The First Signs of Construction on Our Oregon Home

After months of planning, we’re finally starting to see things happen on the site. We were getting a little impatient, so in February we decided to get some of the trees that were in the way removed. Since then we’ve been going back and fourth with different contractors on mitigation of the asbestos.

Waiting on Asbestos Bid

We finally heard back from the first company we had contacted and they gave a second bid using results from a second test that was done, and it was almost $5,000 less than the first bid. However, we had one more company come out and look at the roof with the hope that they are able to do it for even less, but their plan needs to be approved by the local air quality agency first.

I’m quickly learning that this whole removal of asbestos is somewhat of a crock. Seems like each contractor has a different idea of what can be done. If we would have went with the first bid we would have really been overpaying for the service. I just want it gone and for a cheap as we can do it. I’m not sure if it’s the government making money on these regulations or the individual companies, but it seems like there is a tone of money that can be made. Lesson here is to always get multiple bids and ask different contractors what they think.

Application for Demolition and Construction Permits

In the mean time everything else has been continuing to move forward. Last week I got a call from the builder that the drafter had completed the drawings and they were getting ready to submit construction permits this week. This is two weeks earlier than expected. Which is great, other than the fact we are still trying to figure things out with the demolition and had not gotten the demolition permit yet.

With how the city works if you’re doing a demolition before building, you can get credits on the system development costs, but in order to do that we needed the demolition permit before submitting the application for the construction permit. I quickly emailed our excavation contractor and he was able to go to the city the next day and get the demolition permit. Yay!!!

Breaking Ground on Our New Oregon Home

I received a copy of the demolition permit and sent it over to our builder and they submitted the application for construction yesterday! Also, yesterday we officially started moving some dirt, not a lot, just making a hole to get a hose bib on the water meter and disconnecting the water to the house, as they will need water for the demolition.

I contacted the water company this morning and they are planning on going to the site tomorrow to turn the meter back on (The last time there was water service to the house was in 2016)

The bank is just waiting on the final bid for mitigation of the asbestos, but other than that everything with financing seems to be in place.

Updated Schedule and Things to Do

So, currently we have the demolition permit, the application for construction permit has been submitted, temporary hose bib installed on the water meter and water service is scheduled to start. We are just waiting for the final number on removal of the asbestos, and then we can finalize financing. A fence will be installed in the next couple of days, water will be turned on and then hopefully by the end of this week, demolition should be started!

It’s been a lot of planning the past couple months, but it finally feels like things are starting to happen and it’s happening ahead of schedule. I was expecting delays as we went through this process, but I’m glad some things are happening faster than we originally planned!