Ready for Permits

The driveway is officially prepared, as required by the state, and the silt fence is nearly complete. They still have to put the silt fence up along the back of the property, but Lee said that he is going to the county courthouse on Monday to let them know our property is ready. We feel much better after talking with Lee yesterday. He explained to us that when he tells us something is supposed to happen it's because he's scheduled it that way. The problem is the sub-contractors don't always show up as scheduled. So, patience is key. At this point, we know it will take all of next week for Lee to get the building permit, so we won't be really getting started until Oct. 1...as long as we do get the building permit this week. I know it's not that exciting, but here is a picture of the driveway and silt fence!

It's Something!

The driveway did get scraped today! I went out there at about 2:00 pm today and nothing was done yet. But, I saw our contractor's business partner at the house next door, so I went over and asked him if there were any other problems that had come up since we talked on Monday. He said, "nope, we're right on schedule." I thought, are you kidding me? But the equipment was out there, it was just sitting 2 driveways down from ours. And by 4:30 Lee called and said the driveway was scraped. Tomorrow they are going to put the gravel rock on it and put up the silt fence. Here is a picture of how much things have changed...I know, it's pretty exciting!

Sadie has 3 new friends that she is absolutely fascinated with. They live on the other side of the house in the picture above. They are beautiful horses. Sadie can't keep her eyes off of them, especially when they make noise. It's pretty funny, we can tell she just isn't sure what to make of them! Here's a picture of them.

Surprise, Surprise

Well, the driveway didn't get scraped today. We both called it as we were driving out to the lot... how much do you want to bet it didn't get done today? What they did do today was mark off the front yard where the septic system will go. I guess we could stretch it and call that progress? Maybe we'll have something to see tomorrow.
Just a side note...our contractor was telling us stories about our neighbors (to the left) yesterday, and how "different" they are. Let me paint the picture....in their master bathroom they have clear windows around their bath tub and IN the shower! I would not be covered standing in their shower. Let's just say how happy we are that their master bedroom and bathroom are not on our side of the house. Lee said that he almost got up and walked out of their first meeting with him because of how inappropriate they were being in front of him! He said, "I guess they really enjoy eachother." Great. In the 2 times we've talked to them, we've gotten the "different" vibe from them, but nothing inappropriate...let's hope it stays that way!

Good News...Hopefully!

We drove out to our lot today to take some pictures and Lee, our contractor, was out there. He finally had some good news for us. He was at the county courthouse this morning and they agreed to let him get started on our house, without waiting for the land preservation permit! Evidently this was a "one time only" type of favor! The only condidtions are he has to scrape our driveway, lay the gravel , and install an additional silt fence on the front and back of the housing site. All of which are to be done by tomorrow afternoon. It's something at least! In doing all this, he said he should have the building permit by Friday, but we've heard that before. But, if he does get the building permit by Friday, then he will scrape the pad for our house and get the foundation done next week.

Playing Catch Up

Here's how things have been going in the last month:

Thursday August 16, 2007
We were finally able to close on our construction loan...3 weeks later than originally scheduled.

Monday August 20, 2007
First thing in the morning we took a check to the contractor so he could get started this week. He was going that day to apply for the building permit, so that we might break ground by Friday.

Tuesday August 28, 2007
Well, we haven't broke ground yet... In fact, finally just today our property line and actually housing sight were staked off with string, interesting since this needs to be done in order for the permit to be issued. Guess we don't have a permit yet.

Tuesday September 4, 2007
We talked to our contractor, Lee, today and it turns out he just found out last Friday that he was denied the building permit. Why we wondered...some how the county was using the wrong soil map, so they wanted our house to be moved forward 13 feet. I don't know anything about issueing building permits, but I would have expected the "experts" to notice there must be something wrong if our house would be the ONLY one on the street sitting that far forward! We're the 9th house to be going up on the street! So, today Lee was going back to the county courthouse to give them the correct soil map. Should have the permit by the end of the week. We'll see.

Tuesday September 11, 2007
Lee called. More problems with the permits. This is a little recap of the story we got... Last Tuesday, the state of TN changed their laws for contractors applying for building permits. The TN Dept. of Land Conservation (something like that) wants all contractors to apply for a land preservation permit before they can apply for a building permit. The state has 30 days to issue that permit. Now we have no idea when we'll get started.