Quote:
Originally Posted by DETRoadster
We provided supporting documentation to back that number up including confirmation from the city, in writing, that the driveway will need to be widened to 18', confirmation from the fire marshal that the house will need a fire suppression system as it's more than 300' from the nearest hydrant, and a bid from our builder to do the driveway work which involved a large retaining wall and removal of several 100+' tall trees. Also wrapped up in all of this is the city re-assesed the property at the sellers request and dropped the value of it significantly.
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All this for a 1/2-acre lot? You've got to be kidding me!
We finished building our house about two-years ago. We bought 6-acres about 34-years ago intending to build and never had the the time. When we had enough time we didn't have enough money. Kept promising the kids until they were grown and gone. Finding a contractor who was not totally unreasonable on pricing took two-years once we made the decision to just get it done. Our driveway was put in 30-years ago and I actually had to petition the state to get an opening wide enough for truck traffic not to damage the culvert pipe. The drive is 1/4-mile long. We're had to complete our well and also had to do a septic study prior to getting a building permit. Took about a year to build our 2,400 sq-ft, two-story 3-bed/2-bath house on a full basement with 2-car attached garage, bonus rooms over the garage, and another over master bedroom. Clearing of trees for septic also opened our view to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the only requirement from the county in sighting the house the well had to be a certain distance from our neighbor's septic and our house had to be a certain distance from a creek that was part of the local reservoir's watershed.
I was the designer, putting my architecture degree to use 40-years later. My contractor did the CAD for truss estimate and construction drawings, structural micro-lams, etc, and built everything else pretty much by hand.
We're 10-minutes from a major university but in the country. It sounds to me like you need to move further into the country if this is the set of hoops you have to jump through to "develop" a half-acre lot! Wow, I guess I have to consider myself very lucky and we are finally enjoying the home of our dreams.