Christel Point Lodge

15/03/2021

Another week of what seems like little actual gain. I am hoping a bunch of things begin to clear up over the next couple of weeks.

Survey is done but we have yet to see it. Awaiting answers from the township with regards to what we need to show in our drawings and a bunch of other things.

It had been a few weeks since we had been to the lot and today it was good to visit and see some progress.

We now have a functional driveway, scraped down and a layer of gravel added and compacted.

There is a ton of deadfall to 🔥 and our early days pre kit will be spent clearing and burning the dead wood!

For us it remains the perfect lot, privacy, access and great for both summer and winter activities.

08/03/2021

Some small tidbits of progress this week.

For a building permit in Ontario, there are two things you need a HRAI person to do; design your HVAC system and do an energy loss calculation. Two government forms.

To novices like us, it was daunting - however Avrame organized the engineer and the proper paperwork is completed. $685.00

I write that to help allay the fears of having to find an engineer in the wild so to speak.

Avrame will also find someone for the architectural stamp needed

So going forward, in Ontario at least there will be people that have dealt with the builds and should efficiently be able to complete that paperwork for people.

Our spreadsheet is getting more specific and we are still at $201 per sq/ft for our build cost. This includes adding substantial amounts to most of our quotes.

Our kit is now fully paid for: Kit cost so far is $82 psf. We will update the total once HST is paid/Duty/Shipping.

27/02/2021

The weekly update!

If anything happened this week, it was in the background for the most part.

Our lot possession date was pushed back a month until April 17.

The survey on the new lot was completed and should be official in the next few weeks.

Learning that when it comes to financing, banks are not geared for creative building ideas. Its going to be okay but the process is rather inefficient.

We have purchased a kitchen table/bench/coffee table, flatware and our tableware.
It is kind of fun to outfit a new house from scratch which also gives us time to look for sales.

I have adjusted and refined our budget spreadsheet and even with an "unknown" fund of $15k and overpricing our "quotes" by several thousand, we are still at $202 a square foot. - this includes radiant heat flooring, a steam shower and 4k for a dock.

I started with the Avrame spreadsheet but found it easier and more manageable to budget room by room.

While we wanted to be single fuel, electric, we will now add a propane tank so that we can have a tankless propane water heater. The electric version would suck up way too much power.

Our next milestones will be the completion of the HVAC design and the engineers stamp, required for permitting here in Ontario. A process that has been simplified with the help of the Avrame rep in Ontario.

Property wise, the final severance approval and the blasting of the build site by the seller of our lot should happen shortly.

That will give us our actual build envelope and then we can start placing things on the map so to speak!

Overall, I long for the day where we actually start to build.

18/02/2021

Almost end of the week. So many rabbit holes the last couple of days.

I start researching something and it leads you to things you had no idea existed!

I will say that I have found several suppliers that will save us massive amounts of money; heated floors via Warmall, Mini Split Heat Pump via Senville and recessed LED lighting via Qplus. The Floor Box, will send you up to 7 free tile/flooring samples which is also a nice find.

A reminder that while handy, neither of us have any building/construction/permit experience. We are doing this from scratch. Partially to save money, partially to control our own construction destiny and partially for the challenge.

We should have our heat loss calculation and HVAC design done in the next day or two.

Cost $600.00 but it is something that is required for permit here in Ontario.

Of note, Tosh/Avrame organized that. Very helpful as it is one of those items that is completely and utterly outside of our control.

We have found an electrician. We buy what he needs and will pull the permit and do the work for $75 an hour.

Our first quote from a company was a range of 18 to 25k.

Our electrician used a comparable house and was 10k (600 sq/ft more than ours) with a budget of 4k to 5k for fixtures and materials.

In the meantime we await the birth of our lot and the final severance/survey so we know exactly where we can place our build and see if we will have any permitting issues!

15/02/2021

Another week of invisible progress. Maybe.

In general, only one in three trades respond to requests for quotes.

We are still looking for another couple quotes from Electricians and foundation people.

Only a helical post foundation company has provided us with a detailed plan. Our foundation will be a bit difficult as most of it will be put on bedrock with the piles either pinned to the bedrock or holes cored out to 4ft in depth. Regardless, it should be solid if done right!

We will be using a strip style foundation, no basement

Avrame in Ontario is handling the Engineer/Architect stamp and the HVAC design stuff.

So those that fear those two issues in Ontario, should know that they can get help for that by asking Tosh. It solves several problems and smoothes the process by removing me as the middleman.

Our financing path has been decided and for us, the use of a Mortgage broker provided more flexibility than the bank.

Other things looked at this week were different LED recessed lighting options, recessed range hoods and driveway entry gates.

If anybody has suggestions or questions, fire away.

We are absolutely new at all of this, which is part of the adventure -ish.

09/02/2021

How we got here...

Our plan has shifted dramatically primarily due to Covid.

We are used to traveling internationally frequently and never saw ourselves as having a permanent recreational property.

A November trip to Tofino and a night in a Geodesic Dome (Fdomes was the company and a brilliant product), put us on the same page: Buy a nice piece of land, put a dome on it for ten years then build something more permanent.

We would use it personally and to short term rent now and then, with the eventual goal of keeping it for ourselves when we approach retirement.

The piece of land we found by accident, while looking at another. Substantially more but justifiably so. 30 minutes from home, sheltered, deep water access, attached to the Rideau system, cliffs, elevation and solid Canadian shield blocking out neighbors.

With money being cheap, there being so many regulations to build near a lake we changed our minds from dome to something permanent.

Wanting to avoid contractors and have something more DIY or at least where we would have more control over costs, we looked at some kit options and some prebuilt options.

Sales people either did not reply in a timely fashion or we were offered a delivery date of Spring 2022.

I think we found Avrame through a kit home article somewhere, not sure where.

The original idea was to build a Duo, then decided to go bigger and ended up with a Trio120.

Cost, on a per square foot basis is competitive and the fact that almost all of our materials arrive together will save time and supply issues.

We have no building experience whatsoever but we are handy, good problem solvers and to borrow the words of Douglas Adams: "Don't panic"

And that is how we got started

05/02/2021

The first week of February update:

We got notice that the blasting out of our build envelope will occur end of February or the first week in March. The severance to create our lot is also nearing completion

Avrame has been great and we have seen our truss plans, giving us a glimpse of what we will have to deal with putting the house together.

Awaiting quotes on electrical, plumbing and foundation.

Have two ideas of cost, both using screw piles. One company would require excavation of the holes (we are building on granite) the other would "Pin" the posts to the bedrock via drilled holes and epoxy/rebar.

I am awaiting a quote for a concrete based strip foundation for the sake of comparison.

Nothing new on the municipal stuff. Awaiting to hear from the Conservation Authority as to how they arrived at our setback number.

We have fleshed out our costs and found that there are vast differences in price, especially for mini split heat pumps.

A quad zone from LG is 17k+ whereby a company called Sennair out of Quebec is around 4k.

Warmall is another company in Quebec that is substantially cheaper when it comes to radiant floor heating.

A company called The Floor Box also in Quebec has free tile samples and looks very useful.

In general I will summarize the Monday to Friday of what has been accomplished. For most of the week I felt nothing was happening which is frustrating. It has been a late flurry of emails the last couple of hours Friday afternoon that has led me to feel we have moved along slightly in the stuff we can't control department.

Should have some electrical and plumbing quotes arrive in the next couple days!

28/01/2021

28/01/2021

28/01/2021

As we approach the end of another week, we have gained a bit of traction.

An incomplete quote on the foundation. Not totally useful. But its a start.

The lot will have some work done on it next week. Possibly.

We are still awaiting blasting. Our build site still needs some dynamite work done, which is being done as part of the purchase price.

Learned all about Heat Recovery Ventilators! Especially important as we are trying to go ductless in general.

Learned that a Quad Zone Mini split heat pump is 75% cheaper if you avoid the brand names.

Awaiting a quote on our electrical stuff.

We should have our detailed plans and build instructions next week.

26/01/2021

A few photos from the water. One looking at where our dock will be located and a couple looking at our cliffs.

19/01/2021

We were back up at the lot today, measuring a bit, looking it over again. Figuring out where we might place stuff.

We still feel we have a great piece of property: Elevation, excellent water access - no weeds.

Still lots of work to do on the lot, 6 days of blasting apparently to complete our build envelope.

We are nearing the moment where we order our Avrame Trio120.

Modifications made. Colours picked today...

04/01/2021

Our waterfront! Some of it. The other half is protected by granite cliffs!