| The concrete contractor dropped off materials today. Mark also cut down the tree right at the edge of our property that had been attacked by beetles(?) was diseased and in really poor condition. This will also give more room for the pumper truck to get in close to the site. One thing that is going in our favor is that the truck will be above the site, pumping down to the site, rather than trying to pump concrete up to a site. Stuff was supposed to be dropped off yesterday, so the one-day delay will mean that concrete will probably start next Tuesday, day after Labor day, rather than this Friday. |
| Something that I hadn't written about yet: When we went out to the land last Friday, we discovered that someone had pulled out all of our house survey stakes and then used them to write the word 'leave' in the excavated hole. Nice. Stupid, childish prank. We had the surveyors back out to re-shoot the land today. Reported it to the police. We'll see. . . . . |
| Mark & Jean cover the dirt piles. Well, mostly. We don't have enough supplies. It's also really windy which both helps and hinders our attempts to cover the large dirt piles with plastic. Then it rains that night. Good timing! |
| Mark & Jean put up the silt fencing. The weather has been great and really helping us out, it hasn't rained, so much of the dirt around the site is dusty powder. We also have to cover the dirt piles, but we're pooped, so we're coming back tomorrow to do that. |
| Our 2 year wedding anniversary. Mark buys me roses and makes me my three favorite dishes: Caesar salad, gnocchi & crème brûlée. We celebrate the beginning of what will probably be our hardest year together. |
| Mark & excavator & UBuildIt consultant & concrete guy stand around the job site looking at the whole and saying 'this is going to be a pain in the ass.' We're going to have to bring in the big concrete pumper truck. |
| The excavator dug the hole for the house foundation. Also took down the trees that were still left in the area to be cleared. Sorry trees. =( |
| Our land is cleared!!!! Mark & Jean meet out at the property after work. Wow. Gosh. What an amazing difference. The surveyor also came and made official markings for the 25' setbacks and the corners of the house. For the first time, we really get to see where the house will sit on the lot. It seems like we will have no room for the patio off the kitchen, our main outdoor entertaining space. This will be a problem. Then we realize that the setbacks that we'd staked on that side of the house are about 15-20 feet in closer than the official 25' setback markings from the surveyor. So, we have more patio than we thought, but we have to take down more trees than we thought. One stand of trees would be 2 feet from the corner of the house. Jean apologizes to the trees. We do have more 'backyard' on the NW corner of the house, by where the hot tub and basement exterior door are, so overall, we get more backyard than we thought, just in different places than we thought. Also, the path around the north side of the house is not as steep as we thought it was going to be. Oh, and the neighbor's chicken coop, right by where our patio will be, absolutely STINKS!!!! We'll have to find out what the regulations are on keeping poultry within city limits. That, and maybe ask very nicely. |
| We sign the loan documents. |
| We get our building permit!!!! Finally! |
| Mark & Jean place a buffer guideline for the excavator who will be clearing the land tomorrow. Right now we are on schedule to dig the hole for the house on Friday and start pouring concrete on Monday. <fingers-crossed> |
| Mark heads out to the property to take down a dead tree that is also in the way. |
| We get a bill from the architect. From the work done over a year ago? HUH? When we'd left it with them, they were going to review the account (they charge on a per sq. ft basis) and we never heard anything from them since. We paid the last invoice we received from them 9/29/04. Mark'll have a chat with them. |
| The water test has come back with a clean bill of health. Good news! |
| Work has resumed on digging the trenches for the other utilities; gas, electricity, and cable. Comcast will be offering phone service soon so we'll get cable, broadband, and phone from them. When we called Verizon to ask about installing phone service, they were particularly non-responsive since so many people are just using cell phones or VoIP. We need to have a hard phone line because we'll be having a security system. The discount on the homeowners insurance will almost cover the cost of the security system. |
| Mark & Jean go do some tree trimming at the property to make room along the side of the bank for the guys to work. They have to install big concrete eco-blocks into the bank on the west side of the road to make a retaining wall so we can pave the road out to 18ft. |
| The watermain is tested by the city. They have to do pressure tests, bleed out the air, flush the line. Then they have to test a water sample. All seems to be well, but we're waiting for the water test results. |
| We have tentatively schedule the concrete guy for the 15th. |