Garage Floor

Sept 15: So the garage foundation was back-filled with more crush to about 6 feet deep - it has now become the staging point for the construction equipment and material. The garage floor is now almost level to the street - much nicer for access. You can now see that the garage is much higher than the rest of the house.

The crawl space flooring is covered with plastic in preparation for pouring the crawl space floor.

Sept. 15 Lots involved with the foundation - things that we take for granted in a house are built into the foundation - if it is not done correct now, there will be problems later on. The biggest thing is drainage - drainage around the outside of the foundation is a multilayer process:

1. the concrete is painted with a bitumen product (we used to call it tar)
2. the foundation is wrapped in a waffle sheet of PVC that is stapled to the concrete
3. a perforated pipe is buried at the base of the foundation to take water away (like weeping tile used to function)
4. a gravel product, called 'crush' is filled in next to the foundation so no organic material is in contact with the foundation, and promote drainage of moisture away from the foundation. 

Also next to the foundation is the drainage system from the house - very cool.

We have a foundation!

 Sept. 14: I arrived to the building site for the first time in 7 weeks and Wow, we have a foundation. 

The house seems enormous, and sitting very high on the lot, but placement is per plans. It seems we will have minimal yard, but that also means minimal yard work. It is cool to see the drainage system around the foundation - all is as it should be. 

Preperation for Construction

After many months of Archaeological studies, arborist report, development permits and building permits, home designing and landscape planning were ready to go.

As part of the agreement with the Town of Sidney to give us permission to cut down the one Douglas fir trees, we had to erect a safety zone to protect the other trees from potential damage during construction 

Preparing for Development & Building Permits

Prior to building on the a lot the town of Sidney require us to fist petition for a development permit to prove that the land is safe to construct a home on.

Since this is an oceanfront lot we are obligated to construct a sea wall prior to being allowed to build. Fortunately for us Stan had already done that before we purchased the property from him.

The site encroaches on two separate sensitive ecological environments, from the high tide line to 10 meters with in the property boundary is an Archaeological zone and because the lot has acancient growth Douglas Fir trees located throughout it the rest of the lot is lies within a forest reserve

Since the site plan for construction encroaches on the Archaeological zone  we were required to undertake an archaeological analysis prior to construction.

Once the Archaeological survey was completed we needed permission to cut down one of the ancient growth Douglas fir trees that was unhealthy and was at risk of falling during construction.

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The Land

In October of 2014 we were fortunate enough to come across this beautiful plot of land on the south shore of Roberts Bay in Sidney British Columbia, and fell in love almost immediately.

The land is many things to us:

1. a reward for 23 years of living in company housing while working in Saudi Arabia which taught us we aren't condo people..
2. A step into the future as we plan our repatriation to canada after 26 years of living on foreign soil.
3. But mostly it was a great opportunity to build our dream home in one of the world's most beautiful places.
4. Finally it was proof that people can still be trusted, we bought the land on a handshake agreement with the previous owner. Everyone got what they bargained for with no issues, and the process is enjoyable when you get to deal with a reasonable and honest human being, Thanks Stan!