Last week, the neighbours across the street reported an abandoned car in their back alley, and the police found a body in the trunk. Makes the couch dumped on our lot seem trivial. And makes me glad we put up the fence. According to the news articles about the dead body, the area is popular with photographers (due to the view), but also with drug dealers and prostitutes. Gee, can't wait to move in. I'm also glad we have the multi-million dollar homes separating us from the people taking photos of drug dealers and prostitutes.
The build process has been feeling stalled. I haven't updated in a while because it feels like there hasn't been anything to update. But when you add up the little things, I guess I have more than a full blog post.
In early December, we finally settled on a design to submit to the city for development permits. On Dec 13, we met with the community association planning committee. During the meeting, Ryan announced that he'd spoken to a couple of city planners, and that as long as the total lot coverage is under 45%, we don't need to go through the discretionary development permit route. We have always planned to be under 45%, so the only reason to go for a discretionary permit is the height of the 3rd floor deck. We've decided to remove the door to the "deck" and call it a green roof instead of a deck. So we're going with the less intensive contextual development permit route. This is more likely to allow us to break ground in early spring.
Also during the meeting, Ryan promised to have the permit application in before the end of the year. On Dec 20, the last day of work for most people, I checked to see if we were going to city hall that day. He replied that he'd be ready on the 27th.
On Christmas Eve, we woke up to an email from Ryan asking for a copy of our title to take in with the permit application. We then realized that we never got the title from the lawyer. MrDinks got ahold of someone at the lawyer's office that morning and headed down there before they closed at noon to get it. Nothing like a little bit of last minute holiday panic. The title is still showing the mortgage from the guy we bought the lot from. Apparently banks are supposed to remove that within 30 days, but in reality, they wait a couple of months until the lawyers start harassing them. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.
But then on the 27th, Ryan said he was still drawing and we'd apply on the 31st. On Dec 30, he brought up the fact that the roof overhang was poking out into the setback area of the lot; the area next to the sidewalk we aren't allowed to build on. We could leave it and apply for a discretionary permit for a variance, change the roof line to something with a steeper angle, or move the house a couple of feet. We've been through enough iterations at this point that changes to the roofline are not up for discussion. And it's not worth waiting for a discretionary permit for a couple feet more back yard. So we told him to just move the house on the lot. He also mentioned that the copy of the title we got was dated in September (probably the day we took possession) and he has to provide a title that is less than 30 days old when he applies for the permit. At this point, I think I will pick one up at a registry office on my way to city hall to apply for the permit, seeing as it could easily be more than 30 days before the application gets in. Ryan assures us it will definitely be within 30 days. However, I'm pretty sure he said that back in September, you know, when the current title was still valid? Plus, maybe the bank will have gotten around to taking themselves off the title by then,
We got Ryan's "final" permit drawings on Jan 2. A few of the windows are not as we had agreed on, and the walls are not as thick as we had planned, in order to get our R30 insulation rating. MrDinks has also thought about changing the doors on the garage so we can pull our daily cars in from the street instead of from the alley. We brought this up with Ryan a couple of days ago, and he hasn't responded yet.
Oh, and here's the "final" design that you've all been anxiously awaiting...
The build process has been feeling stalled. I haven't updated in a while because it feels like there hasn't been anything to update. But when you add up the little things, I guess I have more than a full blog post.
In early December, we finally settled on a design to submit to the city for development permits. On Dec 13, we met with the community association planning committee. During the meeting, Ryan announced that he'd spoken to a couple of city planners, and that as long as the total lot coverage is under 45%, we don't need to go through the discretionary development permit route. We have always planned to be under 45%, so the only reason to go for a discretionary permit is the height of the 3rd floor deck. We've decided to remove the door to the "deck" and call it a green roof instead of a deck. So we're going with the less intensive contextual development permit route. This is more likely to allow us to break ground in early spring.
Also during the meeting, Ryan promised to have the permit application in before the end of the year. On Dec 20, the last day of work for most people, I checked to see if we were going to city hall that day. He replied that he'd be ready on the 27th.
On Christmas Eve, we woke up to an email from Ryan asking for a copy of our title to take in with the permit application. We then realized that we never got the title from the lawyer. MrDinks got ahold of someone at the lawyer's office that morning and headed down there before they closed at noon to get it. Nothing like a little bit of last minute holiday panic. The title is still showing the mortgage from the guy we bought the lot from. Apparently banks are supposed to remove that within 30 days, but in reality, they wait a couple of months until the lawyers start harassing them. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.
But then on the 27th, Ryan said he was still drawing and we'd apply on the 31st. On Dec 30, he brought up the fact that the roof overhang was poking out into the setback area of the lot; the area next to the sidewalk we aren't allowed to build on. We could leave it and apply for a discretionary permit for a variance, change the roof line to something with a steeper angle, or move the house a couple of feet. We've been through enough iterations at this point that changes to the roofline are not up for discussion. And it's not worth waiting for a discretionary permit for a couple feet more back yard. So we told him to just move the house on the lot. He also mentioned that the copy of the title we got was dated in September (probably the day we took possession) and he has to provide a title that is less than 30 days old when he applies for the permit. At this point, I think I will pick one up at a registry office on my way to city hall to apply for the permit, seeing as it could easily be more than 30 days before the application gets in. Ryan assures us it will definitely be within 30 days. However, I'm pretty sure he said that back in September, you know, when the current title was still valid? Plus, maybe the bank will have gotten around to taking themselves off the title by then,
We got Ryan's "final" permit drawings on Jan 2. A few of the windows are not as we had agreed on, and the walls are not as thick as we had planned, in order to get our R30 insulation rating. MrDinks has also thought about changing the doors on the garage so we can pull our daily cars in from the street instead of from the alley. We brought this up with Ryan a couple of days ago, and he hasn't responded yet.
Oh, and here's the "final" design that you've all been anxiously awaiting...
