Projects Blue Kingship and Yellow Submarine took a small detour through 2022 into 2023.
As the real estate bubble was starting to contract, John and Wendy took advantage of the sellers market to sell their property in the city ahead of schedule, and move to a property in May 2022 that is close to our build site.
This has opened up many more opportunities, one of them is for Emily and Kevin to also move up ahead of schedule! With the gap closed between the Papineau Homes projects and the Toronto, it will be easier to make time to build, and be together.
The move for Kevin and Emily to join John and Wendy took months to plan. But of course, the weather didn’t care. On the evening Kevin moved north, a snow squall and cold temperature warning had been issued. On the day Kevin arrived with the truck, it was a crisp -28 C outside, without the windchill! By the next day, the cold had taken its toll on the truck battery, and it would no longer start until later receiving a boost. The truck did have some cool dinosaur info though that I think Toby would have liked, and that was an appreciated synchronicity.
Now that we’re all near the property we’re building on, we’re hopeful that it will be easier to create content for you, including live-streams!
While Project: Red Carr prepares their building drawings, we’ll be uploading footage taken from 2021 from when we all worked together to help the Red Carr family move into The Shoe!
In Part 3, work continues. And we introduce a very, VERY important part of the process we had to look after.
While we’re organizing plans for content to create, here’s some archival footage from July 2021 when we were all working together in Preparing The Shoe.
In Part 2, we do some painting, start setting up the new HVAC system, and show Project: Yellow Submarine’s accommodation for a few weeks.
While we’re organizing plans for content to create, here’s some archival footage from July 2021 when we were all working together in Preparing The Shoe.
In Part 1, we unload our skid-steer loader, prime one of the kids’ bedrooms, and prepare the utility room.
Kevin has maintained a private database for about a year, tracking 4-5 years of electricity, natural gas, and water usage at the property they currently reside at. The intent behind this is to better understand how energy use changes throughout the year, right down to the day or even the hour. This will be important when considering the specifications for off-grid electrical and rain harvesting systems. This data will help determine how large a battery bank to build, how large an inverter to install, and how much water storage capacity will be needed.
Equally important is to understand the energy and water harvesting potential of the property, which Kevin has also been researching. This information will help determine the size of the solar panel array that will be needed to recharge the battery bank within a limited seasonal window.
Project Yellow Submarine has made this information public! Check it out here:
Kevin and Emily are in the process of preparing a comprehensive project binder to consolidate all of their thoughts and notes together, in preparation of engaging an architect to help them produce a design for their dwelling that will take all of their goals into consideration.
To that end, they’re going to start sharing some excerpts from their project binder, which will include things like how to consider a potentially suitable location, auditing space for a home, and determining your utility requirements.
Have any questions about the project? Let us know!
Planning has started for each of the teams future dwellings at Papineau Homes.
Bernice and Alain from Project: Red Carr have a rough design that they’re ready to take to a draftsperson for detailed drawings to get approved by the local municipality.
Kevin and Emily from Project: Yellow Submarine, having the benefit of more time, are taking a slightly different approach. They want their home to be entirely off-grid, and possibly incorporate rainwater harvesting. They have been carefully documenting their electricity and water usage to assess the system sizes they’ll need.
Each team will share more details over time, and we’ll continue to produce videos at each significant milestone.
What questions do you have about building a rural home? What about off-grid and rainwater harvesting? Let us know!
The property we secured in Northern Ontario has an existing dwelling on it, which we lovingly call “The Shoe“.
In July of 2021, Alain and Bernice from Project: Red Carr moved into The Shoe, as the first part of the plan to eventually create new dwellings on the property — a process that we expect will take a few years. Project: Red Carr hopes to have approved plans and to start building their new dwelling in Spring 2022.
Papineau Homes – Red Carr Moves To The Shoe
We appreciate the help we received during the move, and we hope you all enjoy following our progress.
