I am over the moon! Jeff and I went away for 10 days for our honeymoon and we received the nicest surprise upon our return. We decided to drive past the land where we are so anxiously waiting to have our house built. Surprise! Four earthmovers and lots of changes. The house that was on the property was gone, except for the staircase. The last of the tree roots were in a pile and a new refuse bin was being dragged up to the middle of the site.
This, of course, is just the beginning. Once the earth has been properly leveled, retaining walls and drains need to be added. Luckily, the snow has pretty much melted away so the earth should not be as frozen. We have had a week of warm spring weather which is helping out tremendously.
The City of Pittsburgh Zoning board is still asking for details about our landscaping? I didn't realize Martha Stewart would be watching over us. They are also wondering about our "intended use" of the rooftop deck. Vegas style club was our first thought.... Sheesh!
At any rate, we still need to finalize the spec sheet and sign out loan so there are many more items to take care of prior to getting too excited. But for now, Hallelujah!
There was action all over the James Street lots for a couple weeks. Earth movers, garbage bins, tons of concrete, and then....nothing. Here we are at a stand still waiting on, guess who? The City of Pittsburgh. Before the footer can be poured, a friendly city employee must come by to give the go ahead. When will this happen? When the friendly city employee feels like coming. Considering the amount of houses being built
in the city at this time...in come the cricket chirps...you would think they would be able to get over to the site in a reasonable amount of time. I don't know, 48 or 72 hours? Well here we are at week two waiting again. There were a total of 3774 building permits issued in 2008 compared to Charlotte (a comparable city) which had 12,236 per PittsburghToday.org. I have a sneaking feeling that the 2009 figures won't be much, if at all, higher. One would think the City would be falling over themselves to secure new city residents and more TAX DOLLARS! But I digress. Patience is a virtue and a roof- top deck is sublime. Only 9 more months to go...City of Pittsburgh - Don't make a liar out of me!
