Is Becky's cabin done yet?

Oui!

When will it be finished?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What are the latest updates?

Jul 7, 2021: Close on the Camp Meeker cabin!

Jun 22, 2021: Close on the Sea Ranch property.

Jun 11, 2021: My Camp Meeker offer is accepted!

Jun 8, 2021: Submit an offer on a little cabin in Camp Meeker. It's tiny and needs some repairs but it's also in a beautiful location amongst the redwoods and only a 1.5-hour drive from SF.

Jun 1, 2021: Sign the Sea Ranch offer.

May 28, 2021: Before the property has even been listed I receive an offer from two families who want to build my cabin. Their offer includes a 1-week complimentary stay, once the home is constructed :)

May 19, 2021: Hire a realtor to list the land, along with the permits and plans.

Apr 20, 2021: After watching lumber prices increase every week for over a year and subcontractors becoming increasingly harder to hire my builder provides an updated cost estimate that's nearly double what it was prior to the pandemic. The project no longer feels like a reasonable investment and I start contemplating selling the land.

. . .

Mar 16, 2020: Apocalypse continues to spread in the US, Bay Area shelter-in-place ordered.

Mar 13, 2020: Paid school mitigation fees and other permit fees, obtained building permit.

Mar 9, 2020: Met w/builder and foreman to discuss project next steps.

Jan/Feb 2020: Finalizing details w/builder, checking references.

Dec 30, 2019: Design approved by Sonoma County PRMD!

Oct 23, 2019: Sonoma County is on fire. Pausing all work.

Oct 14, 2019: Feedback received from Sonoma County PRMD. Begin working w/energy consultant and structural engineer to address county concerns.

Jul 23, 2019: Final plans submitted to the Sonoma County Permit & Resource Management Department. I should hear back from them in ~2 months.

May 27, 2019: Design officially approved by the Sea Ranch design committee!!

May 10, 2019: Final plans and checklist printed and mailed to the Sea Ranch design committee for final round of review on May 17

May 8, 2019: Landscape plan completed

May 1, 2019: Structural calculations completed

Mar 14, 2019: Last design details finalized (water heater and battery locations and access). Final designs plus soil report from geotechnical engineer sent to structural engineer for structural calculations.

Mar 6, 2019: CA Title 24 (energy efficiency) calculations completed.

Feb 25, 2019: geotechnical report completed. Foundation footing depth will need to be increased to at least 4' as the soil on the property is weak and compressible.

Jan 22, 2019: geotechnical engineer drilled 3 boreholes, 8 to 11.5' deep, on the property

Dec 18, 2018: hired geotechnical engineer

Dec 4, 2018: hired local architect to complete plans for final round of review and building permit and to coordinate work w/all consultants (geotechnical engineer, structural engineer, enery consultant and solar consultant).

Oct 2018: finalized window U-factors and SHGC values after confirming availability w/window manufacturer and suppliers.

Sept 2018: obtained bids from Structural Engineers.

June 27, 2018: latest set of plans approved by the Design Committee and granted permission to proceed to the final round of review.

June 7, 2018: submitted plans for Design Review 2.3 (aka Preliminary review part 4). This is the 6th round of review this project has been thru with the Sea Ranch Design Committee. Hopefully there will only be 0-1 additional rounds of revisions before I have their official approval.

What's left?

• Finalize contract w/contractor
• Take out loan
• Build it
• Refinance
• Celebrate!

What's been completed so far?

• Purchased Land
• Design Review 0.0 (Site visit w/compliance committee)
• Hired prefab company to create plans for conceptual review
• ...discovered prefab company was going out of business...
• Hired architect to create plans & 3d model for conceptual review
• Hired contractor to stake property for conceptual review
• Design Review 1.0 (Conceptual review part 1) presented the plans & 3d model to the design committee, detailing how it harmonized w/the surrounding landscape
• Updated plans based on design committee's feedback
• Design Review 1.1 (Conceptual review part 2)
• Extensively researched Sonoma County building codes (and discussed project w/planning dept) hoping to find a classification under which lofts w/ladder access would be permitted
• Redesigned cabin to include permitted stairs and catwalk for loft access
• Prepared plans for preliminary review
• Collected construction bids from contractors
• Modified cabin to be smaller to reduce costs (removed lofts, reconfigured 1st floor to include add'l room)
• Worked w/energy consultant to find solution that allows cabin to meet title 24 requirements w/o using gas to power water heater, heater and appliances
• Redesigned cabin to include wood-burning stove (to meet title 24 requirements)
• Selected final exterior materials (the decks will be constructed from recycled plastic bags!)
• Hired contractor to stake out entire project for preliminary review
• Printed/shipped final plans and 3d model to design committee
• Design Review 2.0 (Preliminary review part 1)
• Obtained clarity from compliance committee on 2.0 feedback
• Updated plans based on 2.0 feedback
• Design Review 2.1 (Preliminary review part 2)
• Extensive communication w/the compliance committee seeking clarity on the 2.1 feedback, some of which was in direct conflict w/prior requests. Succeeded in getting committee to drop several requests
• Updated plans based on 2.1 feedback
• Design Review 2.2 (Preliminary review part 3)
• Updated plans based on remaining feedback
• Design Review 2.3 (Preliminary review part 4)
• ... plus everything in the "latest milestones" section above

What will it look like once it's finished?

Is there a 3d model or rendering?

Yup, here's the 3d model of the cabin and property that my architect made for the first round of Preliminary review. The layout has changed slightly in that the master bedroom now protrudes 3' beyond the main room, but otherwise it's similar:

Why is there a "dog" deck?

Many of the features were designed with Pixie in mind. The dog deck is located inside a large fenced-in area, where Pixie will likely spend a lot of time. The design committee wanted the fenced-in enclosure reduced in size but I argued that it wouldn't provide adequate exercise space if it were any smaller.

Pixie actually attended the very first round of review and refused to let the head of the compliance committee pet her.

Why did you make this website?

I needed a side project for my side project.

Why is this taking so long?

Lots of reasons, in no particular order:

• Building in Sea Ranch adds ~2 years to the process compared to building elsewhere in California as you are required to go thru several (7+ in my case) rounds of design review to ensure your structure meets their very strict, while simultaneously very vague, design standards.
• This home will be solar powered and entirely electric: no gas heating or gas water heating or gas appliances. This proved to be surprisingly complicated as California has pretty antiquated energy efficiency laws.
• The prefab company I originally hired went out of business, this added ~6 months of delays.
• When the prefab company went under I'd already developed a good working relationship w/their architect and chose to continue working w/him even though he was only available on a very part-time basis and wasn't familiar w/California or Sonoma County building codes.
• I've never done this before and I'm learning as I go :)

On a side note, I recently discovered that it takes 2-4 years to get a permit in SF to "build" a parklet (a parklet is effectively a couple benches and sometimes a railing placed in a metered parking spot). This made me feel much better about the amount of time it's taking to get this project permitted.

Wouldn't it have been much easier to buy an existing cabin?

Yes but where's the fun in that? Also, this way I'll never need a studfinder.