The Concept Plans are in!

We met with Chuck Mills (our designer), and Steve of Amsted, today to talk about the concept plan. Fun, Fun, Fun.

This is a busy week so I may need some time to put a blog posting together that does the designs justice. Feel free to email me though if you want to see a pdf of the concept plan and I will send you a copy. While you won't get the benefit of hearing directly from Chuck on his thoughts on the place, it would be fun to share the plans in the spirit of sharing ideas and getting the best place possible.

The plans are of the interior layout. The next step is to get a drawing of the exterior elevation. Board and Batton versus shingle siding? Any thoughts? How about a stone skirt?

Plastic Wrap Your Place

The photo is of the 'not so pretty' side of our home. It is so tempting to go and powerwash the siding but patience... one day there will be a new exterior material - I wonder what it will be!





This past weekend at our current home, we "plastic wrapped" our windows again for the winter season. $40 for the shrinkable plastic and double-sided tape plus about 2 hours of our time equates to energy savings on our utility bill. It is not worth it for us to replace the windows in our current home so we put up with plastic seal which doesn't look too bad if it is done well. The motivation is counteracting the puddle of water on the window sill from the condensation and the feeling that we are making a condo built in the late 1980s a tad bit more energy efficient.

Over the years, we have been watching the energy consumption stat on our utility bill decrease. I would attribute this to such actions as: a power bar for the TV and computer to reduce "vamp" energy use when the electronics are not on; new energy efficient appliances; and, air leak seals on outlets situated on exterior walls to name a few. I won't try and decipher how the energy usage has changed with different housemates but it would interesting to see how other behaviour changes factor in.

For the new house, funds are going to be directed to energy efficiency measures in the form of insulation and quality windows (yeah - no more hair drying your windows to create a good seal). One idea is an all-off switch that you have near the door that turns off all non-essential energy draws when you leave the house (like the power bar idea but more thorough). This one is on the research list as we don't know how economically feasible it is yet, or if behaviour changes would achieve the same result.

A Big Night for Amsted

Congrats to Steve Barkhouse and his team at Amsted. At the Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association Awards last week, Steve's team won 'Renovator of the Year' (x3), a Green Renovation Award and two others! Not bad... We picked Amsted as a Contractor to work with us on our renovation project for many reasons but this is a cherry on top.

Visit http://www.amsted.ca/ for more information about the company.

Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, Oct 16th

On Thursday Oct 16th the Ottawa Citizen is coming out with its first article in the three/four part series on our renovation project. Last week we did a photo shoot because apparently the million photos we took during the house inspection didn't cut it for publication so they had to come take more photos!

The interview with the reporter was all about retrofitting an old home and how the reality of 'green' fits into everything. I can't wait to see how the first article turns out.

Trees be Gone

We now have a backyard and sunlight into our house. There may still be a root mass but this is at least a start. Backyard BBQs here we come.

The 3 trees out front are going to stay with their new haircuts to get them off the roof. With the one maple in the backyard, this means that we went from 7 (plus cedars) to 4 large trees on our property.

Solar Panel Installation

Lucky timing lead to Rob and I getting the chance to visit a house on Huron St North (Hintonburg area) to see solar panels being installed. Peter of Isolara showed us how the panels will be used to meet the domestic hot water needs for this house (plus apartment unit). In this case, the conduit down to the basement where the tanks are to be located is being installed outside of the exterior wall (in our case, it would be interior). From the photo, you can see that it looks like a typical downspout. This installation apparently also includes remote sensing so that the resident can track the savings from installing the system.

While I have mentioned the Sustainable Ottawa H20 grant before, I wanted to mention it again. Visit http://www.sustainableottawa.ca/ for more information on an additional grant that is available in the Ottawa area for the installation of solar panels for heating domestic hot water (additional because it is above and beyond the NRCan energy audit grant).

Progress Update

Last Friday I had a breakfast meeting with Steve of our design-build team. It was a good chance to talk about timing and where we are at today. As you know, we are in the design stage of the process. Drawings have to be created first summarizing what we are going for in the renovation so that we can write up our contract with the guys doing the actual work.

The plan right now is construction starting early January with us in the house in late June - exciting. I will keep you posted as I learn more.

As for this photo, we had the tree guys back on site this week. If you zoom in, you might be able to see one of the guys up in the tree with his harness and chainsaw on a rope. This shot shows our backyard with one tree already done. Two are still to come out with the one tree in the fence to remain. If we remember, we had an arborist come first who informed us of the poor health of the trees. As foreign, diseased, invasive Norway Maples (those were the descriptive words used), it was recommended that the trees come out. More photos are to come showing the end result.

Thank you Neighbours

This post is in honour of our neighbours Janene and Jeff for the new dining room set (and to Jamie for helping carry it over) - thank you very much!

We are happy to provide a new home for all of the pieces - especially if it means that you will have room for your own Thanksgiving celebrations.

Just think of the dinner parties we are going to have when the renovation process is complete - the table seats 12!