October 2006: First contact with the real estate agent.
December 2006: The lot's offered price was reduced by SEK 500,000 (USD 77,000).
January 2007: We thoroughly walked the lot and discussed building possibilities with the local housing committee. Ylva started the drawing of the lot and a potential house in the SolidWorks 3-D CAD system. Our bid was given to the real estate agent.
February 2, 2007: Contract of sale was signed in the agent's office. It becomes obvious that Ylva knows the seller from her childhood and summers at her family's summer cottage.
March 6, 2007: Final settlement and a few formalities at my bank's premises.
March 15, 2007: My banking contact confirms that we are now the formal owners of the building site and have received a formal letter from the Swedish real estate authorities).
February - April 2007: Drawings were iterated with W N, the house manufacturer.
June 2007: A contract is signed with W N. Drawings for the building permit application are developed.
July 2007: The building permit application is submitted.
August 2007: A demolition application is submitted and immediately accepted, for the demolition of a shed and an outhouse.
September: The building permit application was rejected. All three of the adjacent neighbors had opinions on the placement and height for good reasons. The south neighbor complained about our garage being closer than 4.5 meters from the edge of our lot. The other ones complained about the height of the house. In the authorities' documentation, it was stated that the house was too tall and of course the neighbors west and east of us complained. The west neighbor is also the seller of our lot. Her lot was used for leisure in the '50s. This lady was found to be nothing but a witch. She probably expected us to raise a tent in the east part of the lot! A new application attempt including new drawings was submitted.
About the height: It was found that the height calculation made by the authorities was incorrect and the house was 1 meter lower.
October 2007: A new setback. All neighbors but the witch accept the solution. The witch thinks that the house is still too tall, despite the fact that the authorities had informed her that this was not the case. The house is also said to be placed too close to her in the west and to shadow parts of her lot.
The authorities suggest that we move the house 1.5 meters northwards into the reserved area shown above. This 6-meter-wide area is mandatory for houses adjacent to a commonage (the town's forest). But the authorities promised to accept such an exception, and a third application was submitted, including a new set of drawings from the house manufacturer.November 2007: Wouldn’t you have thought that the application was accepted this third time? No, it wasn't. Another rejection by the witch. This time she thought that the house was too tall to be partly in the reserved area.
November 6: During a meeting with the local housing committee, our application is accepted, despite the witch's complaints!
December: The project is financed. Arrangements were made with the bank so that complete expected amounts are held in escrow, one for the general contractor and one for the house manufacturer.
January 17, 2008: The construction project starts.
No comments:
Post a Comment