Thank you for your time in creating and maintaining the OwnerBuilderBook website and database. It is a great source of knowledge and helpful ideas. Not to mention the support of numerous others doing the same owner-builder process. Bill W., Monkton, MD

Andrew's Forum Posts: 0
Journal Entries: 3
Interview Answers: 61




Image from Andrew's blog

Subscribe to this journal...

July 28/08

Posted to Penetang-Craftsman by Andrew in Penetanguishene, ON on 7/27/2008 8:46:55 PM

   Well, it would seem that I have a lot in common with William Shakespeare, neither of us have written much lately.

    I should take a step back and start from the beginning. My wife, Rita and I began the search about ten years ago for a place to retire eventually and to build our own home. We were looking for a place near the water, but not necessarily on the water. We have a sailboat and being near a marina was a priority. We wanted to be in a quieter area, away from any large cities, but we also didn't want to be too far away from most amenities, so it took some time.

   We eventually found what we were looking for and purchased a two acre lot in a "country residential" subdivision close to the small town of Penetanguishene, Ont. It was a serviced lot with a paved road, streetlights, and underground services (gas, hydro, phone, and cable). Everything else was up to us.

   Like most, we had started a file of all the things we wanted in a new home. So the decision to hire an architect was made a couple of years ago to bring the ideas together. The plans, like most home building projects took a little longer than we expected but we were happy with the final result

    The home is going to be a single story craftsman style house with a walk out basement on a sloping lot. It will have a two and a half-car garage with an attached workshop, (my dream) and a loft sewing room, (Rita's' dream). There will be a small in-law suite in the walkout area of the basement. Total area of the home will be in the neighborhood of 2,300 sq. ft. with an additional 2,100 sq. ft of usable area in the basement.

    We were late getting started this spring mostly due to a contractor who was dragging his heels when it came to giving us an estimate for his portion of the work. We are going with an ICF construction for all of the foundation and above ground walls, He was one of the few builders in this area who does ICF. When we finally pinned him down to a price, it was almost double what he had given us as an initial ballpark figure! Time to move on;  I'm glad we stuck to our principles and refused to allow any work to commence until we had final figures in writing.

   We reassessed the project and decided to break it down into smaller pieces and do all of the subcontracting ourselves rather than allow a builder to give us an "envelope" as was the original plan.

    Once the architect and the structural engineer had signed off on the plans, the Township's approval was almost immediate (I think they like to see the liability spread around) all those stamps on the drawings gave them a warm fuzzy feeling). Sometimes it pays to go the path of least resistance.

   To end this journal on a positive note, we now have a hole in the ground, and I've spent the last couple of days in it with the footings guy that we hired, building the forming for the concrete footings. We hope to be pouring concrete in the middle of this coming week.

   I'll keep you posted,

Andy

  

Photos

The beginning of a really big hole in the ground.

Forming for the footings begins.

Apr. 14/08

Posted to Penetang-Craftsman by Andrew in Penetanguishene, ON on 4/14/2008 7:39:52 PM

Well if there's one thing I've learned so far from reading the various posts and journals on this site its that if you want things to happen, YOU have to make them happen! I've decided that waiting for others to do things for you (especially busy subcontractors) is counter-productive. I went up to Penetanguishene on Thursday and decided to take the plans myself to some of the subs and see just what needed to be done to get this beam problem rectified. It seems now that none of the people who said they could look at it and help out were actually qualified to do so, they were just trying to be helpful and it cost me almost three weeks of valuable time. I ended up taking the plans myself to a structural engineer and have now got the ball rolling again! Although now our start date of May 1st is looking very dubious.
  
On a more positive note, the heat loss calculation was completed on time and cost $250, which I didn't think was so bad for something with an engineer's stamp on it. Now all I have to do is figure out what 55,000 BTU/hr. means!
Apparently that's good for our part of Canada.

April 3/08

Posted to Penetang-Craftsman by Andrew in Penetanguishene, ON on 4/3/2008 9:17:15 PM

Welcome to my first journal post. I hope to keep a complete journal of the project, but we'll see how the time demands are as the job progresses.

I'm starting to get a little nervous now, I've got one month to go till ground breaking and no permit yet. I'm still waiting on a couple of things before I can submit.
    -The heat loss calculations.
    -An engineer's stamp on a couple of beams that the architect cannot approve.

The drawings are in the hands of the contractor who is doing the ICFs and the remainder of the framing. The company that is doing the trusses has an engineer that will approve the beams (I hope). The contractor has forwarded the drawings to them and I'm sitting by the phone...

This is the part I hate; it's out of my hands and I have to rely on other people to move the project forward. Tick-tock, tick-tock.     

Photos

Feb.2005 After years of searching for the right spot Rita says, lets buy this one!	Rita's birthday, 2006, The land is ours.	Spring 2007 Clearing begins, It's good to have big strapping sons!
Sept. 2007 Clearing is almost complete, we have room for a house now