Come Together

I redrew the diagram a bit. You can click it to get a bigger size, and I think most everything is pretty obvious now. H is the House (south facing) and G is the garage (which presumably will have an apartment on the north side).


Things have really started coming together in the past week or so. We found out last night that a private financier will hold a note for a mortgage comprising the balance of what we will need to be building in the spring. This is very exciting, but also a bit melancholy - I really wanted to do this without any mortgage. I believe that we could do it that way if we could continue in our current living arrangement (we live with Wendy's dad) for another couple of years to build up our bank account more. The reality though is that with 2 kids, ages 3 and almost 1, we really are going to need some more space soon. To do that, we need to take out a loan unfortunately.

The other side is that I don't feel as bad about doing it this way as I do using a bank. I would just as soon we give our interest to someone we know as to a bank. Also, private financing could make some design decisions a bit easier - where a bank might insist on the mainstream way of doing things (having a forced hot air furnace for example), this will hopefully give us some more leeway in what we do in building the house. I must point out that we are very grateful that things worked out this way, and thank our lenders for their generosity!

We finally received all the well drilling quotes just before the weekend. After analyzing the numbers, we calculated that the fixed price quote will probably give us the best deal, given a well depth of 400' minimum. A house down the hill that this driller did has a 400' well, and our neighbor to the north has a 550' well. Given that, we think that a 400' minimum depth for our well is a pretty good bet. Also, their Water System Price is $1500, which is $500 - $700 cheaper than the other quotes we have. When we saw that the contract guarantees a well with a flow rate of 5gpm, everything seems to work in their favor. I do have some questions for them before we sign anything:

1) What can they do to guarantee the flow rate?
2) Can we drill near the driveway to avoid having to get the truck in and out of undeveloped portions of the land, which is what I talked to this driller about when we met at the property?
3) Is the price for the water system fixed once we sign the contract or subject to change based on market prices when it is installed (we would have to pay the 5k when the well is drilled and the 1.5k when the water system is installed).
4) Do they know any dowsers in the area?

I left a message this evening for them, and hope to hear soon.

I heard back from the neighbor who did the driveway, let us refer to him from now on as Ed. Ed looked at it and says it needs some more fill at the top once we get to using it more (that is why it is all soft now), but that it should be fine for now. Ed is out of commission right now after having had knee surgery this weekend, so it will be 4 weeks or so before he can do much else.

I also called back the guy who dug the perc holes, as I had missed a call from him over the weekend. We are going to meet Wednesday evening to discuss the septic plan and the well logistics. Wendy is going to try calling some other septic contractors recommended by Ed and the neighbor to the north to see what we need to do to get estimates.

The last bit of excitement is that the chainsaw arrived Friday. I put the bar and chain on, and am harboring a desire to take down the pine that is shading the vegetable garden at my father-in-law's house. I have to go get some safety gear first, so maybe I will try it out next weekend!