the second storey. a sequel.

most movie fans will tell you the sequel is never as good as the original. of course there are a few exceptions - the empire strikes back comes to mind - but it's tough to come up with something new and exciting, using the same old characters.

we'll admit to some of the same worries when it came to our second floor. how could it ever match the joy felt when we first laid eyes on wooden frame joining icf wall? sure it would be higher, but the grounded strength of the first floor just felt so...grounded. this second storey would just be piggybacking on the first storey's hard work.

but then we watched the second floor go up and we must admit, it's pretty great all on its own. maybe it's the fantastic views from the bedrooms - downtown to the east, the escarpment to the south & west.

maybe it's the open staircase that leads you up. or maybe we're just suckers for new things.

all we know is the way things are going we're going to be way more excited about the roof than we were about rocky III.

a story about the first storey

for a long time, people would tell us our house was a hole. and to be honest, that was tough to hear.

thankfully the weather has decided to cooperate and we've transformed that hole into a wood frame above a hole.

the ground floor flooring system and framing have begun. as with all construction, we are trying to be ecologically sensitive where possible. the tji joist beams (part of the flooring system) are made with recycled materials. and the icf common wall is a continuation of the icf foundation, providing greater sound and thermal insulation than a traditional wall.

most importantly, the design of a semi-detached features only 3 exterior walls - as opposed to 4 for detached homes. this greatly decreases the energy needed to heat the home. combined with some passive design features to take advantage of winter sunlight and summer shade from trees and the homes will both be substantially more efficient than conventional builds.

dinner at the 3-point line.

it's been cold. and as a result, things are a little slow on the house front. turns out pneumatic tools don't work well when it's -35C. framing has started and we'll post about it soon, but for now some exciting news on the reclaimed materials front.

after seeing gym flooring used in our designer's last build we fell in love with the idea of reclaiming hardwood for our house. and after a few false starts and a lot of searching, we found some amazing gymnasium hardwood. we've secured over 3,000 sq ft of bird's eye maple from the recent renovation of the talisman centre. the wood is in great condition, and we'll have enough for both main and upper floors in both homes.

the wood was taken out of the gym in 5' x 5' pallets. we'll break the pallets down, remove the old nails and staples and then put it back together in the houses. after installation it will be refinished and depending on how it looks, we might even leave some of the sports lines intact.

no word on whether this will make dinner into an aerobic sport or not.