Peter here! In addition to the complexity of the build itself, we had some site constraints and challenges that we have had to deal with in advance. Given that we are building this new house behind a triplex, the site is quite tight. The overall site is just under 6,000 square feet (~⅛ acre). Where our new house will be built, we originally had a garage with a small, beach themed hang out area next to it (from the previous owners - don’t blame us!). This area also included a very nice, miniature magnolia tree and a (volunteer but thriving) white pine. On the back property line, we have a few Ash trees and a series of power lines, including a utility pole in the NE corner. In most parts of Minneapolis, these lines would be running in an alleyway, but our block happens to be a rare one without an alley, meaning that utility easements run directly through properties. In addition to electric (Xcel Energy), those poles are also used to string telecommunication lines (Comcast and CenturyLink for us).
In order to prepare our site for this build, I have spent quite a bit of time both working to clear the trees among the power lines, save the trees that we can, deconstruct the garage (deconstruct instead of demolish - reuse some of the materials!), and bury the power lines to gain us more space at the back of the property. The last part has been the most challenging. Our neighborhood is filled with a lot of housing types, from single family to large apartment buildings. We also mix in a lot of commercial properties. The electric needs are quite varied and our utility poles are crowded with wires to meet all the various needs. This creates a challenge because there are constraints on how much infrastructure can go on any given pole. We are unlucky in that the poles directly to the north and south both have transformers on them. With the number of lines that we also have running to our triplex (particularly because we also have solar and high gauge wiring for heat pumps), our poles are already close to capacity. To make everything work for this site, we are actually going to have to add a second pole. We will now have a pole in the far NE and SE corners, with underground lines running in between. This is a bit gaudy and annoying, but at the same time, we want to bury the electric lines because we are trying to gain every possible, usable square foot on a very tight property. By burying the electric lines, it gains us at least 2-3 feet on the back property line, which will make our central yard feel larger and give us greater separation from our triplex. Though it may seem minor, this makes a big deal for the feel of our site. Strangely enough, in order to bury our electric lines, our utility (Xcel Energy) is having us dig our own trench and provide conduit and meter upgrades. I find it quite odd that the utility would want us to do this work for them. It is also a pain in the butt because nobody wants to dig a trench for us on a tight lot. Luckily, we managed to find an awesome tree company (Daniel Thompson Tree Services) willing to do all of our tree work AND the trenching for us. Daniel has been amazing and was in the trees for 3.5 straight hours, casually dropping trees in a narrow window around power lines. He saved our beautiful magnolia tree and it is thriving in its new location. I highly recommend his work. On the electrical side, we needed a slip sleeve installed to move from an overhead connection to underground. Again, a pain in the butt, but my cousin is an electrician and handling that work for us through his company. I’m not sure there are many lessons learned here, but I wanted to lay out the extra work needed in addition to the actual construction for this project. I coordinated all of these projects (set the scope, solicited bids, negotiated, and coordinated timelines), so these are all costs that haven’t necessarily been captured in our budgeting discussion (see previous blogs posts). These projects are complex, particularly on such a tight site. Hopefully it works out for us! As always, let us know if you have any questions about the work we have done and we are happy to share resources.
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AuthorKatie Jones and Peter Schmitt chronicle their building adventure. Archives
January 2024
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