we can move, can't we????

While halfway through our punch walk with the builder on Tuesday, the inspector appears for the final inspection, the one we need for the Certificate of Occupancy, what the cool kids call the CO. The builder was a little miffed because although we've had the same inspector through the entire build, the city sent a different guy for the final. And sure enough, there was trouble. In short, we failed the final inspection for the three reasons: (1) the porta-pottie was still on-site (like we would leave that there [even though the mailman asked {jokingly, we hope...} to leave it out there]) and (2) the gas line wasn't pressured up to show him it had no leaks (that actually seems important).

The third reason was goofy. It was the second inspector's opinion that the garage should have been built under a separate permit from the house, despite the fact the entire project was permitted together, the first inspector was cool with it, and the garage has been inspected along with the house. The second inspector said the city didn't realize the garage was not attached to the house. The builder pointed out that the permit clearly stated "house plus detached garage", but to no avail. The garage was the third ding.

The goofy part is that we needed to permit the garage and go through all the inspections with the hope the inspector didn't make us tear down the drywall and insulation for the inspections that already happened. Frustrating as heck. The city has a bad rep for stuff like this, where there's no final say or policy on anything: It's all up to each individual inspector.

Ultimately, this is a waste of time and money, and for what purpose? The big broad reason for these inspections is to ensure the safety of the folks that will ultimately live there. How does re-permitting a structure that has already gone through inspections achieve that goal? If there's a grey area and safety is not compromised, it seems the grey should be interpreted to benefit the consumer, not to earn a macho point or two. Sigh...

We could have fought the re-permit-the-garage conclusion but, as the builder pointed out, that would almost certainly take longer than simply re-permitting the garage. The builder said that as he went through the re-permitting process, a number of folks downtown were quizzical as to why he was re-permitting the garage.

When everything was addressed and the builder requested another final, we got word that we have a third inspector. The builder warned us: Who knows what this third guy will do. That guy showed up on Friday. While yapping about water in a Dallas high-rise, my phone buzzed in my pocket, but I wasn't able to see who was calling until a couple hours later. It was the builder. He had left a message. He sounded despondent. He said "I need you to call me."

I pressed his number. He answered. I said: "Give it to me straight. I can tell this is not good news." He seemed perplexed. "Have you seen my email?" he asked. "Nope." "We passed!" He had sent an email with the good news and was already onto the next challenge to wrap things up at the house.

Hallelujah!

So there you have it. We have CO! As well as big, big smiles!

Texas Water Day: Rainwater and graywater harvesting

I was able to spend about an hour at Texas Water Day today, a day-long event at the Capitol o' Texas focused on water conservation. I missed all the speechifying but was able to stop in and chat with the booth people and complain about the size of the urinals at the capitol to random attendees (we're talking ginormous, at least the ones in the annex...). Sorry, no photos. Guys get freaked out when you're taking photos in the bathroom...

I was also able to chat with several folks about other important matters. The City of Austin conservation folks were there, and we yimmered and yammered about pressurized rainwater harvesting and graywater.

On the rainwater harvesting side, we discussed the requirements for reverse pressure zones (RPZs), licensed plumbers, and permits (things I'm not convinced are necessary for a system not even remotely connected to the city's system). The boothpeople told me that the city is considering exempting certain pressurized systems (say below 30 psi, quite a bit below the city's pressure) from the RPZ/licensed plumber/permit requirements. That would be a nice improvement. They're still scared of a fully pressurized system being accidentally or purposely connected to the city water and getting (insert ominous voice here) "water of unknown quality" in their system (of course someone purposely doing this would not be getting a permit to do so...). But I can see why they have concerns. Two fully-pressured systems on site increase the odds of someone screwing up, especially subsequent homeowners (and plumbers) that don't fully appreciate or understand the system.

We also talked about on-site graywater use. The boothers said that the city is in the process (any day now!) of revising those rules under a new "Laundry to Lawn" program where you can just run your waste laundry water out into your yard without the subsurface storage and drainfield requirements. Yippee!!! Too late for us (we didn't build in separate plumbing for graywater), but for subsequent graywater adopters, this is good news.

More about graywater:

       News article about graywater and rules use in Austin.

       City council resolution on graywater.

       Here's a proposal from the City's Graywater External Stakeholders Committee. 

       Some people have said "TO HELL WITH THE RULES!!!".
            They are the few, the proud, the Greywater Guerrillas.

I also ran into a pal I used to work with that is a turf expert, a subject she studied at Texas A and M. There's a lot of people I know that went to college and did nothing but grass, but this young lady truly went to college and studied nothing but grass! After talking about the house and landscaping (and getting reminded that she was a turf expert), she recommended Thunder Turf by Native American Seed. The bride and I have talked about using Habiturf, but it's expensive as hell. My turf-grrl friend said Thunder Turf was the way to go. She even texted me later: "Thunder Turf = Good Stuff".

Several weeks ago I was yapping at an event in Junction, Texas, and went to an after-event wine swig that turned out to be hosted by the proprietors of, you guessed it, Native American Seed! These folks live water conservation and even had their Texas Raincatcher Award, an award passed out by the Texas Water Development Board, proudly mounted on the wall in the living room. We drank wine and talked about grass, rainwater harvesting, and rain gardens. That, my friends, is a good evening (even without the wine).

Anyway, the universe seems to be lining up: THUNDER!!!  TURF!!!

The cool bit of swag I picked up at Texas Water Day was a shower timer from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality:

I've actually been wondering how long we (ahem...) I spend in the shower. Now I can do some timing! That old-skool grains-of-sand timer above allows five minutes for rub-a-dubbing.

Let the experiments begin!

week 12: windows, water, wastewater, and whatnot

Three months in: Woo hoo! Every week amazing progress happens (we've been told by folks to not get too used to that as things slow down once work focuses on the interior...).

The big news this week is that the windows arrived! And they look mighty fine. Although aluminum windows from the old days have a bad rep, these are pretty sweet with a thermal break, an Energy Star rating, and nice lines outside as well as inside. And they're recyclable! But hopefully they won't be recycled anytime soon...

In the photo above, you can see the the Hardie board installed on the house where Hardie board is supposed to be installed (stucco will be everywhere else). Also note the black lines on the green panels. The green panels are part of the Zip System, sheathing with built-in moisture barrier on the outside and special tape (that black stuff) to seal the seams.

You can also see from that photo above the face plates on the eaves, also made out of Hardie, installed. They really look sharp.

The garage is fully clad and has its windows installed (we chuckled that the garage windows are double paned...).

And there be Hardie on the south side of the house as well:

The sewer line and water lines are hooked up and waiting for city approval:

Also, the art wall that separate the entry from the dining area is now roughed in:

as is the lowered ceiling above the dining area (done to allow ductwork to jump into the living room):

issues resolved, issues pending, new issues...

We now have the missing window in the kitchen:

The bride is already in love with it. Lets in a little light from the side.

Window X, the window above the powder pooper, is turning out to be a, well, pooper. Unfortunately, it didn't get ordered (the architect uses Window X for window planning purposes [kinda like Planet X: does it exist or not?]; however, it turns out we reach X number of windows in the alphabet, so we really have a Window X). The window only costs about $200 to make, but the one-time fees and shipping add an extra $400 to the cost, and it takes six weeks to get built and on-site). The window is spec'd to open, but we figure that doesn't really make sense with a bathroom window that opens up onto what amounts to the front porch area (Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Star?). Perhaps the architects wanted an opening window because of the thickness of the aluminum on the outside (see second photo in this post). Regardless, we told the builder that we're fine with a (non-opening) storefront window for that location, something that can be gotten locally relatively quickly.

The roofing detail at the end of the carport has not yet been resolved:

Watching this closely since the roof is apparently going on this week. This needs to get fixed cause it looks like ass.

Someone showed up today to start installing weep screed (the metal stuff at the bottom of the outside walls to facilitate drainage from the wall to the exterior):

 and moisture barrier (that black stuff on the lower part of the house):

and herein lies an issue: That don't look right to me. The idea here is that you put two layers of moisture "barrier" up because the top layer is sacrificial (I put barrier in quotes because it's not an absolute barrier; you really don't want an absolute to allow the wall to breathe so it can dry to the outside or to the inside). The stucco bonds to the top layer and compromises the hydrophilic (water repelling) properties of the barrier. As the stucco dries, it retracts a wee bit and creates a drainage plane between the first layer of moisture barrier and the second, thus creating a drainage plane. Ideally one would use a proper drainage plane here (a thin layer of drainable puffy stuff), but a number of folks (including the builder's stucco expert) say using two layers of moisture barrier works (and the Zip System actually constitutes another layer).

All of this is fine, but what I don't like is how the layers are layered. I think that stuff should be layered like this:

with each layer independently shingled upon itself rather than the way it is now (the black lines are the layers of moisture barrier and the orange is the stucco):

which creates truncated drainage planes (not good) and thus, no drainage. This risks compromising both layers. Sure, the Zip underneath is a last chance to move that moisture away from the wall, but then why have two layers in the first place? I ain't no stucco expert, but that sure don't look right. Hopefully this is just a case of a Sunday working not really knowing what he was doing...

coming up:

They still need to install the big ole window in the living room:

as well as a couple of problematic windows, one at the front of the house at the side and the big one at the top of the stairs. In retrospect, these windows probably should have been storefront. The Gerkin windows have flanges at the sides to attach the window to the walls at the sides. For the case at the front of the house and at the top of the stairs, there's nothing to attach to on two to three sides.

We'll also be meeting with the architect, builder, and HVAC sub on Tuesday to discuss duct runs. The architect is calling for 10-inch holes to be cut into the beams, something that's making the builder nervous even though the engineer has signed off on it. Truth be told, it makes us a little nervous too. I suspect that there are several of these cutting-holes issues about the house. Should be an interesting meeting. We're especially looking forward to the architect being there: This will be our first site visit where he's there as well!

moment of bliss:

The dumpster is gone, so now we can get a full shot of the double cantilever. Everybody say "aaahhhhh...."

have permit, will build

Good news from the architect today: We have permit! (hip hip hooray!)

First, we needed to submit a Tree Ordinance Review Application to remove a protected tree, a hackberry split at the trunk. Trees of a certain size (19 inches diameter at breast height [4.5 feet above ground level]) or larger, regardless of species, require a permit from the city before they can be removed. That certain size is cumulative for a clump; that is, on a tree with two trunks (like our hackberry), you have to add the two trunks (12.5 inches + 17.5 inches) together to determine if removal of the tree requires a permit.

Second, we needed a Plan Review and Building Permit, which is what got approved today. There are more permits to come (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing permits), but they are not required until a bit later.

One step closer...

demo denied!

After posting last night, I thought I would haunt the digital deed records to see if I could find something about the city condemning the house on the lot. It took a bit of sleuthing (simply typing in the property address was not good enough; needed to find book and page numbers, and then names, and then, finally, landed on searching on the last name and first initial of a previous owner), but I found it: the order to remove the house and the subsequent demolition (documented via a lien) by the city! I sent an email to the city planner with the information, and he agreed that a demo permit would not be required (in other words, there's no demo permit on file because the city demo'd the house, and the city don't need no damn permit!).

There you go.

making the lot whole again; permission to destroy; how to deal with bureaucracies; rise up to appraise

Busy day today...

making the lot whole again

Back in ye old days, some 60 plus years ago, our neighborhood-to-be was platted into various lots. However, when the developer finally developed, he (or she) didn't abide by the original platting and built instead on different lots without replatting with the city. That means I had to take a few hours off work today to research deeds at the Travis County clerk's office (needed to show that the lot existed in its current configuration before 1995 to avoid going through formal subdividing).

I've been to the clerk's office before to research the history of our previous property and to find out what lot holders paid for various lots we bidded on back in our lot-searching days. Searching them deeds is an interesting thing. Fortunately, most of them are digital and online, but you have to go to the office and print them there to be "official". And if you go way back, you have to deal with the dreaded microfilm readers. Not a good way to spend your morning unless you  have a solid prescription of Xanax.

On the plus side, I love researching this stuff and trying to fill in the blanks on the history of the land. For grins, I went ahead and pulled the original deed for the property from way back in the 1860s:

After a couple hours at the county office, I hoop-hogged down to permitting for a pleasant five minute wait before talking to staff and submitting paperwork. We should be whole again tomorrow.

permission to destroy

Got a note from the architect that although there is nothing on the lot to demo, we need to file for a demolition permit. Apparently whomever demo'd the original house (our neighbors say it was the city after they condemned the property) didn't file a demo permit (which kinda makes sense if it was, indeed, the city...). Despite that the house was prolly demo'd back in the early 1990s, the city wants to see a demo permit on file. That will cost a to-be-determined permit fee, and the paperwork (of course) requires notarization. grrrr...

how to deal with bureaucracies

In short, jump through the hoops and smile (unless you reach a point where you truly need to raise hell). No one likes bureaucracy, but it doesn't get you anywhere to rip into the dude or dudette in front of you who had nothing to do with putting the bureaucracy in place. I've never understood the propensity for folks to shoot the messenger, especially if you need that messenger to do something for you. Shoot the messenger, and the messenger may passive-aggressively delay your permit (or cause other problems). Would you go out of your way to help someone if they just ripped you a new one for something you have no control over? Didn't think so. My advice is to get through the process and then talk to the folks that can really deal with the issue, generally the elected officials. Run for mayor if you need to. We may even put your sign in our front yard.

Note that the county and city folks we dealt with today were quite pleasant. In fact, the city guy seemed surprised I didn't yell or complain. Maybe that's why he said he could get our paperwork done by tomorrow (despite the paperwork saying it takes two weeks).

The other thing to do is to READ THE PAPERWORK CAREFULLY. Make sure you have addressed everything. Saves a trip (and a potential blow-up).

rise up to appraise

After some struggles with digital files (I'm discovering that the building bidness is still pretty much oldskool), the appraiser is at work appraising the property. From what I've read (it's in that Dummies book...), unless you're in a sooper-hot market (ha!), don't expect the house you're going to build to appraise for what it costs to build it. OK. We won't expect that. So I guess the question at this point (oooo: suspense!) is: How much lower will the appraisal be? Since we're rolling a lot of cash from our previous nearly-paid-off house into this one, it won't be an issue for us, but if you're minimizing your cash outlay on a build, it could impact your ability to get a construction loan.

Despite the aforementioned "ha!", the housing market is Austin is, indeed, hot right now. It is a seller's market with reports of houses going under contract in mere hours in certain neighborhoods. In fact, we've had two inquiries about buying the lot (it would take a bit of coin at this point...). That bodes well, wethinks. We shall see...

housewerk: permits, loan, pain

permits

The architects heard back from permitting. Them permitters redlined the plans with some (reportedly) minor stuff for the architects to deal with, and we have to deal with a land status determination. Apparently, when the lot was developed, the lot did not line up with the original platting, which means our lot is not a legally buildable lot (our lot includes bits of two original lots). But before you (or we!) have a heart attack, we can seek a land status determination and take advantage of an exception from platting. All we need is to prepare some paperwork, write a check for $171.60 (no joke), and stand in line between 9am and noon somewhere downtown. After that, we should be in bidness.

loan

The loan is progressing with a closing date set for August 14th. The Good Faith Estimate (what the cool kids call "The GFE!") isn't made for construction loans, so we had to talk to the banker to make sure that (1) we only paid interest on the construction money as we used it and (2) if we don't use all of the money the payment will snap to reflect what we used. We included something north of 10 percent of a contingency in the loan amount; ideally we won't need it, but in case we do, it will be there. The builder was approved by the bank (yay!), the loan approval is in process ("Shouldn't be a problem," says the banker.), and an appraisal of the project is in the works.

pain

This part of the process has been painful (in a first world sort of way). Not horrible, mind you, because of what we have to do, but painful in the sense that: WE WANT TO GET ROLLING!!! It will start in good time.

Need to find a golden shovel...