Todd Talbot to host new reno series
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Cottage Life series includes loss of passive house to forest fires
When TV personality Todd Talbot and his wife, Rabecca, set out to build a net-zero, passive house on picturesque Okanagan Lake in West Kelowna, B.C., they never imagined their dream would be over before it really began.
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Their ‘Eh Frame’ was destroyed in midst of construction by raging forest fires in August 2023. The irony of spending more than four years with a film crew documenting how they could build better and lessen their footprint with the combination of net-zero and passive house construction in the face of a climate crisis is not lost on them, Talbot concedes.
“The dream is stunning architecture meets advanced building science in one of the most beautiful places on the planet,” the co-host of Love It or List It Vancouver says in a new home renovation series called Todd Talbot Builds: The Passive House Project, set to premiere on Cottage Life on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
“We found this property and Rabecca and I just fell in love with it. There’s something magical about this place. But we also understand that we’re at this crossroads of climate change. We wanted to build the most resilient, environmentally-friendly home possible: a net-zero, passive house.”
The eight-part series documents the highs and lows of Talbot’s construction journey as he sets out to replace a 250-square-foot cabin and shed that he had transformed into a bunkie and that his family used for just one summer before they began building an A-frame in 2018.
In the series, Talbot removes his Love It or List It Vancouver realtor hat and reveals his in-depth knowledge of the construction industry, taking on the roles of project manager, financier, associate designer, estimator and head of the construction team. Engineers and environmental experts join Talbot in building what he imagined was his family’s future home.
The series showcases cutting-edge, sustainable building techniques and the science behind constructing homes with a minimal ecological footprint. The original pitch of the show was to take the terms ‘net zero’ and ‘passive house’ “and show people that “while they’re nerdy and lots of people don’t necessarily want to look underneath the hood, they can be simplified and they can be cool. You don’t have to sacrifice architectural wonder with high-performance building practices,” he says in an interview with the Sun.
“A passive house is designed to be resilient and ultra energy efficient,” Talbot says in the series. “It uses these key concepts: it’s super insulated, perfectly air sealed, (has) high-performance windows and doors, and uses a fresh air ventilation system so that the building can breathe. It is the safest and healthiest building model.”
But the fires forced Talbot and the film crew to halt production of the series and evacuate West Kelowna. Nearly all the passive house elements were completed except for the installation of the stone wool insulation. When Talbot was allowed back to the site a month later to survey the damage, the pile of insulation was the only thing not destroyed.
The tragic conclusion is included in the series. “It’s very different than what we had originally planned but it’s life and we’re trying to share that journey as truthfully as possible,” Talbot says.
He’s still in the “unfortunate and horrible process of dealing with insurance” and hasn’t yet cleaned up the site but has started to consider some type of rebuild. “It will definitely not be what we did this time around. As I say in the show, I don’t have it in me to do that scale and scope in the way that we did it. I did it blood sweat and tears; separated from my family for so much of it.”
Talbot is currently tackling a passive house retrofit of his family’s 1940s home in East Vancouver. “I believe in it wholeheartedly,” he says of sustainable construction. “I know that’s where we’re going. Our building code in B.C. by 2032 will all be building to passive house standards and that will trickle down across the country over the years so this is on its way for everybody. I’m a big believer and I just wanted to authentically showcase that through this build” he says of the Eh Frame.
“I’m convinced now more than ever before that it’s more of a doubling down on this path, integrating more fire consciousness, more climate consciousness into the design elements. I think net-zero and passive house construction and high performance gets us a certain distance…There is really no place on this planet that your home is not going to be affected in some way, shape or form by the changing climate.”
SIDEBAR:
Fall Home Show
The Fall Home Show runs from Friday, Sept. 27 to Sunday, Sept. 29 at the Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto.
Love It or List It Vancouver real estate expert Todd Talbot is among presenters. Todd Talbot Builds: The Passive House Project – Tips to Protect Your Home in the Face of Climate Change takes place Saturday, Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. Talbot will discuss the innovative, sustainable building techniques used in his passive house project and the science behind creating homes with a minimal ecological footprint. Learn some tips for integrating those strategies into your own renovation or custom build.
Visit www.torontohomeshows.com to learn more.
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