building for our future

I am happy to report that we are finally in the “please give me a permit” phase with the township as of the first week in April. Long delays in the completion of the final plans and some necessary changes, thereof, to support construction needs kept us from applying sooner, but it’s always best to have everything “just so” before you make that final push for approval. The changes largely revolved around increasing the depth of one outside wall to provide enough room for the soil pipe from the master bath on the second floor, and doing it without compromising our ability to fully insulate with the spray-foam insulation product that we have specified. (We have also learned that the subcontractor for that work is now using a “green” product with equal or better performance than the petroleum-based foam they used to use and are quite happy with that) There were a few other minor changes to correct errors the contractor and I found when we reviewed the first cut of the final plans. If all goes well, we can hopefully break ground next month and get things rolling on the addition.

Parallel to this, I’ve been meeting with a number of excavation contractors regarding the necessary septic updates. The final plan calls for two additional trenches as well as re-piping the existing three and replacement of the pump with a higher flow model. The first quote we received was unpalatable and we are hoping that the remaining three will be more reasonable...after all, this is an addition to our budget that was originally unanticipated.

Lastly, during my conversation the other day with Michael, the general contractor, I explored the idea of adding a door between the guest bedroom and the guest bath to provide an en-suite arrangement should we have any longer term-guests or if a guest wants to use the facilities while entertaining is going on in the adjacent multi-purpose room. The cost for this change will be minimal and it will provide a lot of benefit. Frankly, I can’t understand why it didn’t stick in my head earlier, especially since one reader of this BLOG even suggested it to me some time ago.

So cross your fingers, toes and whatever else you want to cross...and hope that we make it through the township on only one round.