In 2009, a small town in northern Utah, had a startling discovery about water. They were over tapped! The state requires a 3% buffer in the city water supply for fire hydrant emergency services use. They wondered, if they needed to put out a structure fire, would the fire hydrant provide necessary means to quench the fire. This problem was very serious and real possibility. They enacted city wide water conservation efforts. Signs were posted informing residents they were very sorry the grass was going to be brown this summer.
9 Years later, February 2018, city council meeting: The city council members voted to extended the, "Building Moratorium and Conditional Land Use Act". Whereas, land owners and developers, are not permitted to construct any structure requiring a water meter. This current vote is a five month extension, taking this story forward to mid June, 2018. The city council did seem very optimistic about drilling out the test well and getting infrastructure in place to connect the new water supply into the city mains. From what I understand, the council members would consider a limited number of building permits if the following conditions were met: The new well is dug and cased, the pump house structure completed with pumps installed, and an engineered plan to connect the new water into the city. If all of this can happen in the next 6-9 months, maybe, just maybe, the city would allow a few building permits. Also, considering the fact that it takes 5-6 months to construct and finish a new home. Ours may be slightly longer. The mayor of the city even mentioned my wife and I, being kids of native residents, and wanting to keep a tight family community. The mayor is also good friends with my fatter-in-law, and keeps him pretty well informed of developments.
Thats all the part that I can't do a damn thing about...
Here is what I am doing. Its hard for me to be stagnant so I keep doing what I can. I have finished my unprofessional drawings of the house, using very unsophisticated software on my computer. I have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 hours drawing floor plans, then redrawing, asking opinions, and redrawing again. The plans I came up with are suitable for our family and just large enough that we won't be tripping over each other. Currently we live in a 1400 square foot single level home, which consists of three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our three girls share a single room and bathroom. Mis Kay age 12, Syd age 9, and Avy age 7. We have one bunk bed for the older two and a toddler bed for the youngest. Her feet are going to hang off the end of the bed by mid year next. One of the bedrooms is the master bedroom and the other room is quite full of everything else. This room serves as the computer room/office, craft room, and catch all, because we have no where else to put stuff. This room has not quite reached "horder" status, but its getting close. At least there is a pathway from the door to the computer. Were pretty much at capacity in this house.
Last week I sent the house plans out to a professional drafter. My drawing are detailed enough that the drafter gave me a %30 discount on his usual price. The fee for drafting is $700. Drafting includes: five, full size 1/4" scale drawings, and one PDF to e-mail for bids. Additionally, there will need to be some engineering for the plans, that will cost and additional $650. I suppose its worth having the house engineered, we wouldn't want it to tip over. I haven't sold our current house, and incurring expenses on getting the new house going strains the pocket book slightly. Though we're working through it. The property we purchased to build our home on is 1.25 acre, and is currently home to a few of my bee hives and seven goats. The bees bring us honey and the goats do lawn mowing, its a pretty awesome.
I am a Journeyman Plumber, licensed in the state of Utah. I have 15 years experience with about every single aspect of home construction. I built the house our family currently lives in. As far as the new home construction goes, I will be doing an "Owner/Builder" permit. That means I will be the general contractor on my own house. This should save me about $20,000! I think the most exciting development is getting the house plans drawn up. I can't wait to share them with you. Also, having the actual construction drawings will give me an opportunity to get subcontractors together to bid the stuff I can't do on my own.
That seems like enough story for one night. Check out my wife's blog, 
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If you missed my previous post on this topic, click here.