On these smaller inner city jobs it makes a lot of sense to get the trim and door work done before the cabinets. Usually the only place large enough to set up the tools is where the kitchen island sits.

. The finishers double booked themselves so spent the weekend finishing my first house. The bulk of next week they need to be in Canmore working on a hotel. With my kitchen delivery and install starting the following Monday they stepped up and stayed late to do the work. Thanks Umar, Raj and 'uncle'.

post 38 - kitchen starts

The holiday Friday caught me by surprise but many of the construction crews are treating this day like a regular work day. The delivery of the first kitchen was done in the AM and the siding/eavestrough crew is also on site. Sounds like a busy easter weekend for the job site. Kitchen install is one of the most anticipated elements of a project. It represents another progress milestone.

Post 39 - stupid criminals

We had an encounter with stupid criminals yesterday. They decided to come to the job site and steal the power lines that run to my houses. They cut the lines near the power pole and for whatever reason left without taking the cables. I suspect these idiots were so dumb they didn't know the lines were aluminum. Aluminum has very low salvage value, so the morons just left after cutting the power and realizing their folly. It isn't good for me because the guys came to work this morning and didn't have power for the tools. I have to get the electrician to come back and repair the lines. This is going to cost me some money to deal with the vandalism. It would be nice to find a way to identify the stupid criminals and get some form of compensation. There is a new security system we can invest in for a future project that will collect video evidence. Seems like it could be worth the cost to prevent this kind of inconvenience

Post 40 - Kitchen install

The first kitchen install is progressing nicely. It shows why I don't like to have cabinets all the way to a 10 ft ceiling. It makes for super large stacks of cabinets that are neither necessary or practically useful. In a 9 ft ceiling, it is ok because you can purchase 9 ft long material and this minimizes unsightly joints.

In this kitchen, the 10 ft wall incorporates a window, and the light that comes in through this clerestory style window is very nice. With the kitchen finishing work very predictable, I can start to firm up some more previously scheduled items. Ideally I can get the second house finished in June and start to market it to sell. I now have a back log of 9 houses to build, so I need to take advantage of the summer construction season.

Ensuring the kitchen is 'just right' is an essential part of managing a successful project. What it actually means to design and build the kitchen properly isn't as clear as the absolute necessity to deliver a kitchen that exceeds the client expectation. You often hear from realtors involved that the buyer reaction to the kitchen is a make or break element to whether or not they purchase the house, or continue looking at any of the dozens of other options.

To me, the kitchen needs to start off with the space allocation. At the early design stage, the prints just show a placeholder for the kitchen. You can't actually tell if the kitchen that is generically drawn in to fill the space on the print is any good. This is one reason I try to not allow the DP to be filed without the kitchen being carefully analyzed. In the current project, the kitchen has a ceiling height change, a window, a set of stairs and a hallway to consider. All of this has to feed into the design otherwise a major error could result.

To distill this kitchen commentary down, the approach I take to the kitchen is generally as follows;

allocate enough space to the kitchen
incorporate the best possible arrangement of upper and lower wall cabinets into the space
select the materials and finishes that best suit the audience and budget
build and install the kitchen with a skilled crew
finish the job with the appliances, tile, lights, counters, etc to create the complete kitchen.

These instructions are somewhat detailed, but what I can't convey is the specifics. For example, I say 'allocate enough space' for your kitchen, but what does the mean? I have a general idea, such as I like to have the island about 9 ft long, so it can fit a dishwasher, sink cabinet, recycling area and a bank of drawers. But custom touches like how to arrange the cabinets, how high they sit on the wall, where the pantry unit is, etc, all has to be thought of in a holistic manner. There is no one correct answer, but there are many bad answers.

Also note I don't actually design anything or 'do' anything. I have a few kitchen designers I work with to prepare a concept. I have as hard a time looking at a blank room and coming up with a great kitchen layout as anyone else. As the project leader, what you must do is described below:

Push the concept in a direction that will have the best outcome - so have a vision in mind for the project
Know the space you have - bulkheads, windows, drop ceilings, etc will all add complexity and originality to your design, but also add some risk you make an error. You are in charge of the project so you have to make sure you won't have a fridge where the door bangs into a wall, or hits the dishwasher when it is open.
Adjust the framing to make sure it is going to fit - the kitchen shop isn't going to frame your house properly, you need to do this yourself.
Focus on the big picture - when you sign off on the kitchen plans, you are giving your personal guarantee to the client that this kitchen is going to work. Review your plan from multiple angles and devise scenarios to allow you to identify trouble spots, and fix them.

I am sure there are some good books out there on kitchen design, and even courses students take to gain certification in the industry. As a builder, I don't have this training, so I rely partly on an instinctive sense of what is going to work that I have gained through project experience, and partly on continuing to do the hard work to reduce the risk of a big mistake. And of course I hire some really good people (without whom none of this would ever happen). Plus I write a lot of big cheques to mobilize everything. Deposits to kitchen shops can be a frightening experience, but necessary for the shop to order the material.

Here is the final shop drawing that came out of multiple revisions, visits to the site to adjust dimension, and a lot of double checking on how to make it all work.

post 41 - scheduling

I find that up until the drywall taping, the scheduling is fairly straightforward. The finishing stages need more return visits, and steps partially complete before we can move ahead and come back to finish a stage. Painting is the best example of this. It does take some trick schedule work to fit all the moving pieces together. Adding in multiple houses and you are doubling the schedule work. This is the approach I like to take once the walls are primed.

install interior doors, trim work (casing and baseboard), baseboards in carpet areas
install all cabinetry
template counters
---- this is where we are ---
prep for trim and door paint (spray crew)
spray interior trim and doors (spray crew)
install counters (preferably right now is the time to do this but it can be later) (kitchen shop)
taping crew returns to do the first touchup (a lot of damage on walls from carpentry, deliveries, tools, etc). (drywall contractor)
first wall paint, closet and bathrooms can be painted twice (wall paint crew)
tile all areas (tile contractor)
do all finished electrical work, but reserve all the cover plates (note we try and paint the bathrooms with two coats so we can put wall lights on) (electricians)
install plumbing fixtures (plumber)
install flooring (hardwood and carpet)
final railings
glass work
paint walls final coat (wall paint crew)
lockout, doors, handles, hardware (finishers)
appliances install including gas and water to fridge and stove (plumber)

So this is a general list of order of operations for the finishing work, looking at this list it is reasonable to say I am still at the very beginning of the finishing. Each bullet represents at least a work day, and possibly multiple work days (tiling is the largest job here by time). A list in a spreadsheet is a terrible way to schedule a job with all of these tasks, so I put it into my schedule program. Due to the large number of dates involved, and multiple people that need to agree to my dates, I don't want to have this all in my memory (which I will surely forget or confuse). Now that I have embedded dates all the way up to the plumber, I can refer to my cell phone at any time and remind myself who has committed to what date.

Having activity in each house every day is nearly impossible to orchestrate for a smaller builder. There just is not enough leverage over the crews compared to a production builder that has dozens of sequential jobs. We may have to tolerate some small gaps where no progress is made, but we can't allow work to stack up so tight such that one variable causes a cascade of failures like a domino effect. Overall the schedule is moving along nicely.

This is what the schedule looks like from this point forward.

post 41 - spraying

The spray crew began prep late last week and into the weekend. Not a very photogenic step of construction so we are going straight to the first coat of primer and the red bondo touchup they apply before sanding and spraying again. The trim work and doors will get another coat or two before the work is done. On the other house the kitchen installation is wrapping up, so we can start paint prep there as well.

The spray crew is finished with the first house. This is a much larger job than you'd think it would be, but if you add up the number of doors, shelves, window, baseboards, build ins, closets, etc there is a large area of woodwork that must be primed, touched up, and recoated. The painting of the house is a fairly costly process and involves a lot more labour than material cost. I am often surprised by how much the cost adds up to paint a complete house.

Fortunately the crew did a nice job and I was impressed with the product. The lacquer is a necessary evil to get a hard and durable white finish on smooth woodwork (no brush strokes). It is a toxic product before it is cured. I believe that once cured, the material doesn't continuously leach volatile compounds into the air, but I can't be certain of this. We don't want to be poisoning our new home owners with toxic substances in the house. Of everything that is used in construction today, the lacquer is for sure the worst. It would not surprise me at all if the government bans certain products from being sold for spray work in houses. I'd be willing to accept a poorer finish in exchange for less harmful chemicals in the process. I am not sure the home buyers today are aware of this possible trade off, so it would be best if everyone operated with the same rules. This may be a rare instance where government involvement in home building would be welcome. Generally I am of the view the government involvement makes a lot more trouble than it solves. Perhaps outlawing some of the chemical products would protect people from themselves in such a way they are unable to do so on their own.

post 42 - With the mud drying out a little we were able to catch a landscaping contractor before he gets too busy this summer. The first task is to start the fence. The fence also acts partly as a retaining wall to allow us to adjust the grades according to our city approved grade slip. We need to adjust the grades at the rear of the site to ensure drainage. After 50 years it seems like the old houses on this street have either sunk or the alley has lifted.

When building in the inner city you encounter some situations that are almost guaranteed to cause you grief, this is just part of the project so there is no point in getting stressed out. The problem is the shoddy practices of 50 years ago that have somehow lingered on until the present moment when you need to build your infill.

This manifests itself most often in grade issues. The 80 year old house beside you was just built wrong. It may have sunk in the mud or maybe the rest of the neighbourhood has grown up around it. The issue is the houses on either side of your property are going to be too low, possibly even negative slope from the alley. This suggests meltwater from the alley could flow toward, rather than away from the old house that is usually positioned in the middle of the lot.

When building new you won't be allowed by the city to have negative drainage. Nor would you want to because negative drainage is a practice that no sane builder would consider. The problem is you are building between two negatively draining properties and when you adjust your grades it will create the appearance, among the neighbours, that you are somehow committing some injustice against them. And, of course, you should deal with their problems and fix everything because for some reason you owe them this improvement to their property.

Your grades are going to need to be higher, likely at the rear of your foundation. You may need to grade your property at the border of your neighbour at 2 ft or more above where the neighbour is just so your water will drain toward the lane. This can create some conundrum in terms of how to have the elevation drop 2-3 ft at the border. The solution is often to retain the soil on your side and you have multiple options here. The best may be just to use the new fence you are building anyway as a retaining structure. This is what we have done on the 41st project.

Post 43 - Quartz counter install

The kitchen shop was back on site installing the quartz countertop in the first house yesterday. This, in combination with the drywall touchup and first coat of paint puts us right on schedule for tile to begin next week.

Counter installation is a fairly expensive task. A person can spend $50/sq ft on this material, and it was not too long ago a house in calgary could be purchased for $100/ sq ft. It is hard to imagine how cheap housing was 20 years ago given the price just of one part of the project.

In addition to the stone, we need to install 7 undermount sinks in various locations. Each needs to be cut and polished, so this adds cost as well. In these inner city projects stone counters is basically a standard feature. I prefer to use quartz over granite, but you see that material being used as well.

When you hear about renovations where the kitchen cost is over $40k (and the kitchen isn't particularly impressive), I often wonder what the breakdown is on that cost. There is no way that I could spend that much on a kitchen in a project of this value, even for all the bathroom cabinets, appliances, counters, tile, lighting, flooring, etc combined. Renovation kitchens are obviously a lot more costly to tie in the new material to the old, but I'd still be hesitant for anyone to invest that much in a kitchen reno. The cost of renovations is another reason I prefer new construction over dealing with old housing. In the areas I work in old houses trade for land value so there is not much benefit to renovations (they will end up in the dumpster).

Post 44 - Paint

The lowest cost construction material (can of paint) seems to make the largest interior impact. Particularly compared to the countertop.

What happens is you become desensitized to the ugly primer colour and after a while sort of accepting of it. Then the walls are rolled all in one day and it transforms the open areas (in a good way).

Post 45 - Tile waterproofing in shower

We are making steady progress on the tile for house 1. Unfortunately our tile contractor is busy and we are not getting the whole crew, just the one tilesetter is working and not full days. The trades inevitably do this when busy, they can't please everybody so instead they spread themselves thin. Still, we are seeing some forward progress and we hope later the entire crew will be available to tackle the complete project.

For tile in the shower, we want to make sure the walls are adequately waterproofed. We aren't tiling directly onto drywall either, we use the diamond back tile board for the walls, and we have a layer of roll on red seal on top of that to provide added water resistance.

Fortunately I arrived in time to see the tile being applied on the waterproofed walls. We never want any problems with tile, it is a nightmare to consider fixing tile problems after the house is occupied.

Post 46 - construction screwups

There is a certain number of mistakes to expect to happen during a large project. What generally happens is the first trade does something to create a problem, and leaves it for the next trade, who somehow creates a worse situation. Eventually the builder notices and then it can be a really big headache to undo the mess. I like to feature my construction screw-ups so we can learn to avoid it next time. The only way to identify these early enough to catch the presumptively is to be on site a lot and know what to look for.

Often the mistake can be just a matter of inches, or even fractions of an inch. In a recent example the receptacle was installed just a little too high. Likely the electrician built in some margin of error so the receptacle definitely would not be installed to low (that would be even worse). Once I realized the situation he was able to correct, it so no harm done. This is a minor instance of a construction headache. We have had worse.

Post 47 - garage building

In the overall grand scheme of garage building we are still in the early stage, but we are moving along now nicely. The pad is largely prepped and rebar is tied. We have an engineer inspection date and a pour date. If all goes well we will immediately deliver the lumber and roof package, and the framers will be back. Here is some work done from today

0 Votes