After 10 years of planning, design and working through the bureaucracy we're almost ready to start!  Took 4 years to come to agreement with town over lot line and right-a-way adjustments, 2 years working with an architect on the design and having it fail to pass the historic design review, and finally grabbing the bull by the horns and doing my own design...the plans were approved last fall and the permit issued in January of this year.  Costs todate for survey, lot line adjustment application, design work, design review application, engineering, plan check, building permit, mitigation and utility connection fees come to $58,000.  That's $20,000 more than I paid for my first brand new house in 1970.  Here are site photos...I will provide plans and a running update as we break ground.

This site was purchased for the view over historic downtown and the mountains beyond, not to mention a convenient 2 minute walk to main street



View from town...orginal house on site built 1890's, burned to ground in 1980's




A through lot... garage to be accessed from rear street



Current conditions that will need to melt before ground breaking, hopefully by May 1st

In the first picture, is the place in the far view where the Tahoe to Truckee ski race ends?  Are they still running that?  I used to love doing that race back when I lived in CA in the 80's.

Correct...The Great Ski Race from Tahoe to Truckee continues every year and ends at Hill Top, which is at the ridge top left in view photo.  Hill Top is the site of the first mechanized ski lift in the western U.S.

Whew, they sure made you jump through hoops, not to mention how much it cost & you haven't even started building yet 

But the view is beautiful, conveniently located & you can finally start your dream cabin!  Glad you already realize we like pictures 

BTW, 

Experimenting with posting plan documents...here is the floor plan and 3-D of the new house...

FLOOR PLAN:



3-D:

Quote from: Danfish on April 08, 2011, 05:16:22 PM
Correct...The Great Ski Race from Tahoe to Truckee continues every year and ends at Hill Top, which is at the ridge top left in view photo.  Hill Top is the site of the first mechanized ski lift in the western U.S.

Yeah, I googled it after I posted (I know, supposed to google first).  Brings back old memories.  Browsing through the website I found I actually made it into the photo of the 1987 mass start!

Great - we often stop off for lumber from TTLCo and food at Bar of America or the Squeeze Inn on the way up to our place.  Now we can check up on another Country Plans project whilst we're there too!

Nice design - that style of porch is ideal for snow country.

Warmer weather has brought us close to ground breaking...looks like first week of May...

Ground Breaking May 6, 2011, equipment arrives and goes to work




First comes the grubbing





...and then the "Historic" apple tree comes down





Finally a clean job site and temporary errosion control

 

must be exciting to get started!

Underground Utilities go in!  Since so many postings do not involve the regulatory nightmare we experience here in California, especially in the Lake Tahoe area. I will give comments on same as we go.  On one day alone we had four inspectors, all from different agencies, on the site.

First and formost call before you dig!  There is a 8" transmission pressure gas line to the left of where they are standing, with a 4" distribution pressure line next to same.  The gas company stood by as the trench was opened...don't need another San Bruno.



Electric Company personnel arrive to place pole standoffs for electric riser and drop off pull box for base of pole.



Electric is in the ground...utility required a 3" conduit...looks like we are running a commercial service...take note of that 3" steel riser req'd by the utility, almost as large as the pole!



Next the telephone and cable TV go in the same trench.  Now we have more stuff hanging on that poor pole.



And then comes the water service...



Followed by the water crew to install the meter and connect service...



And program the new electronic water meter.



Gas line goes in same trench with water.  Interesting process here, gas company requires that conduit be placed in trench so they can come back later dig up ends and shove gas pipe through .



And finally the sewer.  Anyone care to quess why two cleanouts at the connection to main sewer?



Anoter clean out required just outside of foundation.

As part of the permit package we are required to have an engineered temporary and permanent errosion control plan.  The plan requires that all surface water generated on the site (roof run-off, etc.) shall be contained on the site.  To accomplish this it was necessary to dig permanent rock wells sufficient to absorb the 100 year design value and provide lined drainage swales to direct flow into these rock wells.

Due to the tight working area on this lot we were forced to dig these rock wells prior to excavation for the foundation...

Layout of drywells, east and west side of front yard...





Uncovered old 2 inch boiler tube water line



And then ran into this six inch steel line which, as we dug further, became an abandoned clay sewer pipe



End product with rock and filter fabric in place (large boulders to become future landscape features)

Footings dug, other than one area where they must have dug a hole and buried the remains of the prior structure destroyed by fire, no real surprises



Because the orginal soils report indicated potential for fill on the site, the permit required that we have a special inspection once the footings were dug.  The soils engineer did some probing and took photos for the report...only recomendation was that we run a wacker over the length of the trenching to insure adequate compaction...took an extra couple of hours work...but solid as rock afterwards. 

Every job site needs a supervisor...grandaughter ready to fill the shoes...



Forming the foundation

Will we ever see summer???

It's been a cool, wet spring, for sure!  Guess it's better than the fires Arizona & Texas have been fighting or all the flooding & tornadoes - although there's supposed to be some flooding when the snow starts melting.

Cute supervisor!  At least you've jumped through a lot of the hoops...

Sassy, thanks for reminding me that our local weather is just a minor inconvenience when compared to what mother nature has done to others!

All commnents are appreciated   .

Hi Danfish - my son was biking in the century ride around Tahoe on Sunday, and I'm sure he appreciated the weather even less than you do. Looking forward to seeing the progress, once the weather gets better.

Quote from: reb5maccom on June 07, 2011, 03:32:27 PM
Hi Danfish - my son was biking in the century ride around Tahoe on Sunday, and I'm sure he appreciated the weather even less than you do. Looking forward to seeing the progress, once the weather gets better.

Unfortunately Sunday's bike ride was only for the very brave and hardy.  After last month's canceling of the first leg of the Tour of California I was surprised they went ahead with last weekend's event. 

Today we finally have spring weather!  Passed our foundation inspection and ready to pour concrete on Thursday.

Let the pour begin!  Due to access problems at site it was necessary to pump concrete.  orginally wanted to use overhead boom truck to speed things up, but overhead utilities and narrow roadways made that impossible (should be interesting when we get to the stage of getting a crane in place for lifting of trusses and large beams).



Setting up...note that viewshed...top of this wall will be the front porch.



Let the concrete flow...



All important holddowns..



Here's what you get when prior proprty owners decided to bury the garbage...one hell of a footing and added cost...

Forms stripped off of first phase...

very cool! 

cant wait to get to that point!

Due to tight access on site it is necessary that we leave out interior foundation walls and piers so we can get equipment in to backfill and dig the perimeter drainage swales.  This is where you need an operator that is good...Wayne could brush your teeth with that machine!!!

Roof gutters in the mountains are nothing but a headache so we moved them to ground level with drip-line trenching:



First step was to install waterproof membrane, followed by stone to prevent washout and movement of the membrane (15 tons of granite).  Note these trenches feed into the rock drywells previousily installed:



Because it didn't make since to walk around on a bunch of cobbles the next step placed 3/4 inch crushed rock to level out perimeter drainage (18 cu. yards):



The finished product:

Everyone should have one of these radio controlled toys to play with...