It's a stake out!
We decided to head up to the land the day before Easter, kind of last minute. I wanted to lay out where the driveway should be and how big before contacting our neighbor. We stopped on the way and I bought about 20 survey stakes, with the idea we could measure out and stake the corners of the house and garage to determine where the driveway should go. When we got there the kids woke from their naps (trust them to fall asleep as soon as we get driving. I guess it's actually a good thing that it is a 45+ minute drive from Voorheesville to the land). I fed Quinn the PB&J we brought for her while Wendy took the Coleman chair she was smart enough to toss in the back of the Matrix and sat in the trees and fed Emmet.
We finished up about the same time and headed to the proposed house site. I had brought a rubber mallet and 100' tape, so we started by measuring out the 36' for the front of the house, and shuffling back and forth across the N/S stone wall to see how far back off the road we want to be. We settled on splitting the house across the rock wall (which is going to need to come out anyhow for the septic) and pounded our first 2 stakes (pounding stakes into rock soil is tough with a rubber mallet and a 8 month old baby strapped to your chest). After measuring out 24' from each stake we got the other 2 stakes set. We measured between them to get a fairly square building and moved on to the garage.
I had hoped to offset the garage a bit to the north for 2 reasons. First, I thought it would be nice to expose the west side of the house (where the main entrance will be to the house) to the road a little. Second, I hoped to leave room for the driveway to come up right next to the garage (on the south), so as to have a spot that is not far from the house. This didn't work out with the stakes because there are some massive boulders in the ground right where the corners of the building would be. Once I shifted the garage back to the south, all visible boulders are out of range.
After this was done we wandered down into the trees to find a downed tree Wendy had noticed. There is a huge pine out there, snapped off 10 or 15 feet up. It has a small area that is oxidized or burnt, which is where I suspect lightning hit it and caused the break. Now I need to get me a chainsaw to be able to harvest this one - good first project wood right there. That raises the question of what the first project should be. Wendy is thinking a shed. I argue that by time we get the wood for the first cordwood project cut and dried, we will want to have a shed already. I am thinking that a screen cabin (a screened porch with a half wall that can have the top portion closed with shades in case you want to shelter there) would be a good idea. I'll have to propose that to Wendy.
By this time both kids were fairly crankity and it was getting late, so we head for home, another day done.
We finished up about the same time and headed to the proposed house site. I had brought a rubber mallet and 100' tape, so we started by measuring out the 36' for the front of the house, and shuffling back and forth across the N/S stone wall to see how far back off the road we want to be. We settled on splitting the house across the rock wall (which is going to need to come out anyhow for the septic) and pounded our first 2 stakes (pounding stakes into rock soil is tough with a rubber mallet and a 8 month old baby strapped to your chest). After measuring out 24' from each stake we got the other 2 stakes set. We measured between them to get a fairly square building and moved on to the garage.
I had hoped to offset the garage a bit to the north for 2 reasons. First, I thought it would be nice to expose the west side of the house (where the main entrance will be to the house) to the road a little. Second, I hoped to leave room for the driveway to come up right next to the garage (on the south), so as to have a spot that is not far from the house. This didn't work out with the stakes because there are some massive boulders in the ground right where the corners of the building would be. Once I shifted the garage back to the south, all visible boulders are out of range.
After this was done we wandered down into the trees to find a downed tree Wendy had noticed. There is a huge pine out there, snapped off 10 or 15 feet up. It has a small area that is oxidized or burnt, which is where I suspect lightning hit it and caused the break. Now I need to get me a chainsaw to be able to harvest this one - good first project wood right there. That raises the question of what the first project should be. Wendy is thinking a shed. I argue that by time we get the wood for the first cordwood project cut and dried, we will want to have a shed already. I am thinking that a screen cabin (a screened porch with a half wall that can have the top portion closed with shades in case you want to shelter there) would be a good idea. I'll have to propose that to Wendy.
By this time both kids were fairly crankity and it was getting late, so we head for home, another day done.
posted by SKelly | 8:52 PM
1 Comments:
Hello Kellys!
I just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be heading to the east coast--close to your area it seems. Anyhow I'll send Sean an itinerary and perhaps we could swing an in person meeting if it not all that inconvienient.
And if you could email me a recent contact phone that would be great, as the cell phone number I had for you seems to be on the fritz.
Post a Comment
<< Home