have built a house.
(12-11-06) That's right, we're moving in!
We passed our inspection and got
our temporary occupancy permit. There were only a handful of things that
needed to get done for the final occupancy permit. We'll be moving next
week
and hosting Christmas in our new home.
We started looking for land in the fall of 2003, shortly after we were married. We looked at lots of pieces of land and finally purchased a 2.62 acre parcel in Kenmore, north of Inglemoor H.S. The land has only a small buildable area in the southeast corner because it sits on the edge of the Sammamish river valley and most of the land is steep slopes. The west slope goes down into the ravine to the small seasonal stream that runs north along the property line on the far west edge of the property. We also have a steep slope (OK, cliff) that runs east-west along the north edge of the property. Now, normally you aren't allowed to build closer than 65 ft. from the edge of the steep slopes, but if you kept to those standards, there would be barely enough room for a single-wide mobile home. So, we had to do a 'Modification of Sensitive Area' to adjust the setbacks closer to the edges so that we could fit a reasonable size house on it. Now, you may ask "do you want to build that close? Aren't you worried about the stability of the house?" We have so many studies on the dirt and the property, all the experts tell us it's OK. When I asked our Geo-Technical engineer if he would build his house here, and his response was "in a heartbeat." All the old-growth trees are remaining, we aren't doing anything to disturb the steep slopes, or the trees that are growing on them. In fact, by adding all the drainage that we are to the house, we are somewhat improving the stability of it. By not letting the water just run off the land and down the hill, by re-routing it into the storm water system, that will help improve the stability as well. When we tell people about all the work we've done to develop the lot, they often ask "is it worth it?" Come see the land, see where it's located, see how private it is, come see our own personal forest. Everyone that has come out has said "oh, OK, I get it now." We will have no neighbors for 270°. If land around us is developed, we won't see any of it. We've also had long talks about the safety issue when it comes to kids (and adults) and we're planning for that too. We even joked about having an 'invisible fence' type of set-up, not one that would shock that kid, but one that would set off an alarm. "Here Junior, wear this collar." kidding!
Mark is going to be our general contractor. He's gone through the house building process before plus we've hired a building consultant, UBuildIt, to help guide us through the process. He'll be doing alot of work on the house, and working closely with the sub-contractors to ensure good communication. Mark knows all the details of our house, not only the layout and design details (like I know), but he knows all the materials, and all of the 'whys' behind certain decisions. We designed the house ourselves; we designed if for how we live, the family we've planned, and for entertaining. We've been really lucky that we have the same design sensibility and have worked really well together on picking out furniture, finishes, colors, etc. The only thing that we can't decide is the stupid kitchen countertop. It's not that we can't agree, we just can't decide. We do know we want a matte, not shiny/glossy finish. We have looked at everything; granite, honed granite, quartz composites, Richlite (made of paper), Slate Scape (concrete & paper), concrete, soapstone, marble, IceStone. I think every countertop surface there is. To go with the 'new, old house' theme, I'm currently pushing for matte black Richlite or honed granite, Mark currently likes the 'pistachio' SlateScape.
Our Modification of Sensitive Area has been approved, and after 18 months of planning, as of 7-25-05 we have officially started construction. Our water main is being installed!!!! Yeah!!!!! We anticipate that it will take about a year to finish the house. We want to finish the house completely before we move in, because if you move in when it's 95% done, that 5% takes months to get done. Whereas if we are chomping at the bit to move in, that 5% can get done in a matter of weeks. Now, ask us about this next June and see how we feel then. =) The good thing is that we have no deadline for moving out our of our current place, so that also helps take the pressure off.
You can check out our land parcel on the King
County Parcel viewer. The parcel is # 3578600235. Sorry, it's
amateur hour here so you'll need to copy/paste the number to look up the land.
If you have a high-speed connection, you can see more: Click on 'Districts
Report' on the lower left and then on "Zoom to Parcel - iMAP (High Speed
Internet Connection)" at the bottom, you can get the really cool map where
you can turn on all the Map Layers. Scroll the right-hand bar down and
click on "2002 Color Aerial Photos (West KC only)" to see an aerial
photo of the property. If you turn on the "Topo Contours
(5ft)" you can also get a sense of the lay of the land. [lines close
together = steep!] If you then use the Hand tool to pan around, you can
see the Nobel plot to the SW and all of our immediate neighbors. You can
also zoom out to see where the land is located in Kenmore.
I'll be posting updates as we go along. Enjoy!
click here for our: Christmas
2005 Letter