300-84 BD - Let's catch us up a little...

This is going to be only a brief summary of how we got to this point, there is too much to cover and it's too late at night to get into it all.
I'll skip the part about how we were going to move but couldn't get a place that we both liked, could afford, and weren't outbid for. After 6 months of trying and learning what the market had in store we returned to my (Mike) suggestion of doing an addition to our current place. 

The scope of the project has grown from essentially day 1 which we'll say for simplicity was 300 days ago on June 1st. The initial vision was for a new kitchen and extended family room on the main floor and a master bed, en suite and office upstairs. The basement was going to be simply an expanded foundation to support the addition which would act as a larger storage area. 

Well our very first meeting blew that up right away. We happen to be in need of a new furnace so we brought in one of Grochmal's guy to chat about that. As soon as we mentioned the addition things changed. He informed us that the existing ductwork in the house was not sufficient to support the added space and that, in addition to a new furnace, we should relocate the unit to the middle rather than the front of the house (so we could get air to the far reaches). 

Suddenly that meant we were demolishing everything in the basement and starting over - new mechanical room, new bathroom, etc. Great start!

Weeks later Graeme Stewart connected us with his colleague Joey who he thought would be interested in a project of this nature. We met one evening and were comfortable with him right away. His work seemed good, he seemed knowledgeable and experienced and we liked him. Done deal. 

Perhaps for another post I will ask Jodi to reflect on the Atrium design that had some traction for a while, that has been the only major point of discussion on the design, the rest has been just details. But instead of an atrium we got a light well, bringing light from above down into the second floor. 

We had initially hoped we could move quickly and start the work in the late fall before the cold came and the ground could no longer be dug for a new foundation however once Joey put the plans in front of the city for a zoning review it became clear that we needed to go before the Committee of Adjustments. That was a 4-6 month setback since we needed to wait for better weather in 2015. But in hindsight, we were foolish to think we would be able to get everything together in a few months, we didn't know what we didn't know at that point. 

The COA in October went very smoothly, other than what we thought might be a roadblock from our new neighbours Nicole and Brett, but that turned out to just be a caution sign and didn't imped us at all. Nor has it affected our relationship with them which is good because they are nice. 

Next came the permit phase and more detailed drawings, and our next major change in plans, again related to the basement. Back tracking a little, we've been talking to a number of builders about potentially doing the work. One in particular told us immediately that we needed to dig out and underpin our basement. This was the perfect (and really only) opportunity and we would regret not doing it. We heemed and hawed for a couple weeks, really only dragging our feet long enough to make us think that we were really deliberated on it, I think we were going to do it right after that meeting. There are all upsides, the only downside, and it's a big one, is the price. Looks like it will be around $45-50,000. 

That change in plans delayed on our permit application because Joey had to rework some drawings and the structural engineer had to do the same. Ultimately we ended submitting them in mid December and recently received conditional approval pending our ridiculous tree deposit of $13,000!!!

We are currently eyeing an April 1 start date, otherwise known as 1 AD. This will depend on the weather and the schedule of the company doing that work. Meanwhile we need to lock down a foreman because it looks like Joey and I are going to GC this project to save some money - cause the numbers just keep going up and we haven't even started with the overruns. 

Oh and we are going to see our first apartment on the weekend. Because of the basement work April 1 will be the start of the project and the when we move out. 

It is going to be a very very interesting 6-9 months. Much more to come.