A Window Into the Future

Our house evolves slowly, day by day.  But when you step back for a minute and realize how much has gone on in a week, or two weeks, or a month, it's almost overwhelming.  Each day, there's something new.  Sometimes the change is difficult to even notice, like plumbing tubes hidden in all of the walls, while others are more dramatic.

  

Today was one of those more dramatic days.  In addition to installing all of the windows, Chris and his crew (which now include Vashon local legend Kevin Suddeth!), framed the majority of the deck.  These improvements highlight one of the last phases of the exterior development.

The past few weeks have been rather exhausting.  Anytime that Albert is in the neighborhood, it means we're spending 3-4 more hours per day on site, and usually with a shovel in your hands.  Add onto that two amazing wedding weekends (thanks to our friends Tyler and Joanne, and Alisha and Justin!), and sleep becomes a little more sparse.

Since we last wrote, we've said hello to a number of new subcontractors, including plumbers, electricians, roofers, and HVACs.  On one day last week, there were six trucks and vans on site at 7am, all jostling for the one driveway spot.

In addition to the house work, Albert has spent a significant portion of his last few weeks on-site building retaining walls with a small crew (that sometimes includes John).  We've been very lucky so far.  The soil conditions are so nice that the Geotech Engineer eliminated one whole retaining wall from our plans, saving tons of time and money (and backs).

Albert also hauled over two beautiful pieces of stone - one sentimental, and one a gift.  First, he brought the large piece of granite that we were married on a little over a year ago.  This rock now serves as a step down from our patio to the yard.  

Second, he brought a beautiful basalt column, about 18" in diameter, and 6' long, which will serve as a bench on the patio.  We've been told that we need a centerpiece to the patio, so this column, plus the arbor that Julie's Uncle Chris made for our wedding, will dramatically play that role.  We're not ready for the arbor just yet.  

So, to recap where we've been over the past 3-4 weeks:

- Completed Framing (including a sign-off from the City)

- Built two retaining walls (including one that frames the patio)

- Further cleared the driveway area

- Finished all roofing

- Installed all "rough-in" plumbing (tubing running through the walls)

- Mostly installed heating system

- Installed all windows

- Began deck framing

And where are we going from here?

We're still on track for a February completion, and we're now monitoring this with heightened interest.  In the coming weeks, we'll be completing "rough-in" electrical, siding, and most importantly, finalizing the landscaping.  The site must be completely finished by the end of October, or we risk trouble with the City (never mind that it was their negligence that got us started late in the first place).  This will include finishing retaining walls, and bringing in new topsoil.  Also, we're in the process of picking out rocks for part of the landscaping up front.  Julie had a great time shopping.

This will all be a lot of work, and we're not fully sure how we'll get it all done.  Could there be a work party in store?  Why don't you just show up on Saturday, October 29, and find out!

Half Baked House

At some point during the past month, we shifted from calling our little piece of heaven "the property" to referring to it as "the house" (we'll call it "home" when we actually sleep there). It has all the main ingredients of a real life house:

Stairs - check
Walls - check
Roof - check
Furniture - Do pieces of lumber and lawn chairs count?

The house is truly half-baked at this point. It's similar to when you're baking a cake and the outside is golden brown, but the inside is still raw. What's the answer to this issue? Cook longer! In our case, about five months longer.

In the last month, Chris and Stephen (our construction crew) have made dramatic progress.They built walls on the second floor, added the staircase to the third floor, installed the third floor, constructed the walls, and enclosed the roof. Two days before Seattle had its first true rain of the season. Chris was harnessed in on the roof hammering down the final roof nails. Just in time!

The Progress: 

Most evenings, you can find us at the house enjoying our half-baked interiors. Although each room is little more than a collection of two-by-fours, it's enough for us to get a feel for the space. The neighbors can hear us starting our sentences with "What if we moved this here..." or "Wouldn't it look great if..." There's a lot of dreaming happening between those walls.

John & Chris discussing staircase location

 

"Half-baked" interior 

The next big thing is to start building out the interior with large fixtures (showers and tubs) that need to go through the windows before they are sealed with glass. In cake terms, we are starting to bake the middle.

Unlike baking though, we jump around in the sequence of events. While we are baking the middle, we are also starting to "frost" the cake. In another words, while the interior work is occurring, we are also making progress on the exterior. Albert has returned to finish the groundwork. He has been putting in long hours to prepare the backyard and areas of either side of the house for the brick retaining walls. We have also been investing some sweat equity ourselves by painting the trim boards white. When Chris and Stephen return from vacation, they will install these boards below the eves of the roof.

We stand in awe before the house each night. So much time has been spent over the past three years talking about this imaginary house. Now it's finally taking shape and it's sweeter than we could have imagined.

Next Up: "Who knew there were so many shades of blue" and other adventures in sample land.

Parting Shots: 

 Karate Kid John testing out the floor beams             

  Hosting our first "dinner" party

Stairway to Heaven

Over the course of this past month, we transitioned from dirt and concrete to plumbing and lumber.  And, as you'll see below, there's no more walking around the outside of the house necessary.  Why don't I take the stairs?

After spending the first two months of construction digging downward, we are finally making dramatic vertical progress.  Below, Augie and John spread "drain rock"...pebbles spread at the very base of the foundation on the outside to allow water to flow easily into the drainage pipes laid below.

This is then covered with sand and compacted with a "jumping jack"...basically a jack-hammer with a flat bottom (see Augie's picture below).

Up until the most recent work, there was nothing to distinguish the house we are building from a parking lot. Everywhere you looked there was concrete. The day our plumber laid the main pipes in the ground of the basement floor, we made it very clear to all of our neighbors they would indeed be living next to a house.

After the pipes were installed, Albert returned to wrap the bottom of the basement with waterboard (to keep the water out). With shoveling and compacting assistance from Augie Mateo and Tom Kraft, he then began using our surplus sand to fill in behind the daylight basement. Here, Augie builds up his tan and muscles in preparation for Seafair.

The backyard is taking shape. You can almost smell the barbecue!

The McMaster Construction crew (comprised of Chris and Stephen), rolled onto the property only a week and a half ago. We're not sure what they do all day when we aren't there, but it must involve a magic wand. They framed the skeleton of the basement in a day and quickly added support beams and plywood to create the second floor.

We headed over to see the progress tonight and were thrilled to see a staircase has been installed. There has never been a more enjoyable trip up a set of stairs. Below, Julie describes the exhilaration, to Lori, of walking up her brand new stairs for the first time.

Even though the second floor is alfresco (as in no walls, just a floor) at the moment, we are able to walk around and visualize each room. Chris snapped the outline of each room in chalk on the plywood floor. We must admit, more than a few minutes were spent playing house in our imaginary kitchen, checking out the view from our "dining table" and reclining where our couch will be located. If the neighbors didn't think we were crazy before, they do now.

By tomorrow evening, Chris and Stephen will have most of the walls on the second floor standing upright. They caution us the progress will slow down once the interior work starts, but it's hard to contain our excitement. It feels good to stand on the floor that will support the ebb and flow of our daily life. It's hard to say whether or not we will think about the 2x4s and pieces of plywood buried beneath our carpet in five years. For now though, we have never seen anything as beautiful as that bare wood.

Next Up: Moving on up to the Second Floor!

Like Paint Drying

Over the past few weeks, we have been radio silent because we have been busy watching our cement dry. For as fascinating of a process that it has been, the pace seems to have slowed significantly, with the same process being repeated for the third time now.
    (1) Tie Rebar
    (2) Set Form Boards
    (3) Pour Cement
    (4) Remove form boards
    (5) Repeat

In our last post, we showed the preparations being made for the pouring of the footings.  That pour occurred on June 20, after receiving the go-ahead from the City Inspector a few days prior.

In the picture, you can see the stacks of form boards ready to make up the walls.  So, a day or two later, the footing forms were stripped.

Next began the long process of setting up the form boards for the foundation walls.

Step 1: Tie Rebar

The tying of the rebar was the first glimpse of the real outline of the home, up to the first floor.  It gave us a sense of depth and volume to the house.

Step 2: Install Form Boards

Notice the site looks a bit like a movie set for the Goonies.

As the form boards went up, at a snails pace, the site got more and more littered with boards, concrete and coffee cups.  In the intermediate, the house looked like a bit of a penitentiary.

Step 2.5:  Repeat steps 1 and 2, but add tons of scaffolding and supports.

Step 3/4:  Pour Cement and Remove Form Boards

We were originally told that the whole process of building the walls would take about 1 week, but there were a number of complicating factors, that increased the timeline by about an extra week.  Most significantly, it became very difficult to set the form boards on the tall parts of the wall, which stand at over 12 ft.  As a result, scaffolding had to be built for the workers to get up high, and the work was painstakingly slow.

After a little bit of cleanup on the site, we're left with an enduring excitement about the next steps.  From here, we'll do some combination of the following in no particular order:

• Install some plumbing/drainage in the house before the concrete slab is poured.
• Install drainage around the backside of the house.
• Conduct a "partial" backfill, filling dirt up the back and sides of the house to a depth of about 4'.
• Pour the concrete slab.

Albert will be back on site with his heavy equipment sometime in the next week or two, moving dirt and digging holes for drainage.  We'll be on-site as much as possible helping out with the dirty work in between. 

Beginning now, it feels like the daily updates are a bit of minutia, but we'll certainly try to do a better job of documenting the little lessons learned along the way.

Next Up:  More dirt and concrete. 

Consider Giving to the Mt. Pobre Foundation

Get it?  Foundation?  

You'll be helping support long-term affordable housing for minorities (Pacific Islanders - Whidbey and Vashon) in the City of Seattle.  Give your time, or money, or just attend a party when it's done.

Albert finished up his initial dirt work by hauling a number more loads of dirt off site.  We were fortunate enough to get a number of responses to our Craigslist add, and delivered 6 or 7 loads around the area. We'll still likely have more dirt to get rid of, but it's not as pressing.

After finishing digging out the slopes around the house, laying down black plastic over the exposed faces, and piling a huge mound of reserve dirt for backfill, Albert worked with Steven and Larry to dig out all of the foundation "footings".  I'm sure most homeowners know what footings are, but I had no idea.  They're basically huge blocks of concrete under which your foundation sits...almost like stilts under the foundation.  And they're not square.  They're designed to stick out a bit (4-10 inches, depending on the footing) so that the dirt that fills in behind the wall grabs the wall and holds it in place.  

So the footings were dug out, and Albert used his machinery to crane-lift some foundation materials (rebar and form boards for the foundation) up to the site before hauling his equipment back to Whidbey for a much deserved break...from our project, at least.

The concrete contractor, Kurt, has been on site since Tuesday, putting the footing forms together.  Albert and I helped out as much as we could, fine tuning the depths of the footings (read: digging by hand) to make sure the forms are in the right place.  

This week brought three inspections related to the foundation.  First, Marc McGinnis from Geotech Consultants came back out to inspect the stability of the dirt under the footings and gave his approval.  Today, a City inspector came out to approve both the location of the house, relative to property lines, and the footing forms themselves.  Both of these passed just fine.

The concrete pours go in three phases:

   (1) Pour the footings.

   (2) Pour the walls on top of the footings, then backfill a little bit (read: fill dirt in behind the walls).

   (3) Pour the "slap" or floor.

Kurt suggests that if the footings are poured on Monday, we'll be pouring the walls next Monday, and the slab perhaps the following Monday.  This is really good timing weather wise.  If you had to pick a time of year to be waiting on concrete to dry, you'd probably hope to choose June-August.  So beginning pouring late-June is probably a good thing.

Finally, wanted to let you all know, if you didn't already, that we've been keeping a (semi-) day-to-day log of the view of the site from the street.  If might be a little boring for the next week, until we get some walls in, but you can already see the transformation of the site with all the work that Albert's done.  

Up Next:  Foundations Poured

Dirt Rich

We knew from the start that this house project would make us dirt poor, but we never thought it would make us dirt rich. Over the course of the last two weeks, Albert has hauled away over 70 dump truck loads of our brown, sandy dirt in order to make room for the house. We have posted ads on Craigslist and hung signs on the property offering free dirt delivered. Many, many loads of dirt have been hauled to family, friends and strangers in West Seattle, Green Lake, Ballard and Vashon Island. Albert has visited parts of Seattle he never knew existed. Still we have huge mountains of dirt piled in every corner of the property. If only there was gold in that dirt to pay off the house!

The first phase of the project is drawing to a close. Albert, Lori, and Steven have been on the property six days a week working long hours to wrap up the site prep work. We lend a hand before and after work, but it's a small contribution compared to their labor. One of the neighbors commented that the amount of progress that has been made over a few short weeks doesn't add up when you look at the size of the crew. They obviously have never experienced the pace of Albert's work.

Albert and Steven have carved the footprint of the house out of the side of the hill. Our perch on top of the property where we used to watch the sun set is now 20 feet above the bottom of the hole. We feel like we have our very own canyon now. In addition to the house dig-out, they installed a new utility ditch to make restoration of power to our neighbor possible.

Despite being busy with hauling and digging, Albert took the time to teach John how to operate an excavator. When John sat down in the seat of the huge machine and took those joy sticks in his hands, his smile was reminiscent of a giddy six year-old playing in an oversized sandbox.

This coming week, Albert and Steven will dig out the footings. This is the first step for pouring the foundation of the house. As soon as this is complete, there will be a changing of the guard on the project. Larry and his crew will move in and begin building the forms for the footings followed by concrete being poured into the forms. It's starting to look like a house project instead of a mining operation!

And, because Jennifer commented that there haven't been any pictures of Lori yet, here's her very own set:

The Artist

After a little more than a week of actual construction on the property, one thing has caught our attention very dramatically:  Albert Gabelein is an artist with his excavator.  The huge orange metal arm of the excavator, and the swivel-bucket it commands is like an extension of Albert's body.

Everyone who's stopped by has commented on how effortlessly he maneuvers the grand machine.  Phil Groening, our neighbor to the North, commented that Albert's work is "second to none", and that he wouldn't trust anyone else with the work.

When I watch him work, it reminds me of an old video game we used to have on our computer called Mechwarrior.  The newer version is shown in a clip below.  If the military ever goes this route, I think they should be recruiting Albert.

Anyhow, we've made significant progress since a minor setback on our first day.  While digging out the driveway on the very first day, we discovered a power line in a steel tube running at about chest-height of where we wanted to dig the driveway.  It wasn't on any of the plans, and the City workers who came out to mark all of the utilities failed to locate it.

So, after a few days, we were able to get the power to that cable shut off temporarily and removed the line.  Once the driveway is in, we'll work with the City to get the power line reinstalled, but under the driveway this time.

Since then, Albert has taken 20 dump truck loads of dirt and 4 loads of brush off the property, and we've hardly made a dent.  The driveway is pretty well established, but we haven't begun to clear the majority of the site, nor dig out the home-site.  We're anticipating something like 50-60 additional loads of dirt, and only 2-3 more loads of brush need to be removed.

Tomorrow, the City inspector comes by to approve the temporary erosion control measures.  This involves the silt fences we've built around the entire exterior of the property, and anything else related to making sure that no dirt spills off the property when it rains.  Assuming all goes to plan, we'll begin full excavation mode tomorrow and keep digging until we're ready to install the foundation.

Thanks to everyone who's stopped by, including Mom and Dad, Uncle Dennis and Aunt Theresa, Nick Rohrbach, Jhon Mosely, and Becca and Ryan Porter.  In addition, we've received numerous drive-by guests. Tons of neighbors have stopped to say hello, and we even had an older couple stop by and tell us they owned the property in the sixties and were responsible for moving the power lines underground, which dramatically improved the view.  Thank god for them.

Feel free to stop by anytime, and we'll keep you posted on the progress.

Up Next:  Excavation Time!

The Beginning and The End

Top two reasons why May 21, 2011 was a great day: 

(1) We finally began our project

(2) The world didn't end 

At 8:30 a.m. yesterday, Albert Gabelein Construction rolled up with a dump truck and backhoe to our blackberry-choked patch of land and began digging. After two years of talking, dreaming, drawing, filing paperwork, crying, filing more paperwork, and hoping for the best, we finally turned over some dirt. 

The crew included John and Julie, Julie's dad,  mom, and brother, John's Dad and mom, and legal consultant for the project, Bill Schneeman. We began the day by cleaning up the sidewalk. The sidewalk ended at our property before Albert began scrapping the dirt and grass off of it. This was the first step to becoming a part of the neighborhood. One by one, neighbors began coming over to introduce themselves to us throughout the day. We quickly learned that everyone in the neighborhood at some point or another had dreamed about buying our property, but didn't have the "young courage" to tackle it. It's likely that after they went back into their houses, they whispered about those two crazy kids moving onto the street. 

Next up, we attacked the bush that marked the future driveway site. John and Steven jumped into the back of the dump truck as the backhoe plucked the bush, roots and all, from the hillside. John remarked that the scene was reminiscent of a Jurassic Park dinosaur devouring its prey. 

From inside the box, John and Steven trimmed the stray branches hanging out of the dump truck. Julie, Lori and Bill cleaned up every trace of dirt and leaf that had fallen onto the street, taking the city's warning seriously: We will shut you down if you leave any trace of the work on the street. 

Once the bush had been removed, we took a lunch break (courtesy of Lori and Costco) and plotted our next move. We were giddy with visions of the machinery actually being able to drive up onto the property by the end of the day. At the pace we were going, it felt like the house would be complete by next week. 

That was until we found the electrical wire. 

Our elation quickly dissolved when Albert cut the engine to the backhoe and jumped off to examine a newly exposed wire. John and Steven slowly pulled the wire from the dirt and followed it up the hill to our neighbor's house. We quickly discovered that no driveway could be built until this wire was removed. This would require conversations with the neighbor (the vacant house is managed by the owner's son who lives on Whidbey Island) and Seattle City Light. Bottom line: We are back to the City on day one. 

Not wanting to waste a perfectly good afternoon, we built the silt fence along the bottom of the property. This was a team effort with everyone either digging the trench, pounding in the fence posts, zip tying the silt fence to the posts or supervising the process. Around this time, John's parents dropped by to visit and had brooms in their hands within five minutes to help sweep up dirt and other debris from the road. 

It was a bittersweet end to our first day of construction. Our focus is now on pouring over documents to determine how to proceed with the removal of the underground electrical wire. We hope to be forging our driveway into the hillside in the next week like true homesteaders, barring any calamities such as problems relocating the wire or the world ending. 

Next Up:  Magical wire disappearing act

Mt. Pobre Yields - Groundbreaking

----------------------------
This Post if from Friday, May 13...we just took a little while to post it
----------------------------

It was a very big day.

In all, we passed our Pre-Construction conference, failed on our construction financing (temporarily), but without batting an eye hosted a Groundbreaking Ceremony on the site with friends and family.

(1) Pre-Construction Conference

After longer than we care to think about, we finally have permission to put equipment on our property and get to work. At 1:00pm this afternoon, Roger Moore (City of Seattle), Mark McGinnis (Geotech Consulants), and all of us (Julie, John, Albert, Lori and Larry), met on the property for the last hurdle prior to construction: The Pre-Construction Conference.

When we picked up the permit last week, we were notified of the numerous inspections that would be held at various intervals through the project. These include inspections of the foundation, drainage, etc. The first of these inspections is the Pre-Construction Conference.

At the meeting, Roger reviewed the plans in detail, and especially those spots he thought would be of concern.  Although he didn't walk the property with us, he was quick to point out the major concern areas (temporary erosion control measures, and pin piles to name a few), and be sure we understood the process.

Our biggest gift was the fact that Roger did not require us to build the entirety of the silt fences by hand (see the picture below for an example of a silt fence).  By allowing us to first build access into the property before constructing the silt fences, we'll be able to use Albert's equipment to dig the ditches for the silt fences.  Otherwise, we would have been digging by hand through roots for hundreds of feet.

The conference went very smoothly, and Roger effectively deputized Marc McGinnes as the private Sheriff of the project.  Keep Marc happy, and Roger will be happy, he effectively told us.  Marc is a very reasonable and helpful man, so we're pleased to have him working with us.

(2) Construction Financing Delayed

This one we feel really bad about.  Bridget Larsen, our banker at Coastal Community Bank, has been so kind to meet us on site in West Seattle twice now, driving down from Everett.  Today was supposed to mark the signing of our loan documents and another major hurdle completed.

Turns out we forgot about a key component of the documentation.  To be honest, it was everyone's fault.  We just flat missed it, but we missed it nonetheless.

It isn't a problem of any kind, and it won't prevent us from proceeding, but we just have to go back and have Bridget re-draw some of the documents.  So...next week.

Thankfully, though, we don't need to make any draws in the first part of the construction process.  Albert has everything we need to get started, so as soon as he's ready to get onto the property, we can get started, and we can sign the documents next week.

(3) Groundbreaking Party

Despite the fact that it wasn't going to set us back at all, we were still all pretty frustrated with the financing issue.  As a result, we hustled to the liquor store (at this point, it's about 4pm), and grabbed a nice bottle of cheap whiskey to hold us over (I mean, delicious whiskey, Albert).  After a drink, we all calmed down and got ready for the party.

Albert helped me pick up my BBQ (which has been in use at Tony and John Boyle's apartment for the last year), and haul it up onto the property.  Lori and Julie went to the store to pick up some food and drinks, and we all met back on the property to get set up.

Many friends and family arrived between 6-6:30pm for our ceremony.  With a huge smile on her face, Julie turned over a pile of dirt with a new ceremonial shovel provided by Albert.  Champagne bubbles flowed as we celebrated the biggest accomplishment of our project to date: turning the soil of Mt. Pobre.

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us on site.  We were so pleased to celebrate with you, and look forward to many more celebrations soon!

Permit in Hand!

Although we did most of the celebrating last week, when the permit was effectively approved, the City takes 2 days to process the permit before you can pick it up (oh, and they make sure you pay their exorbitant fees before they let you touch it, too).

So, after 3 full business days, and no word from the City, I decided to go down to the City myself for the first time since we actually submitted the original application about a year and a half ago, and check on things for myself.

To my great surprise, when I checked in at the "Plans Routing" desk, the associate informed me that everything had been processed, and that the permit was waiting for pickup on the 20th floor!

I bounded down to the Applicant Service Center, where the permit was waiting for me (and waiting for a nice big check)! At 1:38 pm, I signed on the dotted line and we are officially ready to go!

Our next steps are to schedule site visits with the City and Geotechnical Engineers, and get to work!

Next Up:  Breaking Ground!

Our time has come...

This morning, at 8:36am, we received an email from Michelle Macias at the City approving the Drainage plan, thanks to the proper listing of species of trees.

Honestly, my excitement is tempered by my frustration with this.  We only lost two business days on her inability to find the species in the plan, but it was an emotionally frustrating four days for us (including the weekend).

The end result is that we've received approval from the final department, thus paving the way to permit issuance.

We're unclear on the details of the process from here, but we'll have a "Final" review, and an on-site meeting with the City before they actually put a permit in our hands.  This process will take 2-4 weeks, but as far as we know, there's nothing that can really hold up the actual permit issuance.

Personally, I'm shooting for a Monday, May 23 groundbreaking.  Two years ago, on that day, Julie and I began a journey together, when she accepted my proposal on a beautiful hike overlooking the bay in San Diego.  I think it would only be fitting to mark that anniversary with the beginning of another journey, overlooking the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains, as we turn the first piece of dirt on the site that will mark our home for a long time.

We'll know more soon, and I expect we'll have a grand ceremony to mark the day.

Up Next: A bottle of champagne! (Or, sparkling white wine, if you're snooty like that)

When will my city stop hurting me?

Well, that thing that we thought might happen?  It happened.

We'll be going into Cycle 5 as soon as possible.  Thankfully, at the very least, this round was completed with some expediency.  As a result, hopefully we'll be able to turn it all around promptly as well.

The Drainage Department (represented by Michelle Macias) has rejected our plans.  I just emailed her a few minutes ago to get the list of corrections that are required.

Our architect, Richard Rhydes, has been extremely frustrated with Ms. Macias, for reasons we don't fully understand.  As far as we can tell, the City has not been able to decide very well what they want us to do with our plans for Drainage, so we've never gotten a straight answer.  I expect this can be frustrating for an architect.

I'm sure we'll be posing more over the weekend as we figure out how significant the corrections are, but for now, the word is...not yet.

Up Next:  Reviewing and Correcting the Drainage Requirements OR "Can I please speak with your manager?"

------------------------------------------
UPDATE - 2:48pm

Just heard from Richard that Michelle emailed him this morning a question about the species of trees on the plans.  There are 8 total trees on the plan, and there are labels for them, but according to the email, Michelle states that "as soon as you let me know the tree species, I can approve."

This sounds like pretty good news.  There's a chance she'll reverse her non-approval today, but even if not, if we only have to label the trees, we could be back on track quickly!

------------------------------------------

UPDATE - 5:00pm

Well, the end of the day has officially arrived, and no communication from Michelle.  This leads us to believe that she probably went home early today, and didn't receive any of our correspondence.  She's typically very prompt with her communication.

And, we don't think she works on Mondays, so we'll be on pins and needles until sometime Tuesday.

One more to go!

It's difficult to express the chills I just got.  It's akin to getting notified that you've just been offered your dream job, from amongst hundreds of candidates.

Even though we're not done yet, today marked a HUGE achievement in our quest to build our home.

As of about 3pm today, the ECA Slide (Environmentally Critical Area) department approved our permit application!  This leaves only the Drainage Department to appease.

This is major news for a number of reasons.

Of the two departments we resubmitted for on April 11, the consequences of failing the ECA Slide department was much greater.  It could mean more re-engineering walls, or getting various approvals from different neighbors.  The Drainage Department, on the other hand, would just require us to move around a drainage pond or two...a relatively simpler task.

Additionally, Jim Mattoon, the reviewer in the ECA Slide Department, is the Senior member of the review team, so his approval is paramount.

We're tempering our excitement a bit, however, because of the two departments, we believe that the Drainage Department is the more likely to reject our plans.  This results mostly from the City's own confusion.  Drainage plans are a new component of the permitting process, and Michelle Macias, while she's been excellent in the communication realm, is in a bit over her head when it comes to reviewing the plans.  Really, by no fault of her own, except for lack of experience, but it very well could send us to Round 5.

However, should we reach a Round 5, we expect that round to progress much more quickly.

Thus, we've revised our estimates as follows:

IF we successfully pass the Drainage Department, we should know by Monday at the latest.  This puts us at a mid- to late-May groundbreaking.

IF we fail the Drainage Department, we should be able to resubmit in two weeks, and have the plans approved within two weeks of that date, thus only pushing us out a month.  This gives us a groundbreaking of no later than the end of June!

Up Next:  The anticipation builds...

Round 4 Submitted!

Finally...

Actually, that's hardly the way to describe it.  We really haven't waited very long at all.  The time between our last corrections notice (translation: rejection) and this re-submission was only a touch over 4 weeks.  This has already been a dramatically faster cycle (previous cycles were 6 months and 3 months respectively).

Regardless, we're ecstatic that Richard Rhydes (of Whidbey Island Architects), our diligent architect, has completed the corrections for Round 4 and submitted them this morning.

He went about the process a little bit differently from the prior cycles.  Typically, we receive the corrections notice, change the drawings and re-submit.  This time, Richard scheduled meetings with the remaining departments to review his corrections prior to submitting.

We're hoping this approach both saves time, and avoids another corrections notice.

By comparison, I think we're actually doing rather well.  Julie has been keeping her eyes on construction in the area, and there's a new house that's almost finished over on Sunset Ave. (1411 Sunset).  This house, although it's on an even steeper slope, was originally submitted in 2007, and they're just wrapping up construction now...yikes.

So we feel fortunate...or at least we're trying to keep our spirits up by telling ourselves we should feel fortunate.

At this point, we're trying to project this round of reviews, and I developed a little comparison table for the two departments at issue.  Below are the round-by-round comparisons of each of the two remaining departments.

By this chart, it appears that Round 4 should be approved or rejected before the end of April.  According to some other research we've done, it appears that between the last departmental approval and the "Final" approval, there are typically 3-4 weeks of meetings.

So...where does that leave us?

HOPEFULLY...a start date of late May.

Up Next:  Eyes on the Prize - Tracking Round 4.

A Dream

Lori, Julie's mom, had a dream the other night that the City of Seattle called to let us know that our permit had been approved. We are taking this as a good omen because nothing else seems to be going our way right now. Friday is April 1, the beginning of the "dry season" for building. It's not looking very good for us to put a shovel in the ground this week, not to mention the rain is still falling. The permit is probably still weeks out at best. All the while, the clock is ticking on the precious dry season. Our builder and subcontractors are growing impatient with the delays. We are frustrated that it's still a dream, not reality.

We know good things take time and this project is no exception. It's survival of the fittest. Crazy young couple with a big dream versus the red tape wielding City of Seattle. We are determined that our Dream House will become reality and we will triumph over Goliath. Bring it on, City of Seattle! Can you taste the frustration?

A lot to ponder: Water Collection Systems

Today, Julie and I went to visit Dan Illich, our neighbor bordering us to the South on 53rd Ave.  First of all, Dan is quite possibly the nicest man we've ever met.  He sadly lost his wife to cancer not long ago, but he's always the most pleasant and welcoming man, even when we're there to ask him to sign a waiver.

Anyhow, Dan showed us his neighbor to the South who has a huge rain collection system that captures rain water in a 1000-gallon (or more) tank, that they can then use to water plants during dry times in the summer.

This got us to thinking and looking into the matter a bit...something I've thought of a good bit before, but haven't really looked into the details.  The basics we need to consider:
- Location
- Homemade or Manufactured
- Size

The location is pretty easy.  Underneath the deck at the home will be a very awkward space.  There's a 5' concrete wall patterned after the deck above, and hollow in the middle.  Then, another 8' to the deck above.  It would be an ideal space to hold something like a water basin.

So, first thing we did when we got home was to look at the plans and verify that a water tank would fit there.  What do we find?  There's already one in the plan!  Unfortunately, the one on the plan is required by the city as a  "Detention Cistern".  The city requires these to slowly release water, rather than have all of the rain water storm the sewer system at once.  See their specifications here.  But, at least it verified for me that the location is correct.

Second, homemade or manufactured.  Well, the required one from the city will probably have to be manufactured, but I'll check on that.  1000-gallon tanks cost over $1,200 and come in a variety of shapes and sizes including tubular, rectangle, and bladder style.  I kindof like the bladder style ones.  Regardless, they're pretty expensive.

A great site for looking at all kinds of tanks is: gototanks.com. Also, for my own reference, this one's a little cheaper.

Homemade ones are intriguing.  My biggest concern is if the City will let me do it, but they can be very inexpensive.  According to this website, you can get all of the plastic tanks you want for free!  The trick would be trying to engineer them together into a single system.  I assume we'll need a small water pump, too...

In sum, I really want a big rain collection system.  So size = big.

Next Up: Round 4 Permit Submission.

Round 3 Complete. Fail.

Report on Outcomes:

- Pass Drainage Dept: Fail

- Pass ECA Slide Dept.: Fail

- Acquire Permit: Fail

Well, it's a bit of a depressing day, but we're certainly still hopeful.  I'm convinced that March is the busiest time of year in the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), as I'm sure we're not the only ones trying to get our permit before the rainy season restriction is lifted on April 1 (for those who don't know, due to potential slide concerns, many construction projects cannot begin between October 31 and April 1...once the site is stabilized, construction can continue into that time frame).  

Today, we received our notice of corrections from Jim Mattoon in the ECA Slide Department.  He has added a couple of requirements, including the need to get permission from another neighbor to briefly encroach on their property, and the need for constant monitoring of some of the temporary shoring behind the house.

Combine this with the drainage concerns, and we've got a full 'nother round to go through with the DPD before a permit can be issued.  It appears the corrections are not particularly vast, so we should be able to get them resubmitted quickly, but it's still a frustrating setback.

It's unlikely that construction will begin April 1 at this point.  

Next Up: Redrawing the Steep Slope set-back?

Another Bump in the Road

As of about 3pm this afternoon, it appears we may be forced to round number 4 with the City of Seattle.  Nothing that appears to be their fault...just more problems with the design that need to be corrected before we can break ground.

A few weeks ago, on Feb. 17, we submitted the third round of permitting documents, attempting to correct the plans to satisfy two more departments: Drainage, and ECA Slide (ECA stands for Environmentally Critical Area).  Today, I contacted Michelle Macias at the City of Seattle after the status of the Drainage Review on the DPD website changed from "Incomplete" to "Corrections Required."

For those interested, you can always follow the updates on the City's progress here: http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=6218195.

Apparently, there are still corrections to be made.  We don't yet know how significant these changes are.  They may be very cosmetic and simple.  However, they guarantee a 4th round submittal (the image above is actually inaccurate...despite it saying "Cycle #4", we're actually just completing Cycle #3.

The worst part is, in Cycle #2, we were technically approved...Ms. Macias at the City just recommended that we modify the plans to save some money, because we had too many retention ponds listed.  So, it's very frustrating to go from "Approved" on Cycle #2 to "Denied" on Cycle #3.

So, we're still waiting on the ECA Slide Review.  If that goes well, there's a chance we can resubmit very quickly and still be ready to go April 1, but it's not looking great right now.