Permit Issued, Footings Done, Sewer Pipe Installed

This morning I met Kenley, the footings guy, at the lot at 7:00, and gave him the previous version of the foundation plan and lot layout to get started setting the forms. Then I headed over to the city to pay for the building permit, then back to the lot to give Kenley the updated copy of the plans.

I noticed that the footings seemed to be set back a bit from where Hyrum and I had staked the position of the front of the house. It turns out he had measured from 6" behind the sidewalk, but the actual property line is at the sidewalk. It looked like they didn't quite have half of the forms placed yet, and he said he could move them forward. The back yard space is going to be precious.

Kenley called in the late morning to warn me that because the excavation wasn't level, the forms were sitting up to 8" off the ground in some places, and would require extra cement. When he called he said he was already 5 yards heavy.

The footing forms inspection was scheduled for 12:30, and must have passed, because they poured in the afternoon. Here's a picture of the pumper truck.

I met Jim to talk about scheduling the sub rough plumbing, and although he had been at work since 1:30 AM because of a plumbing emergency, he decided it would be best to punch through the soft(ish) bottom of the footings under the forms to put the sewer pipe through, rather than wait until it was completely cured. We ran to Home Depot and bought a digging bar, a 10' long 4" pipe, and some duct tape to cover the ends. Then back to the house where Jonah and Sawyer and I helped him install it. The picture shows Sawyer, Jonah, and Jim all demonstrating how strong they are.

Here is Jonah "tracing" the footings (his word for doing laps), and Sawyer following him.

Building Permit Approved, Concrete Tomorrow!

I got a voice mail this morning from Sue at Farmington City saying there were just two more issues on the lot layout that needed to be resolved, then the permit could be issued. One was the label for the floor height needing to be 4223', which I talked about with Ken at the city last month, and he agreed it could be 4222.54, which it is. It turns out he had checked that one off, but Sue didn't notice.

The other issue was that we needed to show the detail on the lot layout for a water retention area. I made it to the office just before closing time, and Ken helped me sketch it in along the Northeast corner of the lot. We just drew some curvy lines to indicate berms 40' along the back and 20' along the East side, then labeled it as 1' deep. Presto, building permit approved.

It turns out Farmington City doesn't accept credit cards, so this major purchase won't help get us to Tahiti. It also means we have to either get a whole bunch of cash or a check, neither of which I had with me, and there was no time before closing to figure a way to get either. We can't afford to wait for a draw from the bank before getting the permit and scheduling the footings, so I plan to use a "convenience" check that will put it on the credit card account, but won't earn us any reward points. Citi says there won't be a balance transfer fee for this check, which I hope holds true.

Derik also called this afternoon to check on the permit status. It turns out their project in Eden is not going quite as planned, and they wanted to start our footings tomorrow instead of Wednesday. With the permit verbally approved, they went ahead and added us to the schedule.

Verbal Approval from the Building Inspector

Eric at Farmington City called this morning to let me know that all the changes he requested on the plans looked like they had been made satisfactorily. All that's left is for Ken the zoning guy to approved the changes on the lot layout, then we can get started.

Re-application for Building Permit

I emailed Derek last night to let him know we were ready to re-apply for the building permit, and he called me this morning to let me know he had sent the plans to the printer last night. He dropped them off at his house at lunch time, and Emily made a trip to Layton to pick them up. Since she was working around tutoring, 4-H, and nap times, she was cutting it close to get back with the plans before the city office closed. I met her there just before 5:00 and made it official. Eric said it would be about a week.

I called Derik the foundation guy, and he added us to the schedule for next Wedesday.

Excavation Done and Approved

I met Mark Christensen, the soil engineer at 8:00 this morning at the lot to check the excavation. Somebody from the excavation company was there too, but I didn't catch his name. Mark thought the clay was okay, but there were a lot of teeth marks from the excavator that he said we needed to remove. He also observed the roots in the Southeast corner and said we needed to take out six more inches. And he confirmed we did need to remove all the stuff in the middle where the interior footings go, but not necessarily the garage part. I decided to take the risk of leaving the stuff in the garage so we won't have to bring in as much fill.

The excavation guy let me drive the thing for a couple minutes. There was a lever for the left tread and another for the right. It was pretty simple to steer, both to go straight, one or the other to turn. I didn't try any digging.

After the extra digging was done I called Mark and he came back and approved the hole. He'll email the stamped approval letter tomorrow morning so we can re-apply for the permit.

Excavation Issues

We left for Bear Lake Friday with the understanding that the excavation would be done on Saturday. We got back tonight, and there is a hole in the ground, but it doesn't look like I expected it to. The perimeter is excavated, but there are still buttes in the middle of the garage and the middle of the house. I thought we agreed to remove everything from the whole footprint. I also see what looks like root fibers in a few places, which I don't think is allowed. I left a message for Jason.

New upstairs plan

I was home sick from work for two days this week, and I took the time to figure out a way to fit all four kids bedrooms, a guest suite, a laundry room, a nursery/exercise room and a master suite all on the top level. I made it all fit, but the master suite and laundry room area is kind of weird.