Case Study
Lot 52 Sheldabren: A 2,142 sq ft Orion Built in Ailsa Craig
A 2,142 sq ft Orion two-storey on Sheldabren Street in Ausable Bluffs, built to Starlit's standard envelope and blower-door tested at 0.85 ACH50.
Model
The Orion
Location
Ailsa Craig, Ontario
Size
2,142 sq ft
Blower-Door Result
0.85 ACH50
01
The Brief
The Orion was designed for buyers who want farmhouse character without giving up an open main floor: a great room, kitchen, and dinette that flow together, bedrooms upstairs, and a mud room with pantry storage at the garage entry where coats and groceries actually land.
Lot 52 sits on Sheldabren Street in Ausable Bluffs, our community in Ailsa Craig about 30 minutes northwest of London. It suits the requirements we hear most often from families building here: three bedrooms, a primary suite worth retreating to, and monthly operating costs that stay predictable through an Ontario winter.
02
The Spec
As built at Lot 52, the Orion is 2,142 sq ft across two storeys — 908 sq ft on the main floor and 1,216 sq ft upstairs — with three bedrooms and two and a half baths. The exterior pairs stone and wood cladding under modern rooflines, with black board-and-batten at the rear elevation and landscaping that complements the architecture.
The upper floor comes in two layouts. Plan A pairs the primary suite with two bedrooms and a gallery overlooking the level below; Plan B swaps the gallery for an additional bedroom and an upstairs laundry at 1,234 sq ft. The primary suite carries an optional vaulted ceiling, ensuite, and walk-in closet, and a covered porch shelters the entry.
03
The Building-Science Execution
Every Starlit home gets the same envelope, and Lot 52 was no exception. Continuous exterior insulation brings the walls to R-30+ effective, triple-glazed windows come standard, and the air barrier is detailed and sealed before drywall goes up, because no one can fix a leak they can't reach.
Mechanically, the home runs on a hybrid heat pump paired with a gas furnace, with an ERV supplying fresh air through MERV-13 filtration around the clock. Active sub-slab radon mitigation is built in, with testing repeated 90 days after occupancy.
04
The Verified Result
Every Starlit home is blower-door tested before handover against our guarantee of 1.5 ACH50 or better. Lot 52 came in at 0.85 ACH50 — right at our portfolio average and well inside the guarantee. For context, the Ontario Building Code allows roughly 3.5 ACH50 for new homes, so this envelope leaks at about a quarter of the permitted rate.
Day to day, that number translates into smaller heating loads for the heat pump to carry, more even temperatures from room to room, quieter interiors (an airtight envelope is also a sound barrier), and fresh air that arrives through the ERV's filters instead of through gaps in the framing.
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