Starting the Foundation

When a house is being built there are many stages and processes that have to be accomplished.  However, in general many people think that building a house involves:

1. Foundation

2. Framing

3. In-side work

Although the Wendling family has only had a building permit for 10 days, our builder, Lucchetta Homes, has progressed to the point where the began to create the foundation for our home began today with the pouring of the "footings", the connection of plumbing and the creation of the weeping tile around the house.

The footings outline the structure of the house, including the garage and porches (including walk-outs).  It provides a strong base for the entire home and it poured separately from the basement walls of the house (which will be done tomorrow).

Pouring the cement is quite the task and in fact it is amazing to see all of the technology that is used to make the job easier for the workers involved.  Everything from an extended track and delivery system which comes from the truck, this allows the concrete to be poured easier, to a worker controlling the delivery of the concrete through the use of a remote control device - which was really cool!!

Today it took a few hours to pour the footings and soon after they were poured another truck came and spread gravel within and around the house.  This gravel is part of the weeping tile which allows for water to drain and avoid leaking in a house.  Part of the system which ensures that there is no flooding in the house is a sump pump.  Today the hole which will be utilized by the sump pump was created.

At the end of the day the forms which will help create the basement walls, and the rest of the foundation, were dropped off at our site and will be used to continue the construction of our home.

Stay tuned for more details!!

The Big Dig (and downing the big trees)

After 4 days of clearing the building site of trees and brush and one day of the surveyor coming to "peg the house" on the lot, it was time to downing the "big trees" on the lot that and to start digging.

So out came the big earth moving equipment -- and so the digging began.  On the site was the digger and assistant as well as Rob and Ed Lucchetta going over the last minute details with them.  Over the day - the trees were knocked down - the basement was 2/3 dug out - and the water was connected and inspected by the City.

While the backhoe was digging up the foundation Kevin, John (Rosanne's brother-in-law) and Eric and Ryan were tasked to cutting up the big trees.  With two chain saws going and a full days work 4 large trees - with diameters between 40 - 60 cm - were cut up and delivered to their destination.

Tomorrow the basement will be completely dug out - the stumps will be removed from the property - and the lot site will be ready for the next step in the building process - pouring the concrete.  To be honest things keep moving along.  It is hard to believe that we obtained a building permit less than a week ago and we already will be prepared to pour the basement a week later.  To be honest it is to do the planning and hard work of Rob and Ed.  Thanks guys!!

Meet our builder: Lucchetta Homes

When a family decides to purchase or build a home there are a number of important factors to consider:

1. Location.

2. The style and type of home.

3. The builder.

Because we have a family with 5 kids and due to the fact that we truly love to live in Port Colborne it seems that 1. and 2. on the list were already covered.  So that would leave 3. to decide upon.

When Rosanne and Kevin had finalized the plans for their home they decided to have builders bid on the project.  This was a 3 - 4 week process for them as they needed to have a meeting with each builder, which would involve what we wanted to see in our home, have them explain the "standards" that they have for their home and in the end ensure that we were able to compare "apples to apples" when we received their final price for the home we were being asked to be built.

As well, Rosanne and Kevin took the time to "check out their work".  That is they went to look at various homes that the builders had built and to ensure that they made a "quality product".  

After going through this process we made a decision based on the:

1. The best price for what the builder was promising.

2. The best service that we believed that we were going to get from the builder.

We decided to go with Luchetta Homes.  (You can check out their website.)

The person that we got to know through this process was Rob Luchetta. (Pictured above in the black shirt.)  Rob explained everything to us, answered our questions, and was extremely professional when we talked with him.  Rob made us feel at ease and gave us confidence when we spoke with him.  He understood that we wanted to build the best house for our family and yet, he understood that we had a budget and that our house and property were unique.  When it comes to customer service, Rob is A1!!


Rob works with his brother Ed, far right in the light blue shirt.  Ed looks after the on-site aspects of the build and although we have not talked alot with Ed we know that he will do a great job!! (Or so everyone has told us...just kidding.)

Surveying and Preparing for the Dig

Since we were issued a building permit last week the Wendling family has been working hard clearing the building lot of various trees, shrubs and other vegetation.  With that done, today, surveyors came to "stake out" the Wendling home.  

Although it may not seem like a big deal, it is another step in the process to build our new home.  In a day or two large earth moving equipment will come to our building site in Port Colborne to do two things:

1. To dig the basement of our new home.
2. To down the 5 to 6 trees that are dead, within our site plan area, or were too big for Kevin to cut down with his new chain saw.

That being said, it should be mentioned that we have been able to "work around" two very unique and old trees that are on the property.  First on the North end of our property line, and in our back yard, will be a Chestnut tree which various people have estimated to be between 100 - 130 years old.  This tree is beautiful with a straight trunk that goes for 20 - 30 feet.  We are also lucky in that it is extremely healthy and will be something we can look at from our deck or when we are doing activities in the back yard.  Truly nature and trees are a gift from God and this tree is definitely unique.

As well on the South-West corner of our lot is a 80 - 100 year old Walnut Tree.  This tree is also in great healthy and although we had to change our driveway slightly we believe it will be well worth it to keep this tree near our home.


Stay tuned.  More posts to come as things progress!!

Finally Starting

Welcome to our new blog.  The Wendling family has been living in Port Colborne, ON for just over a year after spending 3 years of living in Suwon, South Korea.  One of the goals upon returning to Canada was to build a new house for our family - a house that would that be big enough for the 7 members of our family and a house that would take advantage of the fact that we would be living on 9 acres of "country land" within the City limits of Port Colborne and beside Ecole St-Joseph, our children's school.

During the Winter of 2011 Rosanne and Kevin worked with an architect to create a two storey raised bungalow, pictured below.

After many months of planning, considering, and contemplating the Wendling Family was issued a building permit on Friday, July 20th by the city of Port Colborne to begin construction on their new home on Elizabeth St. in Port Colborne.

To say that the family was excited and relived is an understatement.  The journey to build the house has been long due to the uniqueness of the property and the fact that Ministry of Transportation and Niagara Pensiula Conservation Authority need to give approvals prior to building beginning.

However, after submitting our application for a building permit we had another problem.  The problem was around having services to our lot on Elizabeth St. and the fact that the City and Region had placed equipment on our property without our permission.  This led to Rosanne and Kevin having to make a presentation to City Council.  That led to a newspaper article and many people in Port Colborne becoming interested in our plight.

Port Colborne is a great place to live, usually people let you go about your business - in this way they are very kind.  Yet, when we started having problems with the City we were very surprised by the number of people who supported us.  To them we say thank you.  In the end everything worked out and we are extremely happy to start building our new home!!

The first step was to "clear the lot".  That is we had many, many, many trees on our lot that needed to be cleared.  So with the help of Rosanne's nephews, Eric and Ryan, the family begin the process of cutting and clearing out the trees.

Over the next few months we will keep you up to date with the progress of our home, we hope you enjoy this experience as much as we do sharing it with you.