D-Fence! D-Fence!

Being rather offense-oriented, I've never been this excited about d-fence before. But there it is - a shiny steel cyclone fence to protect my mound of brown gold dust. It's starting to look like a building site out there, and for the first time in my life, when I say that it's actually a good thing.


Yesterday's progress consisted of moving (most of) the big pile of dirt from the building pad to the street, excavating the 50' long retaining wall, and beginning to excavate the grade beams. On Monday the excavation should finish, the drill should arrive, and the drilling of the piers should begin (hmm, that's a lot of 'should'!). Hoping to see the steel cages go into the piers in the coming week, and maybe even to get the concrete poured for the piers and grade beams. Exciting times!

Before I go, here's a bonus picture from the neighbor's garden across the street.

Ground/Broken!

Earlier today, June 24th, 2010, two years after I started working on this project, ground was finally broken and we officially moved into the construction phase of The Minnie House. First order of business is excavation, which proceeded well this morning, and will continue tomorrow. Once the building pad has been cleared and leveled, the drill will come in and we'll start drilling the piers. We've also ordered the cyclone fencing, and that should be erected tomorrow or Saturday.

We'll be holding our collective breath when we drill, hoping that we don't hit any bedrock. So far we've been happy with the beautiful black gold we've dug up, and it looks exactly as it was described in the soils report. The geotechnical engineer will have to come in and inspect our holes next week, and he'll decide how deep they need to be. Our fingers are crossed for 6-10', but there's always a chance they'll demand 14', and that will mean more rebar for the cages, more concrete, and more money.

Once that inspection is out of the way, we can set the steel cages into the drilled piers, and then we'll be ready to start pouring concrete. That's something I'm really looking forward to!

Tweetie Pie

In addition to this blog, I'll also be tweeting updates, often with photos, on a regular basis, so if you're into that kind of thing, you can follow me on Twitter @MasterSteveR.

You can also follow these hash tags:
#TheMinnieHouse
#LVHome
#prefab

The Return of The Loan Arranger!

As Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes once said, This Time It's For Real! The estimable Donald Henry, otherwise known as The Miracle Loan Arranger, has come through in the clutch, and as of yesterday, June 10th 2010, I am now the proud owner of an absolutely massive new construction loan.

I've spent many, many hours at the lot this Spring clearing weeds and organics, particularly from the building pad, and I've been lucky enough to have help for much of the time. It's been great, in fact, spending sunny and warm Sundays digging around while listening to the Giants on the car radio. Last Monday we hauled about seventy 55-gallon bags of yard waste to the city dump, a total of one and a quarter tons of green matter.

With that gone, the next step is to get on the schedule of the excavation and foundations crew. Given all of the delays to date, I'm not sanguine about the start date, although Monday June 21st has been mentioned. Hopefully it won't be Wednesday 23rd, because I already have to be up at 7am to watch England v Slovenia in the World Cup. My money is on Monday 28th, just because that's the second anniversary of the passing of my mum, which was the event that started this whole process in motion.

Now let's get the living monument called The Minnie House built!

Loan Be Mine

Well, it's now March 2010 and I'm still trying to get a construction loan. I think I'm close, but I've thought that several times before and I'm still waiting. Nevertheless, I'm planning to start construction late next month, IF my loan closes.

In the meantime, here's a gorgeous (IMHO) mashup montage photo I've been working on, with my house pasted onto my lot and my view. When it's built it will look even better!

Digging in the Dirt

More fun with dirt! Jim the Amazing Backhoe Guy was back on the lot today, clearing out the top soil from the building pad, and piling it at the side of the lot. Jim is an artist with that tractor of his!

We're now down to clay, and ready to start serious excavations and drilling the piers... except that my loan hasn't closed yet, and today I discovered that it may not close for another two weeks or more. So once again we're in a holding pattern - no more work on the lot until the loan funds.

A Day To Remember

Today, July 28th 2009, exactly 13 months since my mum passed away, I handed over checks totaling $17,000 to the City of Pacifica and in return, I finally received my building permits. Not a bargain by any means, but a very exciting development and now, providing my loan closes in the next day or two, I can actually start to build The Minnie House!

Not wishing to let the grass grow underneath my feet (literally!), I met with Jim the Backhoe Guy today and he spent three hours hacking out the stumps and removing the lovely luscious top soil, which we will be storing on site and using later to backfill.

As soon as the contract with the construction company is signed and the loan funds, the big guys will come in and excavate, and begin to drill the piers and build the foundations. I can't wait!

Remembering Mum

I don't know if these will last through the long, hot, foggy summer months, but today I planted a Strawberry and a Gooseberry Geranium Pelargonium to commemorate one year since my mum Mina passed away at the age of 83... or 84... or most likely 85. Somewhere around there, since her date of birth seemed to always keep moving around between 1924 and 1926. I miss my mum, and this house will (one day!) be my monument to her.

Next week I'm flying off to the Philippines for my summer vacation. When I get back to San Francisco in mid-July, I very much hope that I will be able to pick up my permits and begin excavation, foundations and, finally, construction. I've already arranged to start with clearing out all of the stumps with a backhoe service on July 16th.

In the meantime, here are some photos I took from the lot last night. Lovely!

No Comment

Guess what? Eleven more comments from the city - and that's just from the building department. Ugh. Got them on Friday, and now I'm trying to get everyone to help respond to them in a timely fashion. I don't think any of the comments represent major problems, but even if I get all of the responses together this week, it's still looking doubtful that I'll even get the permits before I leave for my vacation in the Philippines on July 3rd.

On a more positive note, after another long week of fun in the sun at the lot, the entire site is looking cleaner and cleaner. Today I had help from Steven, Queenie, Bill, Michael and Kofi, and with so many hands we got loads done. There's not actually that much more we can do now without equipment, so I think the next step will be to get a backhoe to get rid of all of the massive stumps and root systems that remain.

The IKEA kitchen and appliances are scheduled to arrive next Saturday afternoon. With any luck there will be enough room to store everything in my basement. Fingers crossed...

Meanwhile, in the photo below you can see the ramp to the front door in the foreground, and the driveway in the background.

"Just build the frickin' thing already!"

Of course, it didn't happen last Monday, but on Friday I was - finally! - able to resubmit my building permit application, after providing answers to all 45 building department comment questions, and four further questions from engineering. The process took four weeks, which was three weeks longer than I had hoped, but as they say back east, whaddya gonna do, huh? Fuggedabouddit.

In the meantime, much progress has been made on clearing the lot: cutting down shrubs, weeding, pulling up wild grass by the roots, and generally preparing the site for eventual excavation - you can see the current state of the building pad area in the photo (the two stakes at the top right show where the front door will be). I love working there, especially on beautiful days like last Sunday, and the neighbors always come over for a chat, which is a wonderful new experience for me. I'm a Londoner, and have never really been close with neighbors anywhere I've lived, either back home or here in San Francisco (where I've been living since 1992).

I'm also talking to general contractors to nail down budget proposals, and feel a lot of pressure to keep the process moving. If I can get someone under contract in the next two weeks or so, maybe some day soon I'll actually be able to break ground and follow my niece Madeleine's advice and "Just build the frickin' thing already!"