Who was this? @Mathew Newcombe I know Indwell in Hamilton has done some pretty interesting social purpose housing projects to Passive Standards (or close to) Incidentally - I used to work property maintenance for a housing coop in Kitchener. Built by CMHC in the late 70s, about 50 units in a townhome complex. Obviously used the cheapest bid.. all the tie rods in the foundations were rusting out and flooding basements... went through a lot of hydrocement that summer lol. So this was affordable housing, built to a low standard. Incredibly important though so there is a spectrum of housing options (left side vs. right side)... It was not politically possible at the time but we would not be in this mess currently if CMHC kept building houses/ coops.

Lot of good points there from Mitch. I definitely agree there is downward labour pressure right now, so you shouldn't get much pushback from trades on price after the fact, unless there is a legitimate change of scope. Many guys right now are happy to get big jobs booked in a few months out. Even if you can give tentative weeks well in advance it's much better than just in time scheduling. I like to do HVAC rough in, then plumbing, then electrical. Much easier to move wire around pipes than the other way around. Give a week or two for each trade with some slack days, so the guys aren't tripping over each other. Keep the site really clean and organized between trades and when inspectors come. Pay for a port a potty on site yourself. Get a disposal bin on site for anyone to use. Keep a good relationship with the excavator so you can move gravel around, do grading etc as things will come up. Ensure there is good access and driving conditions, you don't want to be tracking mud all over the build. Definitely worth it to throw down a load of 3/4 clear stone even temporarily so there is space to park. The septic and geothermal install will make an ungodly mess and potential for serious erosion of the site, think about hydro seeding or straw / erosion control blankets. If you get a big storm and lose your topsoil it will take a long time for sod to establish. Get the roofers to wrap the roof sheathing as soon as possible after framing so dry-in happens promptly. I see exposed OSB sheathing for weeks at a time and its just dumb and asking for problems. I would not pursue Net Zero unless you are particularly motivated philosophically or politically. The main considerations on build quality aside from your finishing imo is a) to sheath or not to sheath, and b) insulation + air tightness detailing. You can go for some intense air tightness / passive home style but I don't see much ROI there. I built a bunch of homes that's a 2x6 stud wall, 1.5" of foam, vinyl siding over typar. Seems crazy to me but it's totally kosher not to sheath the structure if you have wind bracing.

Looks cool man! I like the render on the title page sorta like cell shading? I also literally own that exact truck... (2006 B3000 aka Ford Ranger) Only 2 comments on the drawings - 1. You have electrical but not full MEP. Definitely show the center of drains for plumbing fixtures (sink), that's been a headache for me in the past, especially if it's in slab on grade. I missed that once and had to frame out a whole false wall to run a drain line for a washing machine... 2. I would avoid 45 degree angles on opposing sides in the second drawing. It's somewhat interesting architecturally, but you end up with little triangles of dead space (unless you make clever built-ins), and it's a headache for drywallers / trim guys. Also - a couple of the doors appear to have the rough framing tight to the perpendicular wall. This is a pain to trim, you really need about 6" on either side of the rough opening for it to look proportional, and have space for king + cripples + butt stud. So a 30" door needs at least a 32" RO, plus 6" on either side, so your casing isn't buried right against the corner. Check out https://www.instagram.com/matthew.north/ the "Floor Plan Attack" guy. I bought his manuals they are pretty cheap and I learned a lot from them.

Personally no - I'm pretty interested in these projects though! Would be happy to collaborate or brainstorm. I have spoken with Miklos at https://www.stakt.ca/ and https://www.instagram.com/stakt_architecture/ a couple of times. He's an architect focusing on missing middle stuff. Definitely reach out to him he's been thinking about this space a lot. MLI select is quite appealing to me in the is space, makes the pro formas much better. I did a number of ADUs last year for clients in Guelph / KW / Hamilton. The numbers don't really work from a purely investment perspective and most were doing it for family reasons, where they absolutely made sense. There's a lot more being built but I don't think it's a panacea. A lot of fertile ground for adaptive reuse / new builds in the 4-9 unit range.

2 big costs that seem to often be overlooked are 1) soft costs for permitting, drawings, designs, planning work (variances, applications etc) and 2) site servicing (will you need to upgrade water service from curb stop, connecting sewer etc). If you are operating as your own GC there are a lot of individual contracts that been to be signed to get to occupancy. $550 seems a bit high to me. I built a number of ADU's last year and they were all around $450 / $550 sq ft. You should be hitting economies of scale on the 4-plex to be around $400. I don't believe $250 is possible in this market, you may be nickel and dimed to death on change orders to get to completion.