Thank goodness we managed to get the fireplace finished. It kept us toasty warm, had there been beds, we could have slept there.
We redesigned the interior of the house. The great feature of using manufactured roof trusses is we can put walls wherever we like on the main floor or leave them out altogether. The combination of the strength of the trusses with the load-bearing wall in the basement means the house is structurally very sound and doesn’t need interior walls for further strength.
Here’s a pic of the original plan:
The writing on the plan is mirror image because we need the garage on the right. Here’s our revised interior:
The biggest problem in redesigning the interior was the stairs. First of all, we wanted to widen that staircase to avoid the sensation of going into the bowels of the earth. We put a couple of extra large windows down there to provide light. The rear of the basement is elevated making the very large window in that room fully exposed. That was going to be a spare bedroom and we didn’t want our guests or our grandchildren experiencing below grade claustrophobia. We went to great pains in attempt to minimize it. Haydn, the genius, figured it out! We could make the staircase 4’ wide if we have a landing at the entrance from the garage. There was just enough headroom—someone really tall (6’3” or more) will hit their head going down the stairs. Since we don’t know anyone of that stature, we elected to base or design on moving the stairs there,
Can’t tell you the number of pieces of paper we went through before we finalized our plan. Even after we’d solved the dilemma of the stairs, neither of us liked ‘all’ the features on the original plan. There was no window in the kitchen and I had so looked forward to having one where I could grow plants. The kitchen backed on to the second bathroom. Also because there are only two of us, we didn’t see the necessity to have two bathrooms that were identical to each other. Haydn doesn’t take baths—he prefers showers. I seldom take showers, prefer bathtubs. We decided we’d each design our own bathroom. The dressing room off the master bedroom was very well laid out and we were wont to change it. But no matter how many designs we came up with, the rear of the house had to be changed to accommodate a window in the kitchen. Regrettably, we did have to change the dressing room layout. Ultimately, we will build an addition on to the back of the house to have a bigger walk-in close with no clothes going into corners. Or we could just add a small dressing room on the back for myself and Haydn could have the one that's adjacent to his bathroom with the shower. It would mean each of us would have our own dressing room and we could decorate it to our individual tastes. So that’s what we decided.
One more thing…the left side of the house is very sunny, but we didn’t want to look at our neighbour’s house. We elected to put a stained glass window there. It would provide light without having to look at it. We’ve never told old neighbour’s why we installed it, they just think it’s a lovely addition to the house. :)
Decisions, decisions, there are hundreds of them when you’re building your retirement home. This one has to perfect because it is the very last one we’ll own.
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That done … now comes some really boring stuff…electrical, mechanical, an installation kit for a central vacuum system, and heating and air conditioning. Because we had decided to install a gas furnace, we couldn’t do that work ourselves. The building code requires that a licensed person install it. We talked to gas fitter that sells and installs the furnace. Not to be overlooked is wiring for telephones, computers, sound systems and TV’s.
A fiend of ours has an electrical construction company and we took his advice and ordered the size of air conditioner we’d need. We also ordered all of our electrical wiring, receptacles, and outlets.
We contacted a sheet metal company where we had the plenum and ductwork designed for the heating system, but they had gone out of business. Tried several more, but none seemed very anxious to do the job. So Haydn decided to do it himself. It really is very difficult to get sub trades to do any work when you live in a small rural community. Number one, they aren’t very reliable when all you have is just your little job. Most of them who are any good, work with contractors who provide them with a stable source of income. The ones that are left aren’t worth hiring or they want an arm and a leg to fit you in to their schedules—with no guarantees of when they’ll show up.
We really haven’t had very good luck hiring sub contractors. We’ve been very dissatisfied with the quality of their work. If you’re not on site, you don’t know what mistakes they made. Sooner or later their errors do show up and it’s a heck of job to correct them. Some can’t be fixed. At least when you do your own work, it may not be perfect, but you do know where there are weaknesses. Haydn is a perfectionist and has an eye for squareness. I’ve seen him throw things away when they are finished because he didn’t like the look of something. He’s very exacting and takes pride in everything he does. He’s like that with whatever he builds regardless of whether he gets paid.
First on the list is the wiring. I hate drilling the holes in the 2x4’s. More than once, when attempting to make the holes, the drill gets stuck and slams my wrist and hand into the stud. So I wasn’t looking forward to tackling that again. Because we were well rested, Haydn offered to do the drilling. “Thank you, thank you kind Sir. I’ll follow behind you with the wire.”
I spent quite a bit of time planning where to run wire other than electrical. Then I followed after Haydn with the appropriate cable and wire.
The rough wiring was done in a week on the main floor, and then we ran it in the basement for future usage.
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Next was the rough in of the plumbing and the central vac. Haydn does that by himself, but I do stand by handing him supplies. We have made no final decision about a toilet in the basement and didn’t put any drainage pipe down there. Putting a toilet below grade can be very problematic. At a house we built adjacent to a lake, we did install one. The first Spring, the ground water level rose and up came fecal material, so we’re still pondering.
It takes a little longer to do rough plumbing. We’re now into early February, 2002,
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The next stage is really exciting. Putting up the drywall.
