Baby Steps...

Finally received the remaining stamped plans from the office of Rocio Romero today - finally! at last! - and that completed everything I need for the building permit application. So as of 9.45am this morning, I have now applied for my permits! I expect to receive comments in 3/4 weeks, and permits a week or two after we respond to the comments.

Of course, I still don't have money to build the house. After Bank of Marin bailed on me (having worked on the loan for seven months!), I spoke to Chris, a former Kickboxing student of mine who is a senior mortgage officer at Chase. Since they are now my bank after their acquisition of Washington Mutual, I thought I might have an inside track on a loan. Yesterday, Chris called me with good news and bad news. The good news is, I have been pre-approved for a construction to permanent loan. Wohoo. The bad news is, the entire construction loan department was closed down, and everyone in it laid off, yesterday morning. D'oh. He might have a mortgage broker that I can work with, but that guy just left for Hawaii...

Spoke to Ed the Contractor yesterday, and he also had bad news. He now has a quote for the foundations from the guy he usually works with. Well, we've allocated $45,000 in the budget (this is to include site clearing, excavation and grading, foundation/basement, retaining walls, driveway and other flatwork, etc). But the quote was $77,000! Ouch! That hurts!

And in other news, Rocio Romero gave birth to twins last week. From the little I know, everyone's doing well.