Staking and ...

The sewer is almost finished. They just need to patch the street. Water meter is in and street patched. The man who is in charge of pouring my cement foundation, Roy, was out to stake the corners of the house for the grading company. Applied for a county dust permit on Thursday (an intimidating 12 page application) and received the permit via email that same evening. Very impressive! There can be up to a two week wait. Should have a date soon to start grading. Went to another window company (Weather Shield & Semco) appointment on Friday and should have a bid next week sometime. I'm still not sure on color.

I received a letter from a neighbor concerned about his property becoming flooded from my property's runoff because my property is higher than his and also somewhat sloping toward his property. Replied to him explaining a bit about the grading plan and, hopefully, easing his mind a bit. It's probably going to be very annoying for all my neighbors, in the coming months, to live next to a construction site and it's important for me to keep the peace with my new neighborhood. This may prove to be quite a challenge.

Permanent sewer access lid

Water Meter

Roy, staking the corners.

Windows

When the slab is poured it's time to order the windows so I've been looking around and getting window quotes. A couple of the main brands that are front runners are, Windsor Windows and Weather Shield. I was going to use the cinnamon colored (more like a rust) windows on the street side of the house and then a bronze or black on the rest, but the more I see homes with the cinnamon windows the more I start thinking I might want the whole house to have the cinnamon color.

Here's a house in the neighborhood that has the cinnamon windows. Love the color of the house and roof tiles too.

Another

......

The windows and doors have a pine interior and an aluminum exterior. Here are some examples. The new great room will have three12x8foot, 4 panel, doors. The rest of the windows will be double hung, fixed picture, and casement. Some examples of the patio doors...

 windsor

weather shield

Folding doors would be gorgeous, but would blow the budget through the roof!

First Inspection Passed & Finishing Up the Sewer Tap

My building inspection report card. Passed the "pre-build site inspection" and sewer. Signed by city building inspector, Mike. Mike will be my inspector throughout the entire build and signs off on each of the building steps as we go.

Sewer tap is almost complete. These guys were so nice and such hard workers! Today is was 101 (38c) degrees! Thank you, thank you,  to Jes'us and his crew!!

 

Main sewer opened up and water was pumped through the new sewer tap to check for leaks and to make sure the water is freely flowing into sewer main.

The attachment to city sewer

This green pipe with the white lid is the permanent access point. It will get a steel lid placed over it and will be safe to drive over.

Sewer pipe is 4.5' down from pink marker with yellow arrow. The second pink marker (to the south) is exactly 5' away and is a backup marker in case the main marker gets destroyed by all the construction trucks that will be driving over this area. When the house plumbing begins, its sewer pipes will connect to this.

Sewer Tap Progress

Not very exciting to most people but for the sake of documenting every step, here's some plumbing progress.
Today the plumbers started the process of  hooking my, eventual, sewer pipes up to the city's main sewer line. They hope to finish tomorrow (Tuesday) and patch the street on Wednesday or Thursday. So far so good! I also have a Pre-Build meeting on the lot with the city building inspector tomorrow.No sign of the city's water meter hookup which is also scheduled for this week??? The blue markings in the dirt on first picture are where the water meter will go.

Earlier in the day while the plumbers were working. These were taken with my phone and I didn't take a good picture of the actual tap that goes into the main sewer line. Maybe tomorrow if I get there early enough.

Diverting traffic

After the plumbers left for the day. Steel plates cover the 6 foot deep by about 3 feet wide hole.

Big piece of the street there on the right. $$$

6 feet under is the new green sewer plumbing.

Stillness Speaks

All Is

Right Here

Right Now

..

Some Progress with Water Meter and Sewer Tap

The process of getting a sewer tap and water meter is finally starting. The street will have to be partially closed and cut into to reach the sewer. All of the utilities got marked so that digging for the sewer tap and water meter can begin. They are supposed to start on Monday and the grading of the dirt is supposed to begin at the end of the week. I may have to delay the grading as they need water and I need one more inspection on the lot by the city before the grading can begin. We'll see....

 One final shot of the lot and its weeds before all the work begins.

Made a temporary address sign.

 Utility locations marked. Yellow is gas. Green is sewer. Blue is water. Orange is fiber-optics. Red is electric.