Starting our new life

[cat fever]

Thanks Rustyiron,

When the house gets framed I'll take some pictures from inside. We pointed our back "wall of glass" at what I think is the best view. Time will tell though.

Here are a couple shots of the foundation work. It's poured and done, they'll clean up and be gone tomorrow.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm totally blown away how fast this is going...

Moving at the speed of light it takes about 3 years from start to finish to build a single family home in the Oakland Hills... I've had friends take 5 years with the first two just in design review and public comment hearings...

Add to that the enormous costs just to get the ball rolling... not uncommon to have a 100k tied up before the first shovel of dirt.

Again... this is for a single family home... plus much of the year is off limits for anything that disturbs soil...

Nice to see a young man of vision and his plan coming together!

My hat is off to you...

 

[cat fever]

Thanks Ultrarunner,

I can't imagine 3-5 years to build a home. As long as the contractors are able to show up in a timely manner I think my house will be done by November. That is some wishfull thinking so we'll see how it turns out.

 

[LouNY]

I'm totally blown away how fast this is going...

Moving at the speed of light it takes about 3 years from start to finish to build a single family home in the Oakland Hills... I've had friends take 5 years with the first two just in design review and public comment hearings...

Add to that the enormous costs just to get the ball rolling... not uncommon to have a 100k tied up before the first shovel of dirt.

Again... this is for a single family home... plus much of the year is off limits for anything that disturbs soil...

Nice to see a young man of vision and his plan coming together!

My hat is off to you...

That is a prime example of bureaucratic bull crap by parasitic leaches.

 

[cat fever]

That is a prime example of bureaucratic bull crap by parasitic leaches.

^^^^^^^^

Could not agree more!!

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep... and people wonder why there is a lack of affordable Housing here... (Per the Media Reports)

It is simply the high cost of having just about anything done plus all the fees required to various agencies... making it really only viable to build High End Expensive Homes.

One of my good friends built his home... he is a contractor and the last home he built was his last in the Bay Area...

He built in an area already built up... single family homes... his lot was a flag lot... one of the requirements to build was to provide a fire hydrant... it cost 50,000 to do this and only the municipal water district could do the work...

Never mind this is a public hydrant benefiting all... new regs that went into affect prohibited new construction in area not meeting the fire hydrant requirements...

Again the area was 99% built out with average 10,000 square feet lots.

The property my parents owned was zoned single family residential with 5,000 minimum lots... new building regs mean maybe 3 homes can go where 11 were allowed... kind of a not in my backyard approach... so the only way to develop would mean the 3 homes would have to sell in the 1.6 million range each...

Rarely do things ever get easier... especially when there is layer after layer having a say...

 

[goeduck]

I'm totally blown away how fast this is going...
Moving at the speed of light it takes about 3 years from start to finish to build a single family home in the Oakland Hills... I've had friends take 5 years with the first two just in design review and public comment hearings...
.

Not that my area has Oakland paralysis, but that factor is part of why I bought an existing house to retire in. 1988 construction when wood was still wood and water lines were copper.

 

[Wakey]

People around here were up in arms when the minimum lot size for new construction went from 5 acres to 2. :laughing:

 

[cat fever]

The county commissioners are talking about a 20 acre minimum for this area. Nothing written in stone yet. I am all for big lots. I'd like to be where I can't even see my next door neighbor.:laughing:

 

[cat fever]

Here's the foundation. Ready for sub-rough plumbing and damp proofing.

This shot is looking straight on from the front of the house, so basically the view looking back.