Waiting

It has been quiet. Beeline has done what they can do and are now waiting until the concrete foundations are poured. Based on the last conversation this will be this week Tuesday so we shall see. The delay will probably push back the enclosure date until November but we won't have a date until the next domino falls. Still lots of stuff to be done before the build can go up so we are "waiting". It is getting colder at night so the extra blankets are coming out. I am not looking forward to the next gas bill as the furnace has been on a few times to cut the chill. Ahh construction in Winnipeg in the Fall.

Start of Construction

While we are waiting for the start of the exterior construction, any interior work that can be done is being done. The stairs to the basement have to be relocated so we can accomodate head room and the stairs to the second floor. Temprarily our existing stairs have been relocated to the new opening.


With the new kitchen being pushed out into the new addition, the existing kitchen will be part of the back entrance, stairs to basement and a large walk-in Pantry. Here the framing has gone up to enclose the stair opening as well to create the new Dining Room/Pantry.

Demolition Continues II

So much for the kitchen. All traces of what used to be our kitchen were removed today and the walls/ceiling were stripped back to the studs. Both the window and the door walls will be removed completely in the next two weeks as we push things out for the addition. The roof trusses will also be cut back as this portion of the house will now have a second storey attached to it.

Demolition Continues

The rest of the kitchen is gone. It is amazingly colourful behind where the cabinets were. As well half of the existing wiring has been pulled back and out and pretty much cleaned up. 20 outlets or lights on one circuit is not the ideal conditions.

Even the stairs to the basement have been cleaned up. We will be cutting up the floor in the next while so we can add the additional teleposts required for the structural supports.

Basement Dwellers

With the upstairs in shambles, our living arrangements have definately changed. We have moved the Kitchen and Dining Room to the Basement. I am glad that we did re-finish this when we did last summer

The square footage is reminiscent of our first apartment. We just have more stuff. The Fridge and stove will come down stairs so we will have all the comforts.

Demolition

Let the games begin. Regardless of the Concrete issues, the rest of the interior work can be started. As the major demolition is occuring in the Kitchen area this needs to be gutted. The Beeline crew were here this past week and our kitchen is 50% demolished. The rest of the kitchen will be taken out this coming week and the interior structure can be started.

Our Fridge is currently sitting in the Dining Room. The patio doors that were in the Dining Room have been removed and a window installed instead.

The Dining Room and Kitchen have been opened up and it has made a huge difference. If we weren't having the full addition, just by opening up these two rooms would have made a welcomed difference.

This is all that is left of the kitchen. By Monday this should be gone!

Permit Clause

Due to the Zoning Variance with the City of Winnipeg, our Permit has the following small print.

"This permit shall lapse if the Permittee does not substantially commence the construction permitted inthis permit within 180 days of the date of this permit."

Translation - unless I want to forefit $1000 and go through the whole permit process again, I can't put this off until Spring. The definition of 'substantially commence' can be debated but we want to move this forward.

Concrete Search

As fate would have it, the same day that I came to the conclusion that we needed a new Concrete Sub Trade a neighbor came over for a visit. Don has been working up North off and on all summer so I really haven't seen much of him. I was filling him in as to what the delays and issues we were having when he mentioned he might know someone. He would make some phone calls. True to his word, at 4:00 the next afternoon he called with the number of someone that had an opening. It turns out with all of the rain, this other job couldn't be started yet because the concrete trucks needed to drive out on a field and the weight would cause the trucks to sink. I dropped of yet another drawing set and hoped for the best. This Concrete Sub Trade called me back that night and should be able to do the work. I have a meeting this afternoon at 2:00 to review the project with him so... cross your fingers.

Demolition

In anticipation of having the Foundation poured by the end of August, there was a lot of work that needed to get done. The Garage / Carport needed to be demolished and while we were at it the existing exterior finishes were removed.

Construction

Due to the delays with the City, our window of opportunity closed. John Weibe of Beeline Enterprises (General Contractor), had originally been ready to start the project at the end of May. Due to the delays he had to take other jobs and was busy. With the delay, a Concrete Subtrade wasn't scheduled so everyone that we spoke to indicated that October would be the earliest they could even look at it. As the Foundation is the basis of which the entire structure rests it wasn't as if we could work around this.

Between John and I we worked the phones and emails contacting everyone we knew. Through friends of friends I sent out drawing set after drawing set to try and get someone to price the job. I eventually made contact with someone who appeared to have some time by the end of August and more importantly came through someone that I have done work with in the past so there was some level of confidence on my part - or so I thought. A deposit cheque was written to guarantee the start date.

Concrete work is one of those jobs where everything is weather dependant. One day of heavy rain can delay a job for up to 3 days as we wait for the ground to dry somewhat. Three days of heavy rain and it adds a week + to the equation. August in Winnipeg this year feels like it has been the wettest month ever.

With the rain, the end of August concrete start date came and went. I wasn't too concerened as I did expect this. That being said I phoned the Concrete Contractor to confirm what his schedule was like and to see when he might be available to start. I left message after message - no response. At this point I started to worry. I tried calling him from home, from the office, from my cell phone - nothing. Beginning to think the worst, figured I would try calling him using one of my Designers cell phones. He answered on the second ring. If this wasn't a huge warning bell I don't know what is. He seemed surprised, more like whoops I shouldn't have answered this call.

I didn't say what I was thinking. I still wanted a foundation poured before Fall and I didn't have many options as I had stopped looking for a Concrete sub trade in July. If they were busy then... good luck finding anyone now. I was nice, he assured me he would get get me the information that I had requested the next day. I knew that wouldn't be the case but I had to play along. The next day came and went and there was nothing and there was still no response. Now I couldn't even get ahold of him. I had lost confidence and did not want him anywhere near the house. The great concrete search was going to have to start afresh.

City of Winnipeg Planning and Permits Department

I should know better. When dealing with the wheels of bureaucracy - take the time lines that they give you and double if not triple it.

In 1955 the City requirements were either looser or none existent. I don't know what the wording was then but the house had side yards (the part of the yard that is from your exterior wall of the house to the property line) of 4'-0" to the North, 3'-9" to the South and 22'-6" to the City yard in the front.

The addition was designed to be built in the exact same locations of the existing Garage / Carport and we weren't even affecting the North yard. During the design process I brought a set of the drawings to my neighbor to the South in case they had any objections - of which there were none.

Current City Bylaws require 4'-0" Side Yards and 25'-0" Front Yards. Since we did not comply with this they required us to apply for a Zoning Variance. What this basically means is that a nice yellow poster goes out in your front yard with information of what you are planning and enables the community an opportunity to review and possibly appeal the plans.

Our Permit application was registered with the City on May 28, 2008. At that time I was told that the application typically takes 4 - 6 weeks. With the Zoning Variance I knew we would be at least at the maximum. After 3 weeks I had emailed my contact wondering where things were at. I was told that the Plan Examiner was still reviewing things. At 4 weeks and still nothing I called again and was told that it was in someone else's hands. When I was transferred to him he indicated that yes he had the drawings but they were at the bottom of his pile. When he saw the application date he realized that they should have been at the top and out already. He promised that when "he got back from vacation" (the long weekend) he would review them. It turns out he was leaving for vacation in 5 MINUTES!!

True to his word the City called the following week (week 5) and let me know that the variance signs were ready for posting. The signs had to be posted for two weeks and then at that time if there were no issues the permit would be issued. If there was an issue, the matter would be turned over to the Community Zoning Board for a review. They meet on the 15th of every month. This was on July 3rd. The next meeting was July 15, but due to the summer the next meeting after that was September 15th. Our Variance Posters were to be posted from July 3 to July 17, 2008 so any issues and we were bumped until Fall.

On July 17th our posters came down and thankfully there were no response from the Community.

Working Drawings

Once we were satisfied with the Conceptual and Design drawings, the next step was to convert these drawings into working drawings for the City and Contractors. I always forget about how much detail is needed and the time alloted to do these. Though the scale is somewhat small, hopefully it is identifiable enough. The drawing above is of the existing house and the extent of the demolition that is required.

This drawing shows just what we are doing, Basement and Main Level.

This is the new Second Level where the kids rooms will be. We have added a third Guest Bedroom with access to the roof top patio but I foresee this being a home gym instead. No worries for any out of town guets, we are adding close to 900sq ft overall so there should be room somewhere!!

Finally the final Exterior Elevations. This shows all four sides of the house and the impact that this will have.

Exterior Elevations - Materials Selection

Once the flor plan was nailed down, the exterior elevatiuons somewhat planned out I sat with my Structural Enegineer (Kyle Blaquiere). We reviewed the plans to date, he added his input and we had some fun sketching the elevations and refining them further. The flat roof, while workable, has been changed and the architectural lines of the building have been refined.

Instead of the traditional "stucco box" addition, we wanted to have some fun and play with materials. Red siding, corrugated metal, cedar style shakes, brick - all of the building materials come together.

I'm not sure why but I have had a barn house design in my head since university. In this case that facade of the garage worked well.
The back of the house continues the selection of the materials. The building mass is quite large and we didn't want to just have a solid plane sitting there. The kids bedroom look off into the back yard and Sarah's juts out 5'-0" from the rest of the building.

Design Development

Having somewhat completed the interior layouts, the trick now is see what the true impact the building will have to the yard and the neighborhood. Using images of the existing house and a roll of trace paper a quick perspective of the new addition quickly shows what the house could look like.


The front elevation came together. This certainly isn't the 1955 bungalow that we started with but that is part of the design equation. There definately won't be another house like this!!!

From Conceptual Design to Design Development

Having gravitated towards a design option that looked like it would satisfy our needs and requirements, the pencil and pen sketches were further refined to a more accurate layout. The exact placement of the rooms aren't 100% set but they were getting tighter. The just freehand sketches were overlayed onto a AutoCADdrawing and the scale of the different spaces was again reviewed. Minor modifactions were made but the overall design of the building footprint was almost complete.

Conceptual Design Phase II

If a picture is worth a thousand words, follow the images to see the progression of the design concept. Every line seemed to lead to a new idea. Eventually the idea of going straight up over the entire house changed to only going up and affecting the basement where it was unfinished. Instead of staying within the footprint of the existing structure we pushed things out towards the back of the yard. The garage / carport was removed and a new garage designed.By Pushing out the back of the house there was an opportunity to create a bigger more functional kitchen. The garage area was reduced but this also allowed for a back entrance / mud room.

The Exterior started changing. No matter what was done the house was going to stand out in the neighborhood so heights and angles and elevations needed to be addressed.

Taking in account the sun rise and setting changes over the course of a year the idea of using the solar power in a positive way to impact our energy comsumption began to formulate.

Finally the new footprint of the house has begun to take shape.

Conceptual Design Phase I

Straight up. That was the idea. We knew we wanted to add additional bedrooms and enlarge the master bedroom but we didn't want to affect the yard. Turning the house into a storey and a half looked to be a logical solutions so we quickly sketched up a viable option.



The idea was to turn Sarah and Joshua's bedrooms into part of the Master Bedroom with our existing bedroom turning into the ensuite/closet/dressing area. The stairs to the second floor would be accessed just off of the Dining Room and the Laundry facilities would move to the remaining space there. The Kitchen would be opened up to the dining room and while the foot print wouldn't increase the overall feeling between the two spaces would give the illusion of a bigger kitchen.

With the roof pitches and setbacks, the second storey would have shorter walls along the perimeter but full height walls in the center. The upstairs would have space for Sarah and Joshua's bedrooms , the Office, a Washroom and a Guest Room. With the height requirements for the stairs we would have a center area that would be perfect for a second storey Craft Room

From Conceptual to Design drawings a set of Preliminary drawings were created and submitted to a Structural Engineer. The design was doable - we would need to add additional support throughout the center points of our house. This proved to be problematic as the previous summer we had just finished the basement. I didn't really want to re-do all of the finishing that we had just completed. There had to be a better way.

Conceptual Workings

Hopefully not as long as my last post - we shall see.

The idea of adding to the house is exciting. Having lived through an addition way back in 1984 when my parents added to their house I wish I can say that this is old hand. Reality is I was only 12 and didn't fully understand the concepts and the situation. I do know that it was that addition that started me along the path to become a designer. Hopefully I can talk Sarah and Joshua out of it if similar ideas become planted in their heads :)

In the Preliminary Design Process, much of the time is spent getting to know the Client. We find out what they like, dislike, what their needs are, their motivations for doing the work, budgets, time frames, ideas, etc. With this project this was our life so we were able to start immediately into the conceptual designs. Having lived in the house for almost 5 years (at the time) we knew where and what we wanted - or so we thought.

The Design Process

You would think that this part would be the easy part - as a Professional Interior Designer I design renovations and additions for a living. The trick is that those designs are for other people. With our Clients we always try and come up with the best design possible for the requirements as determined in our pre design meetings. We build on the design concepts as the project is moved forward but there is always the underlying question - "what is this going to cost me in design fees". We all have a personal connection to your homes and this is always a sensitive conversation. I always try to explain to Clients that it is important to "make our mistakes on paper" as these are easier to change now then when the Contractor has already built it. Unfortunately when Clients are looking at another couple of hours of design time versus being able to have the latest __________ (insert material item here) the design experience tends to loose out.

When ever I start a new design I like to pose the question to the Client - If you had a million dollars to spend anyway you want, what would you have or do (this is assuming that the budget is below a million dollars to begign with and that would be a large un-attainable number). This helps people to take the blinders off and think outside the box. Most people when dreaming of an addition or renovation tend to think "just enough". The believe that their true dream would be too expensive or unrealistic that they have already shot down most of the good ideas before they even get to the design process. By removing the blinders we are able to dig deeper and hopefully the resulting design brings their dreams to reality. Clients will come up with ideas that they never had thought possible. Not everything is attainable but there is more than one way to do something so you will suprised with what you can do.

An important design step is to remember that the Client is actually part of the Design Team. As Designers we are interpreting the Clients dreams and expectations and then creating a solution based on their needs and wants. With all of todays TV reality based design programs I would love to see the true reactions of the homeowners. One third of the design process is the Preliminary Design stage where we come up with possible solutions and some are embraced and some are rejected (some more emphatically then others). With true design being a reaction to your presentations how can the evolution of the project exist without having the full design team present.

Love and Hate are two extreme human emotions - on either end of the spectrum. Immediately upon seeing something you get a response either positively or negatively. You might not know why you like or dislike something but you just know that you do. In the design process I ask Clients to start two folders and put images or concepts in each. You can probably guess what the names on the folders are. As we go through the design process these image folders help to shape the resulting design solutions. If you don't like glass blocks and everytime you come across an image of a glass block window it is filed in the hate file I better not come back to you with a design that has glass blocks as a predomenant design feature.

Back to our project, like I said it should be easy to design our addition. Well... maybe not. When you aren't constrained by an outside source like design fees and you have some time to really dream - what would you do.

Renovations

To renovate or not to renovate. That was our dilema. At 1150 sq ft our house is a well planned 1955 bungalow. The kitchen is small and dated but it is functional and in needs of an overhaul. The bedrooms while smallish by todays standards are generous for their time. The basement is partially finished and is perfect for the kids to entertain and have fun. We could always use more space but that is as much a product of where we are as a society as it is with needs.

In the spring of 2007 a house with the identical foot print of our house and similar finished conditions sold one bay over. The selling price was over 200% higher than what we had paid when we bought in 2002 so it started the ball rolling. Our original plan when we moved back to Winnipeg had been to buy a house, find a school and then move closer to the school. Instead we found a house that worked, we found a neighborhood that was perfect and decided to stay. To sell now means we would have to buy a new house that probably wouldn't have as many positives and we would be spending the next year and probably $50k in renovations and landscpaing to make it livable. The seeds of a renovation were planted.

Beginnings

This is it. After many delays I finally decided to actually sit down and try and record the renovations to our house and other ADI group projects. Hopefully I will get in the habit of having a daily report - the updates, the status and the pictures. We shall see. I will try and update everything in a couple of posts over this weekend and then stay current from there on in.

S