Loan closing is complete and trees are marked

(Brendan)

Well, we successfully completed the loan closing on Friday without any hiccups. Once the mortgage is submitted to the county on Monday morning and is registered, then construction can officially begin at any time! The city building permits have also been approved. Right now the scheduled date to start clearing trees from the lot is on Wednesday in order to work with the schedule of the tree removal subcontractor. We (the whole family) will definitely be there during the daytime on Wednesday at some point to watch the work begin, and we'll definitely be taking lots of pictures. Max, our 2-year old, is already walking around yelling out at random times "Wednesday!... Trees!... TRACTORS!... WEDNESDAY!"

Speaking of which, I also met with the tree removal contractor and our general contractor at the lot on Friday in order to mark the trees that will need to come down (and be sure to save certain ones). It was definitely valuable that I was able to be there to walk the lot with the contractors, as I was able to tell them to remove trees/brush by the wetland border (that they otherwise would not have) so that the view to the wetland is open from the back of the house. We were also able to agree on which large trees by the street would be able to be saved. Here's a few pics from the tree-marking (click on any of them to enlarge):

Lots of cars and trucks parked by our lot probably has the neighbors thinking, "Hmmm... "

Duane Kozitka (right), from the Chuba Company, is our general contractor for the project and is doing a fantastic job. Andy Olberg (left), also from Chuba, will be the day-to-day project manager.

The tree removal subcontractors are in the distance, marking a perimeter of trees to be removed by spraying orange paint on the trunks. You can see some marked trees in the center of the picture.