The mason finished on the weekend and after a few days of heating and hoarding we unveiled the almost complete exterior of the Killarney project. What is interesting about this project is the combination of new products. We’ve got the metallic silver metal siding combined with large slabs of natural stone. Just a little warm weather is needed and we can stucco and landscape.
the stone is complete.
We’ve got the hardwood crew on-site now that the tile work is complete. they make remarkable progress over the course of a single long day.
The wide plank oak floors seems to be a trend that will never go out of style. The cost to redo an entire 2000 sq ft house in hardwood would be very large so use of timeless natural products makes a lot of sense.
The crew was back this afternoon to begin the process of grouting the finished tiled areas. There is always some discussion on using matching vs contrasting grout. I prefer matching grout generally, but in a few instances a white grout is best to make smaller tile patterns stand out. I do avoid the lighter grouts on floors or in wet areas, it just isn't worth the effort to try and clean white grout later on.
The white grout was a good choice on our brick tex walls.
The mason advised the application of a sealant on the natural stone product. We did a side by side comparison of the stone with and without the sealer. The verdict was definitely to go ahead and seal the stone. This is a very quick and easy maintenance step that can be done for less than $20 in supplies. Re-application is suggested, but we can wait a year or two and see how it looks. Zero skill is required, you just apply with a rag and let dry.
The sealant highlights the natural grain of the stone. We will unveil the finished stone wall in a few days once it is all cured.
With a lot of inside work progressing at the rowhouse project, I felt it was time to get some advertising signage posted on the street facing fencing. The purpose here is to start identifying possible residents of the live33st.com townhouses to move in this summer.
large black and white signage carries a simple message and the website address.
Without question this winter has been hideous for the home builders, with constant snow removal problems in January, February, and March. Many homes have had ice dam form on the roof edge, resulting in meltwater backup and water damage inside, even on new roofs. The City seems incapable of even plowing the grid streets of the inner city, so snow removal in the culdesac suburban landscape would be unthinkable.
Why can the city not do one or two plows in the inner city areas? the taxes on new homes is approaching $6000 per year, that is a lot of money. Each time a builder finishes a new semi-detached, the the tax base grows from $3500 to $11000 per year. That should pay for a little better service for snow removal than in the low density sprawl areas.
The problem with not plowing the roads, but ensuring the sidewalks are shovelled, is we get problems like this:
The streets are ice packed over top the curb so meltwater has nowhere to flow except on the sidewalk! At night the flowing river freezes and this makes for a very dangerous situation. Thanks for the great work City. Maybe you should spend some of the $20,000 I gave you in fees to do a little snow removal.
The mason is now installing slabs on the wall. We are using a 3D type effect to highlight the stone. Note the tremendous colour change once the stone is wet or a sealant is applied.
Stone is looking good.
The full tile crew arrived today and that collection of four good tilesetters really has an impact. The master bathroom is almost complete and some of the backsplash feature wall material is going on as well. With the tile wrapping up, we are into hardwood next (already started the stairs). Progress is continuing nicely with the tile and grout has been selected in all areas. In short order we will be into touchups, painting, and appliances. The first home should be on the market in April.
Powder room wall tile is supposed to make a statement. Looks good so far and is awaiting a white grout to complete it.
The preparation and scratch coat is well underway now at the semi detached project. We are using a very attractive natural stone product and it promises to look very interesting once finished.
the stone is kept indoors so that it can be warm enough to install.
And the first pieces go on...
The tile crew is ramping up now to really get moving at the Killarney semi detached project. A lot of the prep is complete and the shower tiles are nearly done. The fireplace should be starting tomorrow and the entire job wrapped up by Thursday.
master shower nearly done. The base is a matte finish hexagon mosaic that I like to use.
I recently purchased a $135 drill bit from amazon in the interest of economizing on the recurring charges to hire a contractor to make holes in concrete. Today we cored a bunch of holes in the rowhouse party walls for our gas pipe. Essentially with the first successful hole we paid off the cost of outsourcing the job. Each subsequent hole is now free until the bit is worn out. Looks like we can preserve the bit for many jobs to come provided we avoid hitting rebar.
Bosch once again makes an exceptional product and we’ve cored our holes quickly and at our convenience.
The plumber shows off his concrete drilling skills.
Despite the hideous winter conditions that seem to maybe be finally relaxing a little, we need to proceed with the garage. This means thawing out the ground frost so we can pour the slab. We’ve got a new crew with a hydronic heating truck. Essentially hot liquid is pumped in pipes laid on the ground under a tarp. Eventually the ground thaws and we can pour the slab. It costs a little extra money but what is even more costly is delaying the entire project until spring weather thaws the ground. We want to do our stucco once rather than make two trips out of it and we need to get landscaping right away (in may).
we used a skid steer to remove the snow and the heat unit is placed right beside the garage. Once thawed we can start the concrete prep work.
One of my favourite tactics of the Calgary realtor is how they have zero concept of project economics but somehow they manage to turn lemons into lemonade.
When marketing a house that has never been renovated they say ‘owned by the same family for 50 years’. How does it benefit the new buyer that the garbage house was owned by someone for 50 years who let it decay without improvement?
somehow the realtor wants to capture the future value of the renovations before the house is sold to the renovator.
The danger with these type of old houses is even a 100k gut renovation will not add any value to the house. It will still trade for land value. And of course the house is already listed over land value.
you can have this fantastic decor for 600,000$
The makeup of the rowhouse project, with upstairs and downstairs units, is a strong candidate for advanced sound reduction techniques. The challenge with wood frame buildings, as we typically build today, is that they are excellent at transmitting sound and vibration, especially through the floor.
As the project owner/builder/person in charge of everything, I have to make the decision on what additional materials are worth the investment to reduce sound. To me, significant expenditure is justifiable here, because sound transmission through the floor is particularly annoying. A noisy building could lead to a reduction in satisfaction of the residents, higher turnover, conflict and complaints to management (i.e me), etc.
It is hard to quantify a certain amount of sound reduction, measured by STC rating, for a given amount of money spent. Despite the lack of certainty, I am going to go ahead and invest where I have come to believe, after my research, major improvement can be made. I believe the biggest issue will be footsteps, or banging, music, and conversation from those living in the upper unit, which happens to be located above the bedroom of the lower unit. Impact noise I have come to believe cannot be mitigated without some different ceiling assembly and products than are conventionally used.
The primary technique I am going to deploy is a rubber clip that is used to attach the drywall to the ceiling. By disconnecting the drywall from the structure, impact noise will be dampened, I am also going to use a green glue gell product that is spread in between the double ceiling drywall sheets (both type x 5/8 drywall).
these are the rubber clips that fasten to the ceiling. A drywall hat channel goes in next, and then drywall screws on to that. It replaces another product, the drywall sound bar, that is more inclined to fail or be short circuited.
This is the total assembly of the ceiling of the lower unit, with some minor difference. Firstly, we don't have open web joists, we have the closed style. These are likely noisier than open web joists. Secondly, we are going to use the green glue sound damping product between the two layers of drywall, this should add some further STC value. We don't know exactly what, because this assembly has not been modelled by the consultant that published this work.
The tile project is underway at the semi d. The prep is key for these master bathroom showers so we are making use of the schluter system. For the infloor heat the cable is down and a layer of self levelling compound is poured and also acts as the right kind of substrate for tile.
the floor is primed for the self levelling mix. The styrofoam base is in place for the shower.
further sealant is applied to the shower walls. The base is complete and ready for tile.
I had some time between shoveling snow to attend the Calgary home show. As usual it is a massive event covering much of the Bmo centre. viewing all the displays would be almost impossible without a lot of hours of effort.
I found some unique products and services that would benefit my future projects. The diversity of products at the show is always refreshing and inspiring compared to the weight of the slow moving bureaucracy we encounter trying to conduct business in the city.
Technology is adding a lot to the home building industry without any fees, regulation or bureaucracy. It makes you wonder why all the waste and inefficiency isn’t just redirected toward a productive outcome.
One of many new and interesting products at the home expo.
The owner of the developable lands surrounding the Westbrook station has applied for a 400 plus stall parking lot in two stages plus a soccer dome.
The application is currently dispersed for comment from the public. I am very disappointed by the project. Basically the last thing we need is a park and ride beside the station. The station was a huge investment of public money. If it was intended to have a park and ride the city should have built it years ago.
the community motto of Killarney is not ‘bring your cars and leave them here temporarily’. This development offers little to the community except unwanted traffic and pressure on access points not designed for an influx of soccer moms or transit users.
In my view the buyer of these lands should either dispose of them or build something that benefits the community and the developer. A 400 stall parking lot isn’t going to enrich our communities or reward the taxpayer investment in making the transit infrastructure underground so that development could occur on top of it.
Unfortunately publishing detailed copies of project information is not allowed, however I can post comments on how much I don’t like the application.
Why would a Killarney based home building website be featuring a story on elementary school access changes? Well, because it is really important to my clients, the home buyers. These families are often buying homes after analysis of which school their offspring will 'get' into. While school quality is not nearly as polarized in Calgary as it is in the USA, it is definitely becoming a real 'thing', and Shaganappi based Ferguson is the hands down winner (real or perceived I don't know for certain, but perception is a huge factor here). So when the school administration began a consultation process to redefine school catchment boundaries, I took note (along with many others).
Today the board released the finding of its consultation on the draft catchment boundaries it published earlier. The comments were by my estimate about 99% negative toward the proposal. Just to be clear, I don't like it either (actually I think it sucks), and I am much less polite than many of the parents who submitted feedback.
Do I really care about this matter personally? My kids are getting a bit older (disclosure - one attends Ferguson), and I bought my other child into a private school anyway, at a cost of $12k per year (more than my dad paid for multiple years of my university tuition by the way - puzzling how costly elementary school is now). Well I do care, but partly because this process appears to be a case study in bureaucratic power over decisions that impact people in a deeply personal way (which I don't like, would prefer it to be more decentralized), and also an example of how consultation today is more of a PR campaign to sell a predetermined outcome than a meaningful way of making decisions that reflect the views of those involved. Even the format of how the information was collected from the parents was objectionable, as it was structured to try and collect the most positive spin on a proposal that most everyone impacted by it would detest.
How a bureaucracy deals with scarcity is another frustration in our society today. It is very similar to health care, but in this instance there is a clear private option that is readily available (unlike the sad case of my broken thumb navigating the horrors of the health care system to get a tiny little cast..), ok enough tangential banter. The bureaucracy deals with scarcity by restricting access in an arbitrary manner by using its authority. That is what it does and what it will always do. The challenge is everyone wants to get into Ferguson from multiple communities, why is this?
1. First, Killarney is the population growth source. We know this anecdotally, not because the board did any research (another of its process failings). Anyway, Killarney has multiple good schools in its boundaries but no local schools. The french religious school and the montessori are not options for many, thus there is a huge group of kids that needs to go somewhere, and everyone chooses Ferguson.
2. Ferguson has an undeniable allure - the success of the school is just a feedback cycle that has a momentum of its own creation that is now out of control. The other schools don't and are seeing enrolment drop in some cases.
3. The school administration wants to restrict choice of parents by not allowing a flexible entry system, thus kids will be shuttled to areas that are less convenient, less walkable, less desirable, all against the parents wishes. They propose to do this by setting boundaries that make no sense, such as splitting streets in half, ie. the west side can't get in but the east side of the street can. This makes no sense from a community perspective.
4. In an act right out of some bizarre bureaucratic 'this is how to deal with scarcity' handbook, the board took the best school and shrunk the border around it to deny access from those living just a few blocks south. Some parents will have to now walk out the front door, see Ferguson to the north, and walk or drive farther to their designated school. Some respondents had purchased homes based on the old access system, they are not happy.
5. The school administration seems to have taken little if any of the community input, essentially the consultation was just collecting opinions but the decision was already made on map boundaries.
6. The school administration plan is understandable in a way because it want to 'redistribute' some of the strengths of the Ferguson community and use that to 'improve' underperforming schools. This is sort of like a 'tax the rich' approach so popular with the socialist type thinking that permeates government organizations. The problem is this creates a perception of harm for those who want little johnny to get into the best elementary but no longer can because the bureaucracy is saying no. Parents these days are highly intolerant of perceived disadvantaging of their kids because a school board drew up a map that excludes their brand new house in Killarney.
Will the decision makers take into account the feedback? I don't know. What I do know is that I want my future home purchasers to have a shot at getting their kids into their preferred school, and not be subject to some arbitrary restriction. Strangely enough, my project with the least amount of kids likely to move in (the Shaganappi fourplex) is clearly in the Ferguson catchment. Maybe I can convince some parents to buy into that project if they really want to get in to the elementary...
This is the link to the presentation of the consultation input
https://www.cbe.ab.ca/get-involved/public-engagement/area67engagementtimeline/group-b-survey-report-public-01032018.pdf
Note the Ferguson catchment area is the smallest, and includes uninhabited areas such as the recently demolished retirement community, and industrial land near the river. Basically it just includes all of Shaganappi, which has an old, expensive R1 area with few kids, and a couple blocks of northern Killarney (not the part where the semi-d construction is the dominant land use (ask me how I know this).
As the Killarney project interior moves toward the final stages we have some interesting progress to report. For each new project I like to take some chances on new or different finishes. A little experimentation can backfire of course, but most often the outcome is excellent.
The basement slab floor finish is an excellent case of taking a finishing risk that seems to have been worth the additional expense. Have a look at the progress to date. As this floor dries it will be given a clear coat and we are complete.
Freshly laid epoxy floor in the basement. This is a really nice finish vs other flooring options.
One of the benefits of being the builder is by default you are at the top of the construction hierarchy, there is no boss, thus nobody can really tell you want to do (except the City). With the freedom from being told what to do, the flip side is absence of feedback on what not to do either, which can pose a time allocation predicament, particularly for me.
Leveraging the skills, time and energy of others is by far the best means of getting stuff done (houses built in 6 months or less), and with bigger projects, more delegating needs to happen. What we find in Calgary is the cost of labour is very high, making tackling some jobs really irresistible vs paying others to do what you could do yourself. Avoiding payment can be more lucrative than delegating and using labour costs to lower a tax burden as well. Essentially doing something for free is often better than paying someone else a hefty sum to do it even when factoring the headaches, time, effort etc.
This brings up the subject of what I am doing, or going to do. No doubt I am more often erring on the side of doing stuff that perhaps I should not do, including many tasks that'd be better outsourced. Nonetheless I seem to be accumulating more tools and equipment regularly, particularly as tool renting is a cumbersome and wasteful approach.
The need to make some holes in concrete is a regular occurrence, and can cost a lot of money, especially if a bunch of holes are needed. Enter the rotary hammer and concrete bits from bosch, the solution to our concrete hole problem.
A rather large bit compared to my winter boot, it will be very useful to core holes for the gas pipe that runs among the rowhouse units. How long the bit lasts will determine its return on investment vs. hiring a coring crew.