After investigating the permit process and time frames it took the City of Edmonton to issue development and building permits, we knew we wanted to get our design in by the end of July with the hope of obtainining the required permits by possession date. Another thing we had to look into was a demolition permit which requires that all of the utilities (water, power, gas) are disconnected prior to issuance. This required us to apply to Epcor and Atco Gas for utility disconnect and meter removal and to determine the associated fees. Note: Atco will not disconnect until the water/power have been disconnected and could take up to 20 business days after water off date to issue the disconnect notice to the City whereas Epcor will disconnect 2 days after possession date. The City of Edmonton will not issue a demolition permit until they have received both disconnection notices. So the first step was to select a designer to design our home and a survey company to plot the existing and proposed plot plans that we could work with and would be able to meet our time frame.
We called around and spoke with a few different designers of which some were not able to meet our time frame and thus we did not consider any further. We were down to a list of 3 designers with whom we met each to determine their experience with infill projects in a mature neighbourhood overlay which had different guidelines than newer areas within Edmonton. From these discussions, we narrowed it down to two. We ended up selecting the designer who had the most experience with this type of project and with whom my father had personal experience with in the past, Ed Hammermeister at Graphec design. In addition, we had to select a surveyor, we went with Sue Perras at Hagen Surveys. This process took a little bit longer than anticipated and we didn't get our final designs until September 9 due to the back/forth process as we originally thought we wanted the potential for a secondary basement suite in the basement; however, the additional cost of doing so didn't outweigh the benefit and we ended up scrapping it and the basement entrance at the end of the day. As you will see from the front elevation below, we decided to go with a craftsman style home as we felt this fit best with the mature neighbourhood we were building in which had a varierty of older homes as well as similarly styled newer builds which complemented the tree lined streets.
We submitted our development permit information on August 26 and subsequently submitted the building permit information with updated drawings on September 11. We had been given the name of the individual/development officer assigned our project for the development permit, at this point, she was fairly backed up and only just looking at submissions from the last week in July so us putting in the revision on September 11 would not impact our timelines, thankfully. On the flip side, this of course concerned us as to when we would be able to actually begin, that is when we could take the first step, which was demolishing the existing house and garage.
So we waited and checked in with the development permit officer about a week before the possession date. When she responded to us a couple of days later, she said she had approved the project and passed along the info to the building department, we were surprised and hopeful that we might just get the permits in time!
October 1st - possession occurred without any hiccups. The property was cleaned up and vacant with only the appliances that still remained but after a couple of calls, the seller and my father agreed to a time when the seller could remove the appliances a few days after possession. Epcor disconnected the power/water on October 3 so the next thing we had to wait for was Atco to disconnect and from the experience of my father's friend who was also doing an infill in the Belgravia area, it took the full 20 days which was not what we were hoping for. Due to the time of year, we really want to get the existing structures demolished, property excavated, basement foundations in and framed and sealed up by Christmas. This will allow the various trades to work on the inside of the home in the coldest winter months with the hope that we can move in during the Spring or by the latest early Summer. We had managed to get the name of the scheduler for the Atco disconnects and called him to gain an understanding of the process and timelines he was working with. Although we had put our application in during the summer months, they could not do anything until the water was shut off and they had to have Alberta One Call come to the property in order to stake out where the gas lines were in order to disconnect. He also suggested, that we put in our application for the new gas meter and service in person vs. online as it will get us in sooner, so we did that as we would need the service for construction. So in the meantime, we wait for the gas to be disconnected.
October 9 - Atco disconnected the gas, sooner than any of us anticipated! Hooray! This means that we can obtain the demolition permits in order to knock down the house/garage. We contacted the City and informed them that all utilities had been disconnected and meters removed and the paperwork from Epcor and Atco had been submitted to the City. We were issued the demo permits on October 11. We had our demolition/excavation B. Labrie Contracting lined up for October 14, stakeout after excavation by Hagen set for October 17 and our cribbers set to start October 21, everything seems to be on track!
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