As you can tell, my husband and I have big plans for Haven House. We intend on staying here for the long haul and are intent on making our forever home comfortable. In pursuance of this, we aren't just planning to take what is here and "make it nice". Instead, we will be literally extending the front of the house and, in the process, adding about 700 square feet of living space.
Well, before any of that can take place there is a lot of planning and pre-work to be done. One thing we wanted to make sure we did right away was to obtain a new certified survey of our lot. We had been looking into surveying the lot at our first home and we were expecting that a routine lot survey would cost around $500.00 as a result.
Ha! We wish. It turns out that our property abuts a subdivision but is not a part of that subdivision. Since the lot is not a part of the subdivision, it is apparently more difficult for the surveyor to research the history of the property. And, you guessed it -- a more difficult survey is also a more expensive survey.
We knew we would need the survey when we applied for building permits for our planned home extension. As you can imagine, a build occurring in close proximity to a lake has special regulatory rules that must be adhered to (set back from lake at least 75 feet, etc.) -- in addition to this reason, we were in a unique situation when we first moved in because all but one of our next-door neighbors was more-or-less out of the picture. With most of our neighbors not around, it was a perfect time to get a survey without ruffling any feathers.
A few weeks and $1,400.00 later, we received our certified survey. Importantly, we now knew our boundaries -- and while they were a little off from where I thought they might be, it is still good to know for sure where the lot lines are.
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