Yesterday when I got home from work, K had great news! It had been pouring rain yesterday, so she had a rain day at work at around noon. She called the inspector again about our concrete form, and said 'Hey, I know it's last-minute, but I'll be at home today if you can come by.' And it turns out that the inspector could!
It was also a good thing that K was home when the inspector came by because she (the inspector), had questions about our lot. Since it's such a weird shape, she wasn't expecting the markers to be where they are. But K was there to point them all out to her and they got the inspection done quick and easy!
So now back to bids from concrete crews. A few months back, when we were optimistic about the project going quickly, K had posted an ad on Craigslist and got a handful of good responses. This was a few months back, however, and concrete companies are busier in the summer. Now that it's late fall, her new ad got a flood of responses and the bids were much lower! She'll probably save at least a couple hundred dollars having the slab poured now, versus in the summer. That's comforting, considering how frustrated and apprehensive this project has made her feel.
She's hoping to line someone up for Friday, so we very well could have a slab done by next week!
Showing posts with label permits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label permits. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Garage - Change of Plans
Well, our initial plan for a large 3-stall garage has been changed. Last week, K brought her amazing plan and documents to the Minneapolis permit office to get them approved and to purchase the permit.
Since our lot is quite large, we figured that we could also go big with the garage. And actually, we can.... But since it's larger than standard size, it require some special considerations.
1) The permit would cost $200-300 more than a standard permit.
2) A variance would be requested, meaning that an inspector would come out to our property within 2 weeks to make sure our plans were done properly. Construction could only start after we got approval.
3) The roof pitch would need to be the same as our house. So our garage would be as tall as our house, and have a very high ceiling. Yes, it would be cool to make a 2nd floor and have a studio or maybe even a guest room above the garage, but in reality, we'd just be heating a bunch of unused space for a very long time, until we could someday get to that project.
4) The roof needs to face the same way as the roof of the house. So, the shingles would be facing the street, same as the house. We couldn't put the gabled side on the front, which would be better if we wanted to put up a basketball hoop someday.
5) The siding has to match the house. Right away. We'd either need to side our garage in pale-yellow aluminum siding (not going to happen), or re-side our house at the same time as our garage. Yes, that would be amazing! But I can't imagine that we'll be able to afford all of that at once.
Plan B for building the garages, according to the permit office, is to build a standard 2-stall garage and then build another 1-stall garage next to it. ....Really?? I mean, we get that a large 3-stall garage is a more complicated structure, as far as building goes. It was certainly going to cost a lot of money and require more specialized supplies. But, we can build our 2-stall, and then build a 1-stall a couple feet away from it, if we want to.
And for a standard 2-stall, there were no special restrictions. Once the plans are approved, a permit is handed to you and you can begin building immediately. Your roof can be whatever pitch and face whatever way you prefer. Your siding can be whatever you like. If we wanted our garage to be bright pink, we could do it.
So, 2-stall it is. K had to come home, completely re-draw all of her plans to show the 2-stall garage, and go back to the permit office the next day. Permit in hand, we could start building.
Since our lot is quite large, we figured that we could also go big with the garage. And actually, we can.... But since it's larger than standard size, it require some special considerations.
1) The permit would cost $200-300 more than a standard permit.
2) A variance would be requested, meaning that an inspector would come out to our property within 2 weeks to make sure our plans were done properly. Construction could only start after we got approval.
3) The roof pitch would need to be the same as our house. So our garage would be as tall as our house, and have a very high ceiling. Yes, it would be cool to make a 2nd floor and have a studio or maybe even a guest room above the garage, but in reality, we'd just be heating a bunch of unused space for a very long time, until we could someday get to that project.
4) The roof needs to face the same way as the roof of the house. So, the shingles would be facing the street, same as the house. We couldn't put the gabled side on the front, which would be better if we wanted to put up a basketball hoop someday.
5) The siding has to match the house. Right away. We'd either need to side our garage in pale-yellow aluminum siding (not going to happen), or re-side our house at the same time as our garage. Yes, that would be amazing! But I can't imagine that we'll be able to afford all of that at once.
Plan B for building the garages, according to the permit office, is to build a standard 2-stall garage and then build another 1-stall garage next to it. ....Really?? I mean, we get that a large 3-stall garage is a more complicated structure, as far as building goes. It was certainly going to cost a lot of money and require more specialized supplies. But, we can build our 2-stall, and then build a 1-stall a couple feet away from it, if we want to.
And for a standard 2-stall, there were no special restrictions. Once the plans are approved, a permit is handed to you and you can begin building immediately. Your roof can be whatever pitch and face whatever way you prefer. Your siding can be whatever you like. If we wanted our garage to be bright pink, we could do it.
So, 2-stall it is. K had to come home, completely re-draw all of her plans to show the 2-stall garage, and go back to the permit office the next day. Permit in hand, we could start building.
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