Today is the day. We are breaking ground. We have our dirt guy, Rafe, and our concrete guy, Chuck here. Together with Les and the girls, we are finally embarking on this home building journey. What a great feeling -- although it's somewhat surreal.
Today is a nice, cool, cloudy day. Still too hot for me, but there is a cool breeze and it may even rain this afternoon. One can only hope. We've already had 2 neighbors come to visit. People are curious about what's going on.
I almost cried while marking the trees that needed to come down. I begged their forgiveness. Yes, I'm one of those damn tree huggers I guess. We shall see what can be accomplished on this beautiful day.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Plumber
We're all ready -- ready to break ground on our house. And we're waiting on the plumber.
We only need the plumber for the drainage for the house. The water running to the sinks, shower, etc. will all be done via manifold plumbing. That's so simple, Les and I can do that ourselves. I'm debating on whether or not to collect gray water for the small amount of landscaping we will do. Now's the time to do that. I don't know... we intend to collect rain water for that purpose, too. But... rain? What is that??
Speaking of which, there are a couple of horrible forest fires raging in Colorado right now. Along with some smaller ones. The Black Forest Fire is finally contained, after burning down over 500 homes.
The West Fork fire is burning up on Wolf Creek Pass. An absolutely gorgeous place. When you think of the beauty of Colorado, you think Wolf Creek Pass. That fire is at 80,000 acres -- about 120 square miles. It's absolutely huge with no containment whatsoever.
Then, near us, there's the East Peak Fire. From our property, you can see the Spanish Peaks. Well, the East Peak started on fire from a lightning strike. It's burned about 12,000 acres. Yesterday, the smell of the smoke was worrying. The entire town of Walsenburg, population 3,000, was on a pre-evacuation notice since the fire started. For a while, our little animal shelter was receiving evacuated animals. I helped with some cats that came in. There was one cat, a feral barn cat... what a wild thing! I just appreciate his owner taking the trouble to catch him and bring him in to safety. Many people wouldn't bother with a feral.
So that's my little update. Will write more when I know more.
We only need the plumber for the drainage for the house. The water running to the sinks, shower, etc. will all be done via manifold plumbing. That's so simple, Les and I can do that ourselves. I'm debating on whether or not to collect gray water for the small amount of landscaping we will do. Now's the time to do that. I don't know... we intend to collect rain water for that purpose, too. But... rain? What is that??
Speaking of which, there are a couple of horrible forest fires raging in Colorado right now. Along with some smaller ones. The Black Forest Fire is finally contained, after burning down over 500 homes.
The West Fork fire is burning up on Wolf Creek Pass. An absolutely gorgeous place. When you think of the beauty of Colorado, you think Wolf Creek Pass. That fire is at 80,000 acres -- about 120 square miles. It's absolutely huge with no containment whatsoever.
Then, near us, there's the East Peak Fire. From our property, you can see the Spanish Peaks. Well, the East Peak started on fire from a lightning strike. It's burned about 12,000 acres. Yesterday, the smell of the smoke was worrying. The entire town of Walsenburg, population 3,000, was on a pre-evacuation notice since the fire started. For a while, our little animal shelter was receiving evacuated animals. I helped with some cats that came in. There was one cat, a feral barn cat... what a wild thing! I just appreciate his owner taking the trouble to catch him and bring him in to safety. Many people wouldn't bother with a feral.
So that's my little update. Will write more when I know more.
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| They just look so happy together! |
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Permits!!!
At long last! I finally have something to write about on building our home.
We went to the County today to get our building permits. Les has been anxious to get the house started. He's been talking to some people who will be able to help us. We want to put the foundation in this year, then the framing, roof, walls, stucco, etc. next year. We may even have it roughed in enough to live in the winter after next. It's going to take a while to finish it. I get that. I just want so badly to actually live up there.
So, permits are in hand. These probably would have cost over $10,000 in California. Here in little Las Animas County, they were a mere $1700. And that means we can finally get an address, too. I'm just so excited. Whenever people asked what our address was, we had to explain that we don't have one, but just follow Compton Ridge Drive all the way up to the top. Now, we get an address, too. I'm giddy.
The day after tomorrow Les and I will be leaving to go to Utah. We are visiting DJ and Savannah. Savannah has been working in the oil fields again for the last 6 weeks or so. She had been laid off for about 3 months, but now she's happy to be back at work. And DJ has cut back on his hours. He was working 120 hours per week, but then figured out that if he only works 60-70 hours per week, his net paycheck is the same. So he's happy to be only working from 5:00 am to 4 or 5:00pm 6 days a week rather than from 5:00 am to 12 midnight 6 days a week. That must have really been horrible. Poor boy was tired all of the time.
Well, I'm just thrilled as can be about those building permits. As we move on down the road, I will be posting more enthusiastically. Can't wait!!
We went to the County today to get our building permits. Les has been anxious to get the house started. He's been talking to some people who will be able to help us. We want to put the foundation in this year, then the framing, roof, walls, stucco, etc. next year. We may even have it roughed in enough to live in the winter after next. It's going to take a while to finish it. I get that. I just want so badly to actually live up there.
So, permits are in hand. These probably would have cost over $10,000 in California. Here in little Las Animas County, they were a mere $1700. And that means we can finally get an address, too. I'm just so excited. Whenever people asked what our address was, we had to explain that we don't have one, but just follow Compton Ridge Drive all the way up to the top. Now, we get an address, too. I'm giddy.
The day after tomorrow Les and I will be leaving to go to Utah. We are visiting DJ and Savannah. Savannah has been working in the oil fields again for the last 6 weeks or so. She had been laid off for about 3 months, but now she's happy to be back at work. And DJ has cut back on his hours. He was working 120 hours per week, but then figured out that if he only works 60-70 hours per week, his net paycheck is the same. So he's happy to be only working from 5:00 am to 4 or 5:00pm 6 days a week rather than from 5:00 am to 12 midnight 6 days a week. That must have really been horrible. Poor boy was tired all of the time.
Well, I'm just thrilled as can be about those building permits. As we move on down the road, I will be posting more enthusiastically. Can't wait!!
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| Les and Mindy next to Les's warning sign. |
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