Utilities In

With most of the utilities conduit already in place Home Gas comes in for their in-slab installations.

Ian Haughton of Phoenix and Dayne Brady of Home Gas discuss bringing the propane into the home.  Home Gas product will be firing the AC, kitchen range, hot water heaters, dryer, bbq, fire pit and the Tiki torches in the back yard. Quite a lot of planning to do!

More to come later on these great products

The Home Gas team install the line into the home.

Digger Day

Next comes the job of backfilling the building’s foundations - finer material that compacts well is used here.

 

 

A compactor is used above to compress the fill, which must be brought in and compacted in stages called “lifts”. Again, this step is critical to avoid settlement of the floor slab of the home.

Foundation Block

We are already well along in constructing the foundation of the home. Many waterfront home owners are mindful of the flooding that occurred in Ivan and want to get their ground floors well up above any potential reoccurrence of that event. The stem walls and the fill required within can be a major additional cost to building the home and the final slab level should be discussed and agreed upon early in the design process. An elevated home site can also impact the way the exterior elements of the home are approached and you must plan for transitioning in and out of the home.

Concrete Day #1

It is always a good day when the first concrete truck arrives!

                                      Ian supervises the concrete going into the strip footings.

We will build up the home’s foundation walls from this concrete and steel base.

 

Breaking Ground!

We are off to the races, and we have brought in Andres Artuch, one of the island’s finest backhoe operators, to assist us in carving out the trenches required for the home’s “strip footings”

“Drey” will follow the spray painted markings to excavate exactly the right size, depth and width for the home’s concrete footings.  Site foreman Troy Rankin is seen here managing the process with a laser level.

The steel is raised above the bed of the footing to allow for coverage beneath

The footings for the entire home will be excavated and steel laid in before the first concrete arrives on site.

Vertical steel, called “starter bars”, are then tied into the footings to connect to the concrete foundation walls – You can see that the project coordinator is doing his job as the concrete block (in the background) for the foundations walls has already been delivered to the site.

If you missed out on our earlier entries, be sure to click on "Older Posts" below or browse the "Blog Archive" above-right, to go back to the beginning of the project and see the whole story.

Project Set Out

We did have a couple of minor changes to make on the drawings to satisfy Building Control, but overall we are thrilled with the quality of the drawings from Icon and its MEP design team – the changes are minor and of more of a clarification nature than outright corrections. Well done Tami and the team at Icon!! This is an excellent example of why we bring the whole team to the design and planning process as early as possible.

We have been setting out the dimensions of the home on the finished pad over the few days. You can see where Ian, Troy and their crew have been painstakingly identifying all the major elements of the home; spray-painting the exact locations of walls, openings, and other elements like the septic tank, the propane tank, the pool and the generator pad. These marking will indicate where the foundations for the various building structurals will be dug.

Prepare The Site!

There are about two feet of topsoil to be removed from the site and replaced with crushed rock in order to create a finished building pad. If you recall, we knew about this extra topsoil and the fill that would be required to displace it from the geotech (scroll back and watch this if you have not) at the beginning, so we were able to allow for that in our budget.

The pad must be checked for density a number of times during the filling and compacting process – this ensures that the home will not settle as the building process unfolds. When you see cracked slabs and walls in a finished home, chances are this step was either omitted or not performed correctly. It takes time, effort and money to do this correctly but it is critical to the quality of the finished product.

Utilities Into The Site

Well the drawing portion of the program is largely complete, although there are still many decisions for the client and the development team to make. We have met the target number for the home, although some of the items in the budget have simply been assigned a sub-budget within which we must work when finalizing selections. 

With the drawings submitted to planning we will now await any questions that the building inspectors may have regarding the design, deal with those queries, and await our building permits! In the meantime we will call in our AC, electrical and plumbing partners for a discussion on bringing the utilities from the road into the building lot. It is critical that everyone knows what everyone else is doing and that we work in a coordinated and cost-effective manner, with the least amount of disruption to the neighborhood

The design and MEP teams meet with Phoenix to examine how the utilities will be brought into the site.

Intro To Woods

Of course now that we are designing mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems we will need to tell the designers what we are using for plumbing and lighting fixtures (the AC guys are already off and running!). This will tell them what the power loads will be like, where we need current and data, where the drains will be and all the critical information that will make sure there are no changes when the fixtures and fitting show up.

                                                     Keith Miller is ready to go!

  

We cannot stress enough how important this phase of the design is – if there is an area in the buildout where a lot of unnecessary time and money is spent it is here! Communication between the designer, the interior designer and the building team must be crystal clear, checked and double checked again.

Seems like the right time to introduce the Interior design team right?

Owned and operated by a local Caymanian family since 1961, Woods Furniture & Design has long been recognized as a leading furniture retailer in the Cayman Islands.  Our 14,000+ sq. ft. showroom, the largest on the island, boasts a variety of mid to high-end home furnishings.  We showcase the quality products and impeccable craftsmanship of distinguished manufacturers such as Drexel Heritage, Pearson, Lexington, Bernhardt, Bassett and many, many more.

Our commitment to quality is unsurpassed and we continually strive to be the very best at what we do.  We meet each client’s individual needs and work very hard to ensure their total satisfaction with every facet of our business.  Our highly skilled and experienced staff is able to support our clients in general interior design / decorating projects, space planning, window treatments / installations, wall coverings, renovations and project management. 

In 1999, we added a kitchen/bath cabinetry and flooring divisions to meet increasing demand in the marketplace.  A natural compliment to our traditional business, the addition of these two divisions has helped us to become a “one-stop-shop” for all your home décor needs.

Open Monday through Saturday, and able to deliver orders to our clients 6 days a week, we’re confident you’ll find everything you need at Woods Furniture & Design.  Stop into Woods today and find out why we’re so much more than great furniture!

         Tami meets with Sherrill Bushfield (right) at Woods to begin discussions on the interiors

   Once the room layouts have been established it is time to bring in our experienced interiors team from Woods Furniture and design, who will help the client and the development team to start thinking in greater detail about ceilings, trims, accents and the all the myriad of materials that will be used throughout the home. It is your interior designer’s job to stay on top of all the trends, all the changes in lighting and plumbing technology, furnishings, flooring, wall treatments, window treatment options etc, and share all this with the team. We are delighted to have Sherrill Bushfield from Woods with whom to collaborate; she is one of the very best that we have ever worked with!

As mentioned before, it is important to have a clear understanding of the client’s finish expectations before finalizing the major details of the home as these will have a significant impact on the comprehensive budget for the home.

Decisions will have to be taken on finishes, furnishings, window coverings, kitchens and bathroom fittings – all critical to a comprehensive and elegant presentation.

Woods provides consultation on all particulars in the home and will work closely with the architect to maintain thematic elements from door to door. I you really want a polished product this is a wise investment.

Sherrill suggests a storage solution for the In-law suite.

Intro To Subcontractor Partners

Ok, we are at the end of March and we have finished the architectural set and are ready to meet with all our subcontractor partners on the project – you will see all their logos on the right hand side of the blog. Many of those logos will connect back to their company websites and we strongly encourage you to visit their sites! While you are at it please visit our new Phoenix Website (inset here somehow) to read some more about this iconic cayman construction company – 30 years of first class work being celebrated in 2011!

 

Our Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical Subcontractors will work closely with us to integrate their individual designs into the drawing set that will be submitted to Planning for approval and then Building Control for permitting. Unlike commercial applications, homes are reviewed by CPA and BCU concurrently, resulting in (in theory) a quicker processing time for residential applications.  We will be using Millers Plumbing, Quality Electric, and a combination of Home Gas for the equipment and gas line installations and MegaSystems for the AC design and systems installation. Of particular interest will be Home Gas’ input, as our program will incorporate a lot of gas-fired technology in order to cut down on the electricity bill. More on all this later but we do need to meet with Dayne Brady, the Home Gas GM, to integrate his ideas into the design documents.

Dayne and Lem from Home Gas explain to Brad the various options for integrating gas into the home.

Once all the MEP and Structural drawings are completed and packaged up with Icon’s drawings we will be ready to ‘take them downtown’

Design Meeting #3

Well we heard back from Brad and Trisha that hey really loved the split level design and you will see that we have transferred the plan from sketch form to CAD (Computer Assisted Design) and we now have a computer-based design from which to work for this meeting.  It is the Client’s first look at the home in blueprint form. The home is still larger and likely more expensive than the program allows but before we start sizing it we want to first get a better idea of what the Watts are looking for in the way in interior and exterior finishes.  We need to take that information into account when we begin making final decisions about the size of the house, the pool and other large ticket items.

You will see that we have amassed and presented a vast collection of “contemporary” images that will help us draw out the specific taste direction of the client. This way we can very quickly identify the hot buttons, or “must haves” in the project. For example, this client loves to entertain and must have an outdoor kitchen and a waterfall into the pool, but will be satisfied with a single car garage and a carport for a second vehicle – as long as the lot is designed so he can extend the garage later if he wishes. A little give and take and a whole lot of honest dialogue to get what is important into the program without breaking the budget – hard work, but better to do it now than when the drawings are finished!

Design Meeting #2

Brad with Tami and Ray Boyce, Phoenix’s Senior Project Manager, who will take the early design and coordinate the preliminary costing to make sure we are on track with the budget. Ray also will identify any buildability issues and cost savings opportunities in the early design phases – great to have those builders at the design table early in the process!

Pictured above and below are a single story (split-level) design and a two-story design, both of which suit Brad and Trisha’s design criteria but each with very different feel and different set of advantages, flows, views, and budgets. We hope he likes the one we do!

So now we have two plans for Brad and Trisha to take home, study, and make notes on. It is uncommon for a client to come back and say that we completely missed the target so we always look forward to the feedback – Brad initially liked the split-level plan and this is the one that the development team also felt was more dynamic. Let’s see what happens next.

Design meeting #1

Good news on the Geotech Report and a very good day for Brad and Trisha and the development team! The news is good for two reasons: the first is because we will now be able to put the client’s full budget towards the showhome from the slab up, and secondly, we will have the option of designing the entire home on one level if we so choose. If we had required pilings we may have been forced to look at a two storey home in order to minimize foundations costs!

More options = a happy design/build team

              OK, so it is time for design meeting #1 – wake up Louis we are ready to get started!!

 

Tami, Louis and Neil will now spend the next few hours gathering information on The Watt’s lifestyle, their wish-list for home features, examining potential room sizes, room relationships, and possible combinations. The idea is to clearly understand how the family lives, what they like and dislike about their present home, what the future looks like for additional children, visitors or live-in help, entertaining etc. We will have to closely examine the site, the location of sun and shade at various times of the day, the prevailing breezes and the views to all sides of the lot.

From this information we will Icon will generate the first of a series of hand-drawn sketches as we try to get closer and closer with each sketch to the client’s vision of the perfect waterfront home. The home design must be one that meets the optimum size,  the optimum quality of finishes and the look that says “this is who we are!”,  making all of that still meet the budget target that we have agreed on as a team at the outset of the project. It takes collaboration, trust, communication and creativity from every member of the client/designer/builder team to make it happen.

Geotech/Pilings

The first item of business, now that the lot has been selected, is to confirm what we think we already know from the developer at Grand Harbour: that the home can be built on grade without any pilings. Pilings are used when the land is not solid enough to support the weight of the house and a series of concrete columns must be poured to support the slab of the home.

The diagram above shows how a drilling rig must be retained to drill through the soil and marl into bedrock (1+2), concrete must then be pumped through the auger or drill bit (3+4), and then a steel cage dropped into the uncured concrete to provide strength. It is common for a custom home to require as many as 50 of these pilings before the construction of the home can begin.  To assure that this will not be necessary we went out to the site with our structural designer Joe Coe from Lloyd Hue Structural Engineers Ltd to have a good look at the site.

Check out the short video on how the testing went here.

Meet the Design Team

Ok, now we know where we are going to build, it is time to meet the design-build team that will steer the Watts through this exciting but intricate process.

Left to right: Neil Rooney - Project Developer, Tami Scott - Project Architect, Shayne Howe - Project Manager

........and the Icon design team:

Left to right: Tami Scott - Senior Architect,  Amy Letourneau - Intern, Louis Mussington - Architect

A Lot to Decide On

Meet the Watts Family! Mom and Dad are Brad and Trisha, daughter Mackenzie and another little daughter on the way! These folks need a great home!  First we need to decide on a lot – we have it narrowed down to two though!

Sunrise - we like the beautiful grand entrance.  We also liked the beautiful views of the lagoon and North Sound.  We learned that family had recently purchased a piece of land two lots down from us and we were excited about eventually living near them.  To top off that it is family, our daughters are very close in age.  Brad liked being further away from town.  Trisha didn’t like the drive.  We disliked the fact that we would have to build on piles (which is a significant cost increase).  We did not like the fact that a dock was not already in place.

 

Great view to the North Sound.

But man....those pilings........

And then there is Grand Harbour!

This is a nice lot – NW view!

We liked the fact that the lot comes filled properly (no need for piles) and has a dock already built.  We like the close proximity to Hurley’s grocery store and the kids play area at Grand Harbour.  Trisha particularly likes being closer to town.

 

The shopping and restaurants close by are great!

Mackenzie can’t take her eyes off the surf pool!

I think this family knows where they want to be!!!

Brad – “Value has always been important to me – we are getting a great parcel at a decent price.  We initially considered building in Crystal Harbour.  In fact, at one time, we owned a lot there.  Crystal Harbour is absolutely beautiful and built around a golf course.  Ultimately, we liked the larger piece of land in Grand Harbour for the approximate same price.  Also, we always knew we wanted to be on a canal.  We looked in Canal Point and Yacht Club.  Grand Harbour just gave us more of an “at home” feeling."

From the Developer’s perspective, we are happy to be able to put that pilings money back into the house. Excellent choice Watts family!