Phone Calls and Blueprints

We announced the plans to officially begin our project in January knowing that we wouldn't break ground for many months. It is the dead of winter, so all we can really do now is plan and research, which is good, because we have a lot to learn.

The planning phase, I have come to realize, has 2 major buckets:  leaving messages and staring at blueprints.

On leaving messages: One of the major planning-phase unanticipated speed bumps seems to be the fact that everyone works from 9-5.  That includes me, my husband, AND surveyors, foundation contractors, township representatives, etc.  This is certainly one initial challenge for self building.  So, I leave messages before work, people call me back during work and then I call them back after work and leave another message.  I've taken to trying to schedule calls with folks during lunch, which ultimately leads to scheduling another call the next day to get me the information for which I am asking.  Presidents day is coming up, and I'm hoping that while I have the day off, maybe people in the contractor/builder business don't so I can cross off some of my to-dos. (apologies to contractors for hoping you don't get a holiday).

On staring at blueprints:  Sounds boring and obsessive, but this part of the planning phase has been fun.  In this stage, we get the blueprints out at random times, look them over, and talk about things like

• the relative cost/benefit of "2 x 4 vs 2 x 6 construction" and 
• "if we move this wall, where does the crawl space access go" and 
• walls that are "load bearing v. not" and
• the typical width of a hallway and
• the merits of attached v unattached garages

It's like we are on a blueprint road show. We take them to family members' houses, get them out, grab a coffee or beer (depending on the time of day) and talk.  I actually woke up at 12:46 a.m. on Sunday with an idea about the front door, put on my robe and got out the blueprints.  As someone who has  never held a blueprint before this project, the learning curve has been, and continues to be, steep, but not beyond my ability to overcome.

Here is a shot of a recent blueprint visit to my husband's parents' house: 

All this blueprint discussion would be way less interesting if we weren't planning to modify the plan.  Our cabin plan is what can be called a "kit" house.  What that means is the blue prints and the materials list come in one package, so you don't have to do much thinking about things like "how many sheets of plywood will I need" and "where should the outlets be"?  The kit homes are different from manufactured homes, which are built off site by manufacturers and trucked in and glued together.  They are also different than panelized homes, which come in large wall sections like giant Lego sets.

What we are doing is actual "stick built" construction with a pre-package plan.  But, of course, we want to change it in 2 ways.   First, we want to build the cabin so that one day we can add an attached garage, and that means reconfiguring the closets and the bedrooms to create a short hallway to a back door (otherwise the attached garage would enter through a bedroom). The second is we want to have the main entry and deck toward the lake be on the south side toward my parents' house.  At first we thought the entry problem would have to be resolved by building a "mirror image" of the house plans so the front door, living room and deck are on the south and the kitchen is on the north. But, it turns out to do that we'd either have to re-draw or purchase a new more expensive set of the plans or keep the plans the same and try to explain to the foundation and township people that "we want to build this but the opposite" and constantly remember during the build that we were were building things in reverse.

BUT, during my midnight sojourn to blueprint stare, my epiphany was instead of reversing the whole plan for the house, why don't we just move the deck and the door.  We think that will work, and be both easier to explain and remember when building.  I am sure this will be a topic of discussion over blueprints and beers this weekend, so, more to come on that.

Progress

Though it is the dead of winter, we've had a bit of progress this week including:

• On a whim and in a bit of a panic, I called up the bank on the corner just to make sure that we can get a mortgage if we build a house.  I have lingering worries about whether or not the trailer and the title for the trailer and all of that complexity could get in the way.  We certainly don't want to spend a bunch of money just to be stuck in the same terrible mortgage.  Turns out we should be fine -- though I did learn that we need to have a "certificate of occupancy" in order to finance, which makes sense to me.
• I was also able to get a hold of the township and learned that we need to be 6 feet off the property line on both sides.  Since the property is 50 feet wide and the house is 32 feet wide, then that leaves us room for a 6 foot deck on the south side and we should be fine.  
• Also, I was able to get another quote for a survey.  Our first quote was $3,000.  The new one is $800.  Amazing how low an $800 expense can seem. 

Finally, because it is winter, my recent daydreams have centered around crackling wood stoves and frosty windows and padding down the stairs of my future cabin in wool socks and yoga pants with a coffee cup in my hand.  Yes, the summer holds more diverse and unlimited activities at the lake. But the winter has its own magic including the striking stillness of a lake once alive with waves and activity now frozen in time, breathtaking sunsets over a windy vista of untouched snow, and the spectacular clarity of the wide open nighttime winter sky.   There's also ice fishing and ice skating and bonfires on the ice and pulling kids on sleds.  Tales of icy drag races and dangerous break throughs before my time abound mixed with talk of the ice boat construction project (on hold now for only 9 years), shared over cups of coffee and slippered feet.  Yes, the lake is fun in the summer, but it's a memory treasure box is not limited to sailboats and swimming and marsh mellows and turtles.  

This is a pic taken a few years ago of me (fake smile and all) on the lake in the winter.  Buddy is in the background.  The previously mentioned huge cottonwood trees are on the left of the shot and my parent's house is in the middle.

Here are our kids and nephews around an ice fishing hole on a day of frozen fun last winter

This week I hope to finally talk to contractors for the foundation and get a few more quotes for the survey.... and do a lot more staring at blueprints.

Thanks for reading.
Sarah