It’s Alive!
Well it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. The whole intention of the site was wiped out when I found out the cottage I planned to build was too small according to the municipality (See – Building a Cottage: Shattered Dreams). The municipality rejected my minor variance application so I was stuck with building drawings and contract I couldn’t use.
I had given up entirely. I planned on selling the land and moving to New Brunswick to see what life was like on the east coast. Then the weather started to get nice in May and I called up the building contractor to see if there was anything we could do which would meet the minimum requirements of 800sqft and fit my budget. I suggested a two level model that was 842sqft and the quote I got back was $10,000 less then the old smaller cottage! How that worked out I have no idea. Regardless between the lower price and our savings over the past year it looked like this was doable again!
I contacted contractors to clear the lot, grade the land and put in a driveway, install a septic system, pour a foundation, and frame the building. I figured that I would have a finished building on the outside and bare studs on the inside for now given our budget.
The last hurdle was to have the Building Officer at the municipality review the new drafted plan and see if there were any problems, which of course there was. A big one. The minimum size for a multilevel building is not 800sqft it’s 1000sqft! So here I am thinking I’m back at square one again. I contacted the builder, he made a few adjustments and for a very low price our building was now 1050sqft. I quickly got a pre approval from the building officer and we are on our way!
This past Tuesday I received my entrance permit which approves the location of the planned driveway. Now I have to wait until the full building drawings are complete and I can approach the municipality for building permits. I expect to have everything by the end of July and hope to break ground in August. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
BTW thanks to everyone that has continued to visit the site and add their comments. It’s been great to see there is a following out there. Posts won’t be as frequent as my time has been taken up by my son whom we had in January, but I’ll do my best to keep you updated.
Thanks again.
Great to hear from you again. I’ve been wondering what is happening around here …
it nice to have this kind of web site it learns me a lot.
you have to think deeply to achieve what you have done in the long run.
i will always visit this site for you my friend.
sometimes its better to search new things new friends and new environments.
Thats a good news..
I like this blog and will keep visiting. But dont stop posting
hey if this works out maybe ill build my own cottage. Is it a lot cheaper than just buying one?
Where are you building the cottage? Sounds like a cool project!
We have a gottage in lexington Michigan and I love it!!!
Noting better than going up north
great post i really like that…
thanks for the information…
[...] It’s Alive! [...]
Keep posting regularly. It’s been good to see how you’re getting on.
John
One can see the spirit in this post as you saw that your desire could once again be pursued. It is nice to see when someone has a setback, and then goes around it in some fashion and ends up quite satisfied that they did not stop at the setback.
You guys can’t spell much
I also love to build cottage in village.
There are nice articles in this site about cottage building.