First step - Move ice house

So today the 22nd of May was the first actual working day of the renovation. The first step was to move the ice house off its concrete blocks and onto the driveway so a new foundation that will put it at the same level as the house and breezeway.

The workers arrived just before 8am and were done by 12:30pm. Amazing but that is what professional house movers are paid big bucks for. They used 4 very large jacks and then rolled the ice house sideways on several steel beams with rollers inset. Then the ice house was lowered on to 6 stacks of wood that keep it off the driveway for rain purposes and keep it level. Could not do that in any state that has earthquakes, but here in South Jersey, that is not a worry.

One extra task was taking down a brick chimney that had been put in sometime in the 1930's and used for a pot belly stove. The chimney was already crumbling but I might find a use for the old bricks.

Construction permit taped into window!

It has to be posted on site for the duration of the construction, so I taped it into a window that should not be affected by the construction. So this is pictures of where we are starting.

No sooner did I post then..

I received a call from the Borough Hall that my permits were ready to pick up once a check in the amount of $3453 is provided. This is a banner day!

Still waiting for permits

No changes to report. Just waiting on permits from Newfield so we can start.

Big Day -- Handed in the permit applications

So, today the permit applications were handed in to Newfield Borough. The inspector immediately noticed that he also needed the "cubes", so I called the architect and that information is on the way. Nice feeling. I am beginning to see that this may actually get started.

If it goes as the building inspector thinks -- since he says "they" are not busy, I may have permits in hand next Tuesday. Of course, I am not that optimistic. The various ones are put out to "subs" because the inspector himself is not versed in all the categories, so each has to be looked over and okayed by a different person.

tales of the address problem

So, sometime after I bought the house, for 9-1-1 call purposes, the address was changed from 225 to 227. This let my cousin's house be 225 instead of 225A. Seems a simple change right. Well, the county records and deeds and plots have never been updated. That includes all the old plans for septic systems and gas lines and water lines.

When the soils engineer showed up for the septic testing, he found that the gas company had flagged the wrong property. Fortunately, I knew that where the backhoe was going, there never had been a gas or water line, so we could go ahead with the testing.

I got a copy of the septic system design yesterday that was going in for the county permit and guess what -- it had the wrong address! Right block and lot number but wrong address. Sigh. I called as I spotted it. I hope this won't hold up the permitting process as I just wrote my first check to the general contractor today.

Soil test revealed good gravel bed

So the new septic system can go where I hoped. The field drains will go in approximately where the shed shows in the photo but they are take up a larger area. This will protect trees and leave room for the sweeping driveway. The other good news is that the field drains will be downhill from the septic tank so there is no need for an additional pump or raised field drains. Whew.