COLLABORATING ONLINE
Family is having home custom built by Willowbrook to suit their needs
This custom build by Willowbrook Homes brought together an interesting constellation of priorities.
First, there was the desire to get back to rural roots. Then there was the need to respond to climate change on two fronts — making the home as energy efficient as possible, while also making it impermeable to severe weather events such as hail and high winds.
And, finally, it needed to be bought and built while the owners live outside the country.
Located southwest of Okotoks on a forested acreage, Mike and Lucie Day, and Mike’s sister, Deborah Day, are building a home with Willowbrook Homes that will meet those needs.
The home is a bungalow with a walkout basement. It has a large open living area, with a central atrium, kitchen, living room and two bedrooms on the main floor. The walkout basement holds a wine and cold storage cellar, a workout room, and a large footprint of space for later development. Mike is an engineer, and has travelled and lived around the world. In fact, he and his wife currently out of the country, so he and Willowbrook Homes are collaborating via an online program on all the details of the plan.
Willowbrook Homes focuses on building acreage homes, infills and renovations. The Calgary-based business is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
Deborah, who lives in Calgary and works in the stage and film industry, is able to stop by the work site to consult on progress, as well.
“The Co-Construct software was very important to us, because it enabled us to stay in contact with what’s happening every single day with the house. Notes are exchanged, questions are asked, there’s pictures,” Deborah says.
The home’s design is inspired by the Days’ family home in Head of St. Margarets Bay, N.S. For instance, it features a central atrium, but rather than with glass walls on four sides and open at top to the elements as the original one is, this one is engineered to be weather responsive. The atrium features triple-pane windows facing three interior walls, along with one solid wall. The space will have a glass ceiling with skylights that open. They are rain-sensitive, so they can close automatically according to moisture in the air.
Willowbrook’s construction manager Jason Roberge is working closely with the Days on the home. It features insulated concrete form blocks making up not only the basement, but also the main floor exterior walls, and a concrete ceiling.
“Mike wanted a weatherproof and fireproof home,” says Roberge. “It’s almost like a commercial application in a residential setting. We have our Hambro suspended slab system with the concrete on top — that’s four inches — and we ran that concrete all the way across.”
Hambro is a flooring system using steel joists and a concrete slab reinforced with wire mesh. While ICF blocks are more commonly used for basements, bringing them all the way up to roof trusses brings mould control, and a better insulated and quieter home.
Spray foam insulation will give the home an R-70 insulation value instead of a typical R-40 value.
“This will withstand hail, major wind and weather of every description. I lovingly call it the bunker,” Deborah says. And the family is sensitive about weather events — their Nova Scotia home once lost part of its roof to a hurricane.
The home is set in a wooded grove.
“We want to be in the woods, because we know that the woods holds your water table. It’s what drives the water into your well,” Deborah says. “The woods help with insulation, keep wind velocity under control. Everything is about living in a balance with nature. And we do love the deer.”
The Co- Construct software was very important to us, because it enabled us to stay in contact with what’s happening ... Notes are exchanged, questions are asked, there’s pictures.