Last week-end we all went to our site and decided to try climbing up those ladders up to the second floor and to the loft. What a thrill! The kids were the first to climb, and they then toured every inch of the structure, including the scaffolding...
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| 2F scaffolding leading to Yani's Bedroom |
In a matter of minutes they were totally comfortable going up and down and they were busy doing just that the whole time.
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| Touring all floors |
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| What will be our Front Balcony |
We are sure glad we went over to check the details because we noticed a couple of issues we need to address with our architect and builder.
One of the things we noticed is that the roof on a couple of sides was not coming out as much as planned. We consulted our architect who assured us that this problem would be fixed. So even though our builders have well laid out plans and instructions, errors do happen. So checking things for yourself is probably a good idea if you want to avoid unpleasant surprises.
The other thing we noticed is how high the unfinished ceilings looked, with beams showing. This gave us the idea to retain some of the beams in the Living Room and the Kids Room and place the ceiling a bit higher than planned.
Height really changes the feel of a room and we hope that these room will appear larger with this initiative. Since we hadn't thought of doing this before, the beams that were used do not have a beautiful finish and if we were to just stain them, they would show imperfections.
So we decided to paint the beams white, the same color as the ceiling in those rooms. We found this picture a good source of inspiration:
We have also decided to let show a couple of beams in the Master Bedroom which has an inclined ceiling, even though it is already pretty high.
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| Master Bedroom in progress |
We are happy that our architect and builder are flexible enough to consider our concerns and offer solutions. This is after all our first time building a home, and we are learning along the way...
2 comments:
Exposed beams do look very nice!! One thing to ask is whether insulation will still be present in that 2F ceiling. We noticed that they installed very thick (15cm) styro foam like insulation between roof and ceiling. I'm pretty they will, but might be good to confirm.
Thanks Eric for this warning. Insulation is an area that’s been giving us a lot to think about from the start. I checked with family back home and the standard there is either Rockwool (laine d’acier) or Fiberglass (laine de verre).
My brother who has a house in the countryside, a pretty cold place, says he put 6cm of Styrofoam in Exterior Walls, and used blown wool in the Roof. He says that he regrets not having used any insulation in Interior Walls for soundproofing.
We’ve been told we’d get 20cm of Rockwool in the Roof, but since Rockwool is not available right now, we'll use "Moko Foam", which is a bit different from Aqua foam in that it doesn't require water to expand. Because Moko Foam has higher insulation properties than Rockwool, our contractor plans to place 16cm. One advantage at this time of placing higher insulation is the possibility to get some refund through the government-sponsored Eco Point system.
We'll use 9cm of Aqua Foam in Exterior Walls and 7.5cm of Polystyrene Foam under the first floor. Between certain interior walls, like between the kids’ rooms, we'll have 4cm of Rockwool, mainly for soundproofing. Sure hope this is enough to protect the house!
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