In a better place today
Posted on | March 8, 2009 | 6 Comments
My wife and I have been spending a ton of time over the last few days lamenting where we went wrong with this project and what we should do from here. Our conversations (ok, occasionally fights) have ranged from “let’s just sell it and get the hell out”, to “let’s look at alternatives, or maybe even build another Ramar house on the lot” (shudder).
Where we’ve ended up is somewhere in the middle. We had a pretty good call with Monica (our architect/designer) the other night. We settled on what we both believe is a fair kill fee, and we’ve left the option open to come back to this should we find a way to pull it off. This was a big relief for us, as Monica and her husband Greg are very good friends of ours and we don’t want to lose that friendship with the house project. Thankfully, Monica is a wonderful, yet pragmatic person. There’s no question that this wasn’t cheap, but as she said in our call, it’s certainly not for naught. We learned quite a bit in the process and as I like to say to my clients, it’s good to be usefully wrong.
So, where does that leave us? There’s no question in our minds that a traditional house is out of the question. This rules out all of the local builders like Ramar, Sawler or Scotian Homes. We simply don’t feel ‘at home’ in a saltbox or traditional split entry or two story. I know this probably sounds arrogant, but there’s a sense of relaxation I have when I enter an architecturally designed/modernist home that I just don’t feel in our house. I like it here, but I don’t love it.
We talked about taking the budget we have (about $300,000) and perhaps buying a house on the main Halifax peninsula. Seemed like a good idea, until we searched MLS. To me, this sounds like a lot of money, but it’s just not. Even $350,000 in the west, central or south end gets you a 70 year old house, in need of major repairs with small rooms and next to no driveway. I’ve lived in an old house before and have the scars to prove it. We have done the reno thing and although it’s pretty rewarding, I just don’t have that kind of time or the additional budget. Plus, even though we’d be in the city we’d probably still need to keep a second car which isn’t optimal.
When we first started this project, my mother-in-law said “Why don’t you consider Lindal or Interhabs?” Lindal builds beautiful cedar homes and Interhabs has a collection of amazing modern kit homes built right here in Nova Scotia. We hadn’t considered this because we were pretty set on a specific path (if you know me, you’ll understand). Secondly, there’s a stigma attached to a ‘kit home’, but the more we explore it, the more we like the idea. Kit homes have come a long way and there’s some pretty amazing detailing in each of these houses.
Interhabs Whistler
Yesterday, I swung by the Interhabs office in Bedford and just happened to catch Richard Tolson who was stopping in to check his email. He gave me some brochures on their houses and there are a few that we just love. I also really dug Richard’s style and attitude and understanding of the business. We’re planning to setup a meeting with Interhabs asap. The houses we’re looking at are the Whistler, the High Tech 2003, the Eurohab 4 and the Corner Brook Cape. They’re not quite as modern as what we had designed, but we’ve always liked them and the great thing about these houses is that your pricing is much more predictable. The cost of most of the these kits is about $100,000 and according to the people we spoke with at Interhabs, by the time all is said and done they come in at about 2.5 times that. Not bad at all, and very cool.
Turkel Design Lindal House
Last night we attended the Home Show at the Halifax Forum. Compared to last fall, we had a much more open mind as we no longer have a singular vision of how this project should end. We browsed the aisles, looking for cool builders and eco-friendly technologies. We looked at solar panels and other eco-heating/energy options but ultimately ended up at the Lindal Homes booth. My wife Sam grew up in a Lindal cedar home, and we’ve both always admired it. It’s really amazing and very different from your average house. We spoke with the dealer/builder for about a half hour and arranged for a site visit this week. We also reviewed some of their plans and talked about budget. They are generally quite willing to work within a specific budget, which is pretty cool. We also discovered a new line of Lindal homes, designed by Turkel Design in the US. These are modern, architect-designed kit homes and they are flat out amazing. Exactly what we were looking for. They are also looking for people in Nova Scotia to become early adopters of these houses, which is exactly where we want to be.
We also met the folks at Legallet Foundations, someone a client of mine has used on his new house. These air-tight energy-efficient slab systems are amazing. For about $27,500, you can have a slab system in our size range with active evacuated-tube solar heating and hot water. Incredible!
Anyway, all this to say that we’re still in the game, and we’re excited again about where this can go. Before we headed to the home show last night, we swung by the property and walked through knee-deep patches of snow to see what we still thought. After 20 minutes on-site, one thing became clear: we’re not ready to give up just yet!
Reality Check.
Posted on | March 2, 2009 | 2 Comments
Wow, what an eye opener this project is turning into. In total, I think we approached five builders to ask them about looking into our project. One turned us down via email before even looking at it (maybe this site scared him off? I dunno). One turned us down after spending an hour meeting with us. He waited until the very end of the meeting to do so. One (State Homes) took on pricing the project but after numerous clarification phone calls and a fairly terse email exchange, decided not to pursue it. As Vern put it, “there’s no way to provide an accurate quote with these plans”. It seemed that our plans were more preliminary than we realized, and for a builder not used to dealing with architect’s drawings, it was hard for him to nail down. Fair enough, I can respect that. I was kind of ticked off at first, but I’m coming to realize that there are pretty different types of builders and some just don’t know how to work with this kind of thing. That left two builders. One who generally builds spec houses that we’re still waiting on, and lastly Black Diamond Builders, who are a client of my company’s and build some truly remarkable homes.
So, this morning we had the opportunity to finally see some pricing from Black Diamond. Let me start off by saying that pricing these sorts of projects is NOT an easy task. These builders have to work with their subcontractors, using drawings that aren’t always accurate and come up with a price they can stand behind within a certain tolerance range. It’s at least a solid few month’s work to put together a quote and the level of detail and specification goes well beyond most of the RFPs we as web/graphic designers have to go through. Andrew from BDB figures that the price he gave us this morning is pretty accurate within about 10% or less. Which is pretty good, given how much interpretation is required with the plans we have.
Let’s just say though that we were taken aback by the price we received. I’m not going to reveal the costs until we’ve received both quotes, but it’s substantially more than expected. About 1.5-2 times as much as we can afford. Once we make a few modifications, we’ll likely be on our way north of a very uncomfortable number. Even if we cut some things like the cedar exterior siding, metal roof and a few other items for more ‘normal’ finishes, we’ll still save less than $40,000 off the quoted price and the allowances we have are pretty tight as well for cabinetry and flooring. The septic could be more expensive than anticipated and there’s no allowances at all for blasting and this is pretty rocky land.
So, where does this leave us? Pretty disappointed, for sure. I highly doubt the second quote will come in anywhere near where we need to be and if it does, we’ll be questioning the reasons why it’s so much less than the one we received today.
We’re not prepared to sell the lot just yet. We truly love where it is, the community it’s in and the people in the neighbourhood. But, I think that the house we have designed is out of reach. It’s a shame as it may only be a very expensive piece of paper for us, but that’s a lesson we’ve had to learn the hard way.
We may yet build something on this land, but I’m not sure if it will be the house we’ve seen to this point. Alternatively, we may get the lot approved with a test pit and try to make a few bucks on it in a sale once the housing market recovers. If that’s the case, we’ll likely make some energy efficient renovations to our existing house and keep it, or sell and look for something on peninsular Halifax.
I don’t know where this is headed, but it’s not where I expected when we started, that’s for certain.
Our Meeting with State Homes
Posted on | January 12, 2009 | 2 Comments
Yesterday, we braved the snowy weather, hired a baby sitter and went out to meet who we hoped would be the third builder to bid on our project, Vern Sklaspky of State Homes (note that there is sound on this page).
We explored one of Vern’s houses during the R2000 showcase last year and were impressed with his ability to really put function before form, and create truly useful spaces that had thoughtful design elements. We don’t love the exteriors of his houses, but it’s hard to argue with how he works out the interiors. The flooring treatments are gorgeous, his window choices are amazing and heating system designs are quite ingenious.
Vern and his wife Karen had quite a few questions for us, and suggestions for how we might improve the house and save some cost. He made us very aware of the expense of our standing seam metal roof and treated shingles. While it might kill us to do it, ultimately we *could* give up on this. It’s been suggested that roofing and shingles could add up to a sixth of the cost of the entire house! No wonder people use vinyl siding. We discussed perhaps going with normal siding and upgrading to shingles gradually. It’s not optimal, but if it makes the house possible.
Vern also mentioned that we might want to look into using an electrical hot water system that would qualify for the time of day discount with in-floor heating. This does have potential issues as power usage in peak periods costs triple normal rates, but if properly planned, it could work nicely for us. Also, with the passive slab heating, we believe it wouldn’t need to be used very often and would get us away from the wood stove being determined to be our primary source of heat as far as insurance goes.
At the end of our meeting, we had to convince Vern that we fully understand what’s involved with the process of quoting. We know it’s pretty involved. From writing proposals for my business, I’m very aware that this can end up being a completely useless enterprise if we go with someone else. I wish we didn’t need to ask this of builders, but it would be irresponsible for us to only get a single quote.
Builder meetings and a great NYT link
Posted on | January 5, 2009 | No Comments
So, over the last few weeks we’ve been meeting with builders and construction experts to get quotes on how much it will cost to build the house. This is really the next step before we make the decision about whether or not to proceed with the project now, put it on hold for a few years, or even shelve it entirely (this is pretty unlikely though).
We met first with Andrew Watts from Black Diamond Builders. I have a prior working relationship with Andrew as we built their website and I got some great insight into the quality of their construction and process during the site development. Their work is top notch, and they build for some of the best local architects. Andrew was great in our meeting, pointing out potential pitfalls and areas of improvement and also commending Monica and us on the intelligent design of our house. He had a few concerns around the slab and airflow, but was otherwise unfazed. I expect Andrew’s quote to be one of the higher ones we receive but it will likely be worth it. We should have something back from them by the end of January. It’s quite a long and involved process to quote a house.
The second builder we met with was a fellow by the name of Brad Schofield. He lives in our area and was recommended to my wife by another teacher at her school as Brad had completed some renovations for him. Brad seems like a fantastic guy. He was excited by the process and our different house and had some great ideas around how to make the construction really work for us. Things like using scrap 2×8 lumber in areas of the house where we would be hanging artwork and putting it cross-wise between two studs so that mounting a painting wouldn’t break the air-tight envelope. Cool.
The third builder we met with was Faisal Forhart from Special Projects. Faisal is a builder of refute similar to Andrew and often builds very cool architect-designed homes including those by Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple. To be truthful, we didn’t get a good vibe from him. About halfway through the meeting, he started to shut down and was questioning the requirement for a slab and didn’t seem interested in the project. At the end of the meeting, he told us that he had a 3-4 month backlog of quoting to do and would decide after that if he wanted to quote on our job. Needless to say, we weren’t impressed.
We also tried to meet with a builder by the name of Bruce Sarty, but he told us up front that he wasn’t interested in the project. Fair enough.
We are trying to line up a meeting with Vern Sklaspky from State Homes but haven’t yet had a chance to set up a time. We toured one of his houses and really liked it and the detail he puts into them. Will report back once we meet with him.
I found a great article last week in the New York Times about Passive Homes that I’d like to share. It really makes me feel like we’re on the right path. Have a look.
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