We met the excavator at the land to go over our proposed "new" outline of where the house would sit. We talked a lot of the grade of the land, what locations would require more fill than others, and pros/cons of all sorts of things. Main concerns were having to potentially pay for a lot more fill, and potentially ending up with a backyard like a "bowl" if we had to dig it out to allow for a walkout. The excavator seems like a nice honest guy who isn't worried about reasonable extra labor (like tree clearing) but needed to be able to recoup his cost if we need more fill brought in than he budgeted in his initial bid. Makes sense to me.
In the end, after the excavator went out there again and took a lot of detailed measurements. It basically boiled down to the position we had picked was the best possible weighing all the pros and cons. It will cost us a little more for material that needs to be brought in, but in the end we will have the house sitting where we want it, with south-facing windows, and plenty of room for garage apron and driveway approach on the north side. Once the excavator checked out the potential backyard slope, he decided there was enough of a slope to be able to grade the backyard without any problems. The next day he was back clearing backyard trees already!
It turns out that while we had the septic location planning and testing done last fall, we never did get a permit. So we had to go to the county offices yesterday afternoon to pay for that. Unfortunately they said it would take up to 10 business days, and the excavator is nearly ready to roll on that piece right now.
We have our siding, shakes, soffit, fascia, and window colors all picked out. Nice to have that behind us. Next up is exterior stone and shingles.
We got a little surprise for our current landlord yesterday. Our lease is up on July 31. The landlord is offering us two options. One is to sign another lease through February. Our house is scheduled to be done by mid-December, and the rent at this house is really high. The other option is to lease month-to-month. The problem with month-to-month is that it is possible with 30 day notice that they could rent this place to another tenant. Neither option is particularly appealing. Seth's new town home (1500 sq feet) is a possible contingency plan, but that isn't too exciting of an arrangement either. Just another tough decision to be made I guess.
The joys of home building!
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