My Journey

Two weeks ago the county rejected my garage building permit application, primarily due to discrepancies between the 2016 septic site plan and the 2018 construction site plan. To fix that I had to pay the septic designer to revise the site plan, submit it to the health department for approval, and then submit the approved […]

I now have a building permit for the house, a construction contract for the garage, and a budget for the garage. Because I cannot afford to build everything at once I have decided to build the garage first. It is a smaller, simpler project that will give the contractor and me a chance to get

The county rejected my application for a building permit and requested a geotechnical report assessing the safety of the ravine that constitutes about a third of the property. I was able to find a geotechnical engineer who is also an attorney and who has assessed a property on the ravine before. He is optimistic, so

Lucy surveys the site of her future water garden. Poulsbo averages 56 inches of rain per year so the county requires people building new homes to include a storm water retention cell, or water garden, in their site plan. It is a big hole with rocks that fills up with water when it rains and

The contractor has agreed to use only materials to which I don’t react. That means before the building permit is granted I need to identify all of the materials to be used, so there will be no delays once construction begins. The most challenging materials so far have been adhesives and sealants. To test them

My good fortune continues! I found a general contractor who has worked with a chemically sensitive person in the past and is willing to do it again. Because he has worked with a chemically sensitive person, so have all of his subcontractors. And his wife, who is a partner in the business, is a retired

This is what a $25,000 well looks like. Impressive, isn’t it? The pipe goes down 310 feet. At the bottom there are screens and a stainless steel pump. About two feet from the surface a pipe extends towards the site of my future garage. It will eventually be connected to a booster pump, timer, filtration

Before I can file a building permit application I have to drill a well that meets the county’s health standards. The drilling company started today. Most wells are 60 to 80 feet deep but because my property is near the top of a hill mine will be approximately 320 feet. For a chemically sensitive person

Here is Tara, my van, parked at a vista point on the Chumash Hwy. Seven months and two escrows later I am finally on my way north, with what I hope is enough money and information to build a house that is safe for a chemically sensitive person. To assist in the construction process I

My California home is finally in escrow. Selling my home fragrance-free was harder than I expected. I found a fragrance-free realtor who was willing to show my home on an appointment only basis, without open houses. He asked people coming into the house not to wear fragrance, but only one of the first four people