Not so much to tell

Click the photo for a slide show

We visited our property last Monday. The excavation is complete, but we are waiting on a geo-tech survey to make sure the foundation will be stable. The big problem is rain...and rain...and did I mention that it has rained a lot?

As soon as the geo-tech survey is complete, forming the foundation will begin. The hope is to have the foundation poured by the end of next week. That would put us on track to start framing about the time we move to Dallas.

Speaking of moving, we have packed about as much stuff as we can pack and still be able to live! We wander around the house looking for things to do. There is little packing left, until our P.O.D.S. come and we can start loading stuff out of the house and into the storage units. There is nothing to read, because all the books are packed. We have decided that it is better to have a real estate deal close in one month from acceptance of the offer, instead of two. We are feeling in limbo and ready to get on with the adventure.

On the up side, we have found a nice RV park in Independence, about a 1/2 mile from Pat and Katie. The managers of the park are a nice, Christian couple who have made sure that we have a primo space in which to park our Sadie for our summer stay. We have access to our mailbox at the property, so we have a forwarding address. We have an offer of help from some young men who are willing to load the heavy furniture into the P.O.D.S.

That process will begin on June 10th, and we will be moved out by the 16th. We'll park Sadie in the driveway after the P.O.D.S. are gone and spend the day of the 16th cleaning the house and yard. The morning of the 17th we will head for Independence, and "PeeWee's Big Adventure" will be in full swing.

So, that is the latest. More reports and pictures will follow, as the building project progresses.

So much to tell

Click photo for a slide show of the ground breaking and some of our new neighbors

This has been a busy week. Last Thursday, we met with our contractor. He took us to visit several of his vendors, so we could see the quality of materials that will be included in the basic allowances. If we want to upgrade anything, we have the option to do so at our own expense. So far, we see little to no need to consider upgrades. At the very least, I think we may be looking at a few hundred dollars rather than a few thousand.

Monday, we met Duane again in Salem. We signed two contracts. The first was to secure the lot in our name. The second was for the building of a house on said lot. We met at an escrow office and did everything in a very business-like fashion, which I appreciated very much.

Following our meeting with Duane, we parted ways temporarily. Jill and I went to Independence and made a reservation to stay at the Ash Creek RV Park during the time of construction. We picked up some lunch, and then we headed for Dallas, where we were able to see the footprint of our new home plotted on the lot. It is going to seem like an estate.

Duane met us there and walked us around the lot and explained everything to us. We met several of the neighbors who walked by and stopped to chat. Jill already has two water aerobics partners and a walking partner, and Pogo had a friend named Buster.

Today, we drove back to Dallas for the groundbreaking. We arrived a few minutes past nine, and the crew was busily "logging" the lot. Several trees had to come down to make room for the house, but we will have several oaks, a cherry tree and a fir tree in the back yard. It should be quite lovely, with plenty of afternoon shade on our west-facing patio.



The weather soured while we were on site, so we decided to come home and let the workers do what we are paying them for. We stopped at the mechanic's shop to pick up Sadie, our motor home and soon to be full time home, following a carburetor rebuild. We took her to the storage facility, and now we are home.

Tomorrow, we continue packing up the house. Our official move out date is June 17, 2010. We have ordered a change of address with the post office, and we received our keys for the community mailbox that will be ours. As soon as we get to Independence, we will have mail delivered to our new Dallas address. Stay tuned; things are happening at break neck speed around here!

It's all in the plan

It took me a few days, but I finally figured out how to convert a .pdf file to a .jpg. So, now I can post some drawings of the new house.


This, of course, is the floor plan. We have made some minor changes to the pantry/laundry/master bath area, which will give us a larger pantry, with the door closer to the kitchen. We also plan to have a 6'0" X 6'0" window in the dining room in lieu of the patio slider. We will replace the window on the left side of the dining room with a door with a full length window that will lead out onto the covered portion of the patio.



And here is a front elevation showing the RV garage on the left end. Duane carefully redrew the front porch cover (second gable from the right) a little larger to balance the visual weight of the extra garage area and its necessarily taller overhead door.

Click on the drawings to blow them up for closer inspection.

I spoke with Duane on the phone today. He expects to have the plans ready to submit to the planning commission early next week. I believe that means that we will have a contract soon, and then it should be about a week before we can break ground. Heady stuff!

A major step

Another trip to Dallas was on our agenda today. We checked out the lots that will fit our plan. It was a tough decision, because we had in mind to find a west-facing lot, but all the west facing lots that fit our plan had an awful slope to the rear of the lot.

At last we realized that the lot we liked best, although facing east, has a nice stand of oak trees in the backyard. Well, actually they cover about half of the lot, so we will have to take several of them out. Nevertheless, we will be able to have a nice shady yard in the afternoon.

We walked down the street to one of the houses that Duane has built in the subdivision. It has several oaks in the backyard and the owners have done a beautiful job of landscaping around them. We will definitely introduce ourselves and study their work. There will be plenty of room for a stream/waterfall/fishpond.

Duane took us to see a couple of houses he has built. His craftsmanship and attention to details is wonderful, and both homeowners said that it was a joy to work with him. Jill, of course, made immediate connections with the two women who owned these homes. I believe we will have friends in Dallas long before we move into our new home.

Interestingly, both of these homes have RV pads on the property, but neither party owns an RV. Jill mentioned that we will need a place to park our motor home during construction. Now we have two offers of RV pads we can use. While the offers are tempting, there is the problem of sewage. It would be quite inconvenient to have to drive somewhere every three or four days to empty the holding tanks. I think we will look for an RV park with a full hook-up.
After our adventures we were hungry and we wanted to go back and just dream about our new home. We stopped at Subway and got a sandwich, and then we went back to the lot for a picnic. I called Patrick, and he came over to see the area and the lot we chose. It is within about four or five blocks of a dear friend of his. The fact is that we looked at a house right next door to Dave and Kellie's!

So, the ball is rolling, and we are impatient to see some big progress. Duane will call us in a few days when he has put the drawings together and made a cost estimate. I can already tell the waiting will be the hardest part of this project.