Develop With Dale

Develop With Dale Missing Middle Housing Development in Victoria BC | Attainable & Environmentally Conscious | Creating a World Without a Housing Crisis
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We are on a mission to solve the housing crisis and its contributions to the environmental crisis. We focus on building housing smarter and faster through efficient systems, and one day through AI and robotics. Our focus on efficiency helps , creating wealth and promoting financial security for all our investors. We are committed to environmentally conscious development and envision a world where

the housing crisis is a thing of the past, and home ownership is accessible to everyone. Join us in making this vision a reality!

09/03/2026

Watering the boulevard by hand. Twice a day, for the next two weeks.

Lesson one in real estate development: always check your scopes of work.

On this project we tendered the landscaping, but the boulevard restoration didn’t make it into the contractor’s budget. It got missed. Now our $3,000 deposit is sitting behind a strip of grass seed with no irrigation in front of it.

A timed sprinkler will get most of the job done. But because of the tree cover, it needs resetting twice a day for two weeks. I could hire someone, about $100 a day.

Better to make it part of my routine and learn from it next time.

The property I lived in for six months in India.One building. Four units. Three generations. The whole story is in the s...
08/31/2026

The property I lived in for six months in India.

One building. Four units. Three generations. The whole story is in the swipe.

Investors sometimes ask why we’re so committed to missing middle in Victoria, why not build what everyone else builds?

The rational answer is walkability, family-sized units, and cash-flow math on smaller-scale product.

The honest answer is quieter than that.

08/28/2026

Craigflower. Sidewalks going in.

Doesn’t sound exciting on its own. Here’s the chain: sidewalks, then curves, then road widening. Once the widening’s done, the city releases our servicing deposit.

Money into our pocket instead of the city’s.

Small step. Real money back to us.

08/25/2026

Craigflower. Front doors going in.

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth smart locks. About $200 more per door than a standard key lock.

Last month I told you we skipped the water line to the fridges to save money.

This month we’re spending an extra $200 per unit on locks.

That’s not a contradiction. That’s the rule.

Spend where the buyer or renter feels it. The front door is first touch. First touch sets the frame for the entire walkthrough. A smart lock says “this is a considered product” before they’ve seen the kitchen.

Don’t spend where they don’t feel it. Water line to the fridge is optional. Nobody signs a lease over an ice dispenser.

Same discipline. Different answer.

Every spec call on a build comes down to whether the buyer or renter will notice. Getting that right, over hundreds of decisions per project, is most of the job.

08/13/2026

Wilson Hereward. Answer to last week’s question.

You called it, more pot lights going in.

Here’s what wasn’t in the question: we’re also running step lights along the staircase. Low-tone 27K, motion-activated, fade on as someone steps.

Pot lights are for brightness when you want it. Step lights are for the moment you’re walking down at 2am and don’t want to flip a switch.

Two purposes. Two fixtures. Same staircase.

Most of the “feel” of a finished unit isn’t the fixtures people can see. It’s the little moments that happen in the dark.

08/05/2026

Wilson Hereward update as promised.

Forms in. Concrete pour later this week.

A few weeks ago this was a rock pit and forty extra cubes of contaminated soil. This week it’s ready to hold the foundation.

Fast because we’ve built this system before. Hereward is Craigflower’s little sibling, same team, same product, small design changes. Second time through, the whole crew moves faster.

Slow week over slow week, that’s what a build is.

08/04/2026

Wilson Hereward.

Last two trucks of dirt off site the other week. Onto forms next, stay tuned for tomorrow’s update.

Excavation is the phase nobody sees when they look at a finished building. It’s also the phase everything else stands on top of.

Good day.

Ductwork at Wilson Hereward.No one who lives here is going to see this. But they’ll feel it.We spec’d a ducted heat pump...
07/30/2026

Ductwork at Wilson Hereward.

No one who lives here is going to see this. But they’ll feel it.

We spec’d a ducted heat pump on these units. Same idea as a basic furnace, but run off a heat pump instead of gas. That means a lot of tin work to move air around the whole unit properly.

Most missing middle builds in Victoria run baseboards or mini-split heads instead. Cheaper to install. Faster. The buyer walks in, sees the mini-split head on the wall, and gets reminded every day that it’s a rental-grade product.

Ducted heat pump costs more. But it makes the finished unit feel like a home. Not an apartment.

The spec calls we spend the most time on are usually the ones the buyer will never consciously notice. We spend on those anyway.

07/27/2026

Craigflower - mid construction

Behind one of the walls we’re closing up this week: a poster our crew tucked into the stud bay before the drywall went on.

Every renovation you do, you find something from the crew that came before. A note. A newspaper. A cigarette pack. Small things tucked away and forgotten — or maybe not.

Our crew just did the same thing.

Whoever opens this wall next won’t know us. But they’ll know someone was here.

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