Almost two months since the last update. The slog of just keeping your head down and saving money is tough. It will be late this year before we seriously look at moving forward with the construction loan but we're still working on getting smarter. Hopefully market conditions will help us some by then. Inflation and rising interest rates are working against us right now. The house we're in has substantially appreciated though.
Our Owner's association has a Neighbor Network where Owners chat with each other on things like, "who did you use to build your fence?" or "where do you get your dogs groomed?", etc. On it, there was a report a few weeks ago that the approaches to the bridge had been paved. This prompted us to go out for a look on Sunday 3/20. To our mild disappointment, the asphalt paving had not been done but it looked like almost everything but that had been.
This picture is from the west (far side from our house) of the creek at the end of the existing asphalt paving. What you are looking at is the compacted, finish graded roadbed. You can see the temporary crossing adjacent to the bridge has been removed and excavated....
A little closer to the bridge, you can see the roadside ditch on the south side (right hand) of the road has been stabilized and seeded. If you look closely, you can see the pink whiskers on the right hand side of the roadbed which are marking the edge of the proposed asphalt paving....
They still have some dirt work left around this E-Inlet and need to hydromulch (seed) around it, but the construction on it, itself and the line coming out of it is done....
Here at the west end of the bridge you can see the extensive excavation that has taken place to remove the temporary access road/crossing and to regrade the creek banks. They've got more finish grading to do here and then they'll hydromulch to stabilize it, and may even do some planting...
We drove across the bridge for the first time. Here, I'm looking south (downstream) where the temporary crossing used to be....
This is taken from the east (our side) end of the bridge looking east towards our section of the neighborhood. It looks like they are going to put that steel pipe in on this side for stormwater running down the hill. I presume this is to limit erosion. After the pipe is in, they'll need to finish grade and hydromulch.....
And this is taken from the top of the hill on the east side of the creek, looking east. They're pretty close to finished up here, with the exception of the asphalt paving......
As of yesterday, according to the neighbor network, the asphalt paving still wasn't down. We have a weather front coming through on Wednesday so I'm hoping they are doing the asphalt today and tomorrow but who knows. It's not holding us up anyway. We just like seeing the progress.
On our end, Sean and I have been diving into how best to insulate a Pole Barn and whether or not to put a ceiling in. We likely won't make a final decision on that until we have a discussion with the builder we select but we're getting better informed. If interested, check out the RR Buildings channel on YouTube. The guy has great attention to detail. He's up in Illinois so he's no expert on how to build here but after seeing his work, I still wish he was building our shop.
I completed the Tree Removal Plan. Of the 178 trees that we tied while doing the survey (trees 4" in diameter and above), 101 will remain and 77 will be removed. I have a quote to remove the trees and truck them away. The quote also includes setting the culvert for the driveway and building the construction entrance. The construction entrance is basically the foundation of the first section of our driveway. They place crushed stone where the driveway apron and approach will go and compact it. After most of the construction is done, that section will get cleaned up and paved over, so there is little to no waste there.
I had a colleague of mine help me determine some dirt quantities to build the pads for the house, the shop, and to level the area for the pool. Here is a screen shot of the model. You can see the ranch road crossing the lot from northeast to southwest and can see the pad for the shop behind it and the pad for the house and pool in the foreground. This is not the end all be-all. The Civil Engineer will tighten this up quite a bit but it's close enough to budget the site work....
We calculate that close to 1,000 cubic yards of fill are going to be needed. I have pricing the delivered cost of the material and the labor to build the pads/do the site work on my to-do list. Speaking of, I might as well memorialize it:
To-do list:
- Get a quote for delivered cost of 1,000 cubic yards of select fill and quote for site work to build the pads for the building and pool
- Get a quotes for 1,100 feet of linear fencing
- Update/Revise the site plan to add information required by the City
- Take a first stab at Grading plan?
- Contact an old friend and twist her arm to be our Civil Engineer on this project. Then outsource completing the Site Plan and Grading Plan to her.
- Research City permitting fees
- Get another pole barn quote
- Research City requirements for permitting a Pole Barn
- Work on internal shop layout
- Work on outside Patio/Bar layout
- Start list of features we want in and around the house (outlets in eves for Christmas lights, water softener, hose bibs, stub outs for propane and electric for pool equipment, etc.)
- Save! Save! Save!
As you can see, there is still a ton of work to be done. I believe the better we plan, the happier we'll be in the end. I guess that's it for now friends. Thanks for the interest.
