Crown Jewel
About 5 years ago, when the building market was hot, we found a great lot out in the county to build our next project. The land was on a grassy hillside off of a lightly used county road. From the high side of the property you could see the Canadian Rockies. It was gorgeous. We decided to orient the house to capture those views.
This project, at that time, was our biggest undertaking and we were ready. I think necessity caused us to do all the foundation work on our own and it was hard work. We had to learn a lot about rebar schedules, retaining walls and grade beams. I know that “hands-on” experience has helped all of us in understanding the logistics of later projects.
We moved on from a hard foundation to challenging framing. There were several days we had to melt solid ice off the tops of the walls so we could walk on them. From the end of framing on, the project went fairly smooth. Now we hire out all of the tile work and exterior stonework, we have some amazing craftsmen sub-contractors, but back then we were the ones that did the work. I can remember doing tile on several projects, including this one, for about a month straight! After that I didn’t want to touch a tile saw…ever.
Upon completion, this house became the crown jewel of our projects. Since then we have build bigger and more elegant houses, but this one sticks out when we think of our top ten greatest achievements.
We love what we do and are glad to share our experiences with you. Here are some pictures of the finished product.
-Squalicum Builders Team
