11th hour Design Change

Took some serious time over the weekend to discuss through what to do and how to proceed. Wife was now "OK" with current plan (entry at "slab/ground" level, but I was open for at least investigating the option to lift it up, or rather keep, the entry at the existing "split" level and build out addition from that point.

Benefits would be that you get in at a slightly higher level and get more of a view out, as well as more of a view "up and in" to the house. We also don't have to mess around with the stairs inside and I don't have to re-route a lot electrical feeders at all. No cutting through basement wall and less demolition on the inside in basement family room are other side benefits.
Lifting that floor from slab to rest on floor joists also provides for a 3 foot tall "garden shed" underneath new addition (mowers and wheel barrows), but just as it'll remove some cost in less concrete, it'll add new ones for the "lifted" floor and architectural changes.

After having made the call for at least investigating "spousal" option, we had a chat with the contractor and his crew early monday morning here on site. As they were OK with either option, I did a run down to City Hall to talk to the Building Engineer and the the city Planner.

Since there are really no external changes except that we would have a slighty taller concrete wall (only about a foot), Building Engineer was very accommodating and essentially said "I know, I've been married for a long time too. You only have one spouse".

Since that sounded pretty good, the run contiunued to the architecht's office. If he could do a quick design change and provide updated drawings to the City, we're rolling. He promised to squeeze it in, and after a few hours of further discussions at home, we gave him the "go ahead".

At the end, I'm more than OK with the change and think it'll look just as good, or even better than the initial plans. Just to bad it had to be in the 11th hour.

Even though we looked over these drawings so many times, I guess there is never really a final time. If you're heading up the project, you almost have to "force" the rest of the family to look at the design, even though it might be boring and uninteresting when it is "just" on paper. Lesson learned.

While contracor was on site this morning we also discussed options for the "darn" basement beam and pillars with the architect. Turns out that he had measured correctly, but indicated the measurments incorrectly on the drawings. So the structural engineer worked with calculations for a span that was more than 4 feet longer than reality. Therefore the intial need for the pillars in the basement. Now the decision was made to put the support beam inside the wall between kitchen and bedroom. Very slick and no need to mess around with all the electrical and ethernet cables in the basement.