We Passed the first city inspection

We've made more progress than we expected this week.

According to my previous post, we hoped to have poured this week. However, since we had to find a good plumber, we had to wait on the foundation. Since we did have inclement weather, we could not have poured anyway.

At least we found a great plumber who started and finished quicker than we expected. We had to pass an inspection which we did. Hooray! Our foundation subcontractor cannot come until Wednesday so we'll wait until then. I do have some new photos to upload which I'll do this week, hopefully. It shows the plumbing installed- the first portion at least. So you'll see white pipes sticking up from the ground.

We were also looking into security cameras and plans so we can have a secure place.

Stay tuned!

Rain rain, go away!

We are still waiting on a plumber at this time. We've looked at 2 and we're about to check out a third who was our original choice but there were some complications in the process.

Anyway, it's not like they'd be able to do the job tomorrow anyway. Why? Because after many many months of rainless weather, we are expecting strong storms. And these are not just light storms- they are "STRONG" storms. So, I'm hoping this will be our only rain until we have a roof on our home.

FYI- Eric is projecting the completion date to be in five months which puts us around September. So, as each month passes, you know I'll be getting more and more excited.

Nice form!

Now that we have our ground packed in nicely ready for the big heavy load of our foundation, we needed to get the form ready which is the wooden boundary in which the concrete is poured. They also have to dig trenches and all this fun stuff I'm glad that we pay people to do. :) After all, they are the experts.


Here is the newest photo for you. I might have a new one for you tomorrow or later this week when there is actually more work done. We are kind of... delayed... as we determine which plumber we'd like to use. It turns out we had one in mind but we are looking around at the 11th hour to make sure we made the right choice.

As I drove into work this morning, I thought to myself, "I need to remove the words 'delayed',
'postponed' or any kind of word that communicates that we are behind schedule". I just don't want to have any more negative thoughts included in this project. Today in my Management for Dummies book, I read that good managers learn how to be optimistic and look towards the future. So, I am going to try to apply that not only at work but in this project. I am not even really managing the building process, I'm just watching my husband coordinate it all but I'm still communicating the message to those who ask who may think I am managing it.

Evidence of broken ground

So, as I said in my last post, we have literally "broken into the ground". Here is proof. If you're wondering where this shot is taken from, it's from my neighbor's house who as you know is my mother in law. This was one of the first "digs"by this monstrous machine which I never found out the name for. Funny story- after halfway through digging through the portion that is where our main house will be, something broke on the machine! So, all work had to stop until the next day. The good thing is they fixed the part overnight and had it done Friday, May 5, which was ahead of when they said they would finish it. I was very entertained watching the machine do it's work, especially because a different neighbor's dog who roams around and greets people who walk down the street was very curious as to what was taking place on our lot. I think he believed the big machine was a huge animal because at one time, he leaned down in a position like if he was taunting the machine. And then he'd take off running across the street at full speed and run around. You'll be amused to find out that his name is "Diablo". You can see him in this next picture:

We are ecstatic and nervous at the same time. There's no turning back now.

Here's the schedule as I understand it:
May 4, 5- Grade and pack dirt to prepare for foundation
May 9-11?- Build form for foundation, set rebar and plumbing
Then we have to wait for an inspection from the city to make sure we have everything going right. I don't know when that is supposed to take place but I hope it goes well. My experience with the city hasn't gone so well but I think it was partly our fault. This is all a learning experience for us right now.

As promised, I had a few friends over to casually "celebrate" the groundbreaking this week. My new neighbors/family were very kind to let us hang out on their property and use their furniture. Friends, if you're reading this, thanks for coming over!

Waiting game is OVER!!

Finally the long wait is over. We have the permits. Hooray! Why did it take so long, you might ask. Well, since this is our first time, we learned that we showed too much information that threw the city off in terms of our property. Long story.

So, I'm super excited despite my unfortunate illness- I came down with a stomach virus yesterday and am on the road to recovery now. However, I still wanted to get this exciting news onto the blog. I'll keep it updated as soon as I hear groundbreaking dates. Eric's at the lot as we speak (he finished work early) and is meeting with the first trade to get the plans going.

The waiting game isn't over yet!

Well, we did close on our loan to build our new casita on February 14. However, that doesn't mean we break ground February 15, not even 16! Why you ask- well, it's because we still lack the permits from the City of Houston. Here has been our process:

1) Get plans from architect from house and site plan for the lot (basically it says, on our lot, our house will be here, our garage here, and the driveway here. And we add a few trees here or there.) - this took months and months. We began in November/December.

2)Submit the plans to the City for permits - we did this on January 31.

3)We received only a few of the permits we needed. We had to make some corrections which required going back to a few technically talented people. And we needed to get some letter from the Flood district or Storm drainage. I have no idea what that means. Once we had the changes and the letter, we gleefully submitted yet again to the City on March 7. We're thinking we should have all the permits by the end of the week, right? WRONG!

4) While the plans are still getting reviewed at the City, we can check the status online with our claim number. We see AGAIN that there are changes needed- this time a drainage plan which we need a CIVIL engineer to draw up. We contacted our engineer who is of course, on vacation all week long, but thankfully he gave us a number for somebody. We have yet to call him today and beg him to spare 10 minutes (because you know, in my mind, I believe our stuff is so minimal these experts can do it with one hand tied behind their back and their eyes closed) to draw up our simple drainage plan.

So, meanwhile, we wait and wait and wait. We are at the mercy of the city. At least I have enough to keep me busy. :)

Get our signing hands ready!

So, we have progress, people! We close on our loan on Monday to build the house. But wait a minute, that doesn't mean we build JUST YET. We have to wait until we get all the permits which is taking just a little bit longer. I have a good feeling that we will break ground before this month is over.

Stay tuned for more regular posts as the building commences.
P.S. Found some stretches we can do to prepare our hands for signing.