Patience and Delays

We were supposed to close on the property on Friday, October 14, but the seller and the seller’s agent didn’t get the electricity and survey taken care of in time. Now, the closing is scheduled for next Friday. The electricity needs to be run 3300 feet, so we are having some trouble agreeing on a fair price. The surveyor is supposed to call me early next week to walk the newly flagged back property lines. All this could have been done last week, prior to the original closing date, but it seems I have to submit myself to patience. The weather has been warm and dry, perfect for getting work done. Oh well.

Other progress –

Septic

Friday, October 7^th, test pits were dug for the septic permit, and luckily, the sanitarian was happy with what he found and gave us our permit. The seven foot deep pits were dug with ease, so we don’t have to design a crazy, expensive system, and we don’t have to monitor the ground water for six months. This also means that we are going to be able to locate the house and barn exactly where we wanted. Given all the rock shelves and cliffs around the property, a smooth septic permit process was not guaranteed.

Windows

That same day I decided to do some window shopping. Contractors have told me that a lot of the window companies have a storage area called the bone yard where they put windows that were ordered incorrectly or never picked up. The bone yard isn’t a great resource if a specific size or style of window is needed, but since we haven’t framed anything yet, I was able to work with the random sizes that were available. I bought 18 brand new, energy star, double pane, vinyl windows for just over two thousand dollars. The dealer let me have them all at wholesale cost. I still need to find a few more, but most of the windows are purchased. The guy who delivered the windows told me that it looked like a six to eight thousand dollar package. Score!

Lumber

Thinking that we were going to close on Friday, last Wednesday, I put in an order for our ten inch by ten inch posts. Prices for the post varied greatly from different suppliers. A small mill up near Olney came in with the lowest price, so the logs will be coming out of the kiln on Monday or Tuesday. I still am not sure where to put them until we close? Apparently, there is no room to store them at the mill, but moving twenty-four foot ten by ten posts twice doesn’t seem wise. Hhmmm?

Tools

So far I have picked up an 18 volt, cordless tool set with a circular saw, drill, and saws-all. A new tool belt, 100 foot tape measure, hammer, and carpenters square have recently been added to the collection too. A friend recommended a Hitachi compound miter saw that he used for a few years as a contractor. A few short clicks later, Amazon, the so-called book dealer, was sending me a saw and a cutting stand with a mount. I spent this morning putting it all together and testing it out while building some saw horses. A few specialty tools will be required here and there, but I hope most of the big tool purchases are behind me.

Floor Plan Update

Note the new location of the staircase. We have also decided to leave teh seond floor over the bathrooms and bedrooms open to look out over the kitchen/living area. The east end of the house will also have a few second story windows to look down the valley from the loft.

The rest of the weekend was spent fixing up the snow blower, finding a new winch solenoid, wrestling with my old compressor, cleaning out the overstuffed garage, and enjoying the last of the warm, sunny fall weather. Even though I wished we had closed, I was able to get a lot accomplished this week to further prepare for when building begins and cold air settles in the valley.