whether permitting..........

For this next post I planned on giving some background on our house design and how it came to be but i've decided to add in some updates as they happen in real time so you can live this blog in the present and not just the past.  So we are currently in the permitting phase of things which i had previously heard was a nightmare of a process.  The city of San Antonio is certainly doing their part not to dispell this notion and almost surely guaranteeing that I will jump at the chance of bringing this up in future conversations with friends and strangers alike.  If you ever have to go through this process you should make note to immediately erase from every part of your brain that has the slightest control of your memory anything with the word "tomorrow" that is uttered, spoken, written, emailed, messaged, hinted at, assured, promised, or even slightly alluded to.   NOTHING IS HAPPENING TOMORROW!  Not the phone call that was promised, not an update, not the inspection, not the review, and certainly not a decision in your favor because karma had been waiting to repay you for the time you turned in that five dollar bill at the rollerskating rink lost and found instead of just slipping it completely unnoticed into your empty pocket.  We applied for permits a few weeks ago and immediately ran into a problem.  Apparently I had not done a tree affidavit when I had part of the land cleared so the foundation guys could shoot some grade.  Even though I had called and talked to someone in their office and was told otherwise there was talk of fines and other repercussions.  I was then told I needed to document every tree on the property that had a trunk diameter of over 5 feet and what species of tree it was.  Luckily, one of favorite things to do is to hangout and "walk the land."  So below you can see the satellite image of some of my documentation.  I even numbered each tree with corresponding info just to make sure.  I think i ended up with 76 trees in all.  So a few days later the tree survey was approved.

So onto the actual building permits.  Mr. Tenorio, our contractor, had filed for the permits a few weeks back and didn't anticipate any issues following the tree debacle.  Well, score another one for the city.  They denied the permit saying they needed more info on the bedroom/hallway wing wall from the structural engineer.  They also misunderstood that the fence we had planned was not around the entire property and but only in the very front "courtyard" portion of the house.  So El, our architect and also Mr. Tenorio's son, coordinated with the structural engineer and spoke to the permit people about the fence misunderstanding.  Of course,  the city wanted a hand delivered copy of the engineering plan and not an emailed one.  So earlier in the week everything was delivered and on track and a call was suppose to come yesterday.  Call never came but this morning contact was made and they said they needed the actual survey with deed/recording info.  It just so happens that I was on the property yesterday meeting with the septic engineer and had them handy so I promptly sent them to Mr. Tenorio who then sent them to the city.  As of right now the permit people say that things should be all done this afternoon and the permits will be ready to pick up.  Bets anyone?  The important thing is that this has not rattled us and we knew coming into this that things rarely ever go smoothly, whether it's permitting, planning, financing, or better yet the actual building.