A year before we started, we had a lot survey done, and a few months later, we had the lot scraped of the blackberry/scotch broom jungle (after a hilarious attempt to cut and haul it ourselves, by the pickup truck load, to the green dump site.) Four huge truckloads loaded by an excavator and hauled away, plus dumping fees, and our lot was bare, except for a holly tree, a small fir, and six small arbutus trees (which don’t take well to transplanting.)
Now we could see the topography, and confirm the site plan.
Before starting construction, we bought “course of construction” insurance for the full, assumed value of the finished construction. This protects us from trespassers wandering uninvited and hurting themselves, or for fire or vandalism, but it is not intended to protect us from subtrades’ worksite accidents. All subtrades must provide us with proof of their Worksafe BC insurance coverage. We pay that coverage for our framing crew, at a rate of about 4% of their hourly labour rate.
For our building permit, we had to complete the requisite forms, available online from the regional district. A $300 application fee, three complete sets of our plans and one of the site plan, then some footwork, and five weeks and $3625 later, we could pick up our permit. The footwork:
1. As our septic field was on a slope greater than 15%, we had to hire an engineer to design it, and submit the design.
2. An owner-builder must register with the Homeowners’ Protection Office, and, for a $425 fee, and after about 10 working days, they will issue a certificate to say you’re registered. A licensed builder can apply and receive approval online in a day, but owner/builders cannot, for some reason. We have to undertake to live in the house for a year after occupancy permit, and not sell it (to protect against serial speculation, I guess.) We must undertake to inform the HPO about who our subtrades were.
3. An engineer had to “mark” our plans, or submit a whole set of his own structural plans for our house.
4. The architect had to complete a B1B2 declaration, to verify the spray foam insulation was to code.
5. The regional district required a land title search to determine that we were the owners of the lot. Interestingly, they charged us a fee for this, even though they had the information in their own tax department. (Clearly not the same as the building department, they might have had to open a different computer file.)
6. We might have to hire an engineer for a geotechnical report, even though we had one included with the original subdivision development permit, and the regional district had been doing geotechnical studies of the subdivision in recent years, regarding slope and drainage. The inspectors made a site visit and determined that a geotechnical report would not be required after all.
7. There was a drainage ditch covenant on our title. We had to locate and provide that for the regional district.
We have yet to apply for a second building permit for the studio building. I didn’t see that coming. So now we have to badger the engineer to draw up these plans for a concrete cube with a garden on top. Nothing’s easy, nothing’s free: that’s my mantra, but we can overcome! Well, the pirate plank was free, thanks be to its witty previous owner.
