It came from the sewer...

When we bought our lot, there was a sewer pipe running down the length of it, smack in the middle. The pipe was from the large care facility that faces out to Prescott St; apparently it had been easier for them to run the sewer slightly downhill to Going St. than it was to go ever so slightly uphill to Prescott, and since our lot was just another part of the parcel that the care facility was on, that's what they did. Then in 2004 the lot was sectioned off and purchased by what will be our new neighbors, who apparently either did not realize there was a sewer pipe running the length of their new property or else didn't care. When they put the lot up for sale themselves, however, it became a big deal, as you can't build pretty much anything on top of someone else's sewer line. It's cool and all to be a landowner, but not so much of a non-buildable lot in the Cully neighborhood. Basically, in order to build a house on the lot, the sewer line had to be moved. So this was our first order of business.

We got what seemed like a reasonable bid from a professional seeming excavator (regardless of what I am about to write, I can continue to recommend Konnell excavation for your excavation needs). The plan was to move the sewer line to the edge of the property where the 10' no-build easement wouldn't effect anything. After some wrangling with the city, work commenced. John Konnell got a permit detailing the work and walked the property with the city inspector, again detailing the plan of action. Check. Digging commences. Check. Pipe is laid & connected. Check. Pipe is reburied. Check. Same inspector comes back out for the pressure test, which is the final step in the process. Check... uhhh... shit.

It was at this point that the inspector decide to point out that all of the pipe, which had been permitted and approved at 4" should actually be 6". All 190' of it. Several frantic phone calls to the city and quite a bit it swearing ensue. The city was unfazed by both threats and pleading and maintained that the code calls for 6" pipe, and the fact that both a permit was issued for 4" pipe and that it was verbally okayed by the inspector before it was placed were unimportant- the important thing was the code is the code and we would just have to deal with it. There was a conspicuous lack of admission of guilt or responsibility on the part of the city, which I guess is to be expected. They also did not offer to pay for what was essentially their error. Shocker. So we were left to work this out with Konnell, which we did, and Konnell was left to basically re-do the job they had just done, only with slightly bigger pipe this time, which they did.

And that is the tale of the sewer.

Here's some more pictures of the lot. These were all taken in the little break between what I like to think of as the "practice" sewer job and the "actual" sewer job.

Heavy equipment infringing on the root space of our Doug Fir:

The arborist really freaked out about that one.

This is where our driveway will be. Driveways apparently aren't permanent structures so it's okay to have a sewer under them.

 All our shit in the back. Good god we have too much crap.

New pipe (blue) connected to old pipe (black):

Excavator. And just below the bucket of the excavator, you can see the new or at least what will be the new cleanout of the sewer sticking up:

 There it is again!



 
 We apparently purchased quite a bit of gravel. I suspect we may purchase some more.

There was a lot of this lying around. Jeff wanted to buy the guys all round of drinks over the re-do because that's the kind of guy he is. I suggested he get a case of energy drinks as apparently this is their fave.

The end.

The arborist plan is almost complete, details coming soon. Lot of expensive tree massages and special soil in our future. Also, the bank has said as of yesterday that we really truly have given them the last document they need to submit to whoever for our final approval, and that now it should be only 2 weeks until we can start digging. For realz this time. We have even been given a tentative dig date- Aug 28th. Keep your fingers crossed.

The City of Portland made me cry

So I went down to the planning office this morning to submit some revisions. Jeff suggested I take the kids to his dad's place for this, which initially I resisted. I pretty much just wanted to drop the changes off and be done. Thank god I took his advice. I had three hours to contemplate alternate mottos for the city (the city that waits? The city that works on your last nerve?) while I met with 4 different people who each wanted me to explain the revisions as though I had done the engineering myself. I'm not afraid to admit when I don't know something, but I think that this may be a new record for my saying "I don't know," punctuated occasionally with "I have no idea." If this is a Guinness sanctioned activity then I win. To keep me company while I waited I had a single dog-eared copy of People magazine that had to have been at least 2 years old (Hey! Michael Jackson is still alive!) and the feeling of regret that I had left my coffee in the car. I quickly discovered that the handful of games on my cell phone were for demonstration purposes only and was left with writing increasingly desperate texts to Jeff in which I expressed my progressing suicidal ideation. The last straw was when the planner asked me why I didn't bring the arborist report with me (yet another saga for another time), as this was yet another revision, and since I didn't have it, I would have to come back again. I may not have shed actual tears at this news, but let me assure you, I was crying on the inside while I informed the planner that I didn't know and I actually had no idea. I think Jeff later decided it would be best if he were the one to take that report in to add to the revisions. All I know is if I ever have to go to the planning office again I'm going to bring my coffee with me, a catheter to avoid losing my place in line as a result of an ill-timed bathroom break, and something sharp in case the waiting becomes too much to bear.

On a sunnier note, here are some pictures of the lot. This is from the street:

Here is our new rock pile. We found out the hard way that the excavator has a "rock policy"- an upcharge for every rock over 2' in diameter. Look carefully...

Sadly, I can't seem to get any more to upload, which I'm sure is operator error. This blog is destined to be picture-free. Someday soon I hope to tell the exiting saga of the sewer relocation and the aborist's tree plan, but those will have to wait for another day. Heck, someday soon I hope to tell you the exciting saga of how we actually broke ground, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Starting in the middle

Like all good things, this blog is starting in the middle. No, we haven't actually started building the house yet, but it has been months in the making already, many of which were quite nerve-wracking (like the sale of our old house). However, all action to date has been paper action and probably not too exciting to read about, so you didn't really miss much. Just trust me.

I cannot guarantee that there will be a next blog entry. The fact that there is a next blog entry should not be seen as a guarantee that there will be an entry after that. And so on. I will try, really, but I have notoriously bad follow through. Also, I am kinda busy. I have been trying to take pictures, but I'm pretty bad about that and also really bad about actually uploading pics, but I swear I will make the effort as I'm sure that the real reason anyone will ever read this blog will be for the visuals rather than my witty banter.

Okay, all disclaimers aside, let's go over what you have missed. We are building a house. Well, actually we are paying others to build a house, but we are supervising, although we are also paying somebody (Steve!) to supervise. Which I guess means another round of margaritas for me, since I seem to have worked myself out of any responsibilities. If only. The process started back in late winter of this year with the purchase of plans from Palazzo Custom Homes. We were looking to buy a bigger home and although we had considered building a home in the past, it just seemed too... something. So we set out looking for a house to remodel, or extensively remodel, or tear down, and nothing was really making any sense, until we looked at a new construction home (built by Palazzo) which was in an awful location but was otherwise pretty much exactly what we wanted including a basement, except of course for all the crappy finishes at al. So the condensed version from there was bought plans, modified them, applied for a construction loan (easier than we thought), found a lot we liked just blocks from our house, bought it (harder than we thought), put our house and the market and sold it almost immediately (way easier than we thought), moved into an apartment, and are now finally in the last weeks before breaking ground on what is often described by those around us as our "dream home", but which I have come to think of as "let's just get this over already."

Some facts about our new adventure: Jeff and I will be owner-builders. This is bank speak for "no GC" rather than an implication that either one of us will be wielding a hammer. This is not to say we can't wield a hammer, or paintbrush, or finish nailer; Jeff can attest to my skill with a caulk gun full of painter's caulk. However, since we both work full time and have 2 kids under the age of 4, it seemed wise to let to professionals do the work in the interest of finishing sometime this century. To all true owner-builders, I tip my hat to you. Our friend Steve Giansante of Luca construction will be our "consultant" on the project, aka man on the street. This seemed wise as we will be working/parenting pretty much 100% of the time and while we have done a whole bunch of remodeling, Steve can be there to make sure we aren't making obvious mistakes, setting up schedules, helping to line up subs. He'll also be doing his fair share of actual work on the place as he is a fab finish carpenter and more. Already he has earned every penny. Unfortunately his salary hasn't kicked in yet. Steve is great, please hire him for your next project. After we're done, I mean.

At this date, we are expecting to break ground optimistically in 2 weeks, more realistically by Sept 1, or maybe even after that. Technically, ground has already been broken in the sense that we are in the midst of a big sewer relocation, which is only very peripherally related to the house but has the lot completely torn up. This is definitely worthy of a separate blog post to be coming soon with pictures. Lots of last minute decisions are being made. Permits have been approved, finally, and paid for (ouch!). We are now waiting for our loan to finalize and I think may have even managed to submit all of the paperwork that was requested. I think. I'm sure the saga of planning will pale in comparison to the saga of building, but so far the saga of planning has been daunting. It is now clear to me why so many people buy houses that have already been built. But alas, now it is too late, so on we forge.