Driveway and Progress... They Do Go Together!

Well, it looks like we are finally getting somewhere on our land.  We met with the Selectmen this past Tuesday.  As some of you already know, we’ve been getting the run around since day 1.  We don’t have a driveway yet and we’ve been actively trying to get one since the early part of March.  We started this process, though, in January!

So we went to the Selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday to discuss what we need and what they need.  The road agent told us that we MAY need an engineer to determine the size of the culvert for our driveway.  We kept being told that we may need an engineer to engineer our driveway.  Well, here’s the problem.  We’ve pretty much exhausted our resources in trying to find someone that can engineer a driveway.  We were laughed at when we would tell them that we were looking for an engineer that could engineer our driveway.

We were laughed at because it simply doesn’t exist in NH.  People who have been in the driveway profession for decades have told us that it’s the Road Agents’ job to determine the size of the culvert.  The Road Agent was telling us we need to find an engineer to do it. If we were actually to get a Civil Engineer, it would cost us a fortune for them to engineer our driveway!  Mike also said that at the meeting to help drive another point home. 

So at our meeting on Tuesday, Mike took the floor and discussed what we’ve done thus far.  He discussed how we got our permit, the length of time it’s taken to not even have a driveway, and what we are going through now.  It was a plead for help but he was extremely firm on points that he gave.  I think they could tell that we were frustrated and at the ends of our rope.  I let Mike do most, if not all, the talking because he was doing such a good job explaining everything and showing his frustration in a very professional kind of way.  I was really impressed, actually! 

Near the end, the guy sitting to my right spoke up and said that they needed to help us.  He really spearheaded the rest of the conversation and asked if he could keep a copy of the application and all the materials that we had brought with us.  He said he was going to talk to the Road Agent and try to work something out.  I got a call earlier today from this particular selectman saying that he was planning on having breakfast/coffee with the road agent in the morning and wanted Mike to give him a call tonight to see if Mike and our driveway contractor could meet them in the morning.  I left Mike a message to let him know and I’m hoping they both can!!

PROGRESS!  It’s such a beautiful thing!

Cross your fingers for us!

Driveways and Small Town Politics...

The Selectmen’s meeting is in about a week, and Mike and I are trying to get everything together for it.  We have the wetlands permit, the driveway permit, and according to the application details, we just need to basically put together a plot plan with where our driveway is and whatever obstructions there might be within 500 feet in each direction.  I believe it was 500 feet anyways…

But guess what, we have to do more than what’s on the application now.  Mike met with the Road Agent yesterday.  I’m beginning to think twice about EVER buying land in this town, which to me is really sad because I’ve always wanted to live in a quiet, peaceful little town, but just this driveway process has been so incredibly infuriating.  We have everything required to get our driveway permit, except for the Selectman’s and Road Agent’s signatures, which requires that plot plan.  When Mike met with the Road Agent yesterday, the Road Agent said we’d have to get in touch with the planning board.  I had already sent an email to the Selectman’s assistant (which seems to be the ONLY person in the town offices that knows what the heck is going on!) because the Road Agent hinted about this when Mike talked to him last week to set up a meeting to see the property and where we want to put our driveway. 

Not to get too far off subject- but if there are other special requirements, why isn’t it written in the applications or any other area that we can find?!  They aren’t even written down anywhere!  If I have one thing that absolutely drives me up a wall, it’s when we ask what is required and only get half of it.  When it comes to applications and permits normally everything is written in plain text right there… Hello?  Anyways, the fact that we had to contact the Planning Board isn’t what upsets me the most.  Mike called the head today (coincidentally, the Selectman’s Assistant is also the Secretary for the board… and he’s the one that told us that we didn’t have to contact them!!!) and the head told Mike that they have nothing to do with the Driveway. 

What ticks me off the most is that the Road Agent wants us to get our driveway ENGINEERED.  Are you frikken serious?!  He wants us to get an engineer in there to tell us what size culvert we need…  Well it says on YOUR application that YOU are supposed to tell us what size culvert we need IF you want to see it a size other than 15” in diameter!! Plus- why can’t we just use the same size as what’s going under the road that links the other side to ours, which is where most of the water is coming from anyways?  I swear they are trying to pull out every road block POSSIBLE to keep us from building a home- and that just makes me want to dig in my heels and be even more hard headed than I already am!  I’m sick of playing this game- but if that’s how you want to play- fine- I can play this game. 

Small town politics is really infuriating.  I recommend anyone looking to buy a house or a piece of land in a small town to think twice.  We’ve been trying to build JUST a driveway for about 9 months now!  REALLY?!

Love always finds a way… and so shall we!

Wetlands Permit Accepted!

On Saturday, August 27^th, we got our Wetlands permit from the State!  That’s 30 days ahead of schedule!  I’m really thrilled that they were able to push it through so fast!  Of course, I think Mike and his boss are right- I think the State would be more concerned about a larger parcel of land being filled for something like a Walmart or a Home Depot or something, and not necessarily as concerned with a few feet to cross for a residence.  It makes sense to me.  I’m sure they are still concerned, but I think they put less emphasis on a home owner than they do a retail store/chain.

Anyways, it’s very exciting news!  Since my last update this is what has happened with this process:

The Conservation Committee of the town would not sign the expedited minimum impact application because they wanted to see the parcel first (and I had offered to show it to them at their monthly meeting, but they wanted to see us first!)  and they wanted us to get it delineated by a forester.  Fine, we got it delineated by a rather well known forester in the area.  Mike got to meet with him and he was very knowledgeable and walked Mike through the whole process and explained what different plants were (like Princess Pine… which do not grow in wetlands- they are an upland plant!).  But since the Committee wouldn’t meet again for another month and told us they would only sign it then, we submitted it anyways.

We brought it to the Town Hall so that the Town Clerk could sign the paperwork.  She was very sweet and it was the first one she’d ever done, so we had to walk her through it.  I made it as painless as possible.  When I brought the paperwork to her, there was the woman from the Conservation Committee there.  She instantly jumped down our throats, told the Town Clerk she was not allowed to sign it until we met with the Committee again.  Mike was a little heated, so I stepped in and asked her why, and she said that we couldn’t submit the paperwork without the Committee’s signature, but I pointed out to her that we didn’t need their signature according to the paperwork that we had filled out and read her the line that said the application would automatically transfer into a Standard Dredge and Fill if the committee didn’t sign it.  She got on the phone with the head of the committee (who is a really nice gentleman) and she continued to try to poke holes through our application process, which I continued to show her the different sections in the application where she was wrong while she was on the phone with him.  He ended up telling her that there was nothing they could do, that we were doing everything according to the book.  I think I upset her and her power trip she was on because I had shown her all the instances in which she was wrong. 

The Town Clerk proceeded to sign all 5 documents and sent the paperwork into the State on July 12^th.  On July 19^th, we were notified that we were missing one piece of information from the Standard Dredge and Fill, which we hadn’t thought about since we were focused on the Minimum Impact and not the Standard form.  It was a letter and map from NHB stating that there were no recorded findings in the database of rare/exotic plants.  At first I thought that it was going to take forever to get- but they have a website that you can type in the zip code, put a pointer on the map, and they automatically generate and try to find anything in their database of any occurrences of rare/exotic plants!  From there you can download a PDF of the letter and map from NHB and you’re done!  It was so easy! 

So then, the paperwork was resubmitted to the State on July 25^th.  The State then has 60 days from the time they send us a notice (which they sent the notice of receiving all necessary paperwork on July 28^th, which was super fast in my opinion!) to when they must correspond with us (whether it be them requesting more information or giving us a decision).  From there, we waited, and hoped that they wouldn’t ask for more info over and over again so that we’d have to be stuck in the process.  We just got the permit on Saturday- August 27^th!  I wasn’t sure if the State was going to hold onto it for the full 60 days or not, but we got it and can now move forward with submitting for our driveway permit! 

But now we must get the road agent over to the property, show them our plans for the driveway, where we want to put the driveway (where it was approved by the state), and reasoning for putting it there.  We have to draw a plan for the road itself to scale with any obstructions (like hills, corners, trees, other driveways, etc) within 500 feet in either direction.  We hope to get the road agent over there before their next meeting (next Tuesday, September 6^th) so that we can then get the permit and push forward and get at least a portion of the driveway put in! 

Hopefully moving forward, this process will become a well oiled wheel.  We could’ve had the entire house up by now if not for the running around like crazy trying to get a hold of people to answer questions and getting the wetlands permit! 

On another positive note, and since this isn’t JUST about building our home (though mostly it is) Mike and I are engaged!  We have the wedding date already set and the wedding will be before we build our home and during a beautiful time of year! <3 I can’t wait to marry my best friend!

Love Can Build a Bridge

The Last Leg of our Driveway Journey- I Hope!

One step closer…

I’d like to start by recapping what we’ve done thus far for getting our driveway permit, which some of you may already know but nonetheless, here’s the recap:

1. Tried to get a hold of the Road Agent for the town of Sharon for the better part of a month in April just to find out that he “retired” and that the old Road Agent is back on staff. 
2. Went to a Selectman’s meeting where we were able to introduce ourselves and get some much needed information in accordance to what the State of NH DES requires for this wetlands crossing permit.  They were all very helpful in this process and I appreciate the direction that they’ve given us. 
3. Received abutters addresses and sent them certified letters informing them of our intent due to what DES requires for their permit application.
4. Received Tax Map.  Scanned the Tax Map and made several copies of our section where our land is per the requirements of the DES application.
5. Purchased copies of a 1:24,000 scale USGS Topographical map of the Town of Sharon and adjacent towns.  Blew up our section of the Topographical Map so that we could draw boundary lines of our land per the requirements of the application and made copies of those as well.
6. Had my Mom take a few photographs of the land (where we plan on putting the driveway).  We picked 4 of the ones that came out best.  My camera broke so… she was able to help us out!  Printed off originals of these photos and made 5 high quality color copies of these photos.  Yes, I will be keeping the originals!
7. Received an estimate/description of how the Driveway is going to be built from Mike’s Cousin who will be doing the work. 
8. Drew plans for the driveway, where the wetlands will be impacted, and put all the measurements we took on the maps/plans.  We also had to figure out a North facing arrow on all our plans.  That was a little tougher than I expected seeing that we didn’t have a point of reference per se. 
9. Last night we put all the paperwork together, drew up all the plans, made notes and the like on all the copies of photos, maps, etc, and found that we only need a couple more things.

One of the biggest things that will help us out now is the Conservation Committee signature.  We were hoping to get this last month or a few weeks ago, but weren’t able to since we had missed their monthly meeting.  We didn’t know that we were going to need this and that the only time they’d be able to meet with us is once a month- we had literally missed it by a day!

Since we have all the plans, photos, etc, we hope to have this signed off on tonight, when the committee meets for their once a month meeting.  I had tried getting a hold of them three to four weeks ago to see if we could expedite this then so we could submit the paperwork and be on our way.  We tried both email and phone and left messages but no one returned our call or email.  So I got in touch with my new friend, the Selectman’s Assistant.  He got me in touch with the Conservation Committee and thus they were able to help us.  Of course, this was only last week when we were finally able to get a hold of them.  We’ve also tried getting a hold of the State DES people and they are really, really hard to get a hold of themselves!  We’ve left messages and the like for them and sometimes they are great- but the last message we left (2-3 weeks ago) has still not yet been answered.

We wanted the Conservation Committee come out to look at the land with us and allow us to show them where we are looking to put the driveway, where we think the least amount of impact will happen.  Unfortunately, they want us to see them tonight and then they will decide what they want to see on our property from there. 

All I can say is hopefully we provide them with enough information that they won’t have to go to the land with us and they will just sign off on the document.  That way, tomorrow, I can stop by the town office when the clerk is in and submit all the paperwork as instructed.  The clerk is only there on Tuesdays every week from 5-7, so getting this signature tonight will save us yet ANOTHER week of waiting and relying on other people.

Of course, once this goes in, the “expedited” form will take up to 30 days, which is ridiculous, but it is what it is and we have to abide by the rules.  After that, it’s a matter of getting our driveway permit from the town and then getting the driveway put in. 

This has already been a drawn out process… so hopefully this is the last leg of it and we can start seeing some stuff get done to our land!  Wouldn’t that be nice?!

So here’s all the paperwork/requirements the State DES needs in order for them to allow us to have wetlands crossing permits.  By the way, the wetlands that we are crossing probably isn’t anything near what you are thinking that it looks like.  When I get a chance I will post pictures so you can better understand what we are seeing.

1. The Application- filled out with signatures from the applicants, Conservation Committee, and Town Clerk.
2. FIVE copies of the application and all forms that are to be submitted.  One copy with the original form gets sent to the State.  The rest are given to the Selectmen, the Conservation Committee, and a couple other entities.
3. Photographs of where we are looking to place structures
4. USGS Topographical Map with lines indicating boundaries.
5. Description of work to be done and amount of materials used for the work. (ie the driveway information has the culvert and different soil/dirt used).
6. SQ FT of wetlands to be impacted.  Ours maxed is 1200- their max is 3000. Our 1200 Sq Ft takes into account 20 Feet from the mouth that goes to the road through to the actual wooded area that is no longer considered wetlands.  We won’t actually be putting in 20 feet of fill the whole way, it will likely be more like 12-15 feet, but we just put the max in case.
7. Map of land with wetlands designation and our drawing of the driveway and such with hatchmarks indicating where the wetlands are impacting.  Mike drew this to scale (he’s very good at it!).
8. Tax Map (the map we bought from the Town of Sharon, but I also included the actual “tax map” that the town gave us but it’s just basically showing what is paid in taxes).
9. $200 check- the State has to get their portion too, of course!

I think we might be able to become experts on this application and necessary documents the State needs before we’re finished with this process.  We’ve only read the application and requirements a few dozen times to make sure that we have everything and that we are doing everything that the State needs so that we don’t screw it up and find out later that we have issues with our application so we would have to re-file.  That would just be bad, because that would mean another $200 for the application. 

So please cross your fingers and toes and say a little prayer for us!  I think I’ll go bezerk if this doesn’t go through smoothly now!  Especially since we’ve been chasing our tails trying to get a hold of people to get questions answered! 

Building a Driveway- A New Hope.

Lessons Learned: and I'm sure there will be more later on!

Sometimes when you think you have everything you need and you think that you are doing exactly what you need to be doing, you find out you’re wrong!

So, this is a lesson learned and kind of a funny story when I stop to think about it.  It’s also frustrating, however, since this has been holding us back from getting started on our project.

Mike and I are trying to get into this driveway building stuff.  We have started on a lot of paperwork that we know the town is going to need even for our building permit.  I sent some info over to his cousin on the driveway permit since his cousin will be building the driveway for us.  We’re looking pretty good I would think!

Well, we’ve been trying to get a hold of the Road Agent in town to see if he can give us some direction on our driveway since it will be crossing a tiny piece of designated wetlands as I discussed in my previous post.  Between Mike and I we’ve probably called the Road agent about ½ dozen times and left him at least 3 messages.  Each time we’ve called it’s gone straight to voicemail.  We started calling him two weeks ago.

My dad got an idea from our soon-to-be-neighbor, whom we also bought the land from.  He said to try going to the Selectman’s Meeting that happens every other Tuesday.  Why didn’t we think of that first?!  It makes sense- go see if the Road Agent is there.  Mike’s concern has been upsetting the Road Agent if we went above him to get this done.  So he asked me to call the Selectman’s Assistant to see if the Road Agent will even be there.

This is where the funny part comes in.  First, the Selectman’s Meeting isn’t this Tuesday- it’s the First and Third Tuesday of the month and Mike and I were both like, oh ya, we’re already that far into May (YIKES!!).  Second, the Selectman’s Assistant (a very nice guy) actually retired- good for him!  In any case he was helping us.  He told me that the reason we couldn’t get a hold of the Road Agent is because he’s no longer the Road Agent.  No wonder why we can’t get a hold of him! 

He then gave me the new number to the now Road Agent, who use to be the old road agent.  Mike called him and discussed with him what we are trying to do.  He’s been very helpful already and told us what we need to do for the next steps including giving one of the Selectmen a call because this particular Selectmen can help direct us with what steps we need next (really?  Does this come with a manual?!  AWESOME!).

Unfortunately, we do need to go to the State to get approval to cross the Wetlands, which means even more time wasted.  Ugh.  On the Brightside- at least this Road Agent is giving us useful information that will help us speed up the process- and hopefully when we touch base with the Selectman, he can help us further and speed the process right along. 

All in all, it’s a little funny because we’ve been trying to get a hold of this guy just to talk to him and discuss what we need to do just to find out that he’s no longer with the Town.  On the other hand it is a little frustrating because we have lost quite a bit of time on this process.

I guess it’s all part of the learning process- right?

Best Part: We have some good connections we can use in order to get our answers answered!  Fortunately, it seems like we’re moving forward- thanks to the great people that we are now getting a hold of! :)

Love Can Build a Bridge…

Will it build it over my little wetlands area?  lol! :)

Let us Begin, Shall We?

Everything comes in steps… this is so true when building a home!  Originally, Mike and I tried to get a construction loan when we were looking at a different piece of property.  We wanted to purchase this piece rather quickly so we could get it up and weather tight before snow flew.  With the bank we were going through (which came highly recommended but we had a horrible experience with) it just wasn’t going to happen.  We got our deposit back on the land we were trying to purchase through the bank and went on our merry way since it seemed impossible to get a quick loan, and even a land loan at that point since it was going to take MONTHS to get!

So that’s when we found out about the land we just purchased.  We were lucky and knew the guy that was selling the piece and was willing to do seller financing on it.  No banks, but still a process.

Really, it’s a smart thing to try to buy the land first, sit on it for a while, and then roll it into a construction loan.  Our meeting on Friday went really well.  We went to our own bank this time and we had been prepared with questions and information for the woman that met with us.  She told us that we really did our homework!  One of our biggest concerns is whether we could use the land as collateral, and she assured us that we could.  It’s interesting how construction loans work- and here’s why.

No matter what bank you go to, their construction loan program is different.  Some will give you 90% of the value of the home, some will give you 80%, and some will even give you less.  They require a lot of information up front before they give you the actual loan.  For instance, we need to get together the material list (which we have already, just not in their format), a septic approval, and a building permit, my last pay stub, and at least two years of tax information.  All simple things really, but let’s put this into perspective.

Mike and I have spent hours putting together our material list and getting prices on the materials and all that good stuff.  I can’t tell you how many hours we have spent doing this already.  Even though we have this to start, it may change.  For instance, the town in which we are building does not have their own building inspector so they require us to get an approval from the state on energy related things.  We were going through this energy sheet last night and have had to change a few things already due to U-ratings or R-values (U-ratings seem to be related to your doors and windows and the energy efficiency of these and R-Values are your insulation and the like).  Reading through some of their requirements gave us both a bit of a startle.  I’m not saying that we weren’t creating an energy efficient home, but some of their rules did seem a bit silly.  But, we have to abide by the code- AND we have to fill this form out and get approval before we can get a building permit. 

The beginning stages are such a process!  So in order for us to get the septic design approval, we need to get into our land- but in order to get into our land, we need to get the first portion of the driveway put in and have the lot cleared so the septic designer can dig and do a perc test.  In order to get the first portion of the driveway put in, we have to go for a driveway permit, which may also require a State of NH wetlands crossing approval, depending on what the road agent says.  The “wetlands” on our land isn’t really wetlands either though- it’s seasonal run-off.  It would be silly to not put a culvert in for something that gets wet like it is currently for a couple months out of the year.

So where do we start?!

Well, we found the most important pins on our land yesterday, which is a good start… and I have a call in to the Road Agent for the town in hopes that he can meet with Mike so him and Mike can discuss the driveway and the plans thereof so we can skip the extra time it will take to get approval from the state.  Hopefully from there we can have Mike’s Cousin draw the design for the driveway and we can submit that to the town with the check for the permit and get that approved.  Once that’s approved then at least the ball gets rolling.

In the meantime, we’re trying to fill out the energy efficiency form (which has me confused because of the hieroglyphic like lingo, but at least Mike knows what most of the items on the list mean) and try to get that approved so we can add that to the building permit and submit that once we get the septic stuff done.

It’s all a process… but at least we are starting now so we can hope that the house could potentially be completed by Thanksgiving. It would be so nice because I want Thanksgiving at my house this year!! 

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.  - Henry David Thoreau

Beginning to build your list for price quotes

All I can say is I'm glad that I have someone that knows what they are doing!  Without Mike and his dad, I wouldn't know what to do about putting together a list of materials that we would need TO build a house and how to figure things like studs and TGI's and the like.  

So one of the things that we need to pick out to get prices on (other than the kitchen which we pretty much have all ready to go for quotes) is flooring.  So we started looking at hardwoods and tiles... we'll have carpets in the bedrooms (I hate waking up and putting my feet on a very cold floor in the morning!).  We found two beautiful hardwoods that we really like.  

Mike really took to the Brazilian Koa (below) and I love it too!  It's beautiful!

But it's expensive... $6.29/ft.  Ok it's not SUPER expensive but for the area we are looking to put it in, we'd be spending quite a bit (it's a rather large area).

We also really liked the Spiced Hickory.  We thought we would put this downstairs- but the more we talked about it the more I realized that really, we don't need to spend a ton of money on really nice flooring for the finished walk out basement... because in reality most of the time, it will just be us seeing it..

So I started looking for other options and stumbled across two beautiful BAMBOO flooring options... and Mike liked them too!  They were almost 50% the cost of the hardwood flooring and they are about 2-3 times harder!  check these out and tell me what you think!

The first one reminded us of the Brazilian Koa- so we may just do that for the upstairs dining/entry area.

The second one we found would be perfect for downstairs... more durable and looks a little like the spiced hickory...

So I think we are settled on that but it sounds like we may go explore Lumber Liquidators this weekend so we can actually see and feel the products... then we will go to HD and check out tile... you just can't really make a decision without seeing it first!  Though, I found a beautiful Gray Slate tile that I think would be perfect for the Mudroom area! :)

More to come!  For now- this is all the time I have to post! :)