Wood and Stone

A site to track our progress as we build our FirstDay Cottage Canadian house kit. Come on in, get a cup of coffee, set a spell and follow along on our journey or join in if you like. Check back for the weekly update (usually by Wednesday when things are going right) to see what we are currently up to!

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Drive on the Parkway...

We are still awaiting approval of our driveway permit by the town highway department, but in the meantime our neighbor has started clearing the way for the driveway so that he is ready to go when they give approval. Wendy had tried contacting the highway supervisor for a couple of weeks, leaving voicemail ewach time, but never received a return call. I had mentioned this to our neighbor when he asked about our permit, and he said to tell them that he is doing the driveway.

Wendy called once more armed with this info, and left yet another voicemail. Three (count em, three) minutes later, she received a return call. The highway supervisor said that our permit would be approved no problem, and that he would meet with our neighbor and tell him what needed to be done for the driveway. So they are arranging to meet (circumstance makes it so that they cannot meet for a wek or so yet) and as soon as they do, we will have a driveway built.

I am still a bit leery, as I am unsure I understand what our neighbor's plan for the driveway is. I want to bring it out right through the hole where the electric right-of-way enters the property (from the southwest), perpendicular to the road, but he is talking about angling it to the north a bit (downhill) to make it easier to get in and out of in the winter. I need to speak to him about this.

As for the price, he expects that it will come out between $1,000 and $2,000, based on the amount of fill needed to level it up. There is a pretty big rise to the road from where the electric right-of-way is cut, but there are a number of boulders that he will push in and use under the driveway where he can to raise it up, so hopefully that will minimize the fill we need. Fortunately he is just charging us the going rate for fill and gas and then his time (bulldozer work and cutting trees in the area of the driveway).

We took a ride up after Glen, Julie and Renata's Bon Voyage party (should it be Gute Reise?) to see what he had already done with clearing. Wow! It is astounding what difference a couple of trees taken down can make. You can see all the way back to where the house is going to go (behind those two very-well-spaced-for-a-hammock trees in the center of the back!

A clearing
You can see the difference from the photo in the Denial and Isolation to Acceptance post. Here is the view from the where the main door of the house will be, facing the road.

A clearing
It is very encouraging to see the project moving forward in a concrete way such as this!

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