Spraying part 1 and 2

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.  

Lots of bondo is applied to each imperfection, or nail hole, in the trim and built ins.

The doors come factory primed, but need primed again.  The door subsurface material is still visible on these primed doors

This area of door casing is looking much more finished.  The bulk of the paint work should be completed tomorrow and we can move on to the next step.

Picking Paint Part 3

After selecting the paint colour it was worth the investment in a 900ml sample mix to see what it looks like on the walls in the house the paint was selected for.  

The sample container gives enough paint to coat part of a wall twice and see what it really looks like when it dries. For some reason, this one doesn't look how I thought it was going to based on the chip.  It may be worth selecting something else.

Usually it helps to put three paints on the wall and have the flooring and tile samples close by to highlight contrast among the samples.  

At least all the paints I chose were better than the primer.

And sampling paint is an excellent chance to bring in some helpers to roll some paint on the walls

Finally someone is interested in a job at the construction site.

After all this I decided my original paint was not working like I had expected.  I preferred the lighter shade.  The final selection now is SW750 'Egret White', rather than SW761 'On the rocks'.  This is yet another reason not to select finishes from computer screens and catalogues.  

Tricky scheduling from now until interior completion

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.

The gantt chart is most helpful to make sense of the schedule as you approach a deadline.  

Kitchen design to execution

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.

Fortunately your kitchen designer has the software for this work to be done quickly and precisely.  Each box is cut to fit, there are no standard sizes here.

At this point all boxes are in, the doors are almost all on (except those back in the shop to get finished), even the handles and door stops are installed.  This is a kitchen complete enough such that the counters are being templated for delivery next week.  

In this project, we had some extra space that we needed to fill in the right way. My designer added this practical pull out to avoid having over width drawers.  This is a nice touch and I am pleased with the outcome.  This is why you have an experienced designer that can be relied on to present solutions for the builder to accept quickly.

I had an additional wall to ceiling pantry unit designed into the space. The previous model of this project could have benefitted from another storage area.  This is another one of those attempts to build the project to suit the needs of the client, even when I have yet to know who the client is (but I can guess that this is a family home, mom or dad will be at costco and loading up on bulk items and cereal boxes, and need somewhere to put the blender).  This is an example of making sure there is enough space allocated to the kitchen, and using it effectively.

I think this kitchen is a success from any metric I use.  First, I think the design is sound.  Second, the flush fitted look and the colours I have selected are going to really work (we can reserve final analysis until the backsplash goes in), third, Mike did a nice job on install and the shop cut the doors to have a grain match.  This makes a huge difference. And finally, we worked within a defined budget with very little compromise.

This is a long and possibly boring blog post, so I will end it with an offer to review any of my readers' kitchen plan.  I can always take 15 minutes to offer up detached feedback on a kitchen project.  And no, I don't care if this is for a kitchen that I am not hired to work on, is competing in a similar market as my own product, or whatever other reason that prevents people from getting in touch.  I don't share the secretive approach that is so common in the construction management business today.  I'd like to see each project move ahead successfully and on time, including the guys building down the street from my own houses.  I have at most 9 houses to build over the next year or two, in the context of a city of 1.x million, my projects are a tiny fraction of what will be built.  Great luck with your kitchens!     

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.

Mike the install guy looks tiny in this photo, or we are building a kitchen for giants.  The amount of storage in the kitchen is looking very large, there is an additional floor to ceiling pantry unit. Tomorrow this house should be completed.

Cabinet installation

Mike is the installer that works exclusively for the kitchen shop. He's been installing for 20+ years.  That is usually a sign of some serious skills.  Install is a huge part of making the kitchen look the way the designer intended.  Here are some early photos of various boxes being installed.  

Tricky cuts - this is a sign of a good installer because I would have butchered this box attempting to fit the pipe  

The bar is ready for counter templating.  

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.  

This wasn't easy to cut. Unfortunately the thieves didn't get zapped.  

Kitchen delivery

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.

Rich looking cabinet fronts have arrived.  This project features the dark cabinet/lighter floor style.

lots of boxes...

Calgary: The next Vancouver/Toronto market?

While Calgary will likely never approach the absurdly inflated price tier of the Toronto market (and nor should it given the relative size of the population and economy of Calgary), the nicer inner city areas seem to have no price ceiling.  Despite the continuation of our local recession, land values continue to rise significantly.  There are some credible reports of investors bailing out of the Toronto market and looking for the next place to park their investment.  Calgary is probably the fourth or fifth choice of real estate investors in Canada and they likely see Calgary as cheap compared to their home city.

Given the drastic appreciation we have seen in land value over the past six months, you really have to look at this market cycle as in its infancy, with retail pricing likely to follow land values upward over the next year or two.  Or, builders are crazy, this remains  another distinct  possibility.  

The sale today at $665k is setting the high bar for 2017 thus far.  It makes me feel a little better about the identical quality land we purchased a few weeks ago for $625k (which I felt was too much already). Overpaying for land really undermines the project before you even begin the hard part of building it. There seems to be no caution behind the bids builders are making for land right now.  

Land value is getting too high in the choice Killarney locations.  The land value is getting detached from the economic fundamentals of the Alberta economy.  If we were actually in a good economic cycle with stronger resource revenue and a better government, the value of these lots would jump another $100k overnight.  This would make it impossible to build on this lot unless finished home values went up another 10%, not a likely scenario.

Lots of web traffic in Q1 2017

I was just browsing the stats for viewers to my website over the past few months.  The integer homes site is about a year old, but I did not really get started on posting frequently until late summer.  Previously I was using the rebuildcalgary.blogspot.com address which was really convenient and easy to post on.  One day I was bored of looking for land and not finding any, so I purchased my domain name and put up a few pages.  Being a super stingy builder, there is zero budget for improving the site, and my skills at web design are crude at best.  But what I can do is continue posting information of interest (at least I find it interesting) and lots of construction pics.  

I am making some effort to avoid being too critical against the usual sources of builder angst, like slow moving bureaucracy topics, or the ever growing cost of doing business.  I do wonder how anyone will be able to enter this industry in 20 years though, the way the fees and costs are creeping up.  These are easy targets for lengthy ranting diatribes.  My wife has heard most of these rants so I don't need to post them.  Mostly I need to remain polite to please my wife, or at least avoid further antagonizing her.  But, since I am in charge of this company, and this is my website,  I can squeeze in the odd exposé on bad behaviour by participants in this industry (snake like realtor tactics, tax fraud issues, etc).  

Here is a sample of recent web traffic. Looks like well over 1000 page views since Jan 1.  Not bad for a website with zero advertising or SEO that focusses almost entirely on SW inner city infill building.

Tears, parking and 36th St.

At the main streets public hearing, local residents of 36 st presented their ideas to council on why their portion of 36 St in Killarney should not be redesignated.  The results of the multi year marathon mainstreets policy process recommended this street, being just a half block off the main road, be re-designated to the RCG rowhouse category from R2.

As a proponent of the rowhouse as a suitable urban form to add a small amount of compatible density to older grid areas, notably on the corners where the new building can face the street (rather than the slabby flank of a typical duplex), I was perplexed.  Once again, the RCG zone is considered the bogeyman of inner city redevelopment.  In reality, where I operate my business, the corner rowhouse can comfortably coexist along with the older bungalows and newer infills, and enhance the block end streetscape significantly.  The RCG zone is the new zone created to explicitly fit in with existing older development, yet in the opinion of most community groups I have seen opposing these projects, it seems to be lumped in with bottle depots as the least wanted type of development. 

Council seemed quite influenced by the crying mother scenario, with all the 'think of the children' and the tears seemingly making a significant impact on policy.  When asked what change would be acceptable, the typical response given was 'no change'.  It was even suggested that a redesignation from R2 (an older variety that is grandfathered in from the 80's) to RC2, the newer category would suffice.  This would mean zero practical change would be possible other than what could have been done for the past 30 years or so.

I think in an election year the sitting council has to be extra careful what it votes for, particularly in elections with low voter turnout when the mayoral race isn't contested.  In this instance, the tears and parking complaints may override textbook planning principles that were used in creating policy within many other mainstreets communities.  

The losers here are the builders that can't find suitable land to conduct business, and future home buyers that don't have $850,000 to spend on a semi detached home.  We just observed a nice Killarney semi selling today at $930k.  It appears the entry price into this area is going up substantially in 2017.  Unfortunately none of those people priced out of Killarney stood before Council to shed tears about how they can't afford a house that meets their family's needs in Killarney (note that this block is footsteps from both elementary schools and the junior high).      

I am thinking of the children, particularly those that will not be moving in to the houses I will not be building because community residents don't want anyone else to build anything after their own house was built. This is a classic NIMBY definition.   

Master closets continued.

Often when the room size is suitable I prefer to use a PAX wardrobe style of closet in the master bedroom.  The benefit of this system is it does not need paint, there are many affordable accessories that can be added, such as drawers and movable shelves.  This allows for a very tailored design for the client, and is modular so that many more custom touches can be added later on after the house is sold.

Many drawers can be added at any location inside the wardrobe

This room is just the right size for three wide wardrobes, plus the window sits just above the top of the boxes.  

Main Streets land use redesignations pass first and second readings

The two day long marathon of a public hearing ended with the main streets initiative passing first and second reading.  Third and final reading is booked for may 8.  

As mentioned previously on this site, I view the mainstreets changes to be allowing the trnasformation of some unloved and neglected areas in Killarney and other inner city neighbourhoods. I delivered this message to Council at the hearing today.  

Most of the Killarney residents that attended the hearing opposed the changes to 36 st.  In my view the change from r2 to rcg would be a welcome improvement.  The residents proposed changing the street from r2 to rc2 - essentially no change at all. Rcg continues to be seen as the urban bogeyman.   

Changes of this magnitude takes many years to process through city hall. What a relief it is almost over!  

Killarney Councillor Woolley moving the main streets land use amandments to the sw inner city neighbourhoods.  First and second reading passed, May 8 is the final vote.  It appears the amendments will be subject to further 'amendments' , I  am not really sure how significant the changes can be at this late stage.

The ugly underbelly of construction in Calgary - stucco coloured sand

My stucco crew is a great bunch of guys, lead by the super friendly Sam, a Lebanese import to Calgary.  He works very hard all season and spends some of the cold months in Lebanon (I assume living very well on his Canadian earnings).  

He was telling me about some crazy low prices I was hearing about for stucco.  He felt the prices I was encountering were impossible, and basically were his cost of materials only.  So to match that price he'd have to work for free.  I don't expect Sam and his guys to work for free so I am paying the usual price for stucco.

He said you could cut some extra corners if you wanted a lower price, but there would be problems.  He knows this because he spends half the year fixing poorly done stucco (for good money I imagine, more than the cost to do it properly).  He sent me a video of himself tearing off two year old stucco.  I am going to attempt to post this here.  It is amazing to see someone tearing off stucco with just their hands.  He explains that the company that did the job likely didn't use enough cement in the mix (because they wanted to cut some cost).  So they were basically applying stucco to the wall with wet sand!  Not surprisingly, it fell off.

I can't embed the video here.  But I can link to it

https://www.facebook.com/pg/integerhomes/posts/?ref=page_internal

This is the stucco falling off the wall.  Sam and his guys are tearing it out now and replacing it.  Cost to builder $30,000.  I guess the warranty is helpful to the buyer here.  Of course the original stucco company is nowhere to be found. 

NIMBY'ism Intellectualized

Another RCG re-designation failed at the council hearing today.  The applicant ran up against a common Calgary phenomenon, the more educated and civilized style of NIMBY'ism where planning principles are misinterpreted to masquerade the NIMBY'ism as legitimate community based opposition to a project.

The property in question is in Windsor Park, a nice inner city area with some really good spots to transition the R2 areas to a higher density.  The neighbours came up with all kinds of rationale to oppose the proposal.  What it really came down to is they just wanted any density or land use changes to be made 'somewhere else'.  As is common, 'somewhere else' is on a busy street far from their own property.  

The trend to view a row house project as an undesirable urban form is common among many community objections to RCG re-designations.  Since the RCG is deemed to be a lower grade of unwanted, character destroying land use, the community quickly attempts to assign all such applications as inapropriate unless located on the most marginal peripheral location in the community.  More often this is a street so heavily damaged by cross through traffic, commercial access points, bus lanes, trains, etc it is already considered defective and not really part of the community.  In this way the community can offer up a poster site for densification, as in, go there, to the spot we already don't care about. The idea to ring fence the 'good' parts of the community with 'undesirable density' is also a part of the community submission.  

I reject a lot of this as basic NIMBY'ism, however, what surprises me is the lack of thought put into some of the community submissions.  When the project opponents are questioned by Council, often they lack coherent answers to issues they haven't thought through.  The highly emotional and knee jerk dislike of a project is really all that is discussed thoroughly.  For example, a question from Council to the community was something like 'what is so wrong about having four doors, with porches, windows, etc facing a side street, yet having the unadorned flank of a semi-detached building in the same location is acceptable'.  To this question, no satisfactory response was forthcoming.

Only a few members of Council, and the Mayor are showing a consistent progressive voting record on supporting these minor re-designation applications.  I know where my campaign donations will be going...

Calgary has an endless supply of its own homegrown NIMBY talent

Custom closets

My semi detached project is moving along nicely. 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'.  

There isn't really such a thing as a custom closet. Every closet is different, so everything must be cut to fit.   This is half of the master closet.  

Mudroom progress is very nice.  This is the sort of family oriented feature that is extremely practical (and costly) to include in the project.  Generally the rear door is the primary entrance to these homes, so a few hooks on the wall isn't nearly sufficient given the variety of clothing, boots, hats and gloves that need to be rotated in and out each season.  This need for practical storage with the family in mind is why I have meaningful closet space at both entrances to this type of project.  

'Finishing is starting'

The finishers are working their first full day today.  Doors and window casing are first to be installed.   

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.  

I like to use the Berkeley style door.  It seems to be the most popular style these days. I also like the simple flat doors but I've been told they are too boring.   

I need an investor!

When buying project sites, you can look at a hundred of them and they will fail for whatever reason. Usually too small, on a hill, bad access, wrong part of town, etc.  Here is a great 1:100 lot.  Anyone want to buy into an exceptional project? 

This listing is screaming 'buy me' 

I'm willing to deal with 'problem properties'

The house was rough but livable, I met the owner at the property a few times last year. He agreed to rent the house back from me after the close. I changed the close date to be earlier than I wanted because he was going to run out of money and the utilities were all being cut off.  At that point he was looking at being left homeless and without any income. 

I let him stay in the house for free for six months.  I figured at least this would mean I wouldn't have to shovel snow or pay utilities.  Eventually he got sick and was involved in some ugly family issues. He vacated unexpectedly and some members of his family sold all the house furnishings and pretty much left junk everywhere. Eventually the neighbour complained and I had to clean up the yard.

These are the type of properties I can buy. In doing so, I provide a service other people wouldn't do.  I sort of get bothered by the attitude you find in some community associations about builders, including my own.  There is a common view that the builder ruins community character and offers little benefit. The community association wouldn't do a thing to help this person out - I wrote a huge cheque for the land and had to deal with the aftermath. 

If you know of someone in this type of situation you may need to contact a cash home buyer. They can make some of the problems go away by paying a fair price without conditions for a house.  The market is good right now for sellers.  It is harder to find people willing to sell than it was last year and prices are up. 

This nasty pile of junk is gone, moved temporarily into the garage.  When we do the demolition it will all get hauled to the landfill.  The landfill is the builders best friend when dealing with low value trash.

Vagrancy issues

The state one of the properties I bought last year has finally gotten bad enough my neighbour is calling to request I clean it up.  It looks like a trash heap that's for sure. I've got some time tomorrow to deal with it. My plan is to move all this crap into the garage.  When the excavator comes he can haul it away. The inside of the house isn't much better. A cat was living there and someone was feeding it. Eventually the cat perished and it remains in the basement.  This was ok during winter but I don't plan on going back inside again.  Allowing people to salvage valuables from the house has been a real waste of my time. I need to get this place bulldozed soon.   

The yard isn't in great shape. I was going to rent this house but I was only able to have that cat as the tenant and it used the house as a litter box. Time to get another demolition quote.