Sunday, June 5, 2011

The Rain Has Finally Stopped

With the plans approved, we can really get started anytime we're ready. We have to at least do something within 6 months of the permit being granted. What we really have been waiting for is the rain to stop.

There is an area that we have to cross to get from the driveway to the shed site. Eventually the driveway will extend over to the shed, but for right now it's just a "field". In reality, it's an area where the previous owner logged the land and stripped the land of all vegetation and dirt. It's basically pure ledge. If there is any dirt, it's only an inch or so thick. So, with all the spring rain we had, and because there is so much ledge, giving the water no where to go, it's just a mud bowl.

We'll have to bring in fill to build this area up if the permanent driveway runs through it. In fact, we had plans just last weekend to start to bring in materials to do just that. Our plan was to get a temporary driveway in so that we could get concrete trucks over to the shed site and get going on the foundation. But then, of course, we ran into a problem.

Shed Plans Approved

We've had some good news and some bad news lately. What I consider the best news is that the shed plans were approved. Initially, the town was not willing to approve the plans for us to build a shed first, because it's "customary" to build the primary residence first and secondary structures later. But we were able to work with the local officials and get approval.

And, the actual plans themselves were approved. I think what I sent them was overkill in terms of details. But by producing a document with a ton of detail, it will make developing our materials list a breeze.

Also with the approval of the plans, we were assigned an address. Our neighbors to one side are #328, and the neighbors to the other side are #370. There are three lots between those two houses, so we knew our number would be somewhere in the middle of those. We requested two numbers: 360 and 342. We wanted 360 because then we could say, so matter where we go, we can just do a "360" and be back in the same place (goofy - I know). And I wanted 342 because those were the last 3 digits of my grandmother's phone number. Well, the building department gave us #350. I'm not quite sure why I couldn't have one of the numbers I wanted, but that's not a battle worth engaging in.

More about the bad news a little later...