It took about two months to get our plans back from the engineer. After the first month, I spent a day calling him every hour. Heh. He returned my call and politely asked what I needed (he didn't know who I was). I explained he had had our plans for a month, our contract had been trying to reach him via email with no response (we were told by our contractor that this was very unusual for the engineer), so I began calling. I said the whole project was held up by him. He said he'd get right on it and that he'd never gotten the emails. So, the very next day some questions were sent from engineer to contractor and we answered them that very day ... and waited. Again, no response to emails. I was patient, too patient, I think now. I had to initiate another round of constant phone calls one day and reached him and said the bank had kindly given us some extra time while we waited for him to finish but they weren't going to continue being so patient. Finally got the stamped plans back - but it took 2 months. That seems utterly ridiculous. Our house is small and not that complicated.
So, the contractor's next job was to work up a cost estimate. This took a while as he had to wait for other people to work up bids and estimates and get back to him.
In the meantime, I attended a Strawbale & Plastering Workshop in Kingston, NM. It was fantastic and I am so glad I went. I learned so much, including learning about a new book called: Strawbale Building Details. This book is by the California Straw Building Association (CASBA) and includes the Appendix S for straw bale building codes. Not all states have adopted it, but due to my attending this workshop and asking some questions and doing some research, I learned that New Mexico had adopted this code (with two additional requirements that are administrative really) in November 2017. The book wasn't even released yet, but the host of the workshop was a reviewer of the book, so she had a copy I could peruse. I placed an order as soon as I got home and gifted it to our contractor. He was very appreciative.
So, the education I got from the workshop and the questions that came out of how they were doing things vs how our plans were done, led me to the realization that our contractor hadn't realized Appendix S had been adopted in NM - he hadn't built a straw bale home here since the code change. I got a copy of the codes (didn't have the book yet) and found that the way the "attachment" of the first course of straw to the slab was to be done was no longer to code. I sent him the new code and told him. Back to the drawing board (no extra charge) and he had to send it back to the engineer. Neither of them had picked up on the new codes and both should have, but they are both human and thankfully this was caught. But, it set us back another 2 weeks. I had to employ another round of "Operation Annoy" (i.e. calling the engineer hourly one day to tell him the bank was waiting and time was critical).
In the first week of May, the plans were finally back in our contractor's hands. Meanwhile, he had finished the initial cost estimate which the bank deemed fine for conducting the appraisal. The appraiser was hired and said it'd be 2 weeks. Well, it was nearly a month and he actually wasn't responding to our loan officer's phone calls to ask what was up. So, mid-May and we finally got it back. He ended up reducing the cost of the appraisal by $50 because he felt bad, but you know, I would much have preferred he actually got the job done on time!
The appraisal was done based on both market value (as if our house were already built) and the cost value to build the house. Both estimates came out great and the market value, deemed a more reliable method, actually came out higher than the cost to build value.
We met with our contractor and signed the contract on 20 May. We got our Builder's Risk Insurance on 22 May. We closed on our construction loan (they needed the engineer stamped plans, the signed contract and proof of the Builder's Risk Insurance) on 23 May.
We had hoped to be breaking ground in March, so this has been a very long and frustrating delay, begun by the engineer and my being far too patient. At least the engineer is a pleasant person to speak with and very knowledgeable. We have friends dealing with an architect who is difficult to deal with and seems to be lacking in knowledge of straw bale building and codes if you ask me!
Official ground breaking will begin in early June. We will soon have decisions to make.
Oh, and straw! I had been calling around a bunch and had decided we'd likely get straw from the same feedstore they did for the workshop. It was decent, though shorter lengths (the stems, not the bales) than ideal and not as densely compacted as construction grade straw bales would be. Then I connected with Paja Construction in Albuquerque. It so happened he was going to be ordering a whole truck load of straw bales for a building project but wouldn't need them all. Just the other day, he was going to give our contractor a call and hopefully work something out. These bales are baled purposefully for construction, so will be nice and tightly bound. I believe they are coming out of Colorado. These bales will arrive ahead of when we need them, so we'll be ordering a metal storage container in order to store them and protect them from the monsoons that will be arriving before we're ready for them.
A slight complication on my time/availability is that I am now working part-time. However, I really am enjoying my new job and we can really use the money.
Meanwhile, yurt life is great. It was such a relief to not need to woodstove heat anymore. Oh, we've had a mountain lion visit the property one evening - a strange noise moving through. Youtube to the rescue and the noise matched. That and Suki's being on the bed shaking like a leaf due to that noise confirmed it for us. We'd also heard neighbors speak of two different ones seen in the area (a female and a 3 yr old, perhaps a previous cub of hers).
