Board of Health Approval

Since my last post we've had a lot of progress. We closed on our construction loan, we've begun cutting and clearing some trees, received our zoning certificate, we applied for the building permit and we went before the Clermont County Board of Health to present our case for our rainwater catchment system. We had to assure the Board that our system would pose no public health risk, by explaining that there would be no cross connection between this system and the municipal supply which we will be using for drinking and potable water. The issue was a passage in the plumbing code indicating that two different water supplies can not serve the same structure, so technically we had to apply for a variance to that passage. The Board reluctantly approved the variance with some stipulations. Our washing machine can not have a hot water connection, and the house must be fitted with an RPZ backflow preventer that is tested annually. In addition, we will have to label all of our supply lines as either potable or non-potable. It's a milestone even if a conservative one. (During the meeting, they called for a motion to approve and it took forever for someone to second the motion. One gentleman finally seconded hesitantly and the motion carried.) It seemed like eternity and it surprisingly wasn't as gratifying as I had expected, but nonetheless, I sit typing this while enjoying a celebratory glass of wine.

We had a few clarifications to make on our permit drawings, which we made tonight while at the Health Dept Board meeting since it was in the same building. Hopefully this means we will have permit in hand by tomorrow or Friday. The building permit is a really funny story, but I hesitate to get into it here for fears that our pool of building inspectors and plan reviewers may somehow find their way to this site! So if you come across me in person or privately via email - ask me!

For the tree-clearing experience, I will have to say how impressed I am with my husband. Now I know that he grew up with a step-father who owned a saw mill and best friends who were in a logging family - so he had some experience or at least some knowledge about logging and tree-cutting, but he really impressed me with his knowledge and skill in putting these trees exactly where he wanted them to go. We cut about 10 trees that conflicted with the house placement or the solar access to the house. (don't' worry there's probably over 200 more trees on our lot that we didn't touch!) One of the larger trees was behind three other trees. The only option we had was to let it fall in the neighbor's yard or direct it carefully through the grove of three trees that we wanted to keep. Kenny notched and cut the unwanted tree in precisely the right place and manner so that it fell carefully between two of the three trees - leaving them completely intact and unharmed. I was actually really impressed. We have one more large tree to cut, but it is closer to one of our neighbors than the others, so we'll need to tie it off and pull it in the right direction. A few more hands and muscles will be needed, but the majority of the tree work is finished. I'll post some photos here again soon.

Kenny made calls to schedule our sewer connection contractor and excavator today. We should be able to start next week! It appears that we are going to miss the pre-increase pricing on some of our foundation materials, so we can chalk that up to our first budget buster - although it only amounts to a few hundred dollars, it's still the principle.

So anyway, that's the latest update, so I'll close now and finish my wine - content at least for the evening. Thanks for reading.