House and Barn plans are APPROVED!!!!

February 25^th

Our house plans have finally been approved!!! Amazing how heavy that weighed on my outlook for the project. After a week of more set backs it is nice to have a portion of the approval process finished!

Set back #1

I went to the Fire Authority (Riverside County Fire Department Head Quarters) on Wednesday last week with the understanding that I needed to turn in an approved site plan (which I had) and a copy of the “parcel map conditions” (these include the required distance to a hydrant and other fire safety regulations) which were determined when the original 20 acres was subdivided in the early 90's. When I got to the offices in Riverside the site plan and conditions were accepted but I also needed a letter from Rancho California Water District stating where the closest fire hydrant is located and if it is within 500ft of our proposed driveway. Bummer! It would have been nice to have gotten that done sometime in the preceding three weeks while we were waiting to get the site plan approved. So off I went to the water district when I got back to town. They charged $300 dollars to send an employee to our lot and measure from our driveway to the closest fire hydrant (it is ~60 feet from the corner of our lot and ~150 feet from the driveway). Our entire lot is not more than 450 feet wide.

Set Back #2

Yesterday (Monday) I called Suzanne Webb at the Building and Safety department to ask what other permits and/or approvals we would need to secure before we could “pull” our first permit to start building. She mentioned that the letter for the Architectural review done by our Community Services District (CSD) mentioned the need for an encroachment permit paid to the CSD to ensure our driveway was constructed correctly. The cost...$2500. Now to be fair this is a deposit based fee and as long as the “inspector” doesn't have to make multiple trips we should get most of it back. But talk about sticker shock! That is half what we paid for our house and barn plans to be checked and there wont be any engineering or other calculations involved for the driveway. It will pay for an inspector to ensure that a 20 foot wide by 30 foot long section of our driveway which crosses the right of way between our lot and the asphalt road will be build to their specifications. Wow... :(

Suzanne also reminded me that we need to get verification that we are not moving more than 50yards of soil on to or off of the lot. This was something I had forgotten about. I am glad Tom, Kimberley's dad, is a Civil engineer(one of three options for verifying we are not moving more than 50 yards of soil) who can write a letter stating that he has verified that we are within the allowable limits and don't need to obtain a grading permit. Phew!

So to date, our house plans have been approved and the Planning department has approved the designated use of the land (minus 50% to conservancy). We have remaining: school fees to pay, the septic system to finalize, the Fire Authority approval with the water district letter, and complete the Grading verification. Once these are done we can pull our first permit and get started!

I am hopeful that the septic system, Fire Authority, and Grading Verification will all be finalized in the next two weeks. The School fees should be “quick” as well. I just need to write the check...but you never know...:)

:)

Pop!

Feeling deflated. Yesterday had a lot of negative news about the build. From the loss of the “knoll” as conservation to the septic plan costing us more money and then the foundation bid we received from Michael Mark did not include any of the excavating…we are feeling like popped balloons. I know this is just some minor setbacks but with the disturbed sleep we have been getting (totaling <6 hours) it is sitting heavier than it normally would. Ready for some emotionally easier days ahead. I think I will try and play with the kids more and “be the change I want to see”. J

Gotta love internal pep talks! J

On a cheerier note, check out two of the beautiful colors that we are considering...

Traditional Entry by Other Metro Paint & Wall Coverings Designerpaint

Industrial Kitchen by Amsterdam Media & Bloggers Holly Marder

Lots of News for One Day...

First we received a couple of bids from Michael Mark. He gave us bids for the foundation, framing and plumbing that all came in below our current choices and so we decided to go with Michael...Duh. :)

This has saved us over 10k alone. We also like him as a person which helps! :)

We received word that our ERP (Environmental Review) was finished. The county is requiring us to fence and leave completely undisturbed just under half of our five acres. The kicker is that we don't get anything in return for this, oh wait we are liable if anything happens. That is it...we get to continue to pay property tax on five acres and build a fence in exchange for giving up half of said five acres. So the county gets to put into permanent conservancy our acreage without paying for it??? Got to love California. Oh, wait it gets better. We have until February 17^th to respond if we want to contest their decision. The best part is that the decision was dated the 10^th of February...yes it was yesterday. So we have a grand total of 7 days to receive the paperwork, formulate our contest and return it to the county offices. Interesting thing is that Friday is the 14^th and Monday the 17^th is President's day. So we really have a grand total of three days from the date it was written to receive the decision via USPS and get it back to them. If we don't the decision stands...ahh yes, California.

We also heard back from Mark Sweeney that he wants $400 more dollars to change the system specifics in our report. This would be less hard to take if he had included said specifics in the original report. So we have a little “come to Jesus meetin'” in his future. We are so done with this circus.

ERP, Septic, and Building and Safety

We received word from Jim Irvin that the county had a few clarifications on the house plans and that he would be addressing them this week. So we may have an approval in 1 to 2 weeks! 

The ERP is complete and submitted to the Chris Young at the Environmental Programs Department. So we should have an approval in the next 1 to 2 weeks…are you starting to see a trend?

The Septic system is more involved. After getting a request for clarification and further documentation from Marc Hariksen at the county health department, we are trying to decide which manufacturer we want to use by bidding the cost of installation. The installers are charging from $18-21,000 dollars to install the system. The price of the system ($10-12,000) is not included in that figure! Are you kidding me? I should become an installer! The system is installed in less than a week! Needless to say we are seriously considering installing the system ourselves.

We have been reading Ana-White.com and are convinced we can not only build our own furniture, but we may try and build our own cabinets as well. 

Septic Applications Submitted!

Septic Application submitted...finally

I met with Mark Sweeney our geologist at noon today and got the updated AND SIGNED copies (can you tell that it may have taken longer than it should have...hmmm). It was then off to the county offices to submit the reports and application forms. After that I requested the parcel map conditions that we would then submit to the Fire Authority. Well the particular map we requested is not stored “on site”. The unfortunate part is that Rosemary Keathley who is responsible for obtaining the “off site” storage items was not in the office today. So not only am I not going to be able to pick up the map and walk it over to the Fire Authority I am going to have to make the 1.25 hour each way trip again. Bummer!

Papa's Birthday and a trip to the lot...

Getting Permits...

I am meeting with our Geologist tomorrow to pick up the final version of the geotechnical report and the perc test/AWTS design. After that I will be heading up to riverside to turn in the reports, paperwork and fees for the AWTS as well as getting the details on what the Fire Authority will be requiring of us.

Papa's 66^th Birthday and a trip to the lot..

We spent the afternoon at the lot with my parents. It was probably the most beautiful weather and most fun we have had on the lot since we purchased it. Below are some of the pictures. We (Papa and N) were digging for treasure and hit pay dirt! We were looking for the water main and found it! The picture is of the valves and the area that will need a new water meter installed when the time comes.

GPS and Not So Good News

GPS Points Mapped!

Part of the Environmental Report (ERP) was that we were required to get the GPS points for all the oak trees on the lot and the locations of the buildings. K's dad and a crew finished that Saturday the 21^st and we got the data points on a map the following Monday! Awesome!

Not So Good News...

We talked to Jim Irvin our designer, who also submitted our plans to the county, today. He gave us some disappointing news. Of the three plan checkers the county employed, two of them retired at the beginning of December! So instead of taking the two weeks Jim had been expecting he was unsure how long it would be before we hear back from the county. Jim said he had turned in a different projects' plans a month ago and still has not heard from them on that project. So we are at least a month if not two or three. Dang! We still have quite a bit of work to do on our end either way. The septic system, the fire authority, Edison for the transformer plans, and the HOA all need plan approval. So we are still a long way from breaking ground.

Windows and Doors

We traveled to Ontario (1.5 hours each way) with the four kids in tow to visit BGW Doors, a windows and door dealer, to see their floor samples. We found BGW Doors on Craigslist and after multiple phone conversations with Mike and driving up to their facility, we discovered that he didn't have the specific doors we asked about in stock. Arrhhh! It was not a total waste because we got to see their windows and get the catalogs for the different brands they carry.

With the price of windows going up on Wednesday (the first of the year) we are going to be placing our orders Monday or Tuesday. Right now we are leaning toward using Regina at Doors and Windows in Wildomar. We found them through a Google search for local windows and doors.