Posted by Wanda
We are finally done with the design so I have uploaded two final walk-thru animations showing the upper and lower level. The start date for the build is still August but it’s good to be done with the design phase.
Upper level animated walk-thru
Lower Level animated walk-thru
The design is finally coming together after months of emails, phone calls and a few meetings with the designer and builder. Most of the bugs that needed to be ironed out were around ensuring compliance with the new earthquake codes. We are pretty happy with the end result.
The next step – the designer will take it to working plans. At this point in time we are looking at starting the build in August with an anticipated move-in date sometime in February. It’s so good that it’s all starting to come together!
Upper Level Floor Plan
Lower Level Floor Plan
by Wanda
Haven’t posted for awhile but there has not been much going on “Adventure” wise. Still working on reno’s and the house here in Regina is looking amazing (thanks to Jim and Andre). Just put in a new front door (with a beautiful glass insert) and it’s hard to believe what a difference it makes, should have done it years ago!
Okay, so now for the update on the build in BC. The empty lot to the west of us is now being worked on. Once the basement was excavated we were allowed the opportunity to check out the “rock” situation under our lot. Our friend Carl and his Dad Eric checked it out for us and took some pictures (Thanks guys!)
We are still trying to figure out what we want in a house (and what we can afford which are two different things entirely).
We have talked with a designer and will be working with him (and the builder) in the beginning of the new year (2017). We will be spending about a month or so on the Island in January and will be meeting with them face to face to hopefully nail down some plans.
Meanwhile our house here in Regina looks a bit haunted! Decorated up a bit for Halloween but definitely downscaled from previous years. Eating way too many chocolate bars so I will be glad when it’s over.
Happy Halloween everyone!
by Jim (and Wanda)
Wanda and I both agree that we want as much natural light in the new house as possible. The front of the house faces almost north (actually bit north east) towards the ocean. Because of this the front will have the most windows and a roof extended over the deck to keep it comfortable when the sun is at it’s highest. For the rest of the house, optimum window placement can be determined especially if there is too much or too little light exposure in certain rooms.
With this in mind I (Jim) came across an online webpage called SUNCALC.NET which can calculate sunrise and sunset and the transit of the sun in relation to any given place in the world and at any time of the year. We entered a few dates to see what we would come up with.
The following slideshow illustrates sun’s transit on the 20th day of March, June and Dec.
The yellow line represents sunrise and the red sunset. June shows us that during the summer months we will have the most exposure on the front of the house. December depicts the greatest exposure on the back and the east side of the house (so more windows on this side would bring in more sun during the winter months). Helpful to know!
Just for fun we also pulled up the same type of info on the moon’s transit at MOONCALC.ORG for September, June and January.
These pictures indicate that the best time to see a full moon rising in the evening over the water will be over the winter months. The moon’s transit will be farther south (behind the house) over the summer months.
Links:
Check the Sun transit across your place in the world
Check the Moon’s transit across your place in the world
We just spent a considerable amount of time looking into the type of house we would like to build on a lot on Vancouver Island. We came up with a very high level plan which would probably work well on this property. We are hoping to keep the square footage down to below 2500 square ft. and we would like to have a main floor level entry from the garage on the upper level of the lot. Here’s what we came up with.
Coming from “flat land” Saskatchewan we do however worry about living on a sloped lot, but having a sweeping view of the ocean (Stuart Channel) makes it a compromise I believe we could probably live with.
We also would like to build a suite with kitchenette in the lower level to accommodate all the visitors we hope to be getting from Saskatchewan, Alberta and beyond. 🙂 Yes, and what a great holiday for our family and friends! We will supply the accommodations and a car for you to explore the Island, what a great deal! (More about that later, you might notice it becoming a bit of a reoccurring theme in our future postings!)
We just came back from the island after spending 12 days in and around the Chemainus and Nanaimo area. We were shocked by how real estate sales on the island seem to be booming. The real estate agents are calling it a “bump” As we drove around the island all the “For Sale” signs we saw during our last visit had little sold signs attached to them! Before we left Regina I thought something was going on as I noticed some of the prices rising but had no idea how quickly both land and houses were selling. After much discussion we decided to buy a piece of land to get a foothold into the market. The window was closing fast on the availability of properties so we decided to act. We are now negotiating on a property in Chemainus on Orca View Terrace. The last ocean view in our price range!
Fraser Adventure . com 