house stress send-off

 

The construction of our house spanned the 13 months between my 32nd birthday and Jack’s 32nd birthday.  It was literally the fulfillment of a dream we had shared for many years, but it was also the most stressful period of our lives.

In this post I’m going to detail the worst parts of the process, not out of macabre self pity, but because I want to remember all of the things we overcame and to give myself a break for the effect that prolonged stress had on us. 

Oh and next time someone (who isn’t already a client) asks us if we think they should build a house, we’ll be able to point to the type of things that can go wrong.  My favorite architect tells me we could have had it much worse.

 

The stress came from a sour and bottomless cocktail of prolonged busyness, acute panic-inspiring revelations and on-going interpersonal conflicts.  The moments of sheer panic began about nine months after we purchased the land in the fall of 2012.  Roughly in order of descending stress they were:

• when the water wasn’t already available on the street when the easement for sewer and water through our neighbors’ side yard was rejected by the city
• Before we bought the lot, we confirmed the side sewer’s existence with the city.  The old sewer was never location during construction, so we can only assume the records were wrong.
• The real estate listing said “water available in street” and “sewer available”
• We submitted a pre-application to the city with a basic site plan and Seattle Public Utilities said we’d need to build a water main to do the project, and that there wasn’t actually a sewer so we’d need to build a sewer main too.
• We appealed and proposed an easment through the neighbor’s yard, which the neighbors agreed to verbally
• The city rejected it and said “build a main to improve the whole water system”
• We figured our another solution where we reclassified our lot and our neighbor’s lot as unit lots of a parent lot, with an easement. (See http://aglie.blogspot.com/2013/09/building-permit-first-pass.html)  We justified the absurdity of the cost of the main relative to the value of anything built on our small lot.
• SPU grudgingly agreed, at the end of 2013 http://aglie.blogspot.com/2013/12/wac-we-acquired-clearance-water.html
• when a strict interpretation of the code said we could build zero houses because we couldn’t round up to one on land use calculations
• While we were dealing with the water and sewer issues, we faced another problem with a strict interpretation of the code that said we could build an apartment complex but not a house on a lot of our size.  See http://aglie.blogspot.com/2013/09/building-permit-first-pass.html for more.
• when many neighbors chimed in on the neighborhood email group to criticize us for the exceedingly long (but totally legal) closure of the alley.  Many people did write supportive comments, but the negative ones really got to us.  I’m clearly not cut out for politics.
• the contractors schedule called for the alley to be closed for about one month, but as you can see from an irate neighbor (who doesn’t live on our section of the alley) on a large group email thread, it was over 8 months.
• Thanks for updating us, but really you just need to clear the alley and repair where you caved in road. It has been over 8 months. You need to stage your construction work on your property. It looks like there is room on the west side of the home for you to do so. That is what everyone else has done. There have been many other homes built with alley access and NONE of them have required closing the alley. Every other construction site has staged their work on the site they are building.

I am surprised the city has allowed this for so long. It could possibly impair emergency vehicles, and certainly inconveniences greatly your neighbors …

I am sure your intention is to truly apologize. But both emails have said sorry and then said why it is not your fault and how you yourself are suffering by having to pay the city to keep a public alley closed or because you couldn’t afford to higher better contractors (not nice to say about these guys that are building your home). This is not a hallmark of a sincere apology.

I am sure the city light department has good reason to legislate how close homes can be to utility poles. It is unfortunate that this didn’t come up when you designed the home. If you can afford to build your own home, close a public alley for 8 months then probably paying to get it fixed is your best option. Seems rather privileged to hope the city will "just let it go".

I know I am sounding hostile and really I am a relatively nice person but I think you just need to get your stuff out of the alley.

• when the electrical lines turned out to be too close to the already framed out house
• In March, 8 months in to construction, a Seattle City Light inspector driving by noticed that one corner of our house looked a little too close to the electrical wires.  The house has to be 10’ away, and workers have to remain 10’ away while doing the siding etc.  We had a land survey done for permitting, which marked the foot of the nearby telephone poles, but didn’t note that one pole leaned towards the house significantly.  Based on land survey, we expected the house to be parallel to the wires, however one corner was 11’ away and the other was 9’6” away. 
• This posed two problems, first that workers couldn’t continue siding because of the proximity and second that the already built house couldn’t exist, where it already did exist.  The off-the-cuff estimate from the myopic SCL engineer was something like 70k dollars to raise the poles up 17’ or so, so that the wires would be far enough away.  He suggested moving the wires away from the house on the cross piece of the pole to allow work to continue on the house that couldn’t exist.  Jack asked if that could be the permanent solution and he said it was impossible.  Jack pointed out the dozens of houses in a four block radius that are in violation of the 10’ rule.  He said “but they are already built”, as was ours.  There was an implied threat that we’d never be able to get electricity hooked up.
• After much worry and discussion (and weeks of construction delay), the solution came back to Jack’s reasonable original suggestion.  We spent about 3k to have them move the wire a bit further away from the house, on the same cross piece at the top of the pole.  
• It took three months to reach an agreement and actually get SCL to write a letter explaining the agreement that we had reached.  There was so much bureaucracy that without the letter we didn’t trust that the problem would not resurface, preventing our electrical hookup. 
• when the (admittedly long-suffering) neighbors who granted us the easement announced, in the thirteenth month, that we couldn’t bring any equipment in to dig, or disturb anything in their yard when we were already past the one year construction term granted by the bank
• We really do understand how it wasn’t a fun process for them.  They were the most affected by the whole process and the communication warp between us and them and the contractors and sub contractors and the city made things worse.
• The schedule was so at-risk that we felt our only choices were to hire a lawyer to enforce the easement, which would have been expensive and aggressive and maybe not even efficacious enough, or to pay even more money to solve the problem by boring underneath their yard for sewer and water.  We did the latter and then other neighbors complained on the group email list about one day’s worth of noise from the boring machine.
• when the permit of occupancy was finished a few days before the bank would have charged us 28k for being late, after having already given us a month of grace time
• it was completed four business days before the last minute
• http://aglie.blogspot.com/2016/08/hallelujah-we-have-our-certificate-of.html
• when the change order for the type of radiant heat wasn’t as comparable as everyone expected
• Many people gave us the impression that two types of material were similarly priced.
• The more expensive was in the plans but the less expensive was in the fixed-price bid from the contractor.
• Because of already completed engineering work and specs, we stuck with the more expensive type and it turned in to an unexpectedly expensive change order.
• The compromise with the contractor was that we bought the material directly to avoid the contractor’s mark up.
• when we had to get five other house holds to sign a document saying that we would all split costs of repair on the shared side sewer
• In Seattle home owners are responsible for side sewers repair all the way up to the connection with the main, even when it is under the street or sidewalk, and off of their property.   When houses share side sewers, the city requires them to have to have an agreement saying that the owners will split the cost of repair on the shared side sewer.  We became the 6th house on a side sewer, but through some fluke, the other five houses which already shared a sewer didn’t already have this very standard agreement on file with the city.
• We had to convince all of them to sign it.  Most people were agreeable but it took a full three months and by the end, I think some folks who were ready to sign it initially, felt that there must be some hidden downside to signing it. 
• One neighbor was told incorrect information about the responsibility extending past the property line.  The neighbor directed us to her friend, who turned out to be her lawyer.  The lawyer wouldn’t call us back at all for a long time and we became quite desperate, further souring relations.  When we finally talked to him, he hadn’t talked to her about the issue.  It was all very fishy and stressful. 
• In the end we could only get it signed by taking on another home owners share of responsibility for the shared portion.  I have never worked so hard to convince someone to do something.
• This issue really represents a lot of our troubles.  The neighbors signed three separate documents related to sewer, water and the easement.  The first was signed long before we started, during the permitting phase but we only learned of the other two from the city mid construction.   We were in a pickle, with all of our resources already invested in the house, needing signatures on closely related documents in order to proceed with construction.  We couldn’t walk away and the neighbors had no incentive to sign.  If the many many discussions with the city had made clear all of the required paperwork before we started the process, our relations with our neighbors would have had a much better start.  The plan was to do the sewer/water digging at the beginning of construction, but because of all of the paperwork delays and necessary harassment of our neighbors, it was literally the last thing that was finished.
• when the contractors demolished the rock wall shared with our neighbors and then said the rocks were too big to move causing another massive neighbor-affecting delay
• Those rocks that the contractors said were too big to deal with without an unavailable piece of equipment -  well Jack, Kirk and I rolled 95% of them to the curb and disposed of them two or three at a time in to the back’s of people’s Subarus and trucks, after posting them repeatedly on craigslist.
• Meanwhile, the neighbors dealt with the 4-5 week absence of a fence (with dogs and even less privacy than before) when they’d been told it would only take one week. 
• Jack preemptively insisted that the contractors not start on the rock wall demolition until they were sure they could manage it quickly.
• This debacle also delayed the sewer and water digging.
• http://aglie.blogspot.com/2016/06/construction-month-ten.html

The interpersonal stress was surprising to me.  For most things in life, making the best effort to do the right thing, seems to work.  What’s more, the dynamic between all of all the many stake holders in my venn diagram is just a mess.  The neighbors held us accountable for things far beyond our control.  Empathizing and apologizing didn’t help and any explanation we gave was seen as shirking responsibility, despite the fact that we were trying as hard as we could to make things go according to plan.  Being in situations where we needed things from other people, who we had only recently met, was really tough. 

Though I have no plans to do this again, the things I would do differently are:

• Believe much less of what the contractors said about schedules, from the very start.   I personally liked our G.C. but we absolutely should have had a contract with penalties for delays.
• Push back on the contractor much more on everything as it related to the neighbors.
• Ask all the questions we didn’t know we needed to ask, like “is a ground survey sufficient for the power lines?” and “is the easement paperwork the last thing we’ll need from the neighbors?”

Jack had worked in residential architecture in Seattle for three years before our construction started.  He says he would now know enough to better handle some of the issues we encountered, but many of them, like the power-line issue just come down to bad luck.

With that, I will lock up this stress and throw away the key!

outdoor projects

 

Here’s a look at the outdoor projects we have done and what we have left to do.

Completed:

• installed turf in “the boite,” which is our little boxy yard
• put up mailbox and house numbers on the fence
• painted neighbor’s replacement fence, which required trying to match the paint color of a lichen colored ten-year-old fence, and rebuilt rock terraces
• transplanted one hand-me-down tree from my parents (Hinoki False Cypress) and got two street trees (Japanese Snowbells) planted
• installed bars (with security screws) to lock up bikes in the bike garages.  Hooray for not having to bring bikes in to the house!

To Do:

• figure out how to mitigate the pooling water around the roof drains, which is very disappointing for new construction
• install concrete roof pavers and planters
• landscape along the sidewalk
• add plants to be chosen by neighbors next to our parking spot
• build doors for the bike garages
• install a retractable net around the boite to keep whiffle balls in
• put up an address sign on the alley to help lost delivery drivers
• keep our trees alive for the next few critical years!
• knock out a small interior wall so that Emo can access the cat door to the roof
• add louvres (horizontal slats of wood) to outside of house to fulfill Jack’s architectural vision

 

The roof and keeping the trees alive are at the top of our lists for outdoor tasks, though there are a few indoor tasks that will take priority.  I’ll save those for another post.

house = home

For the past four weeks we’ve been living in the house and today the first regular mortgage payment was withdrawn so it’s official.   I have lots to say and pictures I want to share but no time at the moment, so I’ll be brief.

A few things that are great are the kitchen, the view and the master bathroom.  The third floor, where the kitchen is, feels almost like a treehouse and if you’re sitting on the floor, as one does when there’s no couch, almost all you see out the windows is the beautiful sky.

On the other end of my opinion spectrum, meaning things I don’t like, are not having had the time to put things away and organize and the fact that the water we worked so hard to get is undrinkable.  We installed new PEX pipes, as almost all new plumbing uses these days, and the water smells and tastes like gasoline.  It’s disappated a bit, but according to the internet it could take up to two months to go away.  That means we are halfway, but I’d say I have a strong sense of smell so it might take longer.  We have a Britta now, but I find that I am often thirsty and going up a couple of floors for a drink isn’t fun.

We got some nice houseplants as gifts.  Some even came in the mail!

Hallelujah! We have our certificate of occupancy.

With four business days between us and a $28,000 bank penalty, we have our Certificate of Occupancy.  What a relief!

construction: month twelve

The last month has been bonkers.  Jack has been up at the house most evenings after work, we’ve worked most weekends and taken a couple days off work as well.  Last Monday when we were finishing up electrical, there were about a dozen people working at one time on various things.
We finally got our sewer and water hooked up by paying more money to bore under our neighbor’s yard, leaving it undisturbed.  The stairs and railings and countertops were installed.  We put up light fixtures and troubleshot electrical problems and did outdoor work getting the soil ready.  Last week we passed the electrical and plumbing inspections.  The elevator is still not installed so all of the appliances came up the stairs and are now installed.
Until developments grow up, we can see the top of Mount Rainier to the south.



Tonight it was cleaned, showing us the windows and the floors without the protective coverings!

Though we thought we could put if off a few months, it turned out we did have to cover the ground in “the boite” (fenced in area) so last weekend we scrambled to get the right kind of gravel delivered on a weekend and we bought and installed turf, which game in one big 400 pound roll.  Jack had his heart set on turf because it will be less maintenance and will never get muddy.  I’m glad to say that it’s come a long way and the filler is sand now, instead of annoying rubber pellets.

The biggest remaining tasks are the sewer test and inspection, touch up painting and color painting.  Then the city will walk through for an overall safety inspection and the bank appraiser will check that everything is as we said it would be. Even though we’ve passed electrical, there are some issues to figure out, like the bizzare combination of lights on L2 that trip the breaker.  We’re moving out of our apartment this month and I REALLY want the painting to be done so we can safely stow our posessions in the house, even if we can’t quite live there.  There are nine days until all of our stuff has to be in the house!

construction: month eleven

Right after the construction: month ten post, we got our permanent electricity hooked up.  This  was a huge deal, that I hope to write about in more detail when I get around to it.  For now though, the short version is that we paid Seattle City Light a few thousand dollars to move the high voltage wires a few feet farther away from the house, in order to get the power hooked up.

The contractor installed our water and sewer lines up to the property line with the neighbors and then installed the retaining wall.

In a few years we expect the parking in our neighborhood will be in higher demand since there’s a large new development in the works nearby.  The little parking spot we squeezed in next to the house will be nice to have, and now it’s constructed!

Now that the corner trim is on the corten siding is completely done.  They also built the steps along one side of the house.

Lastly, we did some more electrical work, putting in switches and fixtures, and the contractors started on the final stairs.  Below left is looking up at the powder room door on level three.  Below right is looking down at the stair stringers from level three.

My recent today in pictures post referred to the sewer and water easement with our neighbors.  It’s more or less resolved now that we are throwing more money at the problem. 
Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary in the eyes of the bank, although they didn’t start until late August.  We’ll see if they can finish it this August. 
The complicating dependencies are that the stairs are needed to install the elevator, which is needed to move the appliances from the basement to the third floor, which is needed to finish the electrical work.  The smaller kitchen counter pieces also needs to come up the stairs and the largest one has to come in a window with a crane.  The plumber can’t finish his job until the sewer and water are hooked up.  Other large tasks are putting in the metal spiral stairs, the primary stair railings, the railings on the roof and the fence in the yard.

today in pictures

construction: month ten

At this point, we’re wondering how many more of these monthly posts I’ll be writing before we get to move in.  The original schedule put completion in May, which quickly became unlikely.   The next big date is the one year mark, in mid August, at which point the bank can start charging penalties.   It’s been a stressful time, since so much is out of our hands.  The contractor has drawn 90% of the construction money from the bank and they don’t get the final 10% until the house is officially complete, which is supposed to motivate them.  We hope it works. 

Based on every other project we’ve heard about, we expected some problems during the course of construction, buy yet the specific problems we’ve encountered are still somewhat surprising.  I guess that’s life.  The small size of the lot presented more complexity than anticipated.  Utilities have been a headache and though we’re happy with out site and our house, the calculation in favor of building on a vacant lot versus a starting with a tear-down house is less clear than it once seemed.

Our efforts this month were directed towards nagging the contractor, re-homing large rocks, getting much better at making up electrical outlets and wrapping up a signature campaign with the neighbors.  It took us two and half months to get notarized signatures from the owners of five house with which we’ll be sharing a sewer.  Now the paperwork, which just says that we’ll evenly split future maintenance on the shared portion of the side sewer, is waiting on a meeting with the contractor so that we can apply for the next sewer permit and walk the precious signatures over to King County Records. 

The big progress this month was on the siding and a few interior carpentry things.  The second siding material is corrugated corten steel.  It will rust to the color of the picture below on the right.



We’re really excited about this shelf that runs beside the staircase for a couple of levels. 


Most of the tile work was done last month, but the accent tile installation is new and I didn’t include a picture of the entryway tile in last month’s update.  They also installed some pocket doors and the rest of the kitchen cabinets. 



The house was also broken in to over lunch time on a Saturday.  A couple of guys were working and in the 45 minutes they were gone for lunch, someone who was creepily watching them, smashed open the door and stole some tools.   They got staple guns, but didn’t take the larger saws.

All of the rocks from the rockery are finally removed and we’ve had a second wave of craigslist folks come to pick them up.