It’s been 3 months since my last post.  There’s lots to report, so here goes.

Building Permit

John took plans and the permit applications to San Juan County on March 3rd.  It was pretty painless – he was in and out within 20 minutes.  Normally as the designer and/or builder I would take care of applying for permits but due to the distance it made sense to have John do it.  Fortunately, it went smoothly.  We were told it would take 8-10 weeks (which is a relatively long time), but with an intended mid-to-late May groundbreaking should be ok.  Sure enough, we got the call in the 9th week that the permit was ready.  Perfect timing!

Requesting Bids

Most of the month of March and into early April was spent getting hard costs from subs and suppliers in order to supply the lender with a cost breakdown for the construction loan.  It is surprisingly time consuming to get complete and accurate bids.  It is even more challenging when getting them from subs you have never met, let alone worked with.  However, virtually every one of the subs on and off island that I talked to were nice as could be and responded in a timely fashion.

Getting a Construction Loan

Once we had our numbers together John submitted the scope of work and cost breakdown to the lender.  With that information, the lender ordered an appraisal (based on the plans, specs and budget).  After the appraisal, the construction loan is finalized.  With the loan in place the contractor (in this case my Dad, Les Kashas, from Kashas Construction) is ready to get the project underway.  He will request monthly draws based on work completed in order to pay the subcontractors, suppliers and himself.

Breaking Ground

On Tuesday May 13, Les hitched up the tool trailer, filled up the gas tank on the pickup truck and headed north to set up shop on Lopez Island.  He’ll make this camper his HQ and bunkhouse.  What’s not to like?

Contractor HQ

Next up – Breaking Ground