Despite his religious aversion to alcohol, my friend Todd agreed to roof the distillery (he also did the roof at my house 12 years ago). Todd is su...

Despite the cold, the team pushed on to get ready to pour the slab. I originally wanted polished concrete floors at my house but ended up hiring a ...

The weeks of -20C temperatures has taken a toll on my schedule and moral. Merv's team spent a week digging the plumbing trenches with both a hoe ra...

The brutal cold continues but the team pushes forward despite it. Len from Valley Rent Rite brought us the scissor lift again so we can get the Tyv...

I built my house in the winter and was scarred by the experience. I didn't want to be working in the cold again and pushed hard to get enclosed bef...

No sooner than we were done with the SIPs, the trusses for the flat roof arrived. The design called for 16" open-web joists on 16" centers to accom...

My architect, Paul, originally called from the pitched roof to be supported by timber beams and posts. I didn't like the idea of posts since I figu...

The Ontario Building Code allows a distillery to be constructed with combustible materials like wood if it’s under 300 square meters. Since our dis...

This week Merv took us "out of the hole" by back filling the foundation. It was a tedious task since the gravel had to be compacted every 12" to ma...

Less than 24 hours after pouring the footings, we were back at work on the foundation walls. I spent a lot of time debating what I should do for th...

As the surveyors finished pinning the outline of the building, Perry moved in to put in the forms for the footings. Perry Rouseau is an ICF special...