The House Blog » permits

Inspection passed, mortgage approved, and we start to move in

hannonpi — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:21:28 +0000

Unfortunately with all that happening I haven’t actually taken any pictures. I am sure the 60 or so more or less regular readers are extremely bummed but here is something to tide you over. These are over the course of several weeks, so they are old. Our current status is that we have our stuff trickling in and will spend our first full night there Thursday! However, our septic system (huge) is still unable to take solids, ie no dookies so no spending the night.

Final Inspection Next Week?!?

hannonpi — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:27:26 +0000

We have our final mortgage approved via ING, the loan expires on the 19th which is fast approaching! Sean told me we are going to have the inspector come out on Wednesday for final inspection and Bank Of America is supposed to come out the same day. We are cutting it close, but the Sean is making great progress so I think we can pull it off. We shall see!

I should congratulate Sean on achieving LEED Platinum cerification for the house he is working on in Venice, he not only got the level needed, he surpassed it! Sean has done great work and is a contractor I would recommend without hesitation.

Below are pictures, starting with a shot of Ben who visited last weekend.

The house gets some color

hannonpi — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:41:22 +0000

Jenn and I where lucky to get to the house as Sean’s guys started the exterior stucco on Saturday. The interior flooring is coming along nicely and the cabinets are basically in. We still need counter-tops, railings, and a bunch of other finish work, however, we are making decent progress. At this point, though, I do not see how we could possibly be done in ten days. I need to get in touch with BoA and our mortgage broker Brian to see what the deal is.

The last details seem to be the hardest not to change, every time we go to the house there is a little thing here and there that we want to work on. However, we need to stay focused on the goal: finishing the house. Every last detail need not be perfect, all we need is a house that can pass final inspection!

Something to be worried about?

hannonpi — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:57:10 +0000

Last Thursday the 11th I was out at the site with Sean, our driller, and our septic guy reviewing our plan for where and how the drill rig would make it onto our property when I learned the house next to us is in escrow. The (potential) future owners seemed concerned that their agent had not let them know that construction was a possibility, and a very near one at that. I am unsure how anyone could not assume that a cleared, staked lot would not be eventually built upon, but that was the case. I met the couple in escrow, they are expecting a baby and are concerned about the noise of construction. I explained how we are going to be doing a lot of drilling (10 caissons!) and have about a one year construction time line. Seeing that we have already pulled permits I don’t think that there will be any issues, but one never knows. I figured it was best to be upfront and explain to them where the house is going, future expansion plans, and our general time lines.

On another note, we had the septic guy up there yesterday, I’ll have new pictures to post tomorrow.

And so we begin

hannonpi — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:16:30 +0000

It has been four years since we first walked onto this vacant lot in Malibu. Since then there has been Coastal hearings, catch-22′s with county and state agencies, fire department reviews, new plans, the purchase of a development credit and more than once we thought it wasn’t going to work out. Last week we picked up our permits and on Monday we begin making room for drilling rigs and trucks. On Friday we had a surveyor come up and stake the area where the house will be. I’ve attached a few pictures of the lot staked, but otherwise untouched (except by our neighbors exploratory drilling!).