Wow, I just looked back at my last post and realized how long ago it was. I have been seriously neglecting this blog! Not sure why, there were plenty of things I could have posted about: The open house we had for the neighbors to show them our plans (and the super friendly folks we met). . . The time I tried to build a fire in the fireplace and smoked up the whole house. . . And then, somehow believing my force of will could make that chimney draw, doing it again the very next day. . . The new neighbors next door who, to my delight, decided to take down the gigantic, ugly cedar tree just on the other side of the fence (yay, no more crap falling into the pool and onto the patio!)

The big news that finally brought me back for a post? Last week we appeared before the planning commission for the hearing on our permit and design review applications, and our proposal was unanimously approved! My nervousness about neighbors objecting to a modern home with a two-story plan, or about the planning commissioners being too conservative for a design that’s edgier than most houses in the neighborhood, was totally unfounded. The neighbors were all super supportive, and the commissioners all raved about Lev’s design. (I think the commissioners are closet modernists who have been eagerly waiting for someone to build something other than cutesy board-and-batten cottages or over-wrought faux barns.)

So now we move on to the hard part — finding someone we trust to build this house! Oh, and finding someone to lend me enough money to do it.

Last week I dropped off at the planning department my various applications — design review application, use permit application, and demolition permit application — and all the supporting drawings and documents. And I also delivered a painfully big fat check payment to the city to fund processing of my applications and other related city services.

The very nice man who took my applications flipped through them at the counter, hmmmm’ing and nodding. I started to get nervous, what with all the hmmmm’ing and flipping. . . Then the nice man says to me, “I’ve only been working here for a year, but so far this is the most complete submission I’ve seen yet!” Whew! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the thorough submission — and all the beautiful drawings from WA+D — will help get this project through planning without any big hitches. Hopefully come November we’ll get the green light to move forward!

But first, we’ve got to woo the neighbors and convince them not to raise any objections. . . Our plan is to ply them with wine and food. That usually works, right? More on that soon.

It’s not hard to spot them, they’re everywhere:

Outside my office. In the patio planter at Public House. And in my landscape plan, of course. Apparently Phormium like it here in the Bay Area, so they are going in at Scott Street. Oh, and what about Trachelospermum Jasminoides? Yeah, that’s “Star Jasmine” to you and me. Plenty of that, too. And some Miscanthus Transmorrisonensis, and some Sedum Spathulifolium, and some Olea Europaea (uh, yeah, that’s an olive tree). Of course, it’s wine country, so plenty of Lavandula Dentala:

Can you tell I’m having fun with the Latin names? Well, a girl’s gotta do something to get through the tedium of a landscape plan, especially coming on the heels of that scintillating water use analysis report. Sheesh.

But there’s an exciting milestone coming up, hopefully on Monday: Submitting all our planning paperwork to the City of St. Helena! Bring it on down to City Hall, then hit the road back to San Francisco, just in time to head to the airport for a week’s vacation in Hawaii! I think they plant lots of Phormium there, too.

Do you know what an acre foot is? I didn’t until a few weeks ago, but I do now.

An acre-foot of water is 325,853.383688 gallons.

One gallon is 3.06888328 × 10^-6 acre foot.

Why the hell do I now know that? Well, to build/enlarge a house in St. Helena, the owner has to demonstrate that the new residence will be “net neutral” with respect to its water usage. To get my permit from the planning department for Scott Street, I have to submit a “water analysis report” showing the net water neutrality. And rather than pay a civil engineering firm to write my report, I decided to do it myself . . . But first I had to learn about acre-feet.

The whole process has been kinda fascinating. And it feels pretty good to know that the new, bigger house we’re building will actually use less water than the old small one. Putting in water-saving appliances, and low-flow faucets and toilets, really makes a difference. And tearing out the water-hogging lawn and replacing it with a much less water-intensive landscape is even more impactful. I’m going to save more than 186,000 gallons of water every year!

Anyway, this water report has been a ton of work. Which is why I haven’t blogged in a while. . . Oh, and I’m also doing my own landscape plan instead of hiring someone to do that. More about that later!

We had a preliminary planning review meeting with the city Planning Director on Tuesday morning. He’s a nice guy, a straight shooter. So straight, in fact, that he was willing to share pretty some strong (and amusing) opinions about a few of the newer houses in town. . . Opinions we agree with! And he also expressed his disdain for the proliferation of “barnitechture” around Napa valley, and seemed relieved that we weren’t proposing to build more of it.

This would be an example of “barnitechture”:

That one’s not too bad. This one is pretty awful:

Anyway, no “barnitecture” happening with our house.

Of course, we have to respect where we are, and at its heart, St. Helena is an agricultural town. So we will incorporate some of the elements of that heritage into the house — metal roofs, some wood siding, old salvaged wood here and there, a stair tower that evokes the old water towers around town, some sliding barn doors inside the main hallway (hiding behind those doors will be the laundry room).

All in all, it was a good meeting. The Director said we obviously know what we’re doing, and he didn’t see any issues that would trip us up with the Planning Commission. So it’s full steam ahead with the plans! Here are some of the drawings we presented on Tuesday:

Inside . . .

And out . . . 

But it was too beautiful this weekend to eat inside!  Lev and I had a lovely picnic dinner outside on Friday night (cold corn soup with crab, panzanella salad with grilled chicken).  I finally figured out how to turn on all the lights around the pool and under the pergola, and with the soft yellow light bulbs I installed, it’s quite romantic!  (Oddly, the switches are not all in one place. But I did solve the mystery behind most (not all) of the many light switches in the bedroom!)

I also extended an invitation to the adjacent neighbors to come by and say hello if they saw me around (a hand-written and hand-delivered note on thick card stock — feeling very Downton Abbey after watching the last few episodes of Season 3 last week).  So far no one has taken me up on the offer. Oh well, my good fences will make good neighbors.

But it’s a good thing.