New Year, New House?

Well - my first post of 2012 - and hopefully by the time January 1, 2013 rolls around, we'll be all set in our new place and I can reflect upon this whole thing.

The brief update on things: we're basically set with our designs, but there are a few little things that I'd like to modify before we submit them to the City. With Bruce on holiday and Ian not back in the office until Tuesday, it may be another week before we actually get things to the City, but we'll see.

In other news - here are some things I've learned since I last posted:
1) My foundation walls are too low. I had always kind of assumed that the foundation walls were buried behind the cladding, but no, in fact the cladding DOES go to the base of the foundations...which in turn are basically at ground level! Yikes! So, another $$ rolls along and means that we'll need to build up the foundations by at least 6-8" (you're supposed to have at least 8" of your foundation exposed where it meets the ground in order for it to breathe and keep things from your cladding - e.g., termites, moisture, etc.). Brett tells me that it will be about $1500 to extend the foundations to the necessary height...not the worst expense, but also the budget of one of our bathrooms!

2) My ceiling joists are actually smaller (in all directions) than I had originally assumed. They're 7" x 1.5" (I had been assuming 8"x10". Don't think there will be issues with that, but will need to double check. Found a kind of neat thing as well when I dug around under the ceiling tiles the other day (see pic - 1928 Steven Toth = previous owner and I'm assuming his birthdate). Definitely some history to the house!

Oh Steven...why did you not cross your "t"?

3) I "think" we'll actually have a mountain view from the top level when all is said and done (at least in the winter). That's good news - mainly because I really like looking at the mountains - but also because it increases the value of the house.

4) There are lots of options out there in terms of toilets (the latest thing I've been looking at). At this point, I think the leaders are the Toto Aquia II and the Kohler Persuade (pictured). In looking at the various reviews out there, some people seem to complain about cleaning "skid marks" from the dual flush/low-flow toilets...which frankly we're kind of used to anyhow.

Toto Aquia II

Kohler Persuade

5) The latest thing in building wrap seems to be paint-on wraps. I'd been guided to this RGuard CAT5 product by a friend, and so I've been doing more digging on paint-on-WRBs (or Water-Resistant Barriers) and it would seem that DuPont now has a comparable product - "paint-on Tyvek" or Tyvek Fluid Applied WB as they call it. Still not sure if I trust it long term, but the idea of it is very appealing.