Well, today was the day. The day we submitted what we hope will be the last application necessary before being able to start work on the house. It was for the Montgomery County Historical Area Work Permit, and it's a three-plus-week-process that started today with the submission. Over the next three weeks, Montgomery County's planners will pore over our submission, make it all pretty, and have it ready for their December 7 meeting. If all goes as we hope that day, we'll have an afternoon of running things around and getting stamps and whatnot, then we can proceed as planned. I keep thinking to myself: "Remember, at the end of this all, they're giving you a lot of money back for filling out these mandatory forms. And it'll all be worth it." Mantra helps, sometimes.
This application wasn't too different from the state forms, other than it was a form we actually had to print out and write on with a pen, rather than typing it out online. And there were spelling errors-- I don't mean that we made, I mean written on the official form! We had to show them our plat, give them the contact information for everyone whose property abuts ours, take pictures of the house from an angle indicative of how each of those properties views us, et cetera. It's only for the exterior, but I included everything -- interior and systems included -- just to make sure we didn't forget anything. I spoke to Scott with the County, and he said there's no problem with including too much. So it's all there. And now we wait.
We also are waiting for word back from Maryland on our roof application, which we submitted last week, and which was debated at yesterday's Historical Trust board meeting. Theoretically, it should go well, because we went with materials they recommended. Okay, they couldn't "recommend" materials, since they're a government entity and they're not allowed to do that. But they strongly hinted that the way we should go was in one direction, and that was exactly what we chose. If only they could have told us that one cycle ago... Regardless, we are waiting on that too, and the county has been nice enough to allow us to submit anything we get back from the state between now and December 7 as an addendum to the packet. So that means more running around by Abby and Lola, who have already driven out to Crownsville three times (about an hour each way) to drop off materials for the state, and did a run to Rockville this morning (about 45 minutes each way) to drop off the county stuff. It'll all be worth it. It'll all be worth it. It'll all be worth it.
By the time the county has its meeting, we'll have owned the house for more than 160 days without being able to touch it. I haven't been there in more than a month, because, well, what would I do there? Bonnie with Save Our Seminary was nice enough to bring by the house's original exterior lighting, which was saved when it looked like it might just fall down (and maybe bring the house with it?) a while back-- it'd be really nice to see that. But for the moment, I think going up there's more annoying than anything else, just because I know there's nothing I can do.
So I'm doing other stuff, like reading the community listserve, where the current issue is whether people should have their porch lights on at night. (Sorry folks, but I was raised by Chuck Wahl, and therefore my goal is to have the brightest porch lights possible. Plus, as a security professional, I know darn well you don't want to be the darkest house on the block.) I can't wait until mundane stuff like that is the big news of the day. What was that mantra again? It'll all be worth it. It'll all be worth it. It'll all be worth it.
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