The Journal
Field notes from two decades of building.
Practical, honest writing on planning, materials, multiplex builds and the trade-offs that decide whether a home performs over decades, not just photographs well on day one.
New to the process? Start with the Custom Home Guide six chapters covering everything between deciding to build and the year-five conversation.
Featured · Process
The Weekly Site Meeting: How Communication Runs on an Icon Custom Home
Most custom home problems are communication problems wearing a hard hat. Here is how we run the weekly site meeting on a Burnaby build, what the decision log does, how photo updates work, and what goes wrong when all of that is left to text messages.
Latest
More from the journal.
Planning
Duplex or a House With a Suite? Choosing on a Burnaby SSMUH Lot
A Burnaby R1 lot can carry one custom home with a legal suite or a two-unit duplex. They look similar on a site plan and behave differently on title, at the party wall, at the meter, and on resale. Here is how we help owners choose.
Sub-Market
Building a custom home in Richmond: flat land, flood levels, soft soil and the ALR
Richmond is the opposite of a Burnaby slope lot: flat, low, diked and built on river delta. That changes the floor level, the foundation, the drainage and the zoning. A working guide to what is different, from the flood construction level to the farmland on the east side.
Craft
Drywall in a custom home: finish levels, ceilings, corner beads and warranty tolerances
Level 4 or Level 5, flat ceilings or texture, which corner bead, where the control joints go, and the exact tolerances a BC warranty provider uses for cracks, nail pops and bowed walls. The drywall decisions that decide how a Burnaby custom home looks under a big west window.
Planning
The surveys a Burnaby custom home needs, and when each one happens
Four surveys touch a Burnaby custom home: the legal posting plan, the topographic survey that drives the height calculation, the form survey before the foundation pour, and whatever gets measured at the end. Here is what each one does, who orders it, and what a missing one costs the schedule.
Design
Designing a Custom Home on a Burnaby Corner Lot: Two Frontages
A corner lot in Burnaby has two street faces, one front yard, a sight triangle at the intersection, and a driveway the City wants on the lane. Here is how the Burnaby Zoning Bylaw treats a corner, and how we design a house that uses both frontages.
Maintenance
First Fall and Winter in a New Burnaby Custom Home: The Checklist
The first wet season is when a new Burnaby house shows you how it drains, how it breathes and where the water wants to go. Gutters, perimeter drain cleanouts, hose bibs, the sump pump, the heat pump, the fireplace, snow on a flat roof, and what to write down for the warranty list.
Industry & Code
Fire Sprinklers, Smoke Alarms and CO Alarms in a BC Custom Home
Burnaby only requires residential fire sprinklers in a house set far back from the street. North Vancouver requires them across its fire limits areas. Here is how an NFPA 13D system ties into the water service, what the BC Building Code asks of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and why we settle all of it before rough-in.
Renovations
Renovating a Unit in a Strata-Titled Multiplex in Burnaby or Abbotsford
A strata-titled duplex, triplex, or fourplex renovates differently than a single-title house. Here is what strata approval, common property, and the depreciation-report exemption actually mean before work starts.
Process
Utility Connections for a New Burnaby Custom Home: Power, Gas, Water and Sewer
A finished house with no meter is a house nobody can live in. Here is how BC Hydro, FortisBC and the City of Burnaby each connect a new custom home, who owns which pipe, how temporary power works, and which lead times decide the occupancy date.
Design
Ensuite and Family Bathroom Layout in a Burnaby Custom Home
The ensuite has more decisions per square metre than any room in a Burnaby custom home: where the toilet goes, whether the shower has a curb, how far apart two sinks sit, where the window looks, and where the fan actually vents. Here is how we lay it out.
Craft
Engineered Lumber in a BC Custom Home: I-Joists, LVL, Glulam and Trusses
Walk a Burnaby framing site today and most of the floor is I-joists, the long beams are LVL or glulam, and the roof is trusses. Here is what each product does, why the structural engineer specifies it, and how we keep it dry through a Lower Mainland winter.
Process
The selections schedule on a BC custom home: when each decision is due
Every finish and fixture on a custom home has a date by which it has to be chosen, set by the inspection that closes the wall it lives in. Here is the selections calendar we run with owners and designers, stage by stage, and the long-lead items that move the whole schedule when they slip.
Sub-Market
Building a custom home in Surrey: lot size, the ALR, trees and permits
Surrey gives you more land than Burnaby and more kinds of land: South Surrey, Cloverdale, Fleetwood and Panorama Ridge each build differently. Here is what changes about the ALR, the City's permit desk, the tree bylaw, lowland soils and SSMUH.
Design
Custom home design on a narrow Burnaby lot: setbacks, light and stairs
A 33-foot lot in Burnaby Heights or Capitol Hill leaves 7.66 metres of buildable width once the side yards come off. Here is how we plan windows, light wells, the stair and the lane garage so a long, thin house still feels open.
Systems
Hot water in a new BC custom home: tank, tankless or heat pump
A new Burnaby home built under the Zero Carbon Step Code's EL-4 cannot heat its water with gas on the prescriptive path, which turns the hot water decision into a choice between an electric tank, a heat-pump water heater, or a heat pump that does space heating and hot water together. Here is how each one behaves in a house with four bathrooms.
Design
Laundry room design in a Burnaby custom home: where it goes and why
Upstairs by the bedrooms, off the mudroom, or in the basement: the laundry location decides how the house gets used every day. Here is how we choose it on a Burnaby custom home, plus the drain, venting, sound and folding-space details that make it work for twenty years.
Process
Building inspections on a Burnaby custom home: the full sequence
Burnaby lists eighteen inspections on a new single-family home, split across four City inspectors, and the frame inspection cannot be called until the plumbing, gas, wiring and heating rough-ins have each passed. Here is the order, who books each one, and what stops the job when one fails.
Code & Permits
Retaining walls on a Burnaby slope: design, materials, and permits
A retaining wall over 0.9 metres needs a permit and an engineer's stamp in Burnaby, the lowest threshold in Metro Vancouver. Here's how we plan grade change on a sloped custom-home lot so the wall does its job for decades.
Code & Permits
Pools and spas on a Burnaby lot: setbacks, enclosure rules, permits
An uncovered pool needs at least 3 metres from every property line in Burnaby, and the enclosure bylaw applies before anyone can swim a lap. Here's how a pool or spa actually fits into a custom home's site plan.
Design
Landscape and exterior lighting design for a Burnaby custom home
Good exterior lighting is planned with the electrician during rough-in, not bought at a hardware store after the landscaping is finished. Here's how we layer path lights, uplighting, and eave downlighting on a Burnaby custom home.
Code & Permits
Fence height rules and privacy design for a Burnaby custom home
Burnaby sets different fence height limits depending on where a fence sits on the lot, and a fence on top of a retaining wall follows its own rule. Here's how we plan real backyard privacy inside those limits.
Industry & Code
BC Hydro and CleanBC Heat Pump Rebates in 2026: What a New Custom Home Actually Qualifies For
BC Hydro and CleanBC both pay you to switch to a heat pump, and both programs say no to a brand-new house. Here's the rule that excludes new construction, straight from the official pages, and what it means if you're building instead of retrofitting.
Design
Designing a Guest Room That Actually Gets Used
Most guest rooms are used a few weeks a year and sit empty the rest. The ones that work are designed for two jobs at once. Here is how we plan a guest space in a Burnaby custom home, including the acoustic and bathroom details that decide whether guests sleep.
Planning
A Second Building on a Burnaby Lot: Laneway and Coach House Basics
Burnaby's R1 rules now allow more than one residential building on a lot. That is a different thing from a secondary suite, and it changes servicing, access, and tenure. Here is what to sort out before you draw anything.
Free Field Guide · 9 pages
Before You Break Ground: The Vetting Checklist for Hiring a Custom Home Builder in BC
The 30 questions we'd want a homeowner to ask any builder, including us, before signing a contract. Use it as a conversation tool when meeting candidates. We'll email you the PDF, no follow-up required.
- How to verify a BC Housing licence and 2-5-10 warranty
- What 'good' looks like for site supervision and change orders
- Five walk-away signs that should end any builder conversation
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