The Septic

One of our many concerns about building a house is the septic. We heard (after our property had closed) that the county is really picky and won't take an inspection from a third party as good enough to pass. So even though our septic passed before we bought, the county might find something wrong with it and not pass it (in fact I heard they look for anything not to pass it because they don't like old septics and want everyone to have a sand filter). This means we might have to put in a 14,000 sand filter :( Sooooooo we decided to get the septic all ready for the inspection whenever that may be, and started uncovering the intake and outake pipes. This is where we discovered the old, thin piece of metal (maybe a coffee can?) that was used to patch a cut in the PVC pipe, no glue to hold it on, just some bent metal and rocks on top of it. Something told us this wouldn't be enough to pass inspection so Ron got on it. Our good friend Matt came out tonight and helped Ron cut the pipe and put on some fittings to get rid of the hole and make it look a whole lot better. Sorry no pictures, didn't think anyone wanted to see human waste floating down the PVC pipe, but if you are really disappointed let me know and I'll hook you up with some pictures...........hey some people are sick. So that's the update today, more pictures in the next couple days. Thanks for reading!

Here We Go

Ok here is the first post for our homebuilding blog. Most people that visit here will know all the details of how we got here so I'm just going to blog about what's been going on the last couple weeks and what will happen in weeks to come.

Since we got here 2 weeks ago Ron has been spending every last second of daylight, cutting burning, and getting ready for the heavy equipment to get here so we could start some real progress. I've been inside getting things somewhat organized, even though there is not enough room for our stuff :( Oh well it's only for a few months, who cares if the roof leaks and my dog threw up in the living room last night.

We've decided to do as much work ourselves as possible because it saves us money, thankfully Ron's dad Mike works for a heavy equipment rental company and got us a good deal on renting some of the stuff we needed, plus he's quite the machinery operator, I never knew! So here are some pictures of what we have been up to the last couple weeks just in case some of you thought we fell off the face of the earth, sometimes I feel like we have.

The above picture is similiar to the one I have at the top of the blog, it was taken after one of the many rainstorms we have had lately. It's just so darn pretty up here!

Here's a view from where our future house will sit. The following pictures are just some different views from different parts of the property.

Here's Bayley and I mowing the front yard, it was just a little bit fun on our riding lawn mower. Probably won't be as fun in the heat of the summer but at least I can work on my tan!

Below is a view of the old shed that Nick and Ron demolished. We saved some of the good wood for the chicken coop my dad is going to help er......I'm going to help him build :) The old shed was right in the way of where we needed to dig for the house pad, so it had to go, plus it was ugly!

Here is where the house will be............


Here it is burning, alond with some trees Ron cut down...........


Here's Ron the mountain man cutting trees with his new chainsaw.......there sure are a lot of things we need to build the house and they all seem to be man toys! All I've gotten are some rubber boots and a promise from Ron for some work gloves :(


We now interrupt the progress of this house to stop and admire all the wildflowers growing. I had to stop and pick some the other day. Nothing like fresh flowers in a vase that you didn't pay anything for and that you did nothing to grow, well I guess if you think about it I paid quite a bit for them.......it's called a mortgage............oh well I still like them. Ok back to the house.




After a lot of cutting, getting ready for the heavy machinery.........

Are you sure this is hard work?...........

There's a lot of work to be done here, that whole hillside needs to be cleared and dug out.

Ripping out tree stumps like it's nothing..................

Making some progress on Saturday.........
My dad helping with the fires.........

My new sister in law Amanda, helping with the fire...................



Bayley knew she needed warm clothes and boots to come outside, this is what she came up with...
Digging with Uncle Matt...............


Digging with daddy................


Lots of progress




So that finishes one of the longest blogs I've ever created but we are all caught up now so only small posts with pictures from now on. Hopefully I'll have some more progress to report in the next couple days.................stay tuned!

Stay Tuned

Stay tuned, I will be working on this soon. I've got some great pictures to share I just need to find the cord to my camera!