Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Driveway Length

So I've been a little worried about parking my (Chad's) truck at the new house. If you don't know already, I bought myself a 2006 Chevy Silverado crew cab long bed back in September.


Yes that is an 8" lift and yes, those are 37" tires. No, it's not for sale. I measured the truck today at it is from bumper to bumper...21.5 ft! So my worry is that my brand new truck won't fit into the dang driveway! Well the design standards provided the perfect opportunity to see if I should worry.

According to the standards, the minimum driveway length for phase two is 23 feet. Sweet! I'll have 1.5 ft to spare! One less thing to worry about...

Fireplace Update

Well we signed our approval for the fireplace in the center of the wall. Kinda funny how we 'approve'...but not really. So we found out the why's behind it. On Nov 7, 2007 the city council approved the Holdner Farms Phase Two design standards. In those standards, corner lots have a primary front elevation and a secondary front elevation. To make a long story short, the fireplace is popping out to outside (see post below) on the secondary front elevation and it breaks up the solid wall that would have been in violation of the design standards. So they claim.

Being the skeptical fellow I am, I decided that I would like to see some documentation. So I asked Mr. Google some questions and to my surprise, to quote Carl on the movie Sneakers, "It's fascinating what fifty bucks will get you at the county recorder's office!" Since we live in a digital age and because I'm really good at research, I found a pdf of the Holdner Farms Design Standards. Check it out:


In hindsight, we could have perhaps talked to the builder about putting a bay window or some other feature to break up the wall, however, we need the house built. Feb 15 marked the 60 day countdown until closing and any delays at this point risk us not meeting the closing deadline. Therefore, we threw up the white flag on this one and surrendered this front to the city. Sigh.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Building Permits!

Well we have word from our agent that the city has finally signed the building permits! The builder is supposed to start construction soon (today??).

The issue with the delay was the fireplace in the corner was not acceptable to the city. Therefore, it needed to be moved to center wall. While we really wanted the fireplace in the corner, it's not a deal-breaker for us and we will just move forward. Our agent is still following up to find out why the fireplace can't be in the corner but the important thing is the permits are signed and construction will (hopefully) start!

Here's the new floor plan that was approved this morning. the only change is the fireplace location...