Let the Demo Begin!

Today is the day that things start to get rolling. The very first demolition activity is to take a huge dying tree down. About half the tree has been dead since we moved in and, frankly, I'm amazing it hasn't fallen on our (or our neighbor's) house yet. So today he comes down (we will be planting many more in his place after construction). We're going to chip up as much as we can to use for mulch in the "tree farm" area of our back yard where we have planting a bunch of saplings and random others things to establish themselves before placing them in another part of the yard.

Monday is when the real fun begins though. That's when they'll start taking the HOUSE down. And according to Justin, the contractor, that should only take about 3-4 days. By the end of next week our house will be half as big as it is now. Then they will have a surveyor stake out where the new foundation will be and they'll begin to excavate. That should take about 3 days. Next comes the foundation, which should be poured and finished within a week. After that, the framing begins.

It's all becoming very real and exciting. Justin says they're on schedule to complete the project within 3-4 months. I'm putting this down on the blog as evidence, because you and I both know we should expect more like 6 months. I haven't met a person yet who has been through a renovation that has been completed on time. Nonetheless, it's great to have things rolling because at least now the end is in sight!

Permit Granted-Again!

So I've been too bitter to update the blog lately, until today. The short version of the story is that after we got county approval (the first time, in December) our contractor realized that he could save us about $7000 if we made a few changes to the foundation (basically by using less concrete). He promised me he would make the changes and get them approved by the county, which he finally did yesterday, but it was a long and stressful journey. After many meetings with the county, the structural engineer could still not understand why the county was so reluctant to approve plans that still met Arlington county building code. My theory: in a down economy, when you work for a local government that is dependent on funding from the state (who is teetering on bankruptcy), what is one way to ensure you keep your job? Look busy. And that is precisely what our plan reviewer did-for about two and a half months.

We're all just very happy that the final approval has been given and now we can get started! Let the bulldozing begin!!!!

Permit Granted

Today we got word that our plans have been approved (finally) after much work on behalf of Brian from Sustainable Design Group. He really deserves a big applause for all the hoop-jumping he did to secure the approval. It was not an easy or pleasant process (see the last post). But we made it through the process in about 5 weeks, which is remarkably fast, even with the many revisions that were required. So thank you, Arlington County, for being so speedy. At some point, we will be writing a letter to recommend some ways to make the process more efficient. I'm pretty sure I needlessly sprouted some grey hairs over this process....

Our contractor, Justin, is going out of town between Christmas and New Year's so it's unlikely that demolition will begin before Jan. 1. We're just thankful that all the ducks are now officially in a row and we can start the new year off with a bang...er...bulldozer?? If the project is completed on schedule (big IF), we should be done by May. The bank says we HAVE to be done by June 30 so we should be in our new house by the end of the summer. Now the real fun begins!

PS- We picked up the permit this morning and we'll let our readers guess how much an Arlington County building permit costs:

A) Ski weekend in West Virginia
B) A new macbook pro.
C) A 50 in. flat screen plasma TV.
D) A used car.

Good News/Bad News

Good news first: we are now the proud owners of a huge mortgage on a tiny, shabby, two-bedroom cottage in the highly-desirable suburb of Washington, DC: good ol' Arlington county (i.e. we closed the loan yesterday).

Bad news: Arlington county sucks. Ok, the schools are great, the taxes are manageable, the parks are many and near-between. But the plan reviewers? They, well, suck. We have been in to see the county at least four times now and revised our plans twice. Keep in mind that every person in the building profession who has seen our plans has said that are some of the best plans they have ever seen. The first rejection was warranted. Our plat needed updating and did not include the set backs or the sheds on the property. Fine. Though, did we really have to go to the county to pick up the plans, pay $30 to have 3 pages reprinted on 18 x 24 paper and be late to work (again) to resubmit them in person carefully removing the staples from all three sets of plans, inserting the corrected pages, and re-stapling them? The second rejection came with a list of items that needed fixing that didn't seem too serious (e.g. specify what kind of glass, tempered or otherwise, will be used in the windows). There were about six items. We gave the list to the architect. He made the changes, requiring 7 new pages to be printed (at a cost of $50 for 3 copies on 18 x 24 paper), we took an afternoon off work and went back to the county where confrontations with a staple ensued. The THIRD rejection came yesterday when the plan reviewer told me that none of the changes she requested had been made. "Huh?" I said. After a very confusing back and forth, she agreed to meet with the architect the next day and explain what she needs.

That meeting was this afternoon. The plan reviewer called afterwards and said that she had gone over the plans with the architect and he now understands the "major changes" that are necessary. Jes then left her desk and promptly consumed a Caribou dark chocolate hot chocolate. She is now breathing deeply and awaiting a call from the architect.

Moving Weekend and Progress Update

Whew! I did not have any concept of what exhausted felt like until this weekend. My boss graciously gave me Friday off and Jody took a half day. We spent the entirety of three whole days packing, moving to the in-laws, and hauling things into the storage unit (which is fixed now-thank you Mobile Mini!). The house is still not totally empty, but we have successfully cleared out the basement, kitchen, bathroom, Alex's room, dining room, and study. Our bedroom and the family room are nearly done, but still need some sorting and packing. We have determined that all of our furniture will not fit in the outside unit. So we'll have to wrap it up and store it in the rooms that are not being demolished. The only work in those room will be new windows and refinished floors, so it shouldn't be a hassle to have a few pieces of furniture to move around.

We gave away our old gas stove on Freecycle last night and are looking to give away the microwave hutch. Next we have to roll the fridge into the dining room where it will be stored during construction along with the new dishwasher and gas range.

The bank has officially approved our builder, Justin and our application has been submitting to underwriting for final approval. With any luck, we should be able to close Monday at 4p. After that, we'll sitting on our hand waiting for the county to approve our plans (we resubmitted them for the second time on Friday because of some minor details that had to be added by the structural engineer/architect) and issue the building permit.

I'm so glad we get to take a break from all of this uprooting and enjoy some down time with family and friends over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you have a wonderful turkey day!

Storage Update

After a stern email complaint, our sales rep from Mobile Mini has promised to send out a repair guy to try and fix the door problem. He explained that if the unit is not on a completely flat surface, or if loading half the unit with heavy furniture causes it to become uneven, the doors can become...well...stuck. Awesome. So either the repair will fix them, or, here's the best part, we get to unpack all of the stuff we've loaded (including our couch, dining room furniture, and many, many, boxes) and put it into a brand new unit! Yay.

But I have to say the folks at Mobile Mini have been very responsive thus far.

A big shout out to our neighbor, Robert, for having his construction buddies fabricate a huge steel tube that we can now use to slide over the stuck handle and yank it open! THANKS ROBERT!

County Rejection and Storage Woes

Permitting

I wish I could blame the county for potentially delaying our project, but I can't. After clearing the first hurdle of the Arlington county permitting-zoning-we were rejected again by inspection services. Apparently, our plans are missing some relatively minor details about wind shear, leger board locations, etc. The architect's draftsman has graciously moved our plan revisions to the top of his list and I hope he can get them back to us before Wednesday so we at least have a chance of getting inspection services to review the plans before Thanksgiving. *Note to future Arlington renovators: be prepared to make no less than one trip a week to the county offices. They do virtually nothing online (except tell you if your plans have been rejected). You have to check out the hard copies of your plans with each rejection and resubmit them, in person, after waiting in line to be seen, with revised pages. Fingers crossed that these revisions will be the last!

Storage

As you may have guessed, this rather large renovation requires us to move nearly all of our possessions (and ourselves) out of the house during construction. We looked into renting a Pod or other household-name-brand onsite storage unit, but they are all small and relatively expensive. My parents had rented a repurposed steel shipping container (the kind you see stacked up in ports) when they renovated their kitchen. These things are huge-ours is 20 feet long x 8 feet wide x 10 feet tall. It seemed perfect for what we needed.

Well, turns out the space is great, accessing the space is another story. There are two doors at one end that swing open, each with two rods that lock at the top and bottom. There is one master handle in the middle that opens the unit. We had successfully, and with relatively little effort, opened the doors on two previous occasions-once to check it out and once to begin moving things into it. This past Sunday we had planned on spending many hours moving many boxes and bits of furniture into the unit. That was before we tried to get the unit open again. Let's just say it took both Jody and I throwing our backs out yanking on the main handle, and our neighbor with a steel mallet and a crow bar to get it open. And an hour and a half later, we were finally ready to move things in.

Take home message: do NOT rent a unit from Mobile Mini. Not only are their units unsuitable for frequent entry (as needed in a residential setting), but their customer service is terrible. I emailed our salesperson when I though the unit was leaky (turns out the wood floor was moist from the condensation of the grass it was sitting over), and he did not even have the courtesy to respond to my complaint. He only responded when I emailed him asking a question about our billing invoice (which confirms I had the correct email address on file).

This weekend is the big move to Jody's parents' house. Looks like we'll have a little bit of time to get the house totally cleared out after that. Stay tuned for permitting updates....