Building a house in suburbia... I am always annoyed at people who say that they are "building a house", when in reallity, they are doing nothing except paying for it to be built.

We selected a lot which backed onto a nature preserve (Meewasin Valley Grasslands), and off to the left side, just out of view is the Foresty Farm i.e. the Saskatoon Zoo. It is a nice area and pleasant to wake up and watch the sun come up over the prairie.

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As I look back at my original design, it astounds me that it was that accurate. The house is exactly what I expected, and designed using the simplest of tools: Sierra Home Architect 2.0. I won't say it was easy, but I really enjoyed it. I went through at least 50 versions. The program crashed every 20 minutes at the beginning, but as I learned to avoid the things that freaked it out, crashes, and the associated loss of work became much less frequent. I should have bought a better computer too. My Pentium 100 was really not up to the task, frequently taking 10 minutes to recover from me making some change.

The basic floor plan was very similar to another house in the area which Sandy really liked. we have the back of the house as one big open area, then the front of the house, with the vaulted ceiling and staircase as a second big open area.

The second floor has an impressive view over the living room, and a short corridor linking the 4 bedrooms. The master bedroom has NO walk-in closet, Sandy and I both preferring some built-in drawers and closets that I built for our old character house. The master bath has no bath, but does have a very nice, large shower.

Removing the roof gave a top section type view:

Home Architect allowed me to wander around the outside and inside. Here is the view from the front:

From the back:

An interior view, looking from the family room, back thru the breakfast nook, kitchen and dining room:

One last interior view, from the dining room, looking over the living room, and the stairs going up. The furniture is actually very close to ours!

Construction Time!

I have added an animation page of the construction. It still needs work, but can be found here anyways.

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May 15: Surveyed and staked out

May 26: Foundation footings are in

May 30: Forms for the basement almost complete

June 2: Forms are off. We have a basement!

June 3: Sealant and weeping tile

June 4: Karen, Sandy, Kim and Keiran in the new basement

June 8: Backfilled + main electric panel.

June 14: Main floor is done.

June 16: First floor walls are done.

June 20: Second floor is on.

June 21: Second floor and trusses. Mom and Dad were in town too!

June 22. View from the street, framing the upstairs. The high winds (30 kph, gusting to 50!) of the past two weeks have made putting walls and trusses up difficult.

June 28. From the back , roofing mostly done

June 29. Keiran on the new steps, shingles ready to go.

June 30. Window, Doors and a chimney and some shingles. The next day, the rain started. The place got soaked for the next 2 days. The wind drove the rain sideways through the walls. There was a small dry spot in the middle of the upstairs bedrooms.

July 4 #1: Electrics all done in ONE day

July 4 #2: Shingles are done, framing is done

July 5: Soffits almost done.

July 6: Trenching the main sewer line

July 10 #1: Insulation and vapour barrier, upstairs hallway

July 10 #2: Kevin and Doryl doing the "In-floor" heating in the basement

July 10 #3: More dirt for leveling the inside of the garage

July 12 #2: Sandy talked Ken into dumping some excess boulders into our garden. He was part of the construction crew putting in the water mains in the next division, so they were looking for a place to dump their rocks.

July 12: Gyprocc-ing the nook and family room

July 13: We came back with beer to tempt Ken into bringing us a 12 ton boulder, in addition to the other boulders he had already brought us.

July 17: Lester spent 2 weeks mudding the walls. Here he has his stilts at maximum height to reach the ceiling in the laundry room. He was just able to bend over enough to make it through the doorway.

July 20: We have stucco! Well, the scratch coat is on at least...

July 26: I insulated and gyroc-ed the rest of the garage. Hot day (33 degrees). Cranked the stereo in the Pathfinder and had a fun time.

August 1: Ken and Keith (his boss) found us another great boulder. This one had been dragged thousands of miles under a glacier. We put it in the back yard where Keiran thought it made a pretty good slide.

August 10: Lots of things have happenned inside, but not much outside. Concrete has been poured in the garage.

August 23: Final Stucco coat is done, along with the gutters and drainspouts. Inside we have painted ceilings and the interior doors and trim are going up. We also sold our present house during this last few weeks so are getting more relaxed about the whole thing!

September 11: We have stairs! From the outside of the house, it doesn't look like much has happened, but on the inside, the activity has been continuous. Most of the trim is up and lacquered and the walls are painted. The oak staircase is gorgeous, even with its protective cardboard runner!

September 13: Here is Steve, working on the kitchen cabinets. At this point, we, and everyone else is saying: "I don't think it's going to be ready to move in, in 2 weeks.." Even less likely when we have been allocated a week to get the hardwood installed, during which we will be installing the ceramic tile in the evenings.

September 17: This is Day 3 of the tiling: time to start on the kitchen. Kim and I did a bathroom on each of the first nights, and it is now time for the big job. We have 43 boxes of tiles to install. Since it is the weekend, Sandy came out to help us.

September 18: Well, sort of. It is 3 a.m and now September 19! Kim and I have been going since 7 p.m. But, ALL the kitchen and nook are done! The night before, Bill Wallace and I built the little wriggly hardwood strip which separates the play area carpet from the tile. It looks even better than expected.

September 21: I go out to the house to meet with the bull dozer man who is going the do the grading around the house. Snow on the roof... Winter is here and we don't have garage doors yet?

September 23: Here is Chris, helping to install the shower tiles. Hard to believe the mess...

September 26: The kitchen is nearing completion. Hard to believe that we take possession in 3 days.

Outside, the landscaping begins.

September 29: We take possession. Sandy phones home!

November 6: Once again, after midnight, so the photo says November 7. I arrive at the new house, towing my prized possession, a 1969 Triumph GT6+. Pretty dusty.

November 23: We are getting used to life out here on the praires. With no trees to block its progress, the wind can be vicious. The sunrises, frosts and fogs are beautiful, as are the sunsets...

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Email me! warren.long@shaw.ca