My first home - Concept to completion part 1 (Exterior)

UPDATE! I've posted part 2! It can be found in the link below.
My first home - Concept to completion part 2 (Interior)

Have you ever had the chance to build a home from the ground up?

Over the past few years I was lucky enough to have the chance to build my first home (beside my siblings). The process was not easy, the cost was not cheap but at the end of the day it was worth it.

Since this was a family project and not a single person had any experience building homes, project managing, or designing we had to enlist the help of professionals. We visited several show homes of local home builders but ultimately ended up with a company named Alloy Homes.

If anyone has built a home, they would know that it is not as easy as it seems. Especially since this was a custom home I had the ability to select just about anything. I did have guidance from the designer but I was always hesitant of choosing something incorrectly. I had so many questions that I needed answers for.

Do I need double or triple pane windows?
What kind of siding should be used?
What color stucco?
Closed or open riser stairs?
Carpet in the basement and rooms?
What color cabinets should I get?
Which appliances?

and the list goes on and on and on. Luckily we live in a time where you can find answers to just about anything with a simple google search. So that’s what I did.

One resource I found myself using and highly recommend is a website called Houzz. You can sort the pictures by style and save the ones that you like. The best thing you can do when building a home is have pictures of things that you like. This will help you at all stages.

It would be hard to cover the process from start to finish, and to be honest I think I would bore you to death. But I would be more than happy to answer any questions that anyone might have just leave a reply below.

Now to the fun stuff. I’ll take you through the building process with pictures!

A conceptual sketch of the building

The first rendering, unfortunately due to fire code we were unable to have a 4th floor with a balcony without having a cement staircase. Which is super expensive.

A birds eye view rendering with the 4th floor removed.

This is where it started to get exciting. To see the ground being excavated and the foundation about to be poured.

Right after the foundation was poured the framing started. This was probably the quickest part of the whole build. One day I stopped by the site and there was nothing framed, a few days later 2 floors were framed. Then the third.

Once the house was framed and the roof was on. The stucco and hardie board siding was applied.

And here is the finished product. These pictures were taken by Marie-Helene Bilodeau for Alloy to submit to the Canadian Home Builders Association Awards, which we later won the Best Multi Family Project in Canada over 1500 square feet for 2017.

Thanks for viewing everyone!