Month: October 2024

When we started this process of building a house, a friend at work who had gone through the process warned me that there would be an endless stream of little decisions. Well, today we spent four hours with the architect making lots of little (preliminary) decisions. But before going into any details, let me update you on where we stand.

We are currently working on two broad activities. The first activity is preparing to get approval from the Concord Natural Resources Commission. This entails nailing down the exterior footprint, decisions about the septic system, details about which trees need to be removed, and proposed mitigation plans for removing those trees and increasing the footprint of the house. We are unlikely to make the end of October date to submit our proposal, so we are working towards the November 20th submission date, which would mean that our first hearing would happen on December 11th. A second hearing will also be required.

In addition to the Natural Resource Commission, as of today, we decided to seek a zoning exemption. Specifically, we want permission to raise the peak of the house 2 feet past the 35′ limit (measured from the lowest corner of the basement). This will allow us to avoid steeply sloping sides on the second floor (although there will still be some slope). Since we are going through the special permit process, we might as well also ask to install the breezeway now instead of waiting 5 years. I do not know the dates for this process, but we will figure it out. Since the zoning exemptions do not really impact what the Natural Resource Commission cares about, we should not need to go back and forth between the two committees if one asks for changes.

The second broad activity we are working on is preparing a packet to give to contractors to get pricing and availability information. The architect has assembled a list of five builders whom we will initially approach. The goal is to get them a plan for the proposed house with as much detail as possible, so they can come up with reasonably accurate pricing proposals. It is this need to work out as much of the proposal as possible that led to today’s discussions.

Our architect had prepared a detailed list of questions and discussion points, and the three of us sat down at the dining room table and worked through the list. This included details like roofing, siding, windows, doors, flooring, interior and exterior trim, fixtures (kitchen, bathroom, shower), counter tops, initial lighting plans, deck material, water filters, etc.

With any luck, we will avoid having to custom order things like non-standard window sizes or Italian counter tops. Meanwhile, I am working out proposed locations for Ethernet and phone connections (we will not have any WiFi in the main house). We still need to meet with an MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) person to work out such details as the heating system. We have someone in mind, but have not hooked up with him yet. We also need to figure out placement for the exterior infrastructure – condenser units and the back-up generator and its propane tank.

A quick status update. This month (October) is focused on preparing for getting approval from the Concord Natural Resources Commission. Approval is required because the house is within 100′ of the wetlands. In advance of the meeting, we are looking into moving the septic system (test holes all look good) and mitigating the removal of trees that will be impact by the build, by proposing new plantings.

At the same time we are getting a design ready to discuss with possible builders. Hopefully, we will have those discussions within a month and have a builder selected before the end of the year.

In the meantime, look, windows! This is a rendering of the river-facing side of the house with possible window locations. I have posted a series of architectural summary drawings here: Sudbury River House.

It has been a little while since my last house post, but things have not been idle. Most of the work right now is being done by the site engineering firm.

First, the engineering firm took the proposed house placement and measured the elevation. This impacts how tall the house can be, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, we are forced to reduce the height of the roof by a few feet to meet town building heights limits. This has forced us to change the second floor a little to have some sloping walls. You can see the details at the end of this story page.

Mostly, however, we are waiting for the engineering firm to propose a new location for the septic system. This involves drilling a few test holes and doing a perc test to check for suitability. There is an existing septic system, and we can use that, but it is actually in the wetlands zone (grandfathered location) and we believe that moving it out of the wetlands will make the Natural Resources Commission more likely to approve the rest of our plans.

One of the problems with the new house is the need to remove some trees. Four large trees (yellow) definitely have to come down since they otherwise would be inside the new house. Three more trees may need to be removed since their roots will be disturbed. When removing trees, the Natural Resources Commission is likely to demand offsetting plantings. Because of this, we are also starting to discuss what additional planting we will be proposing (nothing that blocks the view, however).

We were just out to visit the property again and noticed that Dig Safe has come by and marked where the town water line runs. I also believe I saw some flagging near the road marking the property line. So progress is being made, slowly.

Here is a picture of Daphne scouting out a route to reach the river. We really want to be able to launch a boat from our own property, but there is a lot of vegetation between the house and the river, and a lot of muddy ground as well. The river level also changes a lot during the year. But we are legally allowed to have an unimproved dirt path through the wetlands, so we have been starting to plan for this.

Finally, I have added some more more photographs to my On the Sudbury River gallery.