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Property type: Residential R2 zoning, 1 1/2 story single family dwelling
Tax assessment 2014: $2,412.36
Built 1914-1918, extensive renovations, new addition on south in 2004.
Lot size: 33’ 4” X 140’
House: approx. 1,188 sq. ft. (Main floor 828 sq. ft., 2nd floor approx. 360 sq. ft.)
Unheated porch: 120 sq. ft.
Full height basement: 400 sq. ft.
2 full bathrooms; upstairs with clawfoot tub, downstairs with shower.
2 bedrooms upstairs; with closets and built-in drawers and shelves
Open front room; living/dining/office or bedroom/studio. Could be divided into 2 bedrooms.
Open plan kitchen/family room, family room new addition in 2004
Garage, small single detached, wired 15 Amp.
Property type: Residential R2 zoning, 1 1/2 story single family dwelling
Tax assessment 2014: $2,412.36
Built 1914-1918, extensive renovations, new addition on south in 2004.
Lot size: 33’ 4” X 140’
House: approx. 1,188 sq. ft. (Main floor 828 sq. ft., 2nd floor approx. 360 sq. ft.)
Unheated porch: 120 sq. ft.
Full height basement: 400 sq. ft.
2 full bathrooms; upstairs with clawfoot tub, downstairs with shower.
2 bedrooms upstairs; with closets and built-in drawers and shelves
Open front room; living/dining/office or bedroom/studio. Could be divided into 2 bedrooms.
Open plan kitchen/family room, family room new addition in 2004
Garage, small single detached, wired 15 Amp.
Appliances included: Gas stove, Refrigerator, Freezer, Front load washer, Electric dryer.
Heating: Forced air, natural gas, medium efficiency furnace. Natural gas water heater. Yearly natural gas costs for the furnace, water heater and gas stove have averaged less than $1000 per year for the past 5 years.
Roof: Asphalt shingles, 35yr warranty, installed in 1998, in good condition. They were installed on new plywood sheathing, spaced above the old roof to leave a continuous ventilation space from the eaves to the ridge vent, preventing ice damming. The family room addition had a steel roof installed in 2004
Exterior siding: Cedar lap siding. New addition has 1/2" exterior plywood with battens, painted.
Electrical: 100 amp service. Mostly newer wiring. 2004 new wiring to kitchen, family room and main floor bathroom (Permits 18-00616, 18-00617). 1998 new breakers and wiring runs to second floor, all outlets, fixture boxes and aluminum wiring replaced. 1970s wiring in main floor living room and basement, all copper. One main floor overhead circuit original “knob and tube” wiring on new breaker and wiring run. Front porch new wiring roughed in.
Plumbing: Completely re-done. New sewer and water connections from city mains, fall of 2014. Main floor all new copper plumbing, 2009, including sewer, clean-out and back-up valve, copper heat recovery exchanger on drain, stack inspected and pressure tested. Second floor bathroom had all plastic plumbing installed in 1998.
Foundation: View pictures of the renovations View pictures of the basement
Concrete, full height under main living area, crawl space under front of house, insulated from the outside to R8+ and parged in 2010. Concrete piles 10” diam. X 20’ deep and crawl space under 2004 addition. Pressure treated wood piles under porch, 2010.
The original foundation was a 10” thick X 4’ high concrete wall, buried about 2’ below grade, with no footings. Soon after a full basement was dug and poured under the main part of the house, likely in 1921 to allow for the installation of a furnace, leaving the north 10 feet of the house over a crawl space. Some shifting of the foundation occurred in the crawl space in the early years, but appears to have stopped early in the 1920s, as evidenced by the north side glass and 1920s style mouldings which were built to fit the out-of square window openings and show no signs of subsequent change of shape. Since the present owners bought the house in 1992 there has been no sign of movement. There has been no flooding in the basement in that time, likely due to good surface drainage away from the foundation. From 2008-2010 the foundation was excavated to a depth of at least 2' below grade on the full height walls and to the bottom of the crawl space walls. Loose concrete was removed, and all cracks and voids were repaired from the inside and outside. New vinyl framed windows were installed on the west wall. The foundation was waterproofed and insulated from the outside (see details below) and parged, then backfilled.
Insulation: View pictures of the renovations
The original house was built with 1918 state of the art “Arctic” construction, which featured balloon framing with 3/4” shiplap on both the exterior and the interior. Vertical boards on the inside created a 1” airspace under the plaster and lath. In the 1970s the exterior wall stud spaces were insulated with blown-in cellulose insulation, which subsequent renovations have shown to be well filled and packed, with few voids. The walls of the main floor north room and the north wall of the upstairs bedroom still have this insulation, which gives them an approximate R-value of R-6.5 in the few void areas, and R-20+ for most of the walls. In all the renovations attention has been paid to the details of maintaining a continuous vapour barrier, particularly where renovations join the original structure.
The second floor sloping walls and ceiling were originally insulated with wood chips in the rafter space. In 1998 the whole upstairs was renovated, and the roof ridge was opened up to permit new wiring and insulation. The original woodchips had settled to the eaves, and the rafter spaces were insulated with blown-in fiberglass insulation, which together with the new airspace above the old roof and new roof sheathing give the sloping ceiling an insulation value of approximately R-18. The small attic space above the level ceiling was insulated with fibreglass batts to R-40. All ceiling fixtures had sealed pans installed, and the outside sloping and vertical walls under the eaves (behind the interior walls with the built-in shelves and drawers) were carefully sealed with plastic vapour barrier and acoustic sealant and ventilated to the interior. The south wall of the second floor was completely upgraded when an old door was removed and replaced with a new energy efficient window in 2004.
The south family room addition built in 2004 has fiberglass batts to R20 in walls, R40+ in ceiling. A complete vapour barrier with fixture pans sealed with acoustic sealant was installed and special care was taken with the seal to the main house vapour barrier.
In 2009 the exterior walls of the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom had the original plaster and lath removed, and original windows were replaced. The interior shiplap was removed in places, and the few voids found in the blown-in cellulose were filled with fiberglass. The shiplap was covered with an additional layer of 1” styrofoam, which was sealed behind a new vapour barrier and covered with 1/2” drywall, bringing the R-value of these walls to approximately R-28. A portion of the ceiling was also removed at this time to allow for the insulation and sealing of the second floor joist ends.
The foundation has been insulated from the outside to R-15. The bottom 8” of siding were removed and the joist headers and the basement walls were insulated with 2 layers of 1 1/2” styrofoam to a depth of 2' below grade. The earth was excavated out from the sides of the house and the trench was sloped away from the house. 3” of styrofoam was installed on the bottom of this trench extending the insulation out to 3’ from the sides of the foundation, and then backfilled. This technique prevents the frost from ever penetrating the earth under the house foundation, as well as preventing the entry of water.
Landscaping: View pictures of the exterior
The back yard is fenced, and is full of potential for someone interested in urban orchards and agriculture. The back and side yard are full of flowering edible fruit trees and shrubs. These include Saskatoons, crabapple, apple crab, hazelnuts, gooseberries, blackcurrants, cherry, roses, American Linden, caragana and lilacs. It has been neglected in recent years, and the garden space is now overgrown with raspberries, native roses and buffalo berries. No pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers have been used anywhere in the yard since 1992.
The front yard landscaping was destroyed in the late fall of 2014 when the City water valve failed and we were required to replace the old lead water pipe and clay drain, which involved the excavation of 3 deep holes in the front yard. Somewhere under the clay is a packed gravel sub-base for a curving path and some lovely flower beds. The bright side of this is that the new owners do not have to worry about lead in their water or roots in the drain, and this expense and bother which is looming over all properties in the old neighbourhoods has been taken care of. The new owners can landscape to their taste. Perhaps they will prefer to have parking spaces?
The sides of the house were backfilled after repairs in 2010, and left to settle. On the east side, a 4” deep sub-base of road gravel was installed and packed, ready for paving stones. The west, alley side of the house has not been landscaped.
Heating: Forced air, natural gas, medium efficiency furnace. Natural gas water heater. Yearly natural gas costs for the furnace, water heater and gas stove have averaged less than $1000 per year for the past 5 years.
Roof: Asphalt shingles, 35yr warranty, installed in 1998, in good condition. They were installed on new plywood sheathing, spaced above the old roof to leave a continuous ventilation space from the eaves to the ridge vent, preventing ice damming. The family room addition had a steel roof installed in 2004
Exterior siding: Cedar lap siding. New addition has 1/2" exterior plywood with battens, painted.
Electrical: 100 amp service. Mostly newer wiring. 2004 new wiring to kitchen, family room and main floor bathroom (Permits 18-00616, 18-00617). 1998 new breakers and wiring runs to second floor, all outlets, fixture boxes and aluminum wiring replaced. 1970s wiring in main floor living room and basement, all copper. One main floor overhead circuit original “knob and tube” wiring on new breaker and wiring run. Front porch new wiring roughed in.
Plumbing: Completely re-done. New sewer and water connections from city mains, fall of 2014. Main floor all new copper plumbing, 2009, including sewer, clean-out and back-up valve, copper heat recovery exchanger on drain, stack inspected and pressure tested. Second floor bathroom had all plastic plumbing installed in 1998.
Foundation: View pictures of the renovations View pictures of the basement
Concrete, full height under main living area, crawl space under front of house, insulated from the outside to R8+ and parged in 2010. Concrete piles 10” diam. X 20’ deep and crawl space under 2004 addition. Pressure treated wood piles under porch, 2010.
The original foundation was a 10” thick X 4’ high concrete wall, buried about 2’ below grade, with no footings. Soon after a full basement was dug and poured under the main part of the house, likely in 1921 to allow for the installation of a furnace, leaving the north 10 feet of the house over a crawl space. Some shifting of the foundation occurred in the crawl space in the early years, but appears to have stopped early in the 1920s, as evidenced by the north side glass and 1920s style mouldings which were built to fit the out-of square window openings and show no signs of subsequent change of shape. Since the present owners bought the house in 1992 there has been no sign of movement. There has been no flooding in the basement in that time, likely due to good surface drainage away from the foundation. From 2008-2010 the foundation was excavated to a depth of at least 2' below grade on the full height walls and to the bottom of the crawl space walls. Loose concrete was removed, and all cracks and voids were repaired from the inside and outside. New vinyl framed windows were installed on the west wall. The foundation was waterproofed and insulated from the outside (see details below) and parged, then backfilled.
Insulation: View pictures of the renovations
The original house was built with 1918 state of the art “Arctic” construction, which featured balloon framing with 3/4” shiplap on both the exterior and the interior. Vertical boards on the inside created a 1” airspace under the plaster and lath. In the 1970s the exterior wall stud spaces were insulated with blown-in cellulose insulation, which subsequent renovations have shown to be well filled and packed, with few voids. The walls of the main floor north room and the north wall of the upstairs bedroom still have this insulation, which gives them an approximate R-value of R-6.5 in the few void areas, and R-20+ for most of the walls. In all the renovations attention has been paid to the details of maintaining a continuous vapour barrier, particularly where renovations join the original structure.
The second floor sloping walls and ceiling were originally insulated with wood chips in the rafter space. In 1998 the whole upstairs was renovated, and the roof ridge was opened up to permit new wiring and insulation. The original woodchips had settled to the eaves, and the rafter spaces were insulated with blown-in fiberglass insulation, which together with the new airspace above the old roof and new roof sheathing give the sloping ceiling an insulation value of approximately R-18. The small attic space above the level ceiling was insulated with fibreglass batts to R-40. All ceiling fixtures had sealed pans installed, and the outside sloping and vertical walls under the eaves (behind the interior walls with the built-in shelves and drawers) were carefully sealed with plastic vapour barrier and acoustic sealant and ventilated to the interior. The south wall of the second floor was completely upgraded when an old door was removed and replaced with a new energy efficient window in 2004.
The south family room addition built in 2004 has fiberglass batts to R20 in walls, R40+ in ceiling. A complete vapour barrier with fixture pans sealed with acoustic sealant was installed and special care was taken with the seal to the main house vapour barrier.
In 2009 the exterior walls of the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom had the original plaster and lath removed, and original windows were replaced. The interior shiplap was removed in places, and the few voids found in the blown-in cellulose were filled with fiberglass. The shiplap was covered with an additional layer of 1” styrofoam, which was sealed behind a new vapour barrier and covered with 1/2” drywall, bringing the R-value of these walls to approximately R-28. A portion of the ceiling was also removed at this time to allow for the insulation and sealing of the second floor joist ends.
The foundation has been insulated from the outside to R-15. The bottom 8” of siding were removed and the joist headers and the basement walls were insulated with 2 layers of 1 1/2” styrofoam to a depth of 2' below grade. The earth was excavated out from the sides of the house and the trench was sloped away from the house. 3” of styrofoam was installed on the bottom of this trench extending the insulation out to 3’ from the sides of the foundation, and then backfilled. This technique prevents the frost from ever penetrating the earth under the house foundation, as well as preventing the entry of water.
Landscaping: View pictures of the exterior
The back yard is fenced, and is full of potential for someone interested in urban orchards and agriculture. The back and side yard are full of flowering edible fruit trees and shrubs. These include Saskatoons, crabapple, apple crab, hazelnuts, gooseberries, blackcurrants, cherry, roses, American Linden, caragana and lilacs. It has been neglected in recent years, and the garden space is now overgrown with raspberries, native roses and buffalo berries. No pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers have been used anywhere in the yard since 1992.
The front yard landscaping was destroyed in the late fall of 2014 when the City water valve failed and we were required to replace the old lead water pipe and clay drain, which involved the excavation of 3 deep holes in the front yard. Somewhere under the clay is a packed gravel sub-base for a curving path and some lovely flower beds. The bright side of this is that the new owners do not have to worry about lead in their water or roots in the drain, and this expense and bother which is looming over all properties in the old neighbourhoods has been taken care of. The new owners can landscape to their taste. Perhaps they will prefer to have parking spaces?
The sides of the house were backfilled after repairs in 2010, and left to settle. On the east side, a 4” deep sub-base of road gravel was installed and packed, ready for paving stones. The west, alley side of the house has not been landscaped.