This will be the last wordy post, I promise....a little context seems relevant to appreciate the present status, and this may be way more than anyone is interested in...some of this I'm recording for posterity!
If you know the project manager in me, it will come as no surprise I had an image of this process, based on that long arc of time I had in my mind, of how things would go/flow. Who knew pursuing a forever home would be the spiritual practice of a lifetime. From the very first spark of imagination about this, I have felt like there have been stones in the path laid down that I've attempted to follow. And much like when hiking in the wilderness, knowing where the trail is can matter and be the difference between an enjoyable experience of nature or a life threatening one, just as straying from the path can lead one into more arduous and thwarting challenges that aren't required - or are they, to learn what needs to be learned? 🤔
The path to now has been far from linear or predictable.
To recap, I imagined a process where, having gotten clarity about what I wanted to create, I would figure out where it could happen then set about to make it happen. 😂 I have been told repeatedly that I am doing things "out of sequence" which I get opportunities to realize routinely.
Initially I was aware my inner project manager (fueled by a pretty good dose of egoic energies!) was ready to roll..cue Jack Nicholson and "I'm Baaaack!" 💪 It didn't take long to realize that in the world of construction trades, I don't know the customs of their people, can't speak their language and, I'm female. Serious 3 strikes that make it WAY harder than it needs to be...getting to that realization was a process in itself. I have to say before I forget that I have been SO supported along the way by really knowledgeable, skillful and generous people. Here goes that story line and cast of characters.
In the early conversations with my Deltec project manager wherein I was trying to get as full a picture as possible of what would lay ahead if I chose this and went for it, I asked if anyone had built a Deltec anywhere in the area - low probability given it's more known on the east coast and it turned out the answer was yes - a home far more complex than mine (multiple floors, a garage and master suite addition, etc) was built out at the Sonoma Coast about an hour from me. I asked if he'd reach out to them and see if they were open to my coming out there and learning from their experience of getting one of these homes built in this County. He did, they were, and I went.
I came away from that interaction with two golden eggs (and, two more stones in the path!) - they used a builder who is local so there's someone in this County who knows this structure and wouldn't have the learning curve an otherwise competent local contractor would and, the architect they used to prepare the plans for the building permit. Both felt like gifts that spurred this little vision along so I reached out to the builder, Damon, immediately. He turns out to be a gem of a human being, raised on a Sikh commune in Mendocino County, grew up doing forestry, then wood work, carpentry, then full on contracting. He only takes one project at a time, and was not going to surcharge materials and welcomed collaborating with me in ways I could save on his efforts, a really good fit. Purest heart I've encountered in a long time and I felt like I won the lottery on general contractor/builder! Spent about a year and a half cultivating that relationship in preparation for the time when we could actually do something to move this forward.
I am fortunate to have a Geotechnical Engineer brother-in-law who is graciously leaning in to this project on the heels of his retirement. Good timing on my part! He was my early, and remains my consistent, counsel on what I need to do when - a sherpa in the unfamiliar territory of building. First things first, I got a Civil Engineer to create a topographical map, the key to the architect's ability to site the house and create a site map - foundational for everything. I've learned that these technical people, upon whom I am dependent, are masterful at saying what they will do and rarely committing to when they will do it. Oh, and I've learned a lot about how uncomfortable dependency is for me - not a news flash but a fresh reminder! 😒
So in 2022 the Civil did his thing, prepared the Topo map - which I thought would be done in about a month and it took 3, that graphic above is so apt! He then moved on to design the septic system. My brother in law did soil samples and provided his expert analyses, the County declared given the soil type a wet weather perc test was required so that put the entire process on hold until we had 20" of rain. The County declared perc test season open in Mid-January 2023 and the Civil carried on with that work so as to be able to finalize the system design and submit the septic permit application. That just got done this past week and I'm paying for expedited processing given the elongated timeline to get to this point.
Deltec structurally engineered the shell plans, ensured California's Title 24 requirements are met (affects window types, amount of glass allowable, insulation and fire protection required) and handed off stamped plans to the Architect who layered on the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing layers, along with everything else the County requires and submitted the package to the Permit and Resource Management Department affectionately referred to as PRMD. That happened on December 29, 2022. 😌
Here's an "out of sequence" impact...I signed a manufacture contract with Deltec in October 2022 to evade their annual price increases. At that time, we anticipated being able to put shovels in the ground in March - actually that has been the imagined target timeline all year. Given the range of things that did and didn't happen as imagined in 2022, we are a few months off. So once the permit application and plans were filed, I reached out to the builder, Damon, to see about a meeting to look at what needed to happen before shovels could go in the ground and clarify what I will be doing what he will, etc...and on January 3 he sent me an email telling me that he would not be able to build my house after all. His uncle fell down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night and was paralyzed from the waist down and Damon would be moving to Colorado to retrofit his uncle's home with ramps, elevators and wider doorways. Did. Not. See. That. Coming. 😱😬🤔
Yet again, grace on the path...I've had a couple of "wins" on the bureaucratic front. Was successful in navigating through PRMD to get to confirmation that this project is exempt from the usual requirement of a well yield test and that the groundwater availability is within approved limits and that will not be in dispute. Might not sound like much but in these parts, living in an agricultural zone amidst a drought - it was a HUGE hall pass. 🙌
Once Damon told me about his shift, I realized I had about 4 months to get a new team together and get a lot of things done I didn't previously imagine I'd need to be engaged with having Damon on board. I threw myself at the feet of the people I know in the trades in my community and was met with caring supportive counsel from several general contractors I know who are more retired than not (I learned they never really retire, they just migrate to doing their own projects vs for others..).
One of them was Rob, who when I called him even his voice was like a salve and he said "Taya, I'll do whatever I can to help you get this done." We met, I shared the house plans, and he suggested I consider being an owner/builder and we talked through the various routes I could take. One of the key factors in this entire undertaking is the assurance of liability insurance and/or indemnification for the property owners and me, and the arrangement of workman's compensation contributions required by the State of California. If Rob were my support system, I would have to take on those responsibilities and expenses. If I source an active General Contractor, while there's a 15% markup, I don't incur those costs...tradeoffs to weigh.
Rob was such a soft place to land in the thinking and redirecting I needed to do. That same week, I had dinner at a friend's who had invited a couple as well, and the wife could not make it. I share that only because the trio of us ended up in territories of conversation we might not have otherwise - namely, a function of the realization that the person who came to dinner is a general contractor, Casey. Once he shared that, it was unavoidable to discuss the house project and he was intrigued by it enough to want to meet and see the plans and talk about what the status and needs were and we did. Casey has become the General Contractor on the project for many of the reasons cited above - I'll overview the whole team in another post. I hope you can see through this narrative the many ways stones have appeared on the path as I have continued forward, uncertain of where I might need to tread next but consistently feeling supported along the way.
So NOT a linear path! So cool to flow with it, and experience the relentless opportunities to ask, when an unexpected moment happens, and answer the question "is this something to push on or to breathe into?" moment by moment...
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