Joy and Doug's Hood Court House Web Log

Backstory
Blueprints
Photo Archive
January 2005
February 2005 March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
Current Blog

Pre-Permit Musings

A lot led up to this moment, of course. A wonderful lot with a breath-taking view!
We've told so many people that we lost our heads upon seeing it, we're beginning to believe ourselves. Here's a giant panorama shot you might enjoy.

July 4th, 2003 - Joy and I decide to do some measuring of one of our builder's homes up in Sandy to get a jump on ordering materials. I said something like, "Wow, that's one amazing view." Joy asked something like, "How do people get lucky enough to find lots with views like this?" The future homeowner who is also a real estate agent is there and says there is another lot with the same great view two houses north. We went two houses north and stood in the dirt and decided that we'd never seen anything quite as beautiful as what was before us at that very moment.

The lot had been on the market for two months. The weather up to July 4th had been pretty nasty, so it hampered the view. That's the only reason we can think that it wasn't purchased within five minutes of going on sale. Or maybe it was the fact that it was a hillside with some tricky and potentially costly building requirements. Ignorance is bliss, we bought the property the next day.

We had been in our new home for only 18 months when we made that fateful trip to Sandy. We were very content and still getting settled in. The pull of the mountain is powerful. Derek and I grew up with a view. We'd climbed Mt. Hood on two occasions. It looms in the background like music on the radio. It's just always been there. So the rationale for picking up and starting this whole process again is crazy but understandable if you're in my shoes.

Joy and I looked at hundreds of house plans and noticed soon into the process that there were no plans for hillside views of mountains. The closest ones we saw were for vacation homes on lakes without built-in garages. The other basic complication was that our lot had a buildable width of just 45 feet. So we put ideas on paper and started a year-long process with our architect, Bill Zundel (a very patient guy who did a fabulous job). We were under no pressure to build at any point so we planned and revised and talked some more and revised a few more times. We wished we could have picked up our current home and put it on the lot but it was too wide with the garage. We settled on three levels with everything focused on the view first. Main rooms would have great views and every other room would at least have some window light. There would be a main floor living area with kitchen, dining, and great room. The upper level would be half the size of the main level and contain the master bedroom area and a laundry room. The daylight basement would have the bonus room entertainment area, a guest bedroom and a multi-function utility room.

Next came dealing with the various site requirement and restrictions. This was a little more stressful when we found that the city of Sandy had basic slope restrictions. A soils engineering firm had to be hired to show why our house would work within the guidelines. View and access easements further defined the planning. It all came together nicely but we sweated a little along the way.

Setting a budget and deciding who to use for all the phases has been an ongoing process. We'll get into more of that stuff over the day to day reports.