New Electrical and Gas Line for the House Addition

My father-in-law once said, "Well, you can only get so excited about a new pair of pants." He was right.

Yes, you need new pants every once in a while, but if you are a regular guy, they are gonna be pretty much like 95% of the other pairs of pants you've ever owned. It is hard to get excited about replacing something you take for granted with something else that you are going to take for granted.

Which brings us to our gas line and new electrical box. AKA - our new pair of pants.

Our old electrical setup left something to be desired. While there were no fires or amazing showers of sparks coming off the wall in our pantry, we couldn't toast something while microwaving something else. Also if you vacuumed with anything bigger than a nightlight plugged in to the same line, you threw a breaker. Not that I ever vacuumed... but just saying.

Did I mention the unprotected power supply line that used to run along the inside wall of our house?
Not that we had plans on ever severing it, but I guess that is why those events are called "accidents."

So, we had an electrician come in along with his assistant and over the course of two days they put in a new service panel, wired everything up and put the box for a new meter on the side of the house. We are now the proud owners of a 200 amp service panel. (The addition will include a shop/utility room so the additional power will come in handy.)

We put the call in to have a new power drop to the house put in after the gas line work was done.



The old  gas line stretched around to the back of our house. Sort of like an enormous "J."  The plan was to mount the new gas meter on the side of the house, clear of the new construction and cut the "J" short into a sort of backwards facing "L". Basically, putting in a 90 degree elbow and about three feet of new pipe.

After calling Miss Utility (I think her first name is Shirley), we got all set up to have our lawn spray painted various colors representing various utility lines. (Just FYI, yellow is the gas line color.) We put in the request to move the meter and they told us it would cost $75 for them to send someone out and tell us how much it will cost to move the meter.

If restaurants worked like that...
"Excuse me, waiter... what are your specials tonight?"
"Monsieur, I will be happy to tell you... for ten dollars.
However, I will graciously take that $10 off the bill if you order it."

I'd go to a different restaurant, but seeing as how there isn't a different gas company to go to, I smiled and grabbed the checkbook.

In the meantime, our plumber re-did our interior gas lines to set us up for the eventual move of the meter and to allow for things like our new hot water heater.

A couple of weeks later, the gas company guys show up with their trucks at about 7:00am and waited outside our house. I went out to talk to them and they explained that they couldn't start doing anything until after 9am. 
"Why?"  I asked.
"Because of noise ordinances." They replied. 
Ok.
I started to ask them why they didn't just come by closer to 9, but hey, who am I to tell other people how to do their jobs.

They also told me that  they had to rip out all of my gas line all of the way to the street.
Company policy.

Actually makes sense.
They figure how often does that line get touched?
Every 50 or 75 years?
Why not replace it when you have the chance? So they did.

The only bummer was that instead of a three foot trench, I ended up with a 60ft trench that ripped up half of the only good patch of lawn I had. Well... they did put down grass seed when they finished.

The electric company showed up about a week later. Well, two guys and a rather handy mini backhoe from the electric company showed up.

They dug the trench for the new electrical line parallel to the new gas line so that the power line could now be buried (at no additional charge!) They also rather nicely dug up a little stump that was in the way. In doing their work they had to dig of the OTHER half of the only good patch of lawn I had. They did no put down any grass seed.

Our utilities to the house are now in order. The side of the house is a big mud flat and I should have moved sooner to put down additional grass seed but live and learn. It looks like a construction dumpster is going to end up parked there anyway.

Last post I mentioned that I thought I might have drawn a box around the wrong plot when I turned in our Special Permit request. I called the office the next day. They were very pleasant and pretty much laughed at me and said they really don't need that paper to be correct. They just need that piece of paper to be in the folder to make it complete.

I appreciated the honesty.



Starting the Addition Paperwork

Ok, while this is the first post, in all honesty we are already several weeks into this process.
Sorry. I would have started sooner but we've been busy filling out paperwork.

Just to bring you up to speed:
My wife, tree kids and I live in a modest brick rambler on the East Coast. We like our location and have decided that this is the house where we will be living in for the next, ohhh, let's say 75-100 years. (What can I say, I'm an optimist.)

The house meets most of our needs but there were always a few bits of oddness about it that we wished we could change. Well, the time has come around to make those changes.

We have pretty simple tastes so we really aren't going high end on this. We just want to make the house meet some more of our needs and eliminate a few annoyances. But there will time enough to list those later.

Let me describe the first round of paperwork.

Our house is situated on an odd lot. The house sits relatively far back on the property. Because of the typography of the lot and the nature of what we want to build, the back of the house is the only practical place for us to build an addition. However, the corner of the house is only 25ft from the back property line and that is the minimum setback in our county.

Bummer.

Luckily our county has a "Special Permit" process whereby we can build up to 12' 6" from the property line provided we dot the "I's" and cross the "T's". And oh yeah... PAY $900.00 for the privilege of begging to build on our own property! (Sorry for the outburst. I know full well these sorts of rules are there for a good reason...but still. I thing George Washington, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson would beat the hell out of  us for blindly accepting these sorts of things.)

The basic plan we have come up with is to add a box to the back of the house. Because of the angle of the house, we are making the addition a trapezoid to maximize the space. This way, the outside wall will maintain a distance of 12'6" from the property line. (Clever, huh?)

Okay, so here is what we needed to turn in to start the special permit process:

• 15 copies of our plat completed by a surveyor showing both our existing house and our existing house plus the proposed addition.
• 1 8 1/2x11 reduction of those plats.
• A notarized application.
• A written narrative as to why we are building the addition this way. (Apparently, "Because we want to." is not an acceptable answer.)
• A signed sheet affirming that my wife and I actually own the property.
• Photographs of our house from all angles to show the existing building.
• Photographs of the houses in all directions from our house so they can get a sense of the neighborhood.
• Drawings of all four angles of how the house will look with the addition.
• A copy of our zoning map with our lot outlined in red.
• A check for $910.00

The process can take up to three months in their office before it is referred to the zoning commission for a vote.

Once it has been referred to the commission, they can take up to three additional months to schedule their hearing and vote.

The staff in the zoning office has been VERY friendly and helpful. Two trips out there and everything is in order and submitted. They will contact us when (it is almost pointless to hope for an "if") they find something wrong or something that needs clarification.

However, as I review the paperwork in my head and look at what I still have on hand... I'm almost positive I colored in the wrong lot on the zoning map. Grrrrrrrrrrr.