In or out?

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day. We'll be working in the house of course, but we will be joined by the electrician as well.  Other new contractors are dropping by tomorrow as well to look things over and to give us prices on work to be done very soon. The new appliances also arrive tomorrow.

I've been working in the shop and studio mostly of late but I did strap on my tool belt today and played carpenter for a while. Today's task was to install the five pocket door frames. For those not familiar with a pocket door, the concept is simple... the door is suspended on an overhead track and slides into the the wall to open. These are handy where space is tight or where a swinging door simply does not work without getting in the way. The pocket door frames came pre-assembled and it was a simple matter of fitting them into position, leveling things up using my trusty level and some shims, (and yes I , contrary to public opinion I do know how to use a level) and then gluing and fastening them into place. In less than an hour I was done and back at my desk, doing the design work I was supposed to.  :)

The door in the photograph was between the entryway and the pantry, looking towards the kitchen.

It is amazing how fast the house changes with the installation of larger pieces like this. Suddenly those five rooms that got the door frames were separated from the other spaces. It is looking more like the house we envisioned every day!

-grampa dan 

Let there be light!

Many things going into the new house are exciting (to us) but aren't really flashy. Just the same, these things are important and require lots of research and planning. As we looked into building a truly green house we quickly discovered that it was expensive. Any energy savings we might realise over the long haul would be offset by the sometimes very expensive upfront costs. A green house is not a short term game by any means.

We opted for potlights just about everywhere through the house, many more than the average. Janis and I both wear glasses and our eyes are not what they used to be. We would use LED lightbulbs to provide the light and bring down our energy bills in the process. We will also make our house a hybrid smart house. All of the rooms will have sensors to turn out the lights when no one is in the room. The primary living area of the house will be also be programable and remote controllable (from our ipads, smart phones or computer) as well.

It used to be that you could grab a pack of light bulbs off the shelf as you walked by in the hardware or grocery store, confident they would work just fine. Now the choices are many, and the specifications on the labels new and confusing to say the least. There's cool light, daylight and warm light kinds of bulbs. What used to be a 75 watt bulb now only uses 13 watts, with the brightness measured in LUMENS.  Some LED's are dimmable while others are not. Some hum as well. And of course there are flood lights and spots, with some being suitable for potlight applications and some not. Who would have thought that picking out a light bulb could be so complicated? 

Over the last months we've been testing various LED bulbs and watching the prices carefully. They have been slowly coming down in price as they become more popular and as more manufacturers come on board. In our province the government recently outlawed many incandescent bulbs which changed the game dramatically. And just this month our electricity company offered significant but limited time instant grants (at the cash register) to bring the LED's down in price by one third more. With the power now on in our new house and the shorter days upon us it was finally time to buy.

It is going to take a while to unpack and screw in all these lightbulbs!

-grampa dan

Ups and downs...

Work continues on the house. The bulk of the curved ceiling strapping is now finished and the stapling of the ceiling mesh into place is now underway and about a third done. Matt is doing the bulk of the work and doing a great job! 

Janis & I have spent the last few days working with the folks at Marr-Tech Kitchens to carefully design the cabinets and pick out the countertops throughout the new house. It is amazing how many decisions have to be made... all vitally important. We will have to live with the cabinets for many years to come. After being shoehorned into an rickety old house with a tiny and woefully inadequate kitchen for these last nine years we do not want to over-react. Then again, maybe we do. :)   We are opting for quartz countertops this time around in the hard use areas. 

The interior doors are now on order as well. and the house is starting to fill up with various finishing materials. 

Next we start in on the flooring choices. It's going to be fun!

-grampa dan