I spent hours and hours on the website and I know it saved me many thousands of dollars and just as many headaches. I'm extremely proud of my house and have already been asked to put it in a home show. I estimate that I have amassed at least $175,000 equity for my efforts. Kris D. in Chillicothe MO

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We have our building permit!

Posted to mike-and-tori-darnley by Victorie in Rainbow, CA on 6/2/2008 2:17:09 PM

We got our building permit last Friday! I had an appointment and it still took 3 hours at the counter before we got our permit.

I kept a notebook with every important piece of  info that the county has given me in the past year (original submission date 6/13/07). I knew that if it was not in there, I did not have it. At one point during the review, I was missing a fire mitigation form. I called the fire dept and they still had the original! They were able to fax it to the building dept, they said that they should not accept a faxed copy, but after convincing, they took it. We paid $5500 for the remaining fees and got our permit. We also applied for temp power ($107). Total for permits and fees we paid $27,053.00! That is not including the $17,476.00 for the 1" water meter.

Next step is moving our 43' 5th wheel and getting the septic in.

Brett's Forum Posts: 2 Journal Entries: 11 Interview Answers: 74 Average Forum Rating: 4.00 Send Private Message Randomly Selected Image 6/2/2008

$27,000 for the permits?!?!?  Not including the meter?  We are at about $7,500 including the meter and all hookups, fees, permits, etc...

Victorie's Forum Posts: 3 Journal Entries: 5 Interview Answers: 64 Average Forum Rating: 3.00 Send Private Message My Construction Website Randomly Selected Image 6/2/2008

I guess that's the premium we pay for living in sunny san diego...Just our Transportation Impact Fee (TIF, set price based on region of county) and Park fees (priced per sq ft) came to over $17K! And the $17K for water meter is pretty outrageous too but drilling a well at this point seems like a huge gamble since drilling likely would cost equal to a water meter without the guarantee of hitting water. We're looking forward to getting past these "set" fees and putting our "owner builder" skills to work!!

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Yipee! A septic permit!

Posted to mike-and-tori-darnley by Victorie in Rainbow, CA on 5/21/2008 11:39:29 AM

We got our septic permit yesterday!

Over the past few months we have gotten several bids for our septic system. The price range was huge! We have some people come out and not even want to give us a bid because of our slope and all of the brush. So after talking to our consultants at NOBS and a few other graders we decided to grade the benches for the leach lines and get the permit then get bids on the actual system. We were getting to the point of over planning and talking ourselves into inaction. So after a good push from Pat, we said it was time.

Pat and Steve at NOBS gave us a number of a grader who came up to our lot. He said that things were a little slow for him and that he would lend us one of his guys for an hourly rate just to keep his guy busy,  and we would rent the tractor (we needed a smaller dozer than what the grader had). So Mike went to the Cat rental and rented a D5. (He gets a boost of testosterone every time he talks about "dozers") We had to have a trucking guy bring the tractor to the property because a low bed tractor would not make it up our road.

We got the dozer on Friday and we were so excited! (We also called and got an inspection set for Monday) We went up and took pictures. Dylan, our daughter, thought it was soo cool. That night Mike and I were so nervous, we hardly slept. We started Saturday morning and finished the benches Sunday afternoon.

Pat, Steve, Chuck (the grader), Mike and I were there for the inspection. The last time that the inspector was our at our property he told us that if we mess up the septic benches we will need to turn our 9 acres into "a park" because we won't be able to build on it. So needless to say, wee needed all the help we could get. The inspector was very through. He had several devices and hand tools to be sure that the benches were level. So he passed us. We all toasted with glasses of water! I told the inspector that I would come down the next day to pay the fee and get the permit around 3pm.

So, yesterday I got to DEH at 3 pm to be told that they are only open from 8-12 during the week and that no one was there to help me. I was so upset! I was not leaving without a permit!! So I had the ladies call the inspector that I talked to yesterday. He was still there and came down right a way. He apologized and got all the paper work set. I paid the permit fee ($342.00). I was surprised that the permit was not more colorful or on special paper, just a regular paper that says "Septic Permit".

Next is the water department signature (and a $17,000.00 fee for a 1" meter) then we can get our building permit! The is in the plans for next week.

I'll post pictures soon, we took lots of them!!!

Fire Dept Review & Septic Issues

Posted to mike-and-tori-darnley by Victorie in Rainbow, CA on 1/15/2008 2:19:33 PM

We took the corrected plans to the fire department last week. We were planning on paying fire mitigation fees and leaving the plans for a few days. We found out that you pay the fire department a "review fee" and the county the mitigation fees. The fire review fee was $203.74. Then when we have a fire sprinkler design another fee of around $100 is due. The fire department said that they would need 2 weeks for review. The fire department said that they will sign the "fire mitigation form" then we take it to the county to pay the fees, although the county said (I think)that the fee is paid to the fire department... So we will see who is right. 

We have a steep slope and will have a terraced 6 line leach feild. We came prepared, with all of the plot maps, septic approval, perk tests ect... and met the trench man at the lot. He obviously had $$ in his eyes when he drove up to the land. He said that $50,000 would not be enough to get our septic system in! Crazy! We have 2 of the 6 benches graded and just need to be leveled out. We left the lot feeling very depressed. We called our consultant and got a pep talk, and some other contacts for tractor work!.

Plan is to get the plans back from fire dept next week. Then we should just be waiting on the water to be run so we can get the water dept to sign of, get the benches graded and inspected and then we can get out permit! Hopefully we can start building by March/April!

I'll post again soon!

Back for corrections

Posted to mike-and-tori-darnley by Victorie in Rainbow, CA on 1/8/2008 2:25:02 PM

Our plans went back to the county on 11-19-07 with all completed corrections. We picked them up yesterday from the county (not bad for San Diego). We had a few minor corrections that were called out. We plan to submit the plans to the fire department tomorrow. Be sure to check with your fire department some want a set of plans to keep. Fallbrook does not want a set to keep. We will be paying the "Fire Mitigation Fees" tomorrow. For our area mitigation fees are $0.46 per square foot of livable space + garage square footage. They said that the turnaround time is 1-2 days. They need to sign off on the "red marked" set of plans.

Since we are doing minimal grading and doing a stepped foundation, during our initial site inspection the inspector Tim said that we don't need a grading permit, but do need a compaction report. Well yesterday I questioned why this was, and after calling the inspector, decided that we can get the compaction report during footing/foundation inspection and don't need it to get the permit.

We are still waiting for water. The developer is really draging his feet. We should have water in the next 2 months. To get the water department to sign the "agency clearance form" you have to have water access and pay the meter fee. For Rainbow it is $17,000.00! They said that I could pay the fee first before water is in...We decided that it would be better to be sure that water is in before paying the fee just in case they developer skips town!. We also had a drilling company come up to our land to see if a well was an option. our elevation is 1520 ft. He estimated that we would have a 50% chance of hitting water. Estimated the costs at around 20K for drilling that we would be responsible for if we got water or not. We decided it was not worth the gamble. We wrote a firm letter to the developer. Hopefully he will listen up. Other people are talking about litigation. We really don't want to go there!.

Environmental health gave us a "conditional approval" for septic. They want us to do the grading of the terraces and have them inspected before they will give us a permit (The permit fee is $340.00). I thought this was a little backward...but they assured me this is what they wanted. I plan on talking the the DEH inspector again before we put tractor to dirt.

We are still working with our consultants at NOBS Pat and Steve. If anyone is in the area... They are great guys to turn to. (951)304-7777. They are helping to keep us on track, give advice and they have great contacts. We interviewed some of their competition and found that one was way to commercial, cost twice as much also they did so much of it for you, it almost seemed that they were the GC without the liability. We also interviewed some GC's that did some consulting on the side. They wanted about the same amount that NOBS did, but they were hard to get in touch with, did not return phone calls... flaked on stuff. What made our decision for us after talking with many different companies, NOBS was smaller, less commercial and our personalities clicked. We have found that personality is SO important. They are willing to listen to our sometimes stupid questions and give a answers (Sometimes 2 and 3 times). We admit that we have little experience the area of construction, but we are willing to learn and the right person will guide and teach you.

plan to the county

Posted to mike-and-tori-darnley by Victorie in Rainbow, CA on 10/9/2007 10:28:39 AM

first entry. We bought our land 3 years ago and are in the precess of pulling permeits for a 3044 sqft home in Rainbow CA. We have looked into consulting services and gen contractors and are going to do it on our own! We bought this book a few years ago and have the dvd's and think that this is the best owner-builder resource out there.

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