developing bare land in North Idaho, visit #3

17 Nov, 2020

HISTORY

Bought bare land in North Idaho Nov 2018. This is our 3rd visit back.

July  2019 1st visit, made a gate.

July 2020 2nd visit, cut roads and dropped a shipping container on-site.  

October 2020. Plan: Returning to research power, measure distances for drafting permits, and meeting with at least one builder. 

Called the power company to see about scheduling an appointment - shot down due to the Covid pandemic. I was encouraged to fill out the application and scan and email to the office and they would call me for payment. I was told that there were 80+ applications ahead of me and that once snow set it, engineers stopped going out so that would put me into next year. That is OK, I have time, but it puts a hard stop on progress. 

Looking for a foothold to dig into...met with one builder. I was under the impression that this was a builder of modular homes, but turns out they are a stick home builder. The salesperson was oh so nice and she talked with us for a solid hour. I already had a few plans in mind and she showed me more. Being a stick home, it is highly customizable, but each change is more money.  Cost as listed online was for the foundation +house with standard features. But, with no foreseeable date on power, I couldn’t pursue this right now.  My plan is to go back and research all their plans and find the one closest to what I want to minimize changes. And also, try to find a modular home builder to compare. A stick home will take 7-9 months to complete from the start of construction.

Modular homes are made in a factory and under the category of prefab houses. Inspection done in the factory. May be built to a higher standard because they need to be transportable without breaking. Built in sections and put together on your land and then 'buttoned' up. Customizable. Faster build because most of it is already made. Set on foundation and finishing on site. 

Stick homes are built on property. Customizable. Takes the longest time from start to finish.

We measured our property from corner to corner and put stakes where our house and shop might go. We are stuck on progress, but I love visiting our piece of North Idaho. We did some target practice and planned to return later. Forecast for snow.

Next day, as promised, it snowed. Since we didn’t want to get stuck anywhere or get into a wreck, we stayed close to our hotel. Today was an administrative day. We visited the Post Office, Bonner County Planning Department, Roads and Bridges, Recording Office, and Panhandle Health. There is no street sign on our road. The last time we were in the area and had work done, I drew elaborate maps and stood out in the street to flag people down to get to our property because if they called me, I wouldn’t catch the call. There is poor cell service in my area. On my property, I found a spot that for some reason, gets very good service, but it is way out there on one of the borders.  Cell service is something to consider if that is important to you. Technology is advancing all the time so I figured that by the time I start living there, it will be better...and I hear that Starlink is showing promise!  

MAIL. I don’t want to put a real mailbox out because it would undoubtedly fill up with junk mail in our absence. I thought a Post Office Box would be our answer to have things delivered to us when we visited, but I discovered that that would fill up with junk mail also. I was advised that if I went that route, to get a bigger one so that there was room for the junk mail. The other option that I didn’t even think about was to deliver items as ‘General Mail’ to our local post office and pick it up when we came into town. 

Bonner County has no Building department here, rather multiple offices that work separately. I have to say, I was impressed at how each different department was able to pull up a bird's eye view of our property and it pops up on a TV screen facing you, the customer, as they are talking to you. That way, if they reference a certain area or if you have a question about a certain area, you can point it out on the screen so you both know that you are discussing the same thing. Our property is not in a flood zone per the Planning Dept, we ordered a street sign from the Roads & Bridges Dept. (our street has no identifying sign and google does not recognize it), got a copy of an old property assessment from the Assessor’s Office, and got a copy of an old perc test from Panhandle Health Dept. Another thing we learned from this process for people who are still looking to buy land is that 'wetlands' or dips on the property can affect buildability. The Planning Dept gave us a map with elevations on it and we are not in any danger there, but that is something we did not even think about. 

SEPTIC. A Perc Test is required to test for drainage for septic placement and the results are only good for 1 year. When we purchased the property, we were told that it had been done, but we had not received a copy or proof and we didn't really think to ask about it because we were not planning to build right away.  Our neighbor told us that sometimes, an extension could be obtained which is why we went to the Health Dept to inquire and they gave us a copy of the old report for free. We do not plan on revisiting the perc test again until we are closer to starting our build. To have another perc test completed is $950 through Panhandle Health Department. On their website, I found an online how-to guide for digging a septic. This is something else we hope to be able to do ourselves.

POWER. So I figured out that power really is the most important thing to obtain on property and hopefully, all else will fall into place after that. When we bought the property, we were told that power was close. Sure enough, it is across the street from the corner of our property. We are lucky. The more I learn, the more I feel like we didn’t know enough when we were looking for our property. With more knowledge, I look around and see things differently. There are still lots for sale, but prices have really been climbing so we are truly blessed that we bought in Nov 2018. Not all property has power to the property line. It is better to check with the power company than rely on the word of your realtor on how close, ’close’ really is. Distance is money, the farther power is from your property and then how far from your property line to your build site it is, will determine how much it will cost to bring power to you. We are planning to dig from the property line to the build site ourselves (look for a future blog on how we do this!) This will likely save you a LOT of money! Also, some counties are serviced by more than 1 power company. As it turns out, our property is right on the border of 2 companies, so my one neighbor and I have the same power company and my neighbor on the other side of me is serviced by another power company. 

So, we submitted our permit for power which cost $750. There are 80+ permits ahead of us and snow and freeze halts the process. Engineers do not go out once the ground is frozen. It snowed about 8 inches, but my neighbor said it would most likely melt the following week. But, more snow and freezing temperatures are on the way so I assume we will be next spring at the earliest. The power company was super prompt. I sent the application by email and I received a call within 15 minutes for over-the-phone payment and once processed, I received an email confirmation and a brief what to expect statement that said an engineer would contact us in 6-8 weeks for a site visit...well, with 80+ ahead of us and with winter coming, I won’t hold by breath...but, I did ask the very nice member service representative to please have the engineer call us with a 2 week notice if possible, so we could arrange to be present.             

So far, I feel like we have been moving forward, gathering important information, and now I have a direction. I have to admit that after purchasing our bare land, there was so much to think about that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around where to begin. But each time, I have an agenda and so far, we have been able to make progress.  

The next day was a Saturday so I did not expect to be able to make much more progress. I was wrong! We drove to beautiful Coeur d’Alene (CDA) to look around, we drove to Worley to have lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Casino which was nice, but the restaurant we had hoped to dine at was closed due to Covid. The scenic drive from CDA to Worley was magnificent. The snow was beautiful. We aren’t much for gambling, so we ate at another restaurant there and surfed the internet for builders and stuff to do. We were hoping to find a model home to look at and we found a Lexar homes office in CDA. The website had office hours that day so we rushed on over to find the office closed, but it had a phone number taped on the door...so we called...and just as we were calling, John came driving up. He had been visiting one of the jobsites and was just returning. It was close to closing time, but he welcomed us in and he explained a lot about Lexar homes and spent a good 1+ hours with us. We are sold! We picked the design we like and we toured the design center and he explained how they do their build. He even referred us to a current customer who is building near us that we could potentially go visit. John said that we could start our build in the spring after the power was in. Now, things seem like they are moving to fast! We got his card and thanked him for his time. 

The next day, we set out to drive by the current build in our area. When we drove by, there was a man tending a pretty big burn pile. House looked done from the outside. I was hesitant, but my husband wanted to talk to him and we drove up his driveway. He was real nice...funny, from California too!...and he said we could go tour his house and just come out and ask him questions afterwards (because he didn’t want the fire to get out of hand). We did just that and he talked to us and gave us his contact and he was super nice. This reinforces our plan to go with Lexar Homes. 

Next… I plan to look into:

*Building a pole barn

*return and walk the land with the power company engineer 

Check back for future progress!