Lot Selection

Lot Selection

The blog starts with a picture of what our lot looked like when we bought it in May of 2012.  This is what it looks like on Friday February 1st, 2013:

The brush in front is reflective of trees that have been cut down.  Lesson #1 - Lot Selection - don't buy a lot that has a lot of trees within or around your build envelope.

This was an expensive lesson for us.  Although we loved the look of the lovely treed lot and had no problem envisioning our home being built here, we really did not anticipate some of the issues that the trees would cause.

Before you can even apply for a Construction Permit in the Town of Oakville, you must obtain a Site Alteration Permit.  One of the requirements in order to obtain a Site Alteration Permit is that you must provide an Arbourist Report for review.

cha-ching

It took a little shopping around to find an arbourist that fit our budget.  Once hired, he came out and surveyed our lot.  He measured each and every tree on our property and provided a detailed report regarding three measurements and tree health.  Of particular interest were the 13 trees that were discussed in our report.  It was concluded that 2 trees were directly within our build envelope.  1 tree needed to be removed in order for the installation of the new utilities.  Another tree needed to be removed in order to permit a 2-car driveway.  2 smaller trees needed to be removed in order prevent obstruction of the view of the house.  If any of these trees were protected species, we could have had to revisit our plans and design our home around protected trees.  Fortunately, the only challenge we faced was the limit of 4 trees per year, but since two trees were directly within the footprint of our soon-to-be-built home, we were able to notify the remaining 4 trees within our annual limit.  The next step was to obtain quotes for tree removal. 

cha-ching

We had our first minor heart attack when we started getting quotes for tree removal.  My ever thrifty hubby decided it was time to invest in a chain saw, so he handled the majority of the tree removal, with the exception of one tree which was too large for him to take down.  We were able to find an off-season deal to get one large ash tree removed for a small fortune. 


We'll be a little more savvy if we do this again, making sure that our lot is not going to be too costly to build on.  We will have a better idea of what it will cost for tree removal so we can factor this in to any purchase offers.  In hindsight, we should have been a lot tougher on the Seller after we closed on the house.  He left a lot of junk behind in and around the house, and unfortunately, this is all now being disposed of at our expense.  Next time around, we'll write into any offers that the Seller must remove all junk and debris from the property.  When we closed on this house we were caught up in romantic notions of building our home; we won't make that mistake again.


We did have a few good laughs through this process.  Like the one afternoon when my hubby is busy chopping down trees, and he sees a car pull up.  He assumes it's one of the neighbours stopping to chat and as my husband approaches the car to say hello, he sees a camera at the window and then a flash.  Someone was trying to catch him in the act of perhaps unlawfully chopping down the trees.  Fortunately, we had filed all our required notifications and had not violated any laws.  A later check with the town Arborist confirmed that said photographer had indeed attempted to file a complaint about us.

Welcome to the neighbourhood.