* Once we pay our fire, school and remaining county fees…
Update: All moneys have been paid and we now have a building permit for real!
Month: September 2007
Busy Week
Well, finally, things are starting to happen! We got a septic permit this week, and we started working on that system. Our building permit should be coming any day now, and in anticipation we’ve started chalking the outline of the house and getting ready to do some foundation work.
Here’s Emma, helping with the chalk outline. The chalk comes in a big bag and you scoop it out with a cup then carefully pour it out to follow your line.
Here’s the finished outline
Here’s our septic tank being delivered
And here’s Al moving the largest of the stumps. We had him move all the stumps that were too big for us to tackle and now we have lots of lovely clear space!
And look, no stumps! Yes, I know, it is still a mess, but at least it is a mess we can deal with without large equipment.
And we also got gravel spread on our driveway and parking pad, so that when it rains we hopefully won’t disappear into the mud and muck.
Pictures!
Here’s some pictures of our camp, now that we’re nicely settled. Looking at these pictures makes me think of a squatter’s camp (as my brother said) but in person I think it is a bit more attractive.
Here’s the kitchen:
Here’s the “living room”:
Here’s a shot of the garden and the camp beyond:
And here’s Matt and his grandfather putting a roof on the workshed.
And in other news we’ve submitted our corrections and we should (fingers crossed!) have our permit next week. Yippee! We also bought a used trailer which needs a little work (mainly in the bathroom, as far as we know right now) but the price was right and it is in good shape otherwise. It is a 1988 23′ 5th wheel, and it will become home in another month or so. It may sound small, but the amenities are certainly a lot better than a tent!
We’re still here!
This blog has gotten awfully quiet, hasn’t it! We’re still here, camping on the property and waiting to get our permit. We’ve settled in quite nicely at our “campsite” and we’re enjoying the experience. At this point we’re pretty close to our permit (we think!). We’re waiting for one more set of corrections then we’ll submit those to the county and then we should either have our permit or further corrections in about a week to a week and a half. We’re really hoping to get those other corrections ASAP, but it is out of our hands. Right now we’re planning on starting on the foundation and septic system in the next couple weeks, then getting our SIP panels at the end of the month. Nothing is certain though at this point, but it does seem like we are still moving in the right direction. We’ve started looking for a trailer, but so far we haven’t found anything yet. We’d like to have one by the end of the month but since we’ve decided to get a used one it just depends on when the right one comes up and if we’re able to jump on it fast enough to get it.
I’m writing this on Matt’s laptop while I’m sitting on the property. It is completely dark and all I can hear are crickets and one lone airplane far up in the air. The stars are spectacular, especially since the moon isn’t up yet. We don’t have internet access here, but Matt should be able to post this tomorrow once he gets into the office. We’re trying to use MarsEdit to do remote blogging, so we’ll see how that works. I’m not sure I can do pictures this way though, unless my husband is kind enough to add them to the post once he is in the office.
Alright, I’m up far later than I usually am (it is 10:45, my goodness!) and it is time for me to walk the 150 steps to the porta-potty then scramble back to the tent and crawl into our sleeping bag. Yes, it is a different sort of life, but it is actually a pretty good one. 🙂