We finally got the septic permit this morning! Good news is that we can build up to 4 bedrooms. The bad news is that we forgot to site the well on the site plan…oops. Fortunately, the location we’re planning on for the well is safely clear of the septic field, so it’s not a problem. This just means that the septic has to be installed prior to the well, which is fine as these 2 things can happen independently of the rest of the work.

After our initial permit application was not approved, we enlisted Kirk Hall of Riverbend soil consulting to do a site plan for the septic system. Kirk did the previous soil work, so was familiar with the lots. He’s come back with a colorful picture that should result in a permit.

The top right shows the primary drain field and the “repair” drain field. To receive a permit, there needs to be space for both a primary field and a secondary field in case something goes wrong with the first one. In the picture, the house is labeled in green, and the drain fields are the blue parallel lines to the right.

If you’re curious, for a 4 bedroom permit, Gilmer County requires a 1000 gallon septic tank, 440′ of drain line, and a 1320 square foot drain field. Then you need to show the ability to do that twice while still not breaking any rules. This includes setbacks from currently undeveloped property lines, culverts, rivers, wells, and streams.

This permit is the most difficult to get, so once it’s in hand, we should really get rolling!

 

Very little progress to report. In 3 weeks, we’ve applied for the septic permit, ordered a site survey, found a really big tree, and fixed a problem with the title.

We applied for the septic permit 2 weeks ago, and that’s resulted in having to have a full site plan done. It didn’t help that we sent a plan with 5 bedrooms to the county instead of 4. The original plan for the basement looked like this (original being the stock plan we started with), with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a den.

As an aside, I don’t understand why that word (“den”) still exists a name for a room. I’ll explore that later, but for now, you just need to know that I eliminated the “den” and a bedroom so now we have the aptly named “game room”. Yes, it will house games. Fun ones like Jumbo Jenga, a pool table, and even a TV to watch…games.

 

 

 

 

Quotes to finish the basement were very high, so I think this may be something I tackle. The extra bedroom and space would significantly increase resale (about 15%), but would have an even large impact on rental rates. There are not a ton of 4 bedroom houses available to rent in the area, and they rent for $250+ a night compared to the $150-$175 for 2-3 bedrooms. Over 150 nights a year, that’s a huge difference.

As of now, I’m planning to use the same tongue and groove from upstairs for the basement was and doing a stained concrete floor for the game room with carpet in the bedroom. This would be the only carpet in the house, so maybe I’ll match the upstairs wood. If you doubt the stained concrete:

So the first one is a barn, but it proves how awesome the concrete looks with wood. The second one is a kitchen. For the northerners, I’ll remind you that it doesn’t get quite as cold down here, and the concrete will be nice and cool in the summer.

With that sidebar taken care of, I have to introduce you to the largest tree in River Escape.

I also stood next to it and is it wider than my arm is long, so we’re thinking it’s about 40″ across. If it were straight, it would be worth some $$, but it’s a scoliosis tree, so it’s a bit wavy. The surprising thing about this tree is that we’ve walked by it about 10 times before and had never noticed it.

 

This is the view from the driveway, with the giant tree (this tree needs a name…) on the right. It’s far enough away that it looks the same size as all of the normal trees, but it’s actually about 2x as big. I want this tree to stay, but if they need to take it out for the septic dig, we will find a way to make use of it in the house.

Finally, we settled an issue with the title. When we received the title paperwork a couple of weeks ago, there was a lien listed, showing that the lot was being used as collateral for money that was owed to the developer. I dug through all of our prior paperwork and there was nothing about this. After a few conversations with the lawyer (and waiting while the lawyer was on vacation, then off for the 4th of July), they figured out that the lien was from another tract, and the paragraph about it had pulled in from another document. I won’t admonish them for poor Microsoft Word hygiene, but it was a pretty big mistake. They sent an addendum this morning that deleted that paragraph, so it’s behind us now. Thus, my PSA today is to read every legal document because even your lawyer won’t, and keep your eyes open for giant trees right in front of your eyes!