Pigs, a Wolf and a Gentleman

As you may know, our original builder, Sage Homebuilders, went out of business a few months ago.  Sadly, they did not do so in an elegant fashion.  This ended up costing us lots of time, some money and gave us quite a bit of stress.  But we learned some valuable lessons as we went through the process of cleaning up their mess and finding a new builder.  Builders come in various shapes and sizes.

We've seen a lot of them and I can't help but think of the Three Little Pigs fairy tale.  Our first builder ended up building us a straw house or more accurately, an only-on-paper house.  It never got started, they went out of business and we're left with a pile of paper to clean up.

Another builder wanted to give us a house built out of sticks.  It would look better than the straw house, but that was just a cover-up.  We eventually learned that they weren't so honest in the bidding and building process.  With questionable business practices that house fell down too.

In the meantime the weather is getting colder and various agencies are taking forever to give us needed approvals.  We call these forces the big, bad wolf.  If we're not careful the wolf may blow down any house we try to build.











Then along came a gentleman.  Not part of the original story, but a good additional character.  We have seen his work and talked with previous clients.  No straws, no sticks, just good solid bricks.  This fellow is a true craftsman with a devoted attention to detail.  We view him and his crew as local artisans.  His name is Jason Walters and he owns the company Stylecraft Homes.  His company is small, but mighty.  For a quality custom home seek out Jason, he's not afraid of the big bad wolf.

If you will permit me. . . .

The last few weeks have been a grueling and arduous journey of obtaining permits.  We ask for permission all of the time.  As children we learn to do so nicely because as you do unto others, so they will do unto you.  As adults we sometimes aren't so nice about getting permission.  Some of us have been heard to say that it is better to seek forgiveness rather than ask for permission.  When building a house that last strategy is probably a bad one.  Plus, generally speaking both of us are rule followers although we've been known to push quite hard when provoked.  Provocation comes in the guise of bureaucracies.  They need their rules and timelines, but what we object to is the inflexibility of these organizations.  They seem wholly unable to accommodate individuals or to navigate through a thorny, exceptional situation.  Truly maddening is when you get caught in the middle of two warring bureaucracies.  That'll have you bouncing around like a ping-pong ball.

In our project we have tried to learn the process for working with several groups that have some hold over and responsibility for the appropriate completion of our house.  The learning curve is steep and it's nearly impossible to do it in a quick fashion.  Perhaps the most frustrating circumstance arises every time we have an encounter and the agency involved expects us to know what to do.  Why is that?  I am a biology teacher and yet I don't expect people working in a government agency to explain the life cycle of the bacterium Escherichia coli and why all of our lives depend upon this tiny beastie.  Why am I expected to know the jobs of our bureaucratic friends?  If it's so easy to understand their job, then why do we need them to be doing it?

Frustration is high in our lives because we have yet to break ground and won't be able to for at least another 2-3 weeks.  When we finally have all the t's crossed and i's dotted, our big sigh of relief will be heard around the neighborhood.

This story from http://myhumor.org/clean-jokes/bureaucracy-humor.asp  may tickle your funny bone:

Three Wishes

A Government Employee sits in his office and out of boredom, decides to see what’s in his old filing cabinet. He pokes through the contents and comes across an old brass lamp.

"This will look nice on my mantelpiece," he decides, and takes it home with him. While polishing the lamp, a genie appears and grants him three wishes.

"I wish to be on a beautiful island in the Caribbean."

POOF!

He suddenly appears on a gorgeous beach.

After overcoming his initial surprise, he states his second wish.

"I wish to be waited on hand and foot by beautiful women."

POOF!

A crowd of gorgeous women flock to him, attending his every need.

He tells the genie his third and last wish: "I wish to never have to work ever again."

POOF!

He’s back in his government office.

Onward and upward,

Mark and Mark

Our Best Face Forward

The picture above is a computer generated view of the front facade.  It might be somewhat distorted on your screen, but you'll get the idea.  This represents months of deciding how the front should look, what we could afford and what we could get approval to do.  So don't even think about suggesting changes (unless you pay for them).  The landscaping is just representational and will probably be much more extensive in the front and the back.  The black pathway to the fence will also be something different.

For now we are just going to enjoy our computer cartoon house and dream about what it will be like to live inside of it.  Below is an image of the back of the house.  For security reasons we aren't comfortable with showing interior layout views, but hopefully you will all have a chance to see inside, in person, when it's finished.

In the back view you can see the cartoon drawing of the stucco garden walls that will be behind the front fence.  We have someone helping us design these walls who already has had some brilliant suggestions.  On the second floor is a 4-season room with screens and storm windows.  And the best part is the conservatory off of the first floor.  Sometimes when we're feeling a bit Victorian, we'll call this structure the orangery.  This view of the conservatory is actually not right since we are going to build it out of brick and have big windows, much like the Linnean House at the Missouri Botanical Garden which it is modeled after.  As a plant nerd all I need is a bed, an icemaker and some books and I would easily be able to live just in the conservatory.

Thanks again for keeping up with our project,

Mark and Mark

The Lorax might be shocked

Do you know the Dr. Seuss story called "The Lorax"? Well, we may appear to be bringing that story to life this week. In quick synopsis, the story is about the Lorax, a tree-loving creature who speaks for the Truffula trees "because they have no tongues". The Once-ler is a greedy factory owner who wants to cut down the Truffula trees. With great rhymes and charming pictures the story concludes with an ominous warning to preserve natural beauty.

Go to this site to see a 25-minute movie of "The Lorax" story:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6650219631867189375#

Welllllllll, this week on our lot we are having most of the shrubs and trees removed. Shocking, but necessary. It doesn't sound very eco-friendly to remove vegetation, but a closer look at the situation will, I think, show that these actions are necessary.

The biggest concept here is "right plant in the right place". Even a large, well established tree isn't necessarily eco-friendly if it isn't right for the place where it's planted. It may need extra water, may have invasive roots, weak wood, lots of seeds that let it out-compete other more native species, it may have lots of shallow roots that put up sprouts thus spreading vegetatively as well as by seed. If it bears fruit there may be no animal adapted to consume that fruit. It may be prone to disease. There are many reasons why a tree or shrub is inappropriate for the space it is planted in.

We have had 2 arborists, several people at the MO Botanical Garden and a well known reference book (Michael Dirr's "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants") to guide us in our decision about what to do with the trees and shrubs on our lot. The consensus is that they are all badly placed weed specimens with little value and may even cause future headaches. Here's an inventory of the major trees and shrubs and their associated problems:

American Elms precariously planted on a hillside, these trees should be in a flood plain or wetter area; they are prone to many diseases, most notably Dutch Elm disease.

Siberian Elms planted on a hillside; are resistant to Dutch Elm disease, but have rapid weak growth and little ornamental or environmental value; Dirr calls them "one of, if not, the world's worst trees".

Silver Maple that is probably an OK tree, but it has been girdled by a thick wire resulting in damage around the whole tree, it has also been "topped" repeatedly and damaged by previous construction projects.

Tree of Heaven which is grown in China as a food source for silkworms; is very tolerant of pollution, but very invasive via root suckers; it has no real landscape value and poses a hazard because of rapidly growing, weak wood.

The main shrubs on the lot are bush honeysuckle, a highly invasive plant that the Missouri Department of Conservation wants to eradicate. Go to this site to see a brochure that MDC produced on bush honeysuckle: http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/Documents/15700.pdf

There are a few other shrubs, most notably some Rose of Sharon (Althea) plants that have not been tended and are to be removed.

Other perennials including daylilies and goldenrod have been transplanted onto other property since they are likely to be damaged during the clearing of the other plants.

What about the animals? There appear to be no permanent residents in the trees, although many birds and squirrels visit the honeysuckle bushes (which incidentally increases the spread of this invasive plant). Our tree expert is well aware of our concern for animals impacted by the tree removal and has a history of saving animals while doing his job. We are prepared to take any affected babies or adults to local wildlife rescue organizations. At this time of year there shouldn't be any babies, but we're ready in case. Since we currently live next door to the build site, we will install well stocked bird feeders and even leave out peanuts for the squirrels.

And how about the future? It is our hope that we have planned well enough to control the impact of this tree removal. We are going to transition the non-native, badly placed plantings to MO native species or plants from the MO Botanical Garden's Plants of Merit program. This will take some time since the house has to be built first.

It is our hope that someday the Lorax and his friends will want to come back.

In the beginning...

In the beginning the City created many long skinny lots. Then Mark and Mark looked at these lots and said, "they are not good". So on the first day our heroes made plans to beget a bigger space. Using their powers of almost limitless patience and persistent whining, they were able to combine 5 lots into a space that's 100 feet wide by 130 feet deep. To people living west of highway 170 this lot would nearly fit inside your great room, but for the City, it's a pretty big area. Here's a picture and a movie:

The first series of tasks we will be doing in this project include having the land surveyed which will include thinking about drainage and excavation issues, determining the location of the house on the lot and eventually getting a building permit. These actions are all currently in the works, so our hope is to begin building in October, but it is more likely to be November. Weather issues will be a concern, but when is that not going to be true?

As long as something new is happening, we will post roughly weekly or bi-weekly updates. Should be pretty exciting, especially since we're living in a leased house right next door to the building site. This will give us the opportunity to count each nail and time the coffee breaks. Or better yet, we're going to close our eyes and wake up next Spring in a new house.