I finally got a response last night from my web host on my lost post query. The short version is that I’m not going to be able to retrieve anything that was lost when the site was migrated to its new server without losing newer work. Mildly annoying, but I’m over it. It’s actually kind of funny / ironic. It’s been so long since I’ve talked about where we are on the addition project – even when I try to get back into the swing of things, I’ve got nothing to show for it in the end!
(Side note: CT, thanks for the Roots + Blooms rec – they reopen for the season this week, and I will certainly stop in. Sorry our conversation got lost in the server switch.)
So instead of trying to recreate the original post, I’ll just jump in with this brief update and move on. We have a schematic package together, and we have meetings scheduled for Wednesday morning. First, we’ll be stopping into the Cultural Resources office to discuss the project and run a few ideas past them. Our house is in a Federal Historic District, as well as a local one, so there are many restrictions on what you can and cannot build, and also what materials you can use on the exterior. So we want to run a few options by them, and get an idea of the review process from their office.
After that walk-in meeting, we have a scheduled meeting with someone in the Zoning Department. We’ll be reviewing the site plan, floor plans, and site section with him, and we’ll talk about any variances that we might have to apply for. When I was talking on the phone with him, he used the phrase “let’s see if we can avoid hearings if at all possible”- and I am totally on board for that. I’m hoping that we leave the meetings tomorrow with a clear plan of action for getting these plans approved!
In that lost post I talked a lot more about my frustrations last year – about how I thought that documenting the process each week seemed like such a great idea. But it took so much time, and it added such a layer of frustration to the project that didn’t need to be there. I’m easing up on that pressure this time around, even though I acknowledge that it was totally self-inflicted. I might not be as organized and as regular in my reporting this go-round, but we are getting stuff done, and that’s what really matters.
I do want to document the process, I just need to figure out how to organize it all if they aren’t technically weekly progress reports. But for the moment, I’m sticking to this format, and I’ll let you know how tomorrow’s meetings go (with photos!)
Fingers crossed!
P.S. Want to see something really funny? That photo above is from when we first bought the house in 2000. Want to see something really scary? Here’s what it looks like now.
It sort of pains me to show this to the world, but the ‘after’ photos are going to be that much sweeter.
