Swim coach, Jim Booth’s moto is a ‘little progress everyday’.
I know he was referring to swimming and I am referring to building a house, but whatever it is for me if there’s growth it’s slow. Speaking of slow, has anyone been in a race and you’re so far back that there’s a cop car behind you with their lights flashing. AKA last place. It’s hard to concentrate on the house project when I’m staring down LP this Saturday in the Ely marathon.
It was a beautiful day in Ely MN. I was sorry to be inside this morning. I had to complete the application for our St. Louis County Land Use Permit. They don’t require anything too fancy. Nevertheless it was time consuming. I had to complete it on my phone because we have no internet. I’m not complaining because I completed it with the help of my good friend Skyler in Duluth who works in the planning and development department for the county. I had to call her for help this morning. It was the first item on my To Do List. Luckily, she has a lot of patience and kindness. Picture a youngish women with a MN accent saying, “Sure, I understand why you would see it that way.”
We were on the phone together for some time, and it was mighty successful. The computer accepted our application. You may think this is kind of late in the game to, after several months of knowing we’re going to build a house, to just now be applying for a building permit. Well I’ve had several calls into the number for Ely’s inspector, he left a message to let me know I was calling the wrong person. I told him it was his name and number online.
“Well, that may be, but it’s wrong.” He said.
He asked me some questions and determined that we are not in the city of Ely and we were under the jurisdiction of the county.
Terry and I have adopted the role of newcomer bumpkins.
Next step, agreeing on our building site. We have progressed on that too. With the sheds gone we learned our site was a bit small. I poke around the ledge rock stymied by too many rocks and trees. I’ve been clearing and poking now that the bugs have abated. When Terry came home today I had moved the building site stakes to extend the property to meet our needs. This will take hauling in more roadbed gravel, building up, grading. Time to get the man with his heavy equipment back. And I want all the trees in front of our property gone. Right now we have no view. And Terry agreed on all of that. Progress.
Mountain Peace 