Digging around the basement

As it looks like our backyard is directing water directly toward the back of our house without proper grading, and based on our desire to improve conditions in the house, we have decided to do some digging around the basement/foundation. This would mean removing the old wood walkways (which will be done anyway because of the new exterior siding) and excavating for waterproofing. A new tile drain system would be installed as well as Celfort 300 exterior insulation providing R-10 to grade, a waterproof membrane and clear stone.


The proposed work will also include getting rid of the crazy root mass in our backyard and grading the surface away from the back wall. Our stone wall behind the driveway may be under attack for a while but in the end it will be reinstated. This work will also help with the drilling required for the geothermal system.

The benefit of doing this digging around work now is the long term view of a healthy house. It would impact the air quality inside as well as the temperature. It is also easier to insulate from the outside as compared with the inside. While we are not planning on finishing the basement now, it makes future plans for this a lot easier.

In terms of decision-making, I admit reading Holmes on Homes helped (beside the more obvious good advice from Amsted). I might work on grading issues at my job but I don't know much about house construction. The other good suggestion is to read the NRC book called "Keeping the Heat In" and came with our energy audit information package. We read through this book again when reviewing the quote and it helped us in understanding what the quote included and the work to be done (i.e., membranes, stone, flashing, cold storage, etc). As for when this work will be done, I will keep you posted.

Yeah! Geothermal is a true possibility for our house

Big news! It looks like our little house will get 100% of its heating and cooling needs through geothermal. I thought that our lot was too small but apparently it is not!

I am going to steal wording from a recent Mike Holmes article on geothermal so that I don't miss anything in the description (thanks Mike).

"In the goal to go green with building, there's often a challenge finding technology that pays off quickly in terms of the added upfront cost, and that works for every home. One of the best options is geothermal heating - it can work anywhere in the world, and you don't have to wait years before you start saving money.

Geothermal heating takes advantage of the earth's renewable energy, by extracting heat from underground through a system of tubing that's filled with a liquid refrigerant. The liquid absorbs the heat from the earth, which is then brought back into a heat pump inside your home. The tubing is buried in a loop, either vertically or horizontally, depending on your lot and access (for our house, it will be the more expensive vertical option as we have a small lot).

If you go below frost depth (four to six feet, depending on geography), the earth maintains a constant average temperature. That soil temperature is an average of 5 degrees - much warmer than the air temperature in winter. A geothermal heating system only needs to raise the temperature about 10 degrees (from 5 degrees to 15 degrees) to keep your home comfortable on even the coldest days. That doesn't require a lot of energy to do - especially if you compare it to raising the temperature from 10 below, or whatever the external air temperature happens to be on a winter day. Geothermal systems don't create heat - they harvest latent heat that already
exists underground. They simply transfer heat energy, unlike fossil fuel furnaces, which create heat by the combustion of natural gas, fuel oil or propane.

In terms of cost savings, most homes in North America are heated by burning gas or oil, or by using electricity produced by a power plant that also burns some kind of fuel. Fuel prices are always going up, and probably always will, since fuel is in limited supply. There is an enormous source of untapped heat energy under the ground. It will be there forever and be constantly renewed, and the cost of it won't be going up - so geothermal will save lots of money. It cuts heating and cooling costs by up to 70 per cent (according to Mike). There is some energy consumed by the pump, compressor and fans - but it's just a fraction of what traditional combustion systems use. A geothermal system is more expensive to install than conventional gas or oil system, but you will save money right away.

In the summer months, geothermal systems operate in reverse - heat is transferred from the house and back into the earth, where the cool ground absorbs the excess heat. Cool air is brought back up. It's simple; I like to think of it as a fan in front of a block of ice. And, there's no big noisy AC unit on the exterior of your house.

Geothermal heat pumps also save energy by pre-heating your domestic hot water (note: it does not address 100% of hot water needs but it gets water to a certain temperature - which also means that we won't get solar panels for hot water if we end up with geothermal). A "desuperheater" - part of the heat pump - transfers heat from the compressor. Geothermal systems can adapt to existing forced air ducting or floor radiant heating.

They provide comfortable steady heat compared to the blast of hot air you get from a forced air heating system.

Since geothermal heating doesn't use combustion, there's no release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That cuts down on greenhouse gases and reduces the carbon footprint of your home. In the long term, geothermal is one smart way to heat and cool your home.
It's practical for a retrofit, and I think it should be in every new home built (again...according to Mike). In fact, it's really ideal for entire developments, so many homes can enjoy the cost savings. More new home builders should get on board. "

I will write out the details specific to our house soon but I thought that this would be a good start.

Bye Doors

Tonight was our first successful attempt at selling something from the house. As we don't need the kitchen door anymore (it is going to be a pass-through because of limited kitchen space), we decided to sell it on-line. The kitchen door has gone to an old house in Ottawa where the previous owner took a bedroom door with them when they left. The current owners of the house are relieved to now have an old door as a replacement (long metal key and all). The second door is now in a home with a very happy new owner. He and his wife were so excited about the reno project and to have a new/old door for their home. We still have a few other doors and the wall sconces and chandelier to sell but this is a good start.

More Exterior Option Photos

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Call for Thoughts: Exterior Colour

It is time again to think about exterior colour options. We know that the house is going to have board and batton siding with shingles up top and a stone skirt below but what about the colour of the siding? Blue? Green? Brown? Here are some samples (make sure that you also check out the ones from the earlier postings). Remember - think Arts and Crafts...

Question of the Day: Induction versus Gas

A small kitchen equates to less money being required to pay for counter tops and cabinets but it also means more expensive appliances to fit the space. On Saturday, we went to Universal Appliances on Bank St for a lesson in appliances for smaller spaces. Our dishwasher is going to be miniature! There is nothing we can do about it considering that we have less than 4 ft between the fridge door and the dishwasher across from it.

The debate now is whether or not we continue with a ceramic top stove and convention oven or if we move to gas. The recommended model is the new GE Cafe series with matching microwave/fan above (yes, another small kitchen issue). Feel free to email me or post your thoughts on this.

The other option is the induction stove top. We can get a 24" or 30" stove top where the only energy used is for the exact spot where the pot sits. Darryl at Universal Appliances showed us how fast water boiled in a pan that was sitting on top of a stack of pamphlets on top of the stove surface. Speedy and the surface can be touched immediately afterwards! The price difference of a induction stove top with wall oven below is essentially the same as the GE Cafe series (gas or electric) and is a space saver. I can't help feeling that how we cook would change but apparently it is no different. Hmmmmm.... decisions....

Kitchen Designs

Yesterday we went to Deslaurier to talk about kitchen cabinets. I am not going to do justice to our conversation about the green product options right now so I am not going to try. For now all I'll say is that it is about trying not to put a material in your home that contributes to poor air quality (i.e., off-gassing) by looking at how the cabinet box is constructed as well as the cabinet face. We also talked about counter top options and the challenges of a small space. Our vision is for a painted cabinet base (maybe green?) with white-ish cabinets uppers with glass. Give me a call or email if you want to discuss the details.

While we had done our homework in what we wanted for a kitchen by looking through tons of magazines, we were not as prepared for the bathroom (times two) discussion - ahhhh. It looks like we have some homework for this weekend.

1920s Lights

I am having lots of fun with the salvage/reuse aspect of our reno project. So far we have agreed to reuse one of the pebble glass doors and then have found a home through sites like craig's list for the other two. They are going to be used in a barn reno project in the area (and we made a little spending money when people said no one would want them).

As for the lights, we decided to reuse the lantern hall light (first photo). I know that it is a little gothic but I really wanted to reuse at least one of the original lights. This light is from the 1920/30s and will cost about $50 to rewire. Faye from Arevco in Westboro was really helpful and told me that the light has been upgraded before but needs to be cleaned up and grounded.

We decided not to update the iron chandelier. Apparently it is circa 1950/60s and used to be used for candles. Someone used 'pitch' (also used in road construction) to attach bulbs in order to have it wired. It too needs to be cleaned and rewired. The chandelier is now posted on craig's list to see if anyone else wants it.

The four gold sconces are also believed to be original to the house (1920/30s) except for the fact that they were painted gold since that time. They are also posted to see if anyone wants them (and are ready for cleaning and rewiring). Any takers?

Headline: Client Confirms Concept Plans

Today is a big day - we confirmed the interior and exterior concept plans. This means that we are now moving onto the 'working drawing' stage of the design process. We have agreed to the layout of the place, etc and now get to work out the details. Feel free to email me if you want a copy of the plans.

Also, just in case the suspense is killing you - we went with board and batton siding with shingles up top near the dormers and a stone skirt. We are working out material and colour choices next!

Things are too crazy and busy to give you too many details right now. I am sure that I could write a lot about why we made certain choices, as well as the green side of things. I will try and post more in the spirit of sharing information but this is going to have to do for now. I will say that we punched a hole in the dining room wall and it was confirmed that the exterior wall has zero insulation. Not surprising considering the results of our energy audit (36 out of 100). We are currently working with Amsted to come up with a plan to make our home as energy efficient as possible.

Stone Skirt

It sounds like our place is going to have a stone skirt - possibly made of ledge/stacked stone starting just overlapping the concrete foundation base. As for siding, it is a tight race. One minute a shingle siding style is in the lead but next the vertical look of board and batton is favoured (looks great and less maintenance than shingles). Horizontal siding is not out of the running just yet as clean lines has its benefits.

The photo of the house with the garage is from a house Chuck and Steve suggested that we go see. The other photo is one of favourite houses in the neighbourhood. Maybe we should just leave the siding type decision in Chuck's capable hands. It is such a tough call that maybe that is the way to go.

A new home for some doors

Now that we have a better idea of the proposed interior layout for our house, we can start thinking about the reuse of some of the existing elements. Currently in the house, there are these three "bubble glass" doors. If anyone has suggestions for where to post informaton on these doors being available for purchase, please let us know. There is always the option to donate them to Habitat for Humanity but first we would like to try and sell things we are not going to reuse. Of course, there is Craig's List - what are the other options?

We love the doors but since the house is going to be opened up more, we probably won't be reusing them. One door is a 3/4 door with 1/4 optional opening on a hinge (first picture). The other two doors are different styles for the glass panes.

Any suggestions?

Interior Layout Concept Plans

After our meeting with Chuck and Steve, Rob and I sat down and put our thoughts together about the first draft of the interior layout concept plans. All in all they are what we are looking for - yey - thank you Chuck! The beauty of the plans is that the centre hall plan and the 'octagon' is honoured. We may have a small kitchen (in keeping with its current location) but it is going to now be properly intergated into the rest of the house. On the second floor, we will have one new dormer for the bathroom area (no more metal shower).

After looking the plans over, we wanted to organize our thoughts though to make sure that nothing was missed. For example, the plans are for the dream product but in light of budget constraints they need to be viewed from the perspective of cost savings (i.e., where interior doors can be saved) and our own green goals. With this list being created, the next step is to go through it with Chuck and Steve to answer questions (great learning) in order for us to be able to make some decisions.

In terms of green goals, there are a few examples where one puts something down on a list as needing to be considered but with a retrofit it is not an option. For example, we wanted to consider passive solar in our design. This works for window placement as we need to replace the existing windows and siding but doesn't work for overhangs. Apparently, using a calculation that considers the weather in Ottawa and its location geographically the overhang size for optimal passive solar heating/cooling is 19 inches. Well, with a retrofit project and shorter overhangs, that would mean adding extensions or sleeves to our roof to make it happen. We are replacing the roof but not the second floor structure that the roof is supported by so this is not really an option. I still got what I wanted though - for the optimal overhang size to be considered! For a new house, this is more of an option.

All in all, the interior layout achieves the balance of respecting the old while bringing in the new.

P.S. Mom - you would be happy to know that there is now going to be a door to the backyard!