laneway home in Vancouver

Well here it is almost three weeks later and all the drainage is finished, some landscaping done (with the bobcat), and the walls and floors of the laneway home are framed in (see pictures below). The weather has been on and off with some nice days, and some rainy ones. It’s better than snow I say! We didn’t have any difficulty framing up the walls and floors, but the roof promises to be a bit of a challenge. We’ll be hand cutting all of the roof rafters on site. The result will be a spectacular vaulted ceiling that really expands the feeling of size inside without actually increasing the floor space. The upper floor will have a maximum height inside of almost 11 feet. From the split level kitchen, the roof peak will be a jaw dropping 15.5 feet above, with a large 2’x4′ skylight to illuminate the entire area with sunlight! Most builders (and framers) want to do it the easy way and use trusses. This saves them time, and therefore money. Trusses are much quicker to install, but you sacrifice the beauty and space of a cathedral ceiling. The reality is, the smaller the building, the more you have to pay attention to maximizing all available space. It does cost more, but I feel the end result is worth the extra effort. When you consider the land costs here in Vancouver, the construction costs of a new home are a smaller proportion of the total cost. Why not do it right!

construction work in progress

John and Emily working hard putting the subfloor in.