We met our builder and his excavator today at lunch to place the driveway exactly. In the process, we discussed a few other little details that more or less amount to catching our builder up to some of the thinking behind some of the lot layout decisions we made with our architect.

When the survey got done and the house staked at first, the builder called us and told us they reversed (mirrored) the house plan so they could get a daylight basement due to the natural grade of the land. We didn't understand that at all, so we asked for clarification, and he said he thought it would add substantial value to our house. Well, our driveway entrance is at the east end of the front of the lot, so our garage opened east in our drawings, making the drive a straight shot with a single 90 degree turn into the garage. And we wanted to keep it that way.

The alternative was to either have the drive cross in front of the house, or behind it, but it would have added a lot of length and lotsa curves to it either way. We had our pastures laid out, ad it would have screwed that up as well. So we told him to do it like it was drawn.

Well, once they were out there today, they could see our line of thought quite clearly. The lot layout we originally planned for made good sense to the builder and his excavator, and they understood where we wanted our fences and so forth. And the natural grade was not so significant as to make the other choice obvious.

And the punch line is the driveway is probably getting graded as I post this, the building permits have been filed, septic permit is issued, and we should be excavating late this week. and the following week, something significant should happen almost every day. We're under way now.

a single comment

congrats! ahhhh the sight of virgin dirt being moved to make way for progress! a long haul to get to this point no doubt, but i'm convinced it was worth the wait.

can't wait to watch this one go up with you and amy......and don't let the builder change your mind and the design decisions we have made, ie. lot layout. you know better than anyone there was a reason for every decision!

again - congrats!

posted by architect jason @ 5/7/2003 5:47 PM CST