Our original plan was to do all the design work ourselves, draw up the plans and submit them to the county to get our building permit.

Then we decided that maybe we could pay someone to do the structural drawings, but that I could do the sectionals and electrical drawings.

Now, given the paucity of time around here right now and our desire to start building this year, we’ve decided to work with professionals to get this all done.

I was up in Nevada City again over the weekend and I met with the fine folks at SHS. We went over all the plans that Amber and I have spent months developing and thinking through and they were very positive about the designs and how they’d work with SIPs. After talking with Amber, we signed a contract with them to take care of almost all of the drawings and work that is required to submit to the county including Title 24 Energy Calculations, engineering analysis, plans and sectionals plus a few sessions with their designer to get his input on our plans. The only other thing that will need to be done is the shop drawing, but that can’t happen till everything else is done.

I spoke with their designer Mel on the phone for about 40 minutes today, going over our plans and providing additional information on how we’re envisioning everything. I get the sense that the SIP people are impressed by how thought through and well-formed our plans are and I must say that it’s a very gratifying feeling. All along I’ve felt like we were doing a good job designing it, thinking through all the structural elements and how they’ll go together as well as the plumbing bits and how they can be centralized to make life easier.

I’m sure that Mel will have input on how to improve things and I’m really looking forward to what his input is.

While I was up there, I also put stakes in the ground at the approximate corners of the house and started trying to figure out what additional trees I want to take down to open up space for a garden and create good southern exposure for our passive solar hopes. All in all, everything is progressing well and there’s a good chance that we’ll have a permit and can begin building in May. Very exciting prospects.