Trenches, Rocks and Permits oh my!

So much has happened so quickly!

First, our sanitation permit (septic system) was approved on 3/16.

We were assigned an address - 4/1  who knew it took so long to create an address!

We finally had a small break in the rain, it was long enough for Jeff, our excavator, to start on the driveway and the trenching for electrical and phone.

We went out on Saturday.

It was so exciting to see SOMETHING happening!

This is the view from where the garage will be. 

Now, a couple of shots of the trenches

This shot gives you a sense of scale - that's me peering into the water-filled hole.

And here's the progress shot:

Yeah! things are a-happening!

Update

Today we had our permit review meeting with the county.  Sandra from Adair was there and had all the information the county needed.  We applied for the building permit and the septic permit.  We also applied for an address, which should take a couple of weeks.

Turnaround time on the permits is about 4 weeks.

We should have the site prep done by then....

if it would ever stop raining...

It's Official!

I haven't been ignoring you, it's just that nothing has been happening.

And then BAM.

We signed the closing documents yesterday!

We officially own the land!!

Now the fun can begin!

Josh and I were worried because it took SO LONG to get to this point.  We won't  have the site ready by the date on our contract - Feb 28.

Josh spoke with Kellie and then Lynn at Adair who both assured us that we can still move forward with this project, even though we won't have the site ready by the end of the month.

They were both very helpful and responsive to our concerns regarding price protection and Josh and I feel confident that we have made the right choice in choosing Adair. 

Now the fun can begin!!!

Whoo hoo!!

We drove out last weekend and took a look at the finished shared driveway.

Our shared driveway is quite long.  The driveway meets the road just past the white truck.

After it turns north, it follows the adjacent lot's property line before entering our property at the southeast corner of our lot.

 

The van is parked where the shared driveway enters our property. 

The turn from the shared driveway onto our property is a bit sharp.  We're mildly concerned aout 50' trucks making the turn...

We staked out where we want our driveway to be. 

The stakes are a bit hard to see... 

We met with Jeff, our excavator to talk about how the driveway was going to cross the drainage ditch - which we are calling a creek.  (hey, it does have water in it.)

We talked about how the pad was going to be built, because our site is sloped.

We also talked about how we are going to get power to the well for construction.

if we need to get power.

We have a flowing artisian well!

That means that water comes out without a pump!

Totally nifty!

I turned the facet all the way open.

Plenty of water!

We're hoping that there's enough pressure to satisfy the needs of the construction team.

It would save us a bit of money and work if we didn't have to run power all the way to it before the house was up.

Hmm, let see what else...

The loan should fund by the end of the week, then we'll receive our draw sheet and we can get started on our OTDs!!!

Here's the view from the southeast corner.

I'm hoping to take pictures from this spot throughout the process. 

I'm totally excited and have to remember that I still need to be patient.

They're forecasting snow on the valley floor tomorrow and Friday. 

snow is not conducive to dirt moving.

Movement...sort of....

We've had to push back our closing date (again).

It has taken awhile for the seller to get going on the shared driveway.

We drove out on Saturday and saw that they had begun the process of building the road.

 

This picture is taken from the main road.  There will be asphalt as far as the big rocks go, and then we'll have a gravel road.

The gravel road will go straight back to where the little white poles are (kinda hard to see.) 

There the road will turn left and go to our property.

Things are happening....slowly....

We have Loan Approval!

Whoo hoo!!!  We have loan approval!

(pending a few conditions, like county approved access to the property and a water purity test.)

I

AM

SO

EXCITED.

We Have Water...

in more ways than one!

The seller drilled the well!  whoo hoo!

I drove the kids out to see what it looked like.

it happened to stop raining just long enough to take pictures.

not very impressive, is it?

but it's there, and it's a step in the right direction!

the torrential rain also left some nice sized puddles

well, pretty darn big puddles.

Puddles The Boy COULD NOT RESIST.  Isn't that was rain boots are for?

I opted to park outside the pasture, and walk in.

I didn't want to get stuck.

(fast forward a couple of weeks)

On Christmas day, after opening all the presents and washing all the brunch dishes, we decided to drive out and show the property to Josh's mom, who hadn't seen it yet.

Josh decided to drive right on out to the property, through the adjacent fields.  We got out, looked around and as the rain started to drip we opted to leave. 

well

we tried to leave.

Josh misjudged the depth and mushiness of the ground.

we got stuck.

(hee hee hee)

Josh and Grandpa pushed and pulled, hemmed and hawed...

finally, we called my folks and asked them if they'd like to take a drive,

and oh, by the way, if they could bring a rope....

the kids were happily reading new books they'd received that morning and eating gobs of chocolate.

When my folks got there, they were grinning and laughing!

(wouldn't you be?)

what fun!

they quickly pulled us out past the mushiness, and we were on our way home.

It was truly a Christmas adventure.

:)

Well Drilling

Got a message today from our Realtor, letting us know that the Seller was having the well drilled today.  Cool!  She also let us know that the Seller is waiting on a permit from the county before he can install the shared driveway.

That's about it.   Just waiting.