Progress... meeting with Nick on the property.

We still haven't gotten the building permit from the city of Corpus Christi yet.  Nick thinks it will be in hand next week.

Yesterday (the 27th) we met Nick on the property to go over the house placement.  He came with little markers -- you can see Alese holding them -- but didn't need them because our stakes were in place.  (See one just to the right of Alese.)

He will need a surveyor to come and give him an elevation above sea level, and he will scrape the vegetation off the area where the house will be.  Then we'll look at the topography.  We know we'll need some sand, but until we get the elevation we are all guessing.  We do have a topo survey that was done right after we bought the property, but then we didn't have the house designed.  Goal is to have the foundation sit 11 feet above sea level.

Nick expects to have his foundation folks available for the next couple of weeks, so that's our target.  It would be great to have the foundation in by mid-April.

It's official -- formal approval of the plans by the HOA

Here it is, the official approval from the ACC of our plans.  Now, we just need the folks in the Corpus Christi Building Department to give Nick the building permit.

Weekend activity

Yesterday (Saturday) we spent the morning at the property laying out the location of the house, so when we meet with Nick we won't be guessing.  We did lay out the outline with some stakes, but forgot to take photos.  There are stakes with orange paint at the corners of the house.  You'll have to trust me.

Progress, but nothing to see... yet.

We haven't broken ground yet.

Had a great meeting with Nick yesterday, and he's waiting for approval of the building permit.  He submitted it a week or two ago, but submitting and getting approval doesn't happen simultaneously. Hopefully though, Corpus is not as slow as Austin.  He expects the permit to be approved this week and then to be breaking ground within the next 2 weeks.  

We needed to give him a list of the windows we wanted to open as he will be ordering the windows next week.

None of the windows on the first floor will open.  That gives us a more secure structure.   Talking with the contractor who provides the security systems he said the impact resistant windows we're putting in can't be broken by a hammer.  "You need a fork lift" was his quote.

Our next major act will be go to the lot with Nick and place the house on the lot.  Yes, we have it on the plan, but he wants us to be sure that's right.  Then he'll scrape the location and then the foundation will go in.

He is very much about visualizing things -- seeing them in 3 dimensions rather than basing everything on the 2D plans.  We like this, after having the experience when working at the NETWORK and designing the new building -- every decision was made looking at the blueprints. (You know the technology has changed and they aren't blue any more.)

Construction Loan Papers SIGNED!

Monday morning at 8 am we were in Port A at the Title Company Office to sign the papers for the construction loan.  Now we will be able to report on the actual construction!

Exciting news!

I don't think I can tell you yet.

Tomorrow, we'll have big news.

Check back later this week.