"Surprise" Renovation with Casey Brennan

Casey Brennan is a full time Fernie resident that recently completed a renovation just off of the Historic Downtown. Casey had the opportunity to slip into the real estate market in 2002 when the house came up just within their price range. The renovation process would involve a lot of work, but the Brennan family was ready for the challenge. Or so they thought.

Casey and crew were in for more work and headaches than anticipated. Originally the plans were pretty basic. Add a basement, open up the main floor, add a dormer to the 2nd floor upstairs, and bring the interior and exterior up to date with a natural, mountain feel. This in itself was a lot of work as the house was equipped with badly damaged pine flooring, 70’s style paneling on the walls, no foundation at the front of the house, and the list continued to grow.

During the beginning of the renovation period, in the second half of 2005, Casey noticed that there was no insulation in the walls, but abundance in the crawl space. He wondered whether the pebble like substance, known as Zonolite vermiculite insulation, was the toxic asbestos contaminated substance he had heard about. When he came across a marked insulation bag Casey returned home and googled the substance only to realize the extent and severity of its toxicity. He couldn’t help but think about the dust particles that had easily made their way into his lungs during the gutting process to date.

After doing adequate research Casey was surprised and astonished by what he uncovered.

Pacific Rim was hired for the professional and safe removal of the substance, a cost of over $6,000, which meant no dormer but it was a loss that was worth it in Casey’s mind. The vermiculite was sent for testing and the results confirmed that asbestos was indeed present. “CMHC and Health Canada tell people to not touch it, don’t remove it. It’s benign unless you disturb it.” said Casey. According to Casey, there currently isn’t adequate education available regarding this problem. The fine particles of the substance create a dust that can settle in your lungs, the

That was the unpleasant part of the renovation experience for Casey and his family. Another aspect that wasn’t anticipated was the length in time to completion. This home was the first renovation Casey has completed in Fernie and his family had to move 3 times during the process. The Brennan family is very happy with the results, and now that the process is complete and they are settled, it looks like they are here to stay!

When did you purchase the house, and for what price?

Um, in 2002 and I’ll just say that it was the cheapest house on the market at that time. It was what we could afford.

What was your ultimate goal, renovation wise?

To put the house on a good foundation. I was not planning on doing a complete renovation but when we found the asbestos in the ceiling, we also found that it was in all the walls. There were piles of it at each stud cavity. We had to take it down to studs and start from scratch. We also wanted to make the bedrooms nicer and fix the kitchen, and put a bathroom in upstairs.

What was the renovation process like, and what was the time frame?

The process was very, very intense. I acted as the general contractor, with general advice and help from John Hoffer. But I did a fair amount of work. The time frame was almost a year, 11 months until we were back in. We just finished the bathroom on the main floor this spring – the last significant piece of work that needed to be done on the house. The back deck last summer, and the front porch after we moved in. We still have to do the landscaping and build a ridiculous amount of shelves and closets. That’s something we’ll noodle away at that over time.

The process was something I don’t want to repeat. If I build again it will be a house from scratch. Renovation can be expensive and painful, constantly running into problems. Things don’t fit, you need to custom build almost

How would you describe the design style you used?

Hmmm. Personal? I don’t know. It’s certainly exactly what I wanted - the vision that I had for the place. Rustic alpine. Emphasizing wood and natural materials (other than drywall of course).

Is there anything you would have done differently?

We just had such a crazy winter last year and the snow between the houses was crazy. I had to shovel down to uncover the buried windows. I thought that I might have built a roof that would hold the snow, but I would have had to re-engineer the roof and it would have cost $10,000 and I couldn’t afford that! If I would have had more money I would have liked to install an on demand water heating system. I would have liked to have purchased an air heat exchange system. I wouldn’t have installed the heated floor in the upstairs bathroom, don’t think I turned it on once last winter! I might have done something different for the counter tops – a different material than concrete or have done formed countertops. I might have bumped the whole house up a couple of feet because the sewer was above the footings and we had to have a sump pump.

Ultimately were you pleased with the final result?

Yes!

What is the property currently worth?

I don’t know, $400,000 and change. It’s hard to say, things are changing.

What is one renovation/design rule you live for?

Environmentally friendly and as efficient as possible.