Drywall Heaven

#1 from back corner of living room towards the dining room; #2 down the hall towards the octagon; #3 from the dining room towards the kitchen and the hallway.... remember back to a closed off space with a lot of doors..... the photos don't quite do it justice as now there is a lot more light in our house

Third Ottawa Citizen Interview

On Tuesday, I did our third Ottawa Citizen interview. It was fun showing Pamela the house and all the progress that has been made to date. She teased me that I really get into the interviews. I think that it is because with all of the effort we are putting in it feels good to share the experience. I am proud of the fact that none of our "green plans" have dropped off the list as fatigue sets in. I also like to share with her things that happen because of the newspaper articles. So far, someone has reused the old glass panes in his own house after hearing about us in the paper. Another person wrote a fun post on the blog about having wanted to buy the house herself when it was on the market but she didn't because it was an obvious labour of love and not a flip house. I don't know if Pamela believed me when I told her that I wasn't sick/tired of all of this especially now that more people are calling me for advice on their own projects. Honestly, I am learning so much about renovations in general and sharing information on the green side of things has really helped make this experience a positive one. The character of the house, the awesome neighbourhood, and most importantly, my great relationship with Rob doesn't hurt things either.

Geothermal Success

On Tuesday I arrived at the house to find a hole drilled through the basement wall. We now have a connection from the three wells in the backyard to the geothermal system in the basement. I will write more later with some specifics but for now what is important is that the drilling is done! The owner of Earth Energy Solutions said that it was "the most challenging job" they have had as it pushed them to deal with the clay conditions. When I heard this I had to ask how often does this happen. He said 95% of the time, it only takes a day to drill the wells and everything goes according to plan. This information is important to me as I want to show people that geothermal is possible.

Third and Final Well

We were at the house Monday at lunch and got to witness the copper coil being installed in the third and final well. The first image shows the copper coil and the hose they use to pour the grout around it. After we left we thought that our neighbours would finally have some piece and quiet. It turns out that a part of the piece of equipment that is used to pull up the casings out of the ground after the process is complete broke. They had to go to a machine shop to rig something up as casings 70 ft into the ground (meaning the last 30 ft was rock) equates to about $10,000 of equipment stuck in the ground. This is all because of the hard clay conditions in our backyard. By 5pm, they had successfully pulled out the last of the casings and now had to install the copper coil again. Sorry neighbours but the noise will continue for one more morning. The good news is that the extra time is not our cost to cover (at least good news for us). Never a dull day.

Remember when...

End of Tenth Week On-Site

We couldn't really fit more large pieces of equipment at the house this week. The photos are of the guys delivering the drywall to the site and using a crane to maneuver the drywall through our popped out windows into the house. This is of course over top of the huge drill in the backyard.

As for work this week, outside equals drilling. Inside equals the beginning of drywall (yes, we now have a few ceilings). Drywall is a big milestone because after it is done it means they can start the floors, tiling the bathroom, trim/casings, painting, etc, etc. I will write more about the geothermal system and other stuff going on later this week........

100 ft into the Earth

They were able to get one well drilled on Thursday and one on Friday for the geothermal system. Normally it takes an hour a hole but with our clay conditions apparently it is taking a day a hole (even with the big machine). Sorry neighbours but the crew will be back on Monday for the third and final hole. We do really appreciate your patience (and your awesome support). After the third hole is drilled, a different crew will come in to hook up the copper coils in the three wells together and then drill through the side of the house in order to connect into the system in our basement. More fun and more cool machinery!

Contractor Humour

Geothermal Update

The driller was onsite yesterday to drill the three wells required for the geothermal system. They had visited the site last week and had started to place bets that it would be 10 ft down to rock - 15 ft at most. At 50 ft of hard clay and no rock they had to stop. It was decided that the piece of drilling equipment was not big enough to do the job so they left before lunch as to not waste time. We are waiting to hear whether or not a bigger machine will be coming from Montreal to drill our wells. We don't want to give up on geothermal yet so we will just have to wait and see. As long as the machine will fit in our backyard, lets give it a try (we have gone this far already).

Thank you to the neighbours for their patience yesterday. The drill was noisy to say the least.

Google Streetscape

I was standing on the front steps today looking at the park and the google car drove by with the camera strapped to the roof. This might mean that I am going to be in the Google Streetscape program where you can look at the front of a house or business on the Internet. I was then walking down the street talking on my cell and they drove by to do our side street. If the footage is used, I am definitely going to be included in our neighbourhood footage. If only they could have waited until the house was done!

End of Nineth Week On-Site

Don't worry - the octagon hallway is safe. We found old wallpaper on top of the plaster over the round closet in the hallway and decided that since so much plaster was being removed, it would be better to fix it all. When it is put back together, the octagon hallway will be back as it was with the round closet, the wide door casings and the three arches (just with drywall, not plaster).

It is fun to think that someone installed the lathe behind the plaster around 1930. You can see all of the effort it took to fit the small pieces of wood around the arches.

The other earlier posts represent all of the work that happened on site this week. We now have more insulation in the second floor and more of the electrical fixtures. There is also the big hole in our backyard. Next up is prep for drywall and the siding should be arriving soon.

Small Yard = Potential Pool

Prep is underway for the geothermal system to be installed. Sorry neighbours for making a mess of the street.

Hydro and Exterior Detailing

End of Eighth Week On-Site

House wrapping, basement framing, ceiling spraying - busy, busy, busy.

Happy Easter

Other Options: Kitchen Pendants

If we want to go with some colour for the kitchen pendants, here are some options. The second photo has the option to be LED compatible (with $150 mark-up from the standard option) and is made of a natural stone called onyx. The company is Tech Lighting. The third one is not my favourite but I wanted to include it as it is "Canadian made" by a company called Verita. Remember that the pendants are in a room with 8 foot ceilings so they don't have to be small pendants. I don't know why I feel the need to post our kitchen pendant options..... I guess that I am just excited that they represent the last fixtures that we have to find!

Option 1: Kitchen Pendants

Here is a kitchen pendant option. The shape of the two pendants is represented in the first photo. I included the second to show the colour (made by Alico). These two pendants would be in a kitchen with Maple Nutmeg upper cabinets with "Down Pipe" painted lower cabinets (dark grey) with a light colour countertop and white subway tile backsplash. It is for an open concept room so the chandelier shown in the earlier Habitat for Humanity post would be seen in the dining room with the drum fixture in the octagon. The pendants don't have to match the other two fixtures but they should relate to eachother. It would be good to avoid fixtures that include stainless steel (even if the appliances are ss) as the dining room light and the old hallway light that we had rewired have darker attachments.

Spray Foam Milestone

Kinlar is working hard at the house right now. They started spraying insulation in the second floor ceiling on Thursday night and then continued all day Friday. I ran by the house this morning and they were still hard at work. There was a big push to get ready for this as the electrical had to be completed before the spraying starts. The house also needs to be empty while the spraying is going on.... Look in the photos for the blue hose going in our second floor window.

We are increasing the R-value from 11 to about R-21/25 in some places. The starting value is based on the energy audit that we had done before the renovation process started. The goal was R-50 but we can't reach this because of how the house was originally constructed. We can achieve it in the bathroom dormer as it is new construction. The other place where this is being done is the basement header area in order to seal it and achieve an insulation value of R-20.

If you can remember, our house had batt insulation in the second floor ceiling and no insulation (at all) in the first floor walls. The next step is to add the insulation to the first floor. All of this will contribute towards our final energy audit results which will determine how much of a rebate we get back from the Province and Federal governments.

For more information on the actual spray foam insulation, check out the earlier post on the Heatlok soya-based product.

The company doing the actual spraying is Kinlar. We were not the ones who found this company as they were subcontracted by Amsted to work on our house. All I can say is that they are working on the long weekend at our house in order to not delay the project - thank you! Here is their website: http://www.kinlar.ca/

Here is a good blog post about spray foam insulation:

http://www.360winnett.com/2009/02/26/something-blue/

Another Reason to get an Eco-Energy Audit done

Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, announced at the end of March that grants under the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program will be increased, for a limited time, by 25 percent.

Considering all of the work we are doing on our home, more and more friends are calling us for advice on their own home renovation work. One thing that I always try to bring up is the eco-energy grant. Not only does it usually equate to getting a rebate from the government for upgrades you do to your home but it helps inform some of the decisions you make on what work to do (i.e., new windows, insulation, toilet replacement, furnace upgrades, etc).

The basics is that you have to get an energy audit done before you do any work ($150). After this audit you get a report detailing the work that can be done. After you get the work that you want completed (you have 18 months), you get a second audit. The company doing the audits takes care of all of the paperwork to get you the rebate.


Here is the website: http://www.homeenergyontario.ca/

The company we used was Group-conseil STAS (819-771-6151). Two friends have since used this company to get their initial audits done.

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In terms of more information on the increase to the rebate, in order to qualify homeowners will need to have a pre-retrofit evaluation completed by a certified energy advisor. Homeowners will then have until March 31, 2011, or 18 months from the date of their pre-retrofit evaluation report to complete the post-retrofit evaluation in order to receive a grant at the increased level, subject to available funding.

Homeowners who have had their pre-retrofit evaluations completed under the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes initiative but have not yet completed their post-retrofit evaluation, will receive grants based on the new rates. No adjustments will be made to grants for homeowners who have already received grants or who have already had their post-retrofit evaluation completed.

Ductwork tip

As mentioned, we have replaced all of the ductwork in the house. As part of this work, we did some extra research on how to boost the efficiency of a forced air heating and cooling system. While we are going with geothermal as a heating/cooling source, a forced air system is still required in order to distribute the heated/cooled air throughout the house.

What we learned is that prime spots for air leakage include furnace-to-duct connections, seams in the duct-work and register assemblies. In a forced air system dampers can be installed within the first few feet of each branch, or takeoff, allow for airflow to be regulated to a specific part of the house.

While it was not an issue to request that all of the ductwork be sealed, I think that I have it right that it is something that we had to specifically ask for. I guess the other option is to do it yourself after the contractor has installed the ductwork (but I bet that would impact the warranty, etc). If I can't have my old floor grates, I at least want an efficient forced air system!

Duct Grates (Duck Greats)

One of my favourite things in the house are the old grates. In the middle of the photo, you can see one of the old metal grates built into the baseboards. In the top right corner of the image, the black rectangle in the floor is another one of our old grates. I really wanted to reuse these as they are part of the character of the house. I pushed hard to reuse them but it comes down to a good practical reason. It isn't an issue of cost or being easier not to reuse them but how forced air duct systems are laid out. Since we had to replace the old duct work (a topic for another blog entry), it means that the grates have to be replaced too.

These big grates were used in the past because the hot air supply was in the center of the house. Now all supply air are in the perimeter (under windows). These grates are also not very effective for cold air return. I might keep the big rectangular ones and use them in the garden and then try and sell the other ones to be used by someone else who is not replacing their entire system. I saw cleaned up ones at an antique store so finding them a new home looks like a possibility.

Drain Heat Recovery Unit Installed!

The plumber installed our Drain Heat Recovery Unit this week. The first photo is of the old drain stack which had to be replaced (look for the vertical cast iron pipe in the middle of the photo). The fact that it needed to be replaced contributed to our decision to go with this eco-feature.

Look closely at the second photo for the vertical pipe wrapped in copper wire to the left hand side of the image. This is the DHR unit now located beside where the old laundry sink was situated (to go back in).

A good description of a DHR system is available at another house renovation blog:

http://www.360winnett.com/2008/08/31/drain-water-heat-recovery/

Here is a little taste: "Put simply, a DWHR unit captures heat from your waste drain water and redirects it back into system. It’s estimated that it can recycle up to 60% of the wasted heat, save up to 40% on water heating costs, and reduce your home’s overall energy consumption by 5-10%." Basically, shower water tends to go down the drain at a high temperature - this system captures the waste heat and uses it to pre-heat the new water.

End of Seventh Week On-Site

There is so much work getting done that it is hard to cover it all. The first photo is evidence of the old chimney having fully disappeared. The second photo is framing for the fireplace. We are not installing one now to save on costs but we are setting things up so that it will be easy to put one in later on. You may ask why the old one is being taken out in the first place. Well, the chimney was only needed if we stayed with a medium efficiency furnace and it was falling down anyway. The fireplace itself was also not in a very good state. Fixing the whole situation helps with insulation and energy efficiency.

The plumber was also on-site. We now have new pipes including the drain heat recovery unit in the basement. The electrician was also there which means wiring and housing installation for the different light fixtures. All of the windows are also in. I think that the next few days will be all about getting ready for the spraying of insulation to happen at the end of the next week. Fun.

Ain't She Beatiful?

Habitat for Humanity Finds

We couldn't help ourselves today when at Habitat for Humanity. We bought these two lights - one for the octagon and one for the dining room. We really love a drum style light that we found from Hubberton Forge but who can beat H4H? Not only do we spend less but we help a cause while still being stylish :) These are nice lights that meet our requirements (no exposed downward bulbs and relate to the hallway lantern that we are rewiring). We didn't buy the other exterior light options shown in the third photo but I still wanted to represent how H4H can be used to find lights that match existing lights in old house renovation projects. We did find two exterior lights today (they are just not shown in the photo). $7 each at H4H for exterior lights is not a bad deal.