We had delays in housebuilding this winter, due to high winds and snow storms. I had to remind myself that this too shall pass, and that change is inevitable. The good news is that we now have a solid roof that has built-in wind resistance....
I’ve known for a long time that resiliency – the capacity to cope with whatever life throws at us – depends on personal characteristics and life circumstances. I am realizing now that resiliency helps a lot during construction of a house! Here are three examples. From...
I recently had the pleasure of sharing some work with my husband, although it could have easily created conflict. As part of building a house to see us into very old age, we had a wide-open, crude channel inside the foundation for the plumber to eventually...
The footing for our new house was very well done, and the foundation frost wall went in without a hitch. It was my husband whose old soccer injury to his knee flared up that knocked him off his own footing and turned me into a...
We were so excited when the excavation fellows arrived to start our new house – with strict instructions to save the topsoil. Moving shrubs The first thing they did for us was move five shrubs – plants that were too big for my husband and me to...
I thought we were prepared about choosing sub-contractors to build our new house. We knew to ask around for recommendations, especially from suppliers of materials. We knew to get several quotes, and what to look for in quotes. What we didn’t know was how much...
We had a dream of building our new house in such a way that we could turn the second floor into a second unit. At some point in the future, it might serve as a rentable unit in case we needed income, or into a...
Building a new house to see us into old age meant saying goodbye to a red maple tree in our back yard. Having it cut down was sad, but we felt a little better when we found new uses for it, just as we're finding...
There’s a big difference between demolition and deconstruction, as my husband and I learned. We had long dreamed of a net zero house, such that we produce as much electricity as we use, and now in later years, we wanted something that would serve us...
I have so appreciated the helpfulness and civility of Halifax’s civil servants. They have worked with us with patience and kindness to figure out ways that we could live in our current house while we build a new house directly behind on the same property....
