DROPPING IN
Umber Realty sets a new home into an old neighbourhood, writes S. Evelyn Cimesa.
A few months ago, residents in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood noticed that a brand new home had appeared in their neighbourhood over the course of an afternoon. Many of them had left for work first thing in the morning, passing the empty lot on Clarey Avenue. However, when they returned, something had changed. The site now held a 2,100-square-foot, twostorey home with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a rooftop patio. And it blended in, as if it had always been there.
Earlier this year, homeowner David Radburn hired Umber Realty Inc. to help him find the perfect plot of land for his family’s dream-home project. He ended up selecting 35 Clarey Ave., a site tucked between Bank Street, the Rideau Canal and TD Place. With many green spaces and pedestrian pathways nearby, it was the perfect location to put up a custom home.
“It was a seamless experience: it went off without a hitch,” Radburn says.
“Shaun (Founder, of Umber) managed all of the issues and problems and really does his job — the whole company does, actually.”
When Radburn came to Umber Realty with the idea of modular homebuilding, the company facilitated the deal and made it happen.
The innovative local brokerage was the first in Canada to launch virtual reality home walk-throughs for all of its listings. Now it’s shaking up the traditional building model by introducing an alternative that’s efficient, environmentally friendly and forward-thinking.
With no construction zone or need to divert traffic, modular building is respectful to the community because it doesn’t produce excess waste or noise. It also respects the buyer by not displacing them during construction. In the end, the neighbourhood was pleased with this project because it introduced a positive side to construction. With its non-disruptive nature, this, Umber believes, is the future of homebuilding and will propel the construction industry forward.
After addressing the scope, possible heritage and zoning regulations, architect Jason Flynn of Flynn Architect Inc. gave the goahead and crafted a design that accommodated the need to transport it by truck and crane. The team reached out to Canada Builds in Lindsay, Ont., for the project and were on their way to craning in a custom home.
“There’s always the challenge of distance.”
“The factory, of course, is 3.5 hours away but it actually solved a lot of problems for me,” Radburn said.
“When I look at the big picture,” he adds, “the hurdle of driving down and having meetings off-site a few hours away, it’s almost a nonhurdle given all the other problems that could have occurred. I think I saved a lot of trouble by doing it this way and grouping all of the trades under one roof. It wasn’t my responsibility; my responsibility was the one point of contact. Managing between here and my one point of contact made communication sometimes a little tricky, but in the end it worked out great!”
On Tuesday, May 9, they transported the house to Ottawa and crane-lifted it into the lot on to a pre-finished foundation over the course of an afternoon. It looked like just another infill house in the neighbourhood — the fact that the house hadn’t been constructed by traditional building methods was undetectable.
Radburn’s favourite part of the experience was watching the house come in on a crane. It was the big moment as a crowd gathered on the street to watch the development happen.
“They were all excited with me. All of my neighbours wanted me to let them know when it was coming because I used to live on this street, so I know a bunch of people up and down.
“They all wanted to know when this was coming so they could get a look at it,” he says.
The costs associated with this style of construction are less than the construction of a new custom home and the cost of purchasing a home in the area. Radburn said that the Canada Builds component was $368,000 but that there were a lot more expenses on top of that, such as finishings and custom features.
He took on some of the tasks that Canada Builds normally would have handled.
In the end, Radburn said that that component amounted to half the cost of the build, placing this construction just over the $700,000 mark, not including the price of the lot.
Umber Realty also made the community a part of the project by creating an online site for the build and advertising it on signage at the lot.
The website outlines the entire project and features multimedia such as photography and a drop video. In the future, there will be a virtual reality tour of the completed interior, as well.