It’s hard to believe my last construction blog update was more than three months ago. A lot has been completed in that time frame.
As reported in my May 23 update, the deck was framed, and the crew started adding plywood to it. We decided on plywood and covered it with Weatherdek, a vinyl membrane that not only protects the wood, but allows for the space under the deck to remain dry. That’ll provide extra outdoor living space sheltered from the rain. Doug from DAD’s Weatherdek did the installation. With the deck framed and covered up, Chad and Ben were able to continue installing siding on the back side of the house.
The house siding is an engineered wood product made by LP Building Solutions. They have a good variety of colours – we selected “Sand Dune.” The product is easy to work with, not requiring any special cutting tools. An additional benefit is that the dust from cutting the boards isn’t toxic (no crystalline silica dust, as is the case with fiber-cement boards like Hardie boards). We opted for a standard lap siding design up top, and board and batten for the walkout basement section.
While this was happening on the outside, James from Muddogg Drywall was busy tapping, mudding and sanding the newly installed drywall. We hired painter Mike McArter to apply primer to all new drywalled surfaces. He also painted all the new ceilings, which saved us a ton of time. With all the new walls primed, I was able to paint the walls with the help of a few friends and Dana. Oh, and we also painted all 11 new doors.
Another feature of our project is a rainwater catchment system. Mayne Island’s Land Use Bylaws specify that if one has a legal rental suite in the house, than a rainwater catchment system must be installed. We retained Gord Baird from Net Zero Water System Design and Consulting to design and build our water catchment system. We collect water from the roof, which is stored in two tanks beside the house. We can collect a whopping 13,640 litres of rainwater.
Interestingly, water used to flush toilets represents one of the biggest share of water usage in most home, at about 25-30%. Our rainwater system is connected to all toilets in the house, so we estimate we'll save approximately 30,000 litres of precious well water by using our rain catchment system.
The sewerage system was designed by Andrew Money from Saturna Island. Since septic systems must be located more than 100 feet away from water wells, we were limited as to where it could be installed. Excavator Matt was tasked with building the system, so he excavated holes for our septic tanks down-lot the house (our lot has a gentle slope), so gravity pulls the effluents into two large tanks. The dispersion field was built above the tanks in the south-east corner of our lot to respect the setback to our well, but also because we needed 50 feet of leveled ground to run the five dispersion lines. So, we literally have a treatment system that pumps sh*t up hill to a large “sand mound”, which was covered with grass seeds and watered to fast track vegetation and prevent soil runoff.
We decided to install in-floor heating in the new bathrooms. That’s a task usually completed by the flooring installer, and/or an electrician, but because we forgot about it until the last minute, Dana and I ended up doing it ourselves. Oh, what a challenge that was.
First, the product’s instructions seemed incomplete and poorly written. We couldn’t even find a YouTube video to help guide us in the process. We eventually figured it out, but not before making a pretty big blunder. We misread the instructions and omitted to imbed the cold to hot electrical junction IN the concrete floor. Not good.
Fixing this mistake required chiseling out a patch of the self-leveling cement that covered the newly-laid heating elements, hot-glue-gunning the junction in the chiselled area, and covering it again with self-leveling cement. Once that was done, the electrician ran the wires up the wall and connected them to the thermostats.
Instead of tiling the bathroom floors and shower walls, we used Stone Polymer Core (SPC) planks, the same ones throughout the new portion of the house, and QuickBath Panels for the shower walls. The SPC planks are compatible with the new heated floors, and the grout-less shower panels will make cleaning and maintaining these a breeze. I’m grateful to Vincent from QuickBath Renovations for installing the shower panels (he also provided a lot of help painting walls), and Craig from Rustic Edge for his diligent work on the SPC floors.
Next up, Chad and Ben worked building the window and door trims, as well as installing all the baseboards in the new section of the house. It’s surprising how time consuming this portion of the construction is, but then again, that work must be very precise. They also filled and sanded all the nail holes and applied caulking.
We’ll have a hot tub for the first time. Dana often likes to have a bath in the evening, so instead of using well water to fill up a bathtub and emptying it in the septic system, we decided to buy a 4-person hot tub from EcoSpa. Their spas are supposed to be easier to maintain, requiring less chemicals and water changes throughout the year. Special thanks to Chad, Ben and Craig for their assistance in carrying the hot tub through the front door (!) to bring it on the deck.
Chad and Ben then worked on the bathroom vanities and shower doors, while plumber Jeff connected the sinks and installed the toilets. At the same time, the electricians finished most of the electrical hooks, including our very own level-2 car charger. We don't have an EV car yet, but we likely will in the future. Most importantly, it will be available for guests that need it during their stay.
We got lots of help to paint the outside window trim. My long-time friend Peter was super helpful, as were Rob, Cassia, Mike and Dana. Keiver, our self-proclaimed Groundskeeper, sourced and planted ornamental grasses at the bottom of the lot with help from Airi and Dana. He's already procured bags and bags of seeds to spread around as soon as we get a few loads of topsoil delivered and distributed.
So, we're almost ready to welcome overnight guests (in fact, we already have!), even though we still have some work to do...
What's left? Hard and soft landscaping, finishing the cabinet installation in the rental suite, finishing, painting the staircase to the walkout basement, painting baseboards, door and interior window trim, adding a few appliances and furniture, decorating, etc.
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