5 February 2017
We finally pulled a building permit on the house to begin the work of making it safe and sound again. This did not happen without the usual bump in to government bureaucracy. In order to get the building permit, we first had to get an "ATC".
"What's that?" I asked.
The nice woman at the permit office said "It's an Authorization to Connect. It's to let you connect to the septic system.".
"But we put the septic system in for the house." I said. "Plus it's going to be months before we are ready to connect to the septic system. Why do we need to get an ATC for the house to connect to a septic system that we built for the house?"
"It's to make sure that the septic system is working properly, that it can handle the number of bedrooms in the house and that the construction work won't damage, or be on top of any parts of the septic sytem ."
"But the house is already there. It already has 4 bedrooms. We sized the septic system for the house. We put it 100 feet away from the house."
"I hear what you're saying sir, but you still need to get the ATC."
After talking with two other people at the permit office, one of them admitted that we had an unusual situation in that the house was already built. Usually someone has some land with a mobile home and they decide to build a new house. Then you need an ATC which makes perfect sense to me. But in the end they all agreed that we needed to get an ATC. "That will be $50 please." Thank you very much...
A few days later, a couple guys from the health department show up to assess the septic system and "proposed" building site. I went outside to meet them. After introductions and a cursory glance at the septic tank access covers, one of the guys said "So why are we here? The septic's brand new."
"That's what I told them at the permit office. But they said I had to have it to get the building permit, so here we are."
"Well then you're good to go. We'll put your certification in the system when we get back to the office this afternoon."
In my mind I sighed heavily. I said thanks, and then gave them a tour of the house.
While waiting for the building inspector, I removed the old duct work in the crawl space and oil burning furnace from a closet in what we're calling the office.
The thing was too big for the doorway, so I had to take it apart and and cut it in half to get it out of there.
Apparently it was installed in 1972. I'm not sure what to make of the name. Grary?
Once the building inspector came by, we talked about what we're trying to accomplish with the house, and I showed him the kitchen/dining room and the rotted and missing sill beams that I want to replace with new 8x8 sill beams. For 8x8 sill beams, we have to have a new 16x16 pier resting on a 30x30x8 concrete footer 12" below grade every 6 feet. He said it was necessary to support so much weight. I pointed out that this part of the house is only one story, and then glanced purposefully around at what little is currently holding the house up. He didn't say anything. And so it was time to dig some holes.
I keep discovering old pipes and new pipes going off in random directions. I think gray water from the kitchen was just piped out from under the kitchen and allowed to run down the hill. Anyway, I found this pipe buried in the dirt in one of my footer holes. It's pointed towards the barn, but I have no idea if it was bringing water in, or for supplying water to the barn.
With six holes done and 12 more to go, we are ending up with a lot of dirt in the kitchen and it needs to go somewhere.
I decided that we would use it to fill in the small cellar under the bathroom addition. We had no plans for the space anyway and it was just collecting water. The loose stone towards the back is just pieces of mortar and broken bricks from the demo work in the kitchen.
Some of it is also pieces of concrete broken up from post and pier footers that I have been cleaning up from around the property. Apparently beer is a very important ingredient for a good concrete footer. I must admit, these were very hard to bust up.
We finally pulled a building permit on the house to begin the work of making it safe and sound again. This did not happen without the usual bump in to government bureaucracy. In order to get the building permit, we first had to get an "ATC".
"What's that?" I asked.
The nice woman at the permit office said "It's an Authorization to Connect. It's to let you connect to the septic system.".
"But we put the septic system in for the house." I said. "Plus it's going to be months before we are ready to connect to the septic system. Why do we need to get an ATC for the house to connect to a septic system that we built for the house?"
"It's to make sure that the septic system is working properly, that it can handle the number of bedrooms in the house and that the construction work won't damage, or be on top of any parts of the septic sytem ."
"But the house is already there. It already has 4 bedrooms. We sized the septic system for the house. We put it 100 feet away from the house."
"I hear what you're saying sir, but you still need to get the ATC."
After talking with two other people at the permit office, one of them admitted that we had an unusual situation in that the house was already built. Usually someone has some land with a mobile home and they decide to build a new house. Then you need an ATC which makes perfect sense to me. But in the end they all agreed that we needed to get an ATC. "That will be $50 please." Thank you very much...
A few days later, a couple guys from the health department show up to assess the septic system and "proposed" building site. I went outside to meet them. After introductions and a cursory glance at the septic tank access covers, one of the guys said "So why are we here? The septic's brand new."
"That's what I told them at the permit office. But they said I had to have it to get the building permit, so here we are."
"Well then you're good to go. We'll put your certification in the system when we get back to the office this afternoon."
In my mind I sighed heavily. I said thanks, and then gave them a tour of the house.
While waiting for the building inspector, I removed the old duct work in the crawl space and oil burning furnace from a closet in what we're calling the office.
The thing was too big for the doorway, so I had to take it apart and and cut it in half to get it out of there.
Apparently it was installed in 1972. I'm not sure what to make of the name. Grary?
Once the building inspector came by, we talked about what we're trying to accomplish with the house, and I showed him the kitchen/dining room and the rotted and missing sill beams that I want to replace with new 8x8 sill beams. For 8x8 sill beams, we have to have a new 16x16 pier resting on a 30x30x8 concrete footer 12" below grade every 6 feet. He said it was necessary to support so much weight. I pointed out that this part of the house is only one story, and then glanced purposefully around at what little is currently holding the house up. He didn't say anything. And so it was time to dig some holes.
I keep discovering old pipes and new pipes going off in random directions. I think gray water from the kitchen was just piped out from under the kitchen and allowed to run down the hill. Anyway, I found this pipe buried in the dirt in one of my footer holes. It's pointed towards the barn, but I have no idea if it was bringing water in, or for supplying water to the barn.
With six holes done and 12 more to go, we are ending up with a lot of dirt in the kitchen and it needs to go somewhere.
I decided that we would use it to fill in the small cellar under the bathroom addition. We had no plans for the space anyway and it was just collecting water. The loose stone towards the back is just pieces of mortar and broken bricks from the demo work in the kitchen.
Some of it is also pieces of concrete broken up from post and pier footers that I have been cleaning up from around the property. Apparently beer is a very important ingredient for a good concrete footer. I must admit, these were very hard to bust up.
I vote for Grady on the Furnace ductwork! Amazing work.
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