usarmy51m
Member
After many, MANY years of lurking and checking out all the cool builds on here, I'm finally ready to start documenting my build. We are currently in the permitting process of what I hope will be a 28'x36' 3 car garage with loft. I say hopefully because there are a few hoops I have to jump through first to even get the process off the ground. The wife and I, along with the kids and pupper, live on one of the most beautiful islands in the Northeast.
Jamestown, RI is 9 miles long and about 1 mile wide at its widest point and is anchored in the middle of Narragansett Bay. In the winter months we have a population of about 3000 residents, that number almost doubles in the summertime when the summer residents come down to their beach houses.
I was born and raised here, and after a stint in the military, and a 6 year hiatus living in a larger city, we were happy to be able to sell our house, make some money, and buy a house back on "The Island".
Living in a small town has advantages and disadvantages. The school system here is amazing, and class sizes are small, which is great for our kids. There is a true sense of community here, and for the most part people get along. A disadvantage to living on the island, are all the hoops you jump through for a building permit. Since we live on an island, our water sources are very precious. The town is very concerned about watershed areas as well as controlling water runoff. We have well water at our house and will have to be able to control our storm water and contain it on our property. This ensures that the majority of the water stays on out property and helps to re-energize the aquifer, thus ensuring we have plenty of drinking water.
So step one in our process, before we could even apply for a permit, was to get a soil analysis of the property. This was to see what kind of soil we had, and also to see what the water table looks like. The engineer was happy to say it looked awesome! 8 feet down and not one drop of water, and the soil looked.........ok. We were also worried about hitting ledge where we want to put the garage, but haven't run into any as of yet .
Jamestown, RI is 9 miles long and about 1 mile wide at its widest point and is anchored in the middle of Narragansett Bay. In the winter months we have a population of about 3000 residents, that number almost doubles in the summertime when the summer residents come down to their beach houses.
I was born and raised here, and after a stint in the military, and a 6 year hiatus living in a larger city, we were happy to be able to sell our house, make some money, and buy a house back on "The Island".
Living in a small town has advantages and disadvantages. The school system here is amazing, and class sizes are small, which is great for our kids. There is a true sense of community here, and for the most part people get along. A disadvantage to living on the island, are all the hoops you jump through for a building permit. Since we live on an island, our water sources are very precious. The town is very concerned about watershed areas as well as controlling water runoff. We have well water at our house and will have to be able to control our storm water and contain it on our property. This ensures that the majority of the water stays on out property and helps to re-energize the aquifer, thus ensuring we have plenty of drinking water.
So step one in our process, before we could even apply for a permit, was to get a soil analysis of the property. This was to see what kind of soil we had, and also to see what the water table looks like. The engineer was happy to say it looked awesome! 8 feet down and not one drop of water, and the soil looked.........ok. We were also worried about hitting ledge where we want to put the garage, but haven't run into any as of yet .
