About A House - Peat Bog

Not sure if it's a well known fact, but the Cambie area near Douglas Park is a land mine of peat bog and underground water tables for new builds and renos. Here's a short summary of where the peat bogs are in Vancouver.

The first time we realized the real implication of its significance, we were well into our design stage. Since we were on a high side of the Cambie dip and we weren't building a basement, we thought our lot should be okay. First off, the city requires a geotechnical report as part of our permit application for projects in peat bog area.

From March to May of 2011, with slight apprehension, we were waiting for the results from our geotechnical engineer of soil sample to confirm the subsurface condition of our lot.  Although we were pretty confident that our lot should be on dry ground, there is always a chance that it's on peat. As part of the investigation, a total of four 8 ft deep holes were drilled to extract soil samples for analysis. To our relief, our report came back clean with some relatively minor excavation and backfilling recommendations. The cost of construction will be impacted but we soon learned that it's no big deal compared to what it could have been.

During this time, there were a few other construction projects around the bottom of the Cambie dip that were slightly ahead of ours, right on top of the peat bog. One project had to excavate all the soil out of the entire foot print of the house to the depth of a very deep basement. At first we were thinking "Boy! That's a deep basement.". Then we watched with horror how it was heavily braced against both sides of the neighbouring homes and completely backfilled with gravel. The house is slab on grade!! Talk about pouring money into the ground!!

Then there is another project directly across from Douglas Park (some of the most prized lots in the hood), it has completely come to a standstill and it's filled with water. YIKES!! Here's a picture....

If we knew then what we know now, I wonder if we'd have bought our lot... Huummmmmm...

I think at the very least we would have gone to talk to the City of Vancouver, it's a treasure trove of information for the biggest investment of one's life.

About A House - Timeline Story 2

There really isn't anything exciting going on at the site for the past 6 weeks while the team works on the foundation. However, I was amazed at how much construction material goes into building the foundation and requires as much meticulous attention to details as framing. It's doesn't get enough credit because it's flat!

Jan 6:  House positioned, surveyed, backfilled and ready for foundation construction.

Week of Jan 9 to 13: much of the construction material for the foundation was delivered.

Week of Jan16: freezing, icy weather set back, no progress for the entire week. Wished we had taken a picture of its frozen state. Opportunity lost!

Week of Jan 23: work resumed to build the foundation frame but interrupted by a few of days of continuous downpour.

Week of Jan 30: An intense week of banging to build the wood frame around the perimeter.

Week of Feb 6: The wood frame for the foundation is complete, now all the steel rods need to be inserted into the gaps. These rebars will be set into the concrete.

Feb 10: Up to this point since Feb 1, we have had amazing sunny dry days as the team work furiously to catch up. Foundation framing passes both structural engineering and city.  Ready for concrete pour.

Feb 13: Concrete poured for the foundation walls and crawl space floor.

Concrete mixing is a pretty sophisticated process. It is mixed just before it's sent over for the pour and the recipe du jour depends on the weather on that particular day.  We had 2 different kinds of concrete applied, a high water resistance composite for the crawl space and a "normal" for our region for foundation application mix for the rest. A total of 3 drums worth of concrete poured for the crawl space and perimeter of the foundation.

The stuff you learn off the internet... "concrete is the most consumed material by us humans after food & water."  Here's a link for anyone truly into the specs of concrete, and I had always thought they're the same as the ones in an extremely heavy paper bag that you buy from the local hardware store!

Feb 14:  Need to wait 2 weeks for the concrete to completely set before the framing for the house can begin. Meanwhile, the boards are coming off the foundation.

Feb 23: Drain tiles are installed and passed inspection.

Feb 24: Pouring money into the ground! Back fill with sand up to the slab on grade level. This is necessary due to the softness of the soil in the Cambie area. 7 truckloads today and probably 5 more next week. Maybe we should hold a sand castle competition before we pour the final slab on grade!

Feb 28: 5 more truck load of sand for backfill. The sand is pounded down and smoothed out.

Mar 1: Installation of drainage into the sand pit, rebar & insulation prep for the slab, insulation

Mar 6: concrete pour of the slab of grade.

This marks the end of foundation work! We had some visitors overnight when we returned the next day!

Total time: 2 months

Cost of demolition: $32,000
Cost of house foundation: still waiting for invoices

About A House... Designs That Inspire

In designing this house, other than our general requirement of having a suite on the ground floor for elderly parents; many other considerations were incorporated:

• overall house style bounded by the zoning
• maximize natural light and orientation of the lot
• low maintenance and eco material
• simplicity and openness
• maximize square footage usage
• economize construction cost
• accommodate existing furniture and decorative pieces lovingly collected over the years
• minimalistic but warm sense of style
• modern material that works for a traditional house style

Double Garage

The Internet really changed the way we researched for ideas compared to when we did our renovation back in 1999! There is so much resources available for ideas and application examples of potential building materials. 

Here'a short list of resources that inspired us to research our design elements down to the most minute detail.  They open our eyes to all the possibilities and our house wouldn't be anywhere nearly as nice without their contribution. These sites inspire us to start our own blog so that some day... maybe, just maybe ours would be nice enough to inspire someone else.  To these sites, we thank you! 

Superkul Architect

An amazing Victorian house in SFO

Design Shuffle Blog

Houses magazine issue 76

urbaynehomes

Denver Modern

Ecomajority

Clair Rockel Realtor (she sells cool houses and posts awesome pictures of her listings)

Google Image (incredible amount of photos of design ideas googled)

Special mention to A House By The Park, if you have a good look at its content, you will know why!

About A House... Design Almost Done!

Lots of friends have mentioned that we should document the process of our house building in a blog. Now is probably the best time to get started as we're very close to the end of the design stage and about 2 weeks from getting our permit!

Here's a picture of the 100+ year old house that's on the property. Try as we may to want to reno it... not possible!

We're working with Wilma Leung, named one of the top influencer in residential construction by BC Homes Magazine to design it. The concept is to build a modern Vancouver Special with:

• no basement
• separate senior friendly suite on the main floor 
• a bigger suite on the upper floor plus the attic for us
• eco design and energy efficiency in mind
• low long term maintenance

Overall square ft of the new house will be around 2400 sq ft with 800 for the secondary suite and about 1600 Sq Ft for us. The overall design is extremely compact and maximizes usage of the slanted space under the roof.

The design is a mix of modern and traditional; modern in the building materials but the overall shape of the house is typical old timer Vancouver house.

Our builder is Arthur Lo of Insightful Healthy Home. He is part of the team that built the CMHC sponsored Equilibrium Project Harmony House.

More about the green aspects of the design another time...

Wet, Wet, Dark & Quiet

We're having one of those dark, dark rainy days in YVR where I look at my dog with dread of having to walk her. It just isn't pleasant!  Came across this post on KCRW LA OBSERVED - Visit to Vancouver

Although I personally wouldn't compare LA to any other city, it's always refreshing to receive a different perspective of your situation and be reminded of our good fortunes! We live in a city with a vibrant downtown core, high walkability score hoods, ethnics diversity and their yummy food!

Contrast to this article re: our real estate @globeandmail Is Vancouver Real Estate a Bubble which questions if we're building an unattainable lifestyle for the locals.

Well... here is this local's list of YVR+: Granville Island, Commercial Dr, Main St, Openness to other cultures, Yoga studios, Farmer's Markets, Thomas Haas, amazing public library, network of talented folks seeking a better balanced life, sea walls & beaches, Japanese & other Asian food, small enough to still find tranquility.  It's definitely in the "preferred" lifestyle category! But do fully appreciate the concerns the article raised as it isn't available to all. Friends have chose other cities rather than struggle here.

On a day like today, when the darkness & rain is relentless, it is terrific to receive affirmation of why we love YVR. Guess it's time to put on the gear & give the dog her afternoon walk with a quieter sigh!