

The problem is that I have a great nifty idea for a 2.5 storey house, but which might be(probably is) inefficient to build. Once I get some floorplans finished, I should psot them as images here.

What's there now

Here's a photo of what I had to work with.




I love the idea of restoring old houses, but I fear that this old foundation is just a little too crumbly for anything worthwhile to come of it.

And so it must go.

Where to begin?

Oddly, the first thing I did was call up some framers.

For those who don't know, there's a building boom here in Calgary, and things are backed up a tad. Skilled labour is at a premium, and for some reason I see the framing as the most important single job to get done.

As it turns out, they're booking for the early spring, Feb-March, so that's in the ballpark for me. $5 to $8.50 per square foot to get the job done. It takes 6 or 7 days.

My real first step, of course, is to come up with a design. My lot (either of them, reagardless of which goes through) has a number of special design considerations. I'm on a 25' lot, or 7.62 metres. To make it easy (by avoiding a full blown development permit), I need 1.2 m of sideyards on both sides, which leaves me 5.22 m to build with, or 17 feet 1 inch. Kinda tight for a house.

So I went over to Chapters and bought me a few books. I like books. Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House and Creating the Not So Big House looked good, and came as a bundle.

The other one was Building an Affordable House, by Fernando Ruiz.

I did some searching online. Apparantly, the City of Portland has an annual Narrow Lot House competition. I was able to glean a few ideas from that.

Unfortunately, a search for narrow lot house designs got me mostly playhouses and garages. Not exactly what I had in mind.

So the job for the few days is to think design, and how to maximize my available space.

A House Apart?

How does one create a house apart – a distinct home with character, style, and function? I'm about to find out.

Last March, I bought a 1912 bungalow in the neighbourhood of Tuxedo, close to downtown Calgary. My original intent was to renovate it and convert it into a yuppified, one bedroom pad for some young professional.

Crunching the numbers with my agent, things looked pretty good: 148 000 for the property, 50K for the reno, and resell for the high 240s. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about the upside. I mean, 250 for a one bedroom house (well, even with a loft)?

Anyhow, for the past seven months I've been working side projects (another house and a bit of travelling), so this has been a bit slow. All of a sudden, a similar bungalow nearby is now on the market for 195K. Now my place is worth about that, just for land value. And good thing too, since after taking a closer look at the foundation... well things don't look so rosy anymore.

Upside of it all is that I now own a 185K chunk of land. I could cash in right now and take almost 30K in 7 months - 22% annualized gain. Not too shabby.

Or, I could build a big lovely infill. Back of envelope calculations work out like this: 148K for the land, 8K to demo the building, 100K for the new infill, 10K for a 2 car garage for a total of 266K. Should be able to sell such a final product for 370 plus.

So, make 30ish right now or make try for 100k over the next year.

Here or in another location, I think I will build. Now comes the tought part - finding the people to do it for me.