Footings poured

I'm not even sure what that means. But they blocked traffic to do it (much to my annoyance). Today after a huge snow storm. I assume they got a permit to do so but I have no idea. I wanted to talk to the guy but he was very involved in what he was doing.

I cannot imagine what the neighbors think.

There's a hole

So ground was broken, the footings should have been poured yesterday. They weren't. But the hole is there. I think it's too early for me to be snapping my fingers at the general contractor. I'm not good being left in the dark. Even if he said, "Oh, it's on hold till after Easter." I'd at least know. Right now I'm just staring at a hole not knowing. Which is pretty much what we're all doing day to day anyway.

Ground has been broken

So this happened. The contractor says six months sooo moving in May.

I think I'll be moving in before the new year

I got this email from the builder.

I spoke with the dcd this afternoon and they thought the permit would be available Friday or Monday at the latest.  The excavator is going to move equipment on Monday in the hopes of site work to follow on Tuesday and completion of excavation on Wed.  I am hopeful that at least the garage slab and footings can then be poured within a day or two with the poured walls to follow the week of Monday the 14^th If everything goes well.

Alrighty then.

Official now

I signed the papers and had the money transferred to my account to pay the contractor. Do you imagine I can get in contact with the contractor?

In any event someone, I have no idea who, marked the borders of the house on the property.

Freaking closing

This started in May. Granted it took a while to get the plans done but Jesus Humpty Christ. Finally, 6 months later, the city is ready to close on the sale of the land. Or at least that's what they are telling me. I have the deed and the closing statement. ($19,000 for a double lot).

Now they just have to tell me when and where. I'll be there with bells on. Or at least checks in hand.

Meetings with contractors

Time for cost estimates. I have 3 different contractors giving me bids. I received the first one 3 weeks ago. It was probably a little mire than I expected but it was within the realm of the possible. I was very encouraged because the contractor was not some long winded gasbag which is my experience generally with contractors. The price was doable and the guy was nice, knowledgable and not to talky. The second one came last night. It was 40 grand less than the first one and it was more complete. The guy was really nice and I even enjoyed him. Things are looking up.

Visit to the alderman

Granted, this is new to me and I have a tendency to be hysterical about stuff. I can worry about nearly anything but the city apparently was rejecting the plans for my house simply because it was 2 feet shorter than the city has mandated. The solution to this, presented by the city was to take the plans to BOZA. BOZA, despite the name, is not a clown. It may be a bunch of clowns but it isn't just the one it's an entire board. The board of zoning appeals.

Preemptively I made an appointment with my alderman to hector him about wanting to build what I want to build not what the city wants and intervening with BOZA. This isn't really fair since in buying the property I theoretically agreed to build the thing with the damn gabled roof, or at least make it 25 feet high. Nonetheless, it is nicer than anything a 12 block radius and the gabled roof makes it far more expensive. Plus it doesn't really fit my aesthetic.

So I go to the Alderman Nik Kovac and lay out the plans and he says, OK fine no problem. It seems I wouldn't really have had any problem. BOZA will approve it. So instead I took the opportunity to hector him about the parking ticket/towing issue I have with Water Street. A story for another time and perhaps place.

Flat roof, gabled roof ping pong

So the architect decides he want the flat roof and went back to the city to make them allow us to do that. I'm fine with that but I feel like it's just going to cost me more money in the end. Except that the gabled roof is way more expensive than the flat roof so if I end up with the flat roof I will be able to spend more on finishings. Or at least that's the thinking.

In the meantime the city requires a certain amount of windows and this interferes with the upper cabinets in the kitchen. Shoot me.

The city doesn't like it

While I may have liked the design, the city did not. Or they may have liked it but they aren't going to let me have it the way I want. It needs a gabled roof. And I don't want to fight about it.  I put the architect's drawings into photoshop and put a roof on it. I don't know if he liked that. I know I wouldn't but, hey, I'm the one paying.

The architect comes through

I wasn't really sure about the gabled roof. It does fit in the neighborhood but I didn't like the way it looked so much. It is, however, a requirement for the city that the house be 25 high. The peaked roof solved that problem. Now it has to be approved by BOZA. Board of zoning appeals. The guy at the city, Yves, says this will not be a problem. Me, I see problems everywhere.

But I like this design.

First rendering

The architect told me that he'd have a 3D rendering last week which was sorta true. It was something you could spin around and look at but it wasn't done. Considering he has billed me for the month and whatever it is he was doing didn't look all that complex (except that since it is a PC based program it's 40 times more complicated than an Apple program) I was disappointed. I asked for some screen shots of it but he said he was going to "finish" it and than send them to me. That will be a week, tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am seeing bags with $ on them flying away.

Computers are miraculous. I drew this on a Post-it, photographed it with my iPhone, imported it into iPhoto, dropped it into photoshop, adjusted the contrast and uploaded this in under a minute.

Imagine the sound of bouncing ducats and flapping wings.

The garage will be unattached

It's not the end of the world. It is disappointing because it was #1 on my list of wants (as opposed to needs) but there is not much to be done about it. And, I suppose if it is too much of a problem I can enclose it later. For another gabillion dollars. In the meantime it will be a sheltered walkway, side fence and roof.

On the upside I got the topographical survey although I have no clue what I'm supposed to do with it. It looks very official.

The issues begin

The architect came back with some plans. Not really what we had discussed, I thought, but OK. What I don't like is the house not attached to the garage. This seems impossible to accomplish. I don't want to be walking to my car in the rain, snow and cold. To make it attached would make it too big and therefore too expensive.

These plans have a perfectly fine foot print and they conform to all of the city's demands. (Since I bought this lot from the city I am required to do many things. They are not arduous. Still. It had to be 2 stories, it must be 40 feet wide, it must line up with all the other properties on the block, etc., this does all of that.)

But the garage is unattached.

First floor                                        Second floor

Meeting with the architect

So I met with the architect. We met at his home and I was a little alarmed because his way of living is not mine. He is quite spartan and seems to be very interested in minimal to the point of asceticism. I am not. I like minimal. But not like that. I want something very inviting and homey. Be that as it may, I will have to figure that out. I like him and he seems reasonable so I may be worrying needlessly. But that is what I do best. Worry needlessly.

We sat and noodled out a plan that I liked but there was something that didn't sit right with me. I needed to think about it.

One thing I don't like is the fact that the house is not connected to the garage. This seems to be an issue with him. He thinks it's fine. I do not.

No anxiety

This is the kind of thing that should be causing me a lot of anxiety. The kind of thing that would keep me up at night. But it is not. I'm not sure why. In part, is that I think it is the right thing to do. In part, I am so done with this condo. And another part is that it is done. There is nothing I can do about it.

Accepted offer

The city has accepted my offer to purchase a vacant lot on the corner of Fratney and Meineke. I haven't received the final paperwork but the guy, Yves, at the city told me that it had been accepted. It seems surreal.

I have lived in my condo for 13 years, longer than I have ever lived anywhere in my life. As children we moved all the damn time it seemed. Milwaukee, Mauston, Delafield (2 places), Nashotah, (2 places), then adulthood. The longest I've lived anywhere until now is 8 years in Fox Point.

I hope that I have longer than 13 years on Meineke.

At the current time the address is Fratney but I will have the entrance on Meineke. I like that name a little more than Fratney. Fratney sounds a little down on its luck.

Maybe I'm insane

This could be a terrible decision. But on the other hand it may be great. I have always liked Riverwest and now it seems I may be living there.