1403 3 Ave N property

This is a house built in 1906 at 1403 3 Ave. N., Coalbanks (later to become Lethbridge), AB, Canada. It was the same year the Lethbridge Viaduct (commonly called the High Level Bridge) was built. It is one of the only two-storey houses built in the area. It’s been added on to four times but still maintains close to its original look. I bought the house in Dec. 2021 as a rental property. It has a 3-bedroom suite on the main floor and a one-bedroom suite on the second. This blog is an account of all that we (FT and I) have done to make it rentable. Read about the main or 2nd floor (“up”) by going to that category. Comments are welcome (but moderated)!

fitting footing

2026102820260726 by Allan

An attempt was made to jack the east portion of the south wall of the house. Obviously it was a futile effort as…

the ground is too soft,
the jack is an an extreme angle to the house,
there is no plan to shore the house after jacking.

I thought about exhuming the dirt under this wall from the basement. This was an even worse choice as there must be 5 or 6 yards of dirt to remove. As Floyd and Dave said, it would take a crew of several people several days to excavate this. And then, once removed, this side of the house will always be prone to slumping, cave-ins, and water runoff. Bad, bad idea.

It is obvious that a footing would be fitting for this area. The difficulty will be fitting a footing in. If there were a footing fitted, then it would be a fitting footing to hold the house up. Nearly everyone had a fit when I decided to do this.

begin front of house excavation, front porch transformation

2026110720260725 by Allan

The east end of the south side of the house must be jacked up to match the rest of the house. There is a giant sag in the living room floor, from the middle of the floor to the south wall; it dips about 2″ (5cm) over 2′ (0.6m). This is an exploratory day. I’ll see what is under this end of the house after digging it down.

The east windows of the front porch (soon to be a veranda) must be removed before jacking. Otherwise, they will break into bits and pieces.

landslide cleanup

2026110820260724 by Allan

Due to heavy rains, the basement dirt slumped. This is what happens when eavestroughs aren’t put in place.

There is also a lot of garbage that remained from continued work.

reasoning for renovations

2026071920260719 by Allan

I have some explaining to do. The reasons renovations to the main floor suite were started in the first place were

1st floor suite bathroom was cut across by 2nd floor stairway (duck your head!)
sloped floor
2nd floor suite had stairs so steep that a mountain goat couldn’t climb them (although this was not tested with real mountain goats)

Some other reasons were

no insulation at all – just bricks acting as heat sinks (not even structural)
no bedroom or living room ceiling lights
bad location of bedroom doors
bad windows
- BR1 had a window opening into the front porch – no fresh air, not to mention illegal as all hell as there was no means of egress
- BR2 had a tiny, leaky awning window
- BR3 had a large, leaky window
- living room window leaked, would not close
dated, painted 1960s panelling
no 36-inch egress doors
and many, many more

grounds maintenance

2026071720260715 by Allan

This shrub needs to be gone. I’m sure its roots are messing with the house. I would like to … Then again, maybe it’s the only thing keeping that side of the house up.

Meanwhile, the lawn was cut.

But, there are thousands of these little plants growing all over. What are they? I think they may be tiny trees hoping to grow. I bought some week killer to help tamp them down.

Next…

final(ly) wall

2026072020260714 by Allan

The next batch of lumber is for framing the last wall and building the 2nd floor suite stair landing.

As Dave was priming and re-mudding, priming, and painting walls, I framed the final wall separating the two suites. It is a 2×6 fire-rated wall. This seemingly took forever (2 hrs, 20 min after arriving with lumber) as my Bosch laser meter wasn’t accurate, out more than four inches. Someone mentioned, “Maybe the batteries are low.” But the speed of (laser) light doesn’t change when batteries are low.

Now that that is done…

water leak

2026072020260713 by Allan

There seems to be a leak in the water pipe from the street. The dirt is damp. The water meter was jostled about several times when exhuming loose dirt, removing the retaining wall, replacing copper water lines with PEX, etc.

light, fan, tub, cabinet, and other junk

2026070420260627 by Allan

I need a new ceiling fan for the kitchen. However, all the simple, clean, white ones without any extra goo-gogs and dingle-bombles and doo-dads all over it have single light or an LED cluster that isn’t suitable as a) it doesn’t offer enough light for a kitchen or b) the lights are built-in and not changeable. Here’s not a bad one from Home Depot.