Wetlands commission

This evening, at eight fifteen, our wetland plans/building plans were unanimously approved!

Whew!  and WOOT!

Next step May 10th planning and zoning confirmation meeting.

Thanks for reading.

The best of times- the worst of times

What a rollercoaster ride this past week has been.  I have been so emotionally envolved with all the happenings that I couldn't even stand writing about it.  It has been that tough.   Tuesday and Wednesday I was ready to give the whole project up. 
First thing Tuesday morning I had a meeting with Gary, our banker.  I went into the meeting, check in hand ready to put in the final application, and submit my plans to an appraisor.  This costs about $800 dollars which is non-refundable.  The process was going fine, until Gary ran an updated credit check.  For some reason, which neither he or I could figure out, Teri's score had gone down.  We finally figured out that it went down because she had closed out a credit card the month before.  The drop was huge, and disqualified us from the program.  Quite a blow.  However we decided that I would write a letter explaining the drop in credit.  O.K, no huge deal, but still stressful.  We rescheduled for Wednesday to finish things up. 

I then went directly to town hall to submit the revised deed so that our building permit could go forward.  I went to see Bonnie, the zoning inspector.  She was the one who orginally told Teri that the deed that I had written up wasn't good because it didn't specifically combine the two plots of land together.  I asked her if this deed was acceptable.  SHE WOULDN'T GIVE ME AN ANSWER!  She kept hemming and hawing and offered to bring the deed to the town attorney, but didn't know how long that would take.  I couldn't understand-  if she was the one that disapproved of the original, did this satisfy her concerns?  Yes or no? She wouldn't tell me.  Very annoying.

She asked me, in passing, whether or not I had spoken to planning and zoning.  "No, why did I need to?" I answered.  She told me that the plot (even combined) was smaller than the minimum lot size, and would have to go to the head of P&Z and apply for a varience.  O.K..... So I go to Eric of P&Z, talk to him about this.  Seems I have to go in front of the planning/zoning commission and they have to decide whether I can build or not.  He won't be available to meet until Friday, the meeting is Monday, and the town needs 14 days before rendering a decision.  Now I am freaking out! 

First, isn't this a 'no-brainer'? I mean, I am taking two building lots-  lots that Jim and Peg have been paying taxes on, as building lots, combining them, and building only one house!  Right?

Secondly, I have been in the town hall running around, showing the sitemap, my plans, town officials have been on site, and not one person mentioned the fact that I would have to go in front of ANOTHER commission?  AND wait another two weeks before breaking ground!  I was planning on breaking ground May 3rd.  Meeting to approve this isn't happening until May 10th.  UGGG!

Lastly, I ran into Todd, the wetlands guy.  He says to me "Oh hi Sam, I was just about to shoot you off an email".  Now, at this time, I'm thinking that Teri and I are golden- The wetland commission seemed really into our presentation, and I felt really confident about the upcoming meeting.   This was not to be.  Because of the email that he sent, as well as every conceivable thing going wrong that day, I cancelled the bank application- and told Teri that as far as I was concerned, the project was dead. 

For next time- what the email stated, how the rest of the week went, and how we got back on track.

Thanks for reading!

Meetings, bids and estimates.

This is going to be a busy week.  I am off for April vacation, and I am going to try like heck to get as much done as possible. Yesterday I went to town hall to record the sitemap, and finalized deed.  I did neither.  The sitemap needs to be a mylar copy, not paper, which is what I had. Also, I was not going to record the deed without it be "o.k'd" by the zoning official.  She was out, but I left a copy of the deed there for her review.  I am hoping to speak with her today.  On a more positive front, I signed some paperwork so that the building permit could start it's process.  The woman who works the front desk took pity on me and said in effect that since I had the deed (even though it wasn't recorded yet) she would start the process. 

Next I visited the wetlands commissioner to check up on what was going on there, and he said that he was just getting ready to send me an email to make sure that I had a "written mitigation plan" brought to the meeting next week. It also had to be written by a wetlands specialist.  Like the soil scientist that the surveyors had hired for the site work. This will cost money.  I asked him if I could write up the plan, but he hemmed and hawed, and basically said no.  He did mention some things that he did want to see in the plan, most seemed reasonable, but a couple were pretty out there in my opinion. For example:

• He said that the wetlands had been "abused" in the past and implied that he wanted the existing dog house removed from there.  (But where am I going to sleep when Teri is upset with me?)  No problem.
• Suggested that a sign be posted that this area was wetlands and that a permit was needed for any activity there.
• Which plants and "natural reconstruction" was going to occur in that part of the property.

but here is where it gets a little strange:

• Apparently, a few years back someone wood chipped a tree and left it in the wetlands, the wetlands commisioner wants us to remove the fill, but we can't use any machinery to do it.  We have to do it by wheelbarrow. (Can't disturb the wetlands...) This is strange because the septic tank is buried IN the wetlands area, and we are going to have use heavy machinery to break and fill it.  Which by the way needs to be filled with sand, which is not a wetlands soil as far as I know.
• The wetlands commissioner wants us to build a split rail fence AROUND the wetlands area.  Since the designated area is about 1/4 to 1/3 of the property, this is clearly not acceptable.  We are not going to fence off our own property like that.  We are not going to include it in our mitigation plan. Period.

Anyways, I left a messege with Ed Pawlak, the soil scientist, and I spoke with Jim from BDL excavators, a local business located on South Street in Coventry,for a bid on breaking the septic, attaching the sewer, and foundation work.  He told me that the strangeness from town hall was just beginning.  Yikes.  You would think that the town would want the additional revenue from a tax payer and would help get this stuff done instead of making us jump through hoops.  I guess I'm just naive.

Today I have a meeting with our banker and our energy efficiency consultant.  More later.

Thanks for reading!

Hurry up and wait

Well, things are going, though a bit slowly.  We have written the deed, and is being looked over by an attorney, Paul Rubin.  Teri has made the corrections to the building permit, and we are expecting that to be finished at about the same time as the wetlands commission's findings.

We have now received two bids back from material companies, Sanford and Hallie, and Lowe's.  Lowe's was more expensive!  I suspect that they didn't do as thorough a job as "SandH", but thier loss.  I asked for a bid from Home Depot, but it fell into a black hole and haven't gotten a reply.

Two bids for the Geothermal company, haven't decided which company to use yet.  They are within a few % points of each other.  Its probably going to come down to which one feels right.

We are going to have to have the current septic system crushed and filled with sand.  We have a bid out with Skip's from Ellington.  Whew... so many irons in the fire.

Oh yeah  :)  we have also hired an energy efficency consultant to help us with the rebates and forms for the various incentives programs that we are aiming for.

May 1st  DEMO PARTY.  Everyone is invited.  Come knock down a house with us!

In DEED we are coming along.

This past week has been very active. Until Tuesday when I pinched a nerve in my neck and was sidelined until today.  This past weekend Teri and I had a meeting with Peg and Jim (Teri's parents) and got the details ironed out about the quit-claim.  I wrote the quit claim  because our lawyer wanted 175.00 to do it.  I basically just copied another quit claim deed and filled in our particulars.  Now all we have to do is get it signed, notarized, and brought to the town hall.  While we are there, I can make some of the changes to the building permit. 

I received a called from the town hall saying that a number of details were incorrect on the building permit because Teri and I were not the owners of the property.  That precipated the meeting mentioned above, and one more thing out of the way.  Next, we have to contract a septic guy to crush our tank and fill it with gravel.  We have to do that before demolishing the house.  In any case, things are pretty much stalled until we get the wetlands approval.  Their next meeting is the 28th of April.  When they approve the building, however, EVERYTHING gets rolling.  By that time I will have the loan, and the building permit.  So, if everything goes well, the fun starts in the beginning of May. 

Every day I think and am grateful for all the family and friends that are helping this dream to be possible.  Peg and Jim for giving us such favorable terms, Dave for being the builder, Jason, John, Larry, Matt J., and many others lending a hand and support.  Thank-you.


Thanks for reading