Albi - Custom-built Home - Floors Can Be Beautiful

Floors Can Be Beautiful.

Now that the protective covers are off we can admire our floors. They are gorgeous! Nancy and I are getting very excited to move into our brand new custom-built Albi home. No more delays.

Move-in Date – Soon!

We make arrangements with a Moving Contractor to come when we are ready to move the big stuff. They give us a quote of $1,200, for a two-story, four-bedroom house with a finished basement. I think the price is right. The small packing we start to do ourselves.

Packing Party with Friends

How did we accumulate so much? Now, we start to feel the pressure. But, we have a great idea. Let's have a 'packing party' and get our friends to lend a hand. We invite a few close friends. They are happy to help.  We order in food. The night is fun for us and it's nice to know everyone is carried away with the excitement too. We have about 20 boxes to go in one night. There is still a lot more packing to do. We make several trips to get more boxes from Home Depot.

Fencing between Good Neighbours

There are still some extra costs that we need to deal with. For example, we knew about our requirement to help pay for the fencing on one side on the neighbouring property. When we actually move in, it moves to the top of the priority list. But planning a house-warming party is also on the agenda. Since we have out-of-town relatives who will visit this summer, we may actually have two!

Albi Custom-built Home - Drywall – Whoo-hoo!

Drywall – Whoo-hoo!

Before the drywall was up, light was just coming in everywhere because there were no walls!! Now we can see exactly what the natural light looks like and it's absolutely wonderful and bright! So many windows it's going to be expensive to cover!! Once the drywall is finished we can also start to take measurements and start shopping for furniture, for example the dining room table.

Kitchen Cabinets -Wow!

Looks can be deceiving. The camera angle makes the kitchen look bigger. It's smaller than what you may imagine but there's room for everyone. The counter tops are just what we ordered. It is a dream. We love it.

Lights - Tiles - Backsplash - Fireplace - The Works!

Nancy and I are happy about our choices, especially with the tile on the floors and walls of the master bathroom. We love the backsplash in the kitchen too. Also, the lighting system we decided on is turning out nicely through-out the whole house. Our lights are modern, like us.

Can't Wait to See the Flooring

The floors once laid, were covered up immediately to protect them. We can't wait to see them. We know we have to be patient.

HVAC Last Chance – Before the Inspector Comes

HVAC Last Chance – Before the Inspector Comes

The Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is a sub-

discipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Basically it's the comfort, health and safety of the air in your house. It is an important part of your home. But for our custom-built Albi home, it is more complicated due to the legal suite.

Challenges with a Legal Suite
Building a legal suite from the get-go has saved a lot of time and effort vs. doing it afterwards, but there certainly are some negatives to the process. Primarily the ductwork in the furnace room has to be routed a certain way because it all has to be dry-walled prior to the installation of the furnaces. This basically results in the ducts all being lowered and a very complex system being designed to keep both living spaces completely separate for ventilation etc...

The Duct Work - A Wonderful Mess!

The duct work seems like the challenge similar to a difficult maze. Mike from Arpi’s did a great job.  He is an Absolute Pro when it comes to designing a system that maximises my ceiling height throughout the basement while giving us the ideal flow of air and heat. He designed a system that is exactly what and where we needed it! I am very impressed with his skills! In the end the ductwork looks like it was a puzzle put together with perfect accuracy.

Plumbing, Electrical and Mechanical – Smooth Sailing
Now here is where things get really intense and exciting for me. I don’t know why but I have always been fascinated with what is going on behind the walls in my house. Here is my chance to not only see everything but see how it all goes together and makes my house tick! Progress is fairly quick in most areas. The plumbing goes in fairly smoothly, mechanical and the electrical too. Insulation is installed. We are happy and excited that the city inspectors can now come through. It is the last chance, forever, because the drywall is next. But the Move-in date is ---no! Delayed.

We Have a Hole! Hooray Albi

We have a hole!

Albi Custom-built Home - More Choices – Whew!

More meetings, more choices but what about the building? Delayed...still. At this point we don't care anymore. This is the sad thing. Weeks goes by...well months actually...sigh. We have more meetings and then finally...

We Have a Hole!

A year later, after the date of our deposit, we see some action. We now have a hole dug. All of a sudden we believe in the house-thing again. It was a house-thing but now it will be our home, our beautiful dream home. This is a reality! We drive by the hole many times. The kids talk about the hole at school. Grandparents hear all about the hole. Everybody within earshot, texting and social media knows that we have a hole. Soon, the foundation is laid and the windows arrive at the site. It is time for Nancy and me to celebrate. We hug and hold on tight. It will be a home very soon.

We Meet the Framer – He will Frame our House – Awesome!

We drop by the site to meet the man, named Cody. He is a one-man show, honest, who will build the house walls, subfloors, roof, and even install the windows. He has developed a building method where he will build everything himself. Then with the help of a crane he will assemble it. Wow, we think he is great!

Another Christmas and More Delays 

Windows have arrived.

The weather is not cooperating. It is the Holiday Season after all and the framer takes some time off. Things could be worse. It could be colder, really. Weather in the rest of Canada, like Ontario for instance, is -40 degrees Celsius with the wind chill. LOL, it's even warmer in the Antarctic. More LOL, Iquanas in Florida are freezing and falling from trees. Sheesh...okay a warm spell. We wait for a wall....just one wall please...still waiting...

If you have any questions about building a dream home please give me a call 403-680-4479

Albi Custom Home - So Many Decisions – We are Prepared

Signing off on Kitchen Cabinets

So Many Decisions – A Lot of Work

The decisions we must make are numerous but I guess that's what a custom-built home is all about. Nancy even has to take a few days off work to accommodate all the meetings with people who have different areas of expertise. The budget for upgrades is $28,500 which is built into the cost of the house but we know that we are going to go over. We sign off on: Appliances, Cabinets ($18,000 extra), Interior Selections, Carpet, Flooring, Moldings, Baseboards...just a hundred things to think about right down to door knobs, mud room and even coat hangers. Instead of hardwood flooring we choose a luxury vinyl plank, cheaper and more durable for the kids.

Not Looking Forward to All the Meetings. Why?

The meetings we have at suppliers and at the 'Galleria' at Albi Estates are numerous. The emails back and forth are in the hundreds. Some of the choices we make seem small, like square sinks for the vanities instead of the usual tiny round ones because we like the look and find them more functional, but they all cost money and add up quickly. At the galleria interior selections appointment #1 with Deborah the interior designer, we choose plumbing fixtures, some of the flooring and many other choices. A portion of our upgrades is about $3,500 for the high-end Delta plumbing fixtures. Deborah is fantastic and we leave the meeting feeling pretty good. For shelving and mirrors we go to three meetings and go over budget by about $3,500. Some meetings are easier than others. I am nervous about the upcoming Lighting meeting.

Going to the Lighting Meeting Prepared but – Still Nervous

We go to Cartwright Lighting nine times in total. Lighting is one thing that you can really let get out of hand and we want to make the right choices.

Josh's Diagram

Josh, a sales rep at Cartwright Lighting makes a diagram during the meeting to help us design a custom dining room fixture. He is great and he answers all of our questions. In fact he has a system that he follows to help home owners step by step with the lighting of the 'whole' home. We figure on three pendants above the kitchen island instead of pot lights. The budget the builder gives us is $3,800 but we went over by $2,800 including one fixture that cost over $1,000 for the stairs. We are quite happy and think we are doing a great job of balancing budget with style.

Lots of decisions have been made – A Major Education

The thing about the meetings is that it's great to have all these choices to make it a dream home, but then later you wonder if you made the right choices. We are only human after all. I can certainly say that it has been an education, learning about all the different aspects that go into the design of a house. It can be very overwhelming! Doing a lot of research before and keeping a budget in mind when going into each meeting can really make things easier.

...still more meetings to come and the building is delayed yet again...

Thinking about a dream home? Please give me a call 403-680-4479