Saturday, May 16, 2009

A Day In The Life of Absentee Builders



"Hi Vince. This is Andy at Fogel Pump out here in Colville Washington. Yah we're at 380 feet and it's silty sand. No water yet. I'll call you on Monday." Guess that sort of makes up for the well at the shop in Plainfield when we hit water at 40 feet. 380 feet. I don't know much about wells but I think that's pretty deep. And I'm pretty sure they charge by the foot. What do you do when that happens? Do you say. "Here, let me just pay you for what you've done and we'll call it a day"?? We need a well so I suppose we have to keep going. Of course I'd never let myself think....."He says 380 feet. I know the well business is slow. We're in Massachusetts. He's in Washington....hmmmm.

The building permit for the cabin in Washington needs
1. The electrical permit for which we needed a street address. 242 Perkins Road. We finally got it yesterday.
2. An approved septic design. We have it. Pend Oreille County requires land-owners to install 1 of their 2 designs based on soil type...one expensive and one not as expensive...guess which one we had to get?
3. Building plans. We're pulling them together. Now that's a long story and the topic for my next entry.
4. A potable water source for which we need a well and based on the message from Andy...which I got on my birthday....we don't have yet.

Once we have the above four line items we can apply for the permit which they approve (or not) in 2 days. Then we buy our plane tickets to Spokane. Looks like the beginning of June depending on that well. I wonder if there is such a thing as digging a well and never hitting water?

Vince just finished drawing up the foundation plans and sent a few sets out yesterday (on my birthday) for prices. Lots of concrete for a 900 sf cabin. There are a couple areas of exposed concrete that will be 'board formed' which looks really cool. We have to be out on the site for the excavation just in case the digger decides it's easier to dig the hole somewhere besides where we want it dug. And then we have to be out there for the foundation pour just in case the foundation guy decides it would be a hassle to do the 'board formed' areas. It could happen. We figure we'll be out there a week. A week to line up some subcontractors and materials. Hke, ride our bikes, and visit friends.

Meanwhile. We continue to plug away at our 'to do' list here in Plainfield. My new birthday resolution is to do one big thing everday (and make sure that Vince does too) until we're done which has to be May 26 since our friend Eric from Montana is visiting us in Vermont.

I think there is some cliche' about anything worthwhile is a lot of work or is not easy or something which I've found is never not the case.

BTW. My birthday weather was perfect.

ps. captions to the photos are at the very bottom of my blog. I haven't figured out how to add text to those top images yet.