The Permit…

Getting the building permit approved by the City of Minnetonka and having it in hand brings forth a whole variety of feelings. We are very happy to get started with the building process but a little anxious about what lies ahead. The process for getting a permit has been frustrating…primarily because the City is not good at communicating with applicants. The plan was submitted on May 1st…approved by the zoning department June 1st…made available for “pick up” at the city desk June 12th.

Mike Kloti’s house plans, the grading and erosion plan, and the survey have all been checked and approved. The process forward should work something like this..

• Demolition (already started) will go on through the end of this week.
• Excavation for the basement guest room, breezeway, and garage footings will start early next week.
• The footings and block work should come one week behind the excavation.
• If everything works as planned framing could start the week of July 27th.

 

The Silt Fence…

The Natural Resources folks at the City of Minnetonka have finally approved the grading, erosion control, and silt fencing plan. The fence was installed yesterday. The protection around the trees we are “saving” goes in today. The city will (hopefully) inspect the fencing and then will move on to the rest of the building permit process (zoning and plan checking).

 

A panoramic view of the front showing the silt fence and the “abandoned” gas connection…

 

The silt fence making it’s way into our neighbors yard and around the back…

The protection around the trees…

Where have we been…

The last month and a half has been filled with a bit of waiting and frustration. Our financing arrangement included an eleventh hour, unexpected, and un-predicted “re-grouping” on the part of the bank that cost us about one month. I guess that we should be happy that our financial institutions are subjecting the housing market to an increased level of scrutiny. All the necessary details are in place and we now await final approval from the City of Minnetonka…

And that's where we are now…waiting again…

The plans were delivered to the city a little more than three weeks ago. We expected approval in 14 days but the Natural Resources folks (who are in charge of the grading, erosion, and silt fencing plan) asked us to “tweak” our plans considerably before allowing the permit to advance to the zoning and plan checking phase. We changed the back yard grading significantly to accommodate the reduced impact that the city desires. The most obvious change has a set of stairs ascending up from the basement walkout into the backyard. This will allow us to move far less dirt as we re-grade the backyard as the project nears completion. This and other changes to the dirt plan will allow us to leave almost all of the “woods” behind the house un-touched. The silt fence will now encompass a much smaller area out back. Along the East side of the property our neighbors have agreed to allow the fence to be placed on their property vastly reducing the amount of vegetation (Trees and bushes) that will be removed (Thanks Steinhausers!).

All things considered the waiting…while frustrating…will probably ensure a sound footing and a better plan.