House Build - The Beginning
House Build - The Beginning - Planning & Permits
...and acting as your own general contractor
This is my story of the trials and tribulations of building a new home from start to finish, acting as a general contractor and doing as much work as possible to minimize costs while still creating a well built house. I have one rule, do it right, nothing "hokie". That means time, money and lots of research.
We found a property here in town that fit the bill.
I am an Engineer with experience building various things. I've always wanted to build a house, and now I have a chance.
The land loan was required to secure the property while the construction loan was needed to afford to build.
Note: Since I plan to do some of the work, the city allows you to perform work on your own house, regardless of if you are a licensed contractor.
The city required various review and types of permits.
The comment you will often here is "the city will always find something". And they sure will. One big issue they found that cost time and money was a requirement not only for a construction permit but also a grading permit. A grading permit has other items as you can see in the second screenshot. Each line item in the screenshots were separate reviewers at the city.
Some feedback for the city:
1. There needs to be a checklist for each discipline of what you're looking for, that's published to customers. Yes there are some documents/codes but items that you are looking for should be listed off. Without a clear list, it's only cause for delays for everyone.
2. Go digital now, it took over $2000 for all the large format printing that was required. Why?
3. Mylars (plastic paper). The drainage & grades reviewer was making edits to the signed off plans while in the mylar stage. They should have just been dropped off and checklist complete.
4. Stamps
4a. It was not clear (or documented that I could tell) the grading plan required stamps on every page. It caused a problem on the landscaping plan and traffic control plan. As I was told I did not need a stamp initially but was required later.
4b. On the combination building permit, it was not clear what disciplines needed stamps. Some added a stamp, some didn't. The city required the stamps to be on two sets at the end, causing a last minute scramble to get 3 stamps on both sets.
5. School fees. This again was not documented on a checklist and was not a small number. Yes they had it on a sign but how do I know if that applies to my project?
6. The fees. Why couldn't the fee schedule be shown earlier than at the very end. Mark it preliminary but at least it would help with expectations. Yes they were way more than expected.
...and acting as your own general contractor
This is my story of the trials and tribulations of building a new home from start to finish, acting as a general contractor and doing as much work as possible to minimize costs while still creating a well built house. I have one rule, do it right, nothing "hokie". That means time, money and lots of research.
Background
My wife and I decided we were ready to start looking for a new home here in San Diego. Unfortunately, existing properties for sale were either over priced, or required a ton of work to get them to what we would want. One option that we thought about for a long time was to build.We found a property here in town that fit the bill.
I am an Engineer with experience building various things. I've always wanted to build a house, and now I have a chance.
Loans
Various financing was required, including a land loan and construction loan.The land loan was required to secure the property while the construction loan was needed to afford to build.
Planning
Getting Permits
This was a huge issue. What I thought would be 4 months after initially submitting the plans to the city, turned into 11 months. Most of the delays were due to waiting in queue for either a review at the city or for the architect or engineer on the project to make their updates.Note: Since I plan to do some of the work, the city allows you to perform work on your own house, regardless of if you are a licensed contractor.
The city required various review and types of permits.
The comment you will often here is "the city will always find something". And they sure will. One big issue they found that cost time and money was a requirement not only for a construction permit but also a grading permit. A grading permit has other items as you can see in the second screenshot. Each line item in the screenshots were separate reviewers at the city.
Combination building permit sign offs
Grading permit sign offs
Fire sprinkler permit sign off (deferred from combo permit)
Some feedback for the city:
1. There needs to be a checklist for each discipline of what you're looking for, that's published to customers. Yes there are some documents/codes but items that you are looking for should be listed off. Without a clear list, it's only cause for delays for everyone.
2. Go digital now, it took over $2000 for all the large format printing that was required. Why?
3. Mylars (plastic paper). The drainage & grades reviewer was making edits to the signed off plans while in the mylar stage. They should have just been dropped off and checklist complete.
4. Stamps
4a. It was not clear (or documented that I could tell) the grading plan required stamps on every page. It caused a problem on the landscaping plan and traffic control plan. As I was told I did not need a stamp initially but was required later.
4b. On the combination building permit, it was not clear what disciplines needed stamps. Some added a stamp, some didn't. The city required the stamps to be on two sets at the end, causing a last minute scramble to get 3 stamps on both sets.
5. School fees. This again was not documented on a checklist and was not a small number. Yes they had it on a sign but how do I know if that applies to my project?
6. The fees. Why couldn't the fee schedule be shown earlier than at the very end. Mark it preliminary but at least it would help with expectations. Yes they were way more than expected.
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