Building Your Own Custom Home Series Part XXIV: Prepping the Site for Completion

As the construction of Great Falls Street (GFS) comes to a close, there are some things we need to get done on the site. We’ve established final grade around the house.

We’ve prepped the lead walk, driveway apron, and sidewalk for concrete.

The driveway has been prepped for asphalt. We chose asphalt for this house because nearly all of the homes on the block also have asphalt driveways (even the new construction).

If you remember, we realized early on that we would need to replace and install retaining walls on this site. The wall in the front is a dry-stacked, stone wall which is coming out nicely.

We also had to add a small retaining wall on the side of the house. We decided to use pressure treated timbers for this one.

So now that we have final grading complete, the driveway and concrete work done and the retaining walls up, it’s time to put down the sod and landscaping required by the City of Falls Church.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature isn’t cooperating. It’s a total mud hole.

Each county has their own process when issuing the Certificate of Occupancy (CO) also called Residential Use Permit (RUP) or Occupancy Permit (OP) depending on the locale. Some are fairly painless (Fairfax) while others are more challenging (ahem, Arlington). The important thing is to communicate with the county early about the process so you’re not sitting with a completed house but unable to move in because of a process issue.

At GFS, we’re going to keep on working out here to try and get this thing done. It’s a 50 degree February day, and I hear we’re actually getting landscaping done and the sod down today!

In the meanwhile, we’re buttoning up things inside the house. It won’t be long now.

Dream Big. Build Smart.