It’s been some time since my last post, and even longer since my last video was made. I’ll get into more depth through the course of this discussion, but I thought it was time to update everyone on the progress we’ve made in creating our homestead. It seems as though almost every day someone is asking me for a progress update and if we’ve started building, so I thought it would be easiest to just talk about that. Also, I am going to try to coordinate this with a video post, so hopefully soon there should be a video attached here. If you’d rather watch the video than read this whole post, just click below.
Setbacks and loss on the Homestead
A while back I mentioned the surprising loss of my father. It’s been 4 months now and it still doesn’t seem real. I really don’t know if I’ll ever feel whole, or even just ok – I’m just trying to make it through each day one at a time. That becomes difficult when undertaking a project such as this which requires advanced planning. Dad always used to make fun of me because whenever I began a project I had well construed timelines that I vehemently attempted to adhere to. I wasn’t always successful, but that’s how I tried to accomplish tasks in a timely manner.
In this project of establishing and building our homestead, there’s so much planning to do. With that, I’ve tried to come up with coordinating timelines for subcontractor scheduling as well as figuring out a timeline of when we can list our house to sell. I feel that if I don’t have timelines I won’t be able to keep up and we might suffer from unnecessary delays. Timelines are my friend, and they keep my motivation moving forward. That said, all of that advanced planning becomes difficult in light of my currently fickle emotional state. Dealing with the loss of my father has been difficult for me. I knew it would be, but when it’s hard to make it through one day at a time it’s even tougher to think about 3 months from now.
Further compounding the general somber spring we’ve had so far, my grandfather also passed away at the beginning of the month. I don’t want to belittle this loss, but it is subtly different from my father. My grandfather was 93; he had accomplished so many amazing things in his life, and he had the opportunity to do most of the things that he wanted to do. He was a successful businessman, an endearing hobbyist, and a self-taught practitioner of many things that I am interested in. I am continually impressed with everything he was able to do throughout his life. That said, even though the loss is great, I don’t feel as though the hurt is as acute as losing someone unexpectedly and so young. Regardless, this loss has only set back the healing of myself and my family.
Lastly, we’ve had the unfortunate business of dealing with our bank in obtaining our loan. Now, let me be clear about this. We financed our land through AgStar, and we’re doing an add-on loan to finance the construction of our cabin. All of our dealings with AgStar and our banker have been fantastic, and I couldn’t be happier to be doing further business with them. However, we were informed that our loan request won’t process for about a month, and that just delays things further. Now, under normal circumstances it wouldn’t be an issue because we typically have snow still. This year has been unusually warm, the snow has all melted, and the ground has thawed. What could be an unexpected, surprisingly early start has been delayed by our loan processing time. This is totally my fault which only makes it worse. I could have submitted the loan request earlier, but I didn’t anticipate that it would take so long, and I was also waiting for all of our estimates. In the end, we’ll probably still begin earlier than we had thought, but my patience is starting to wear thin after waiting for so long.
Progress on the Homestead
I wanted to construct this post as a literary compliment sandwich, or rather a literary open faced sandwich. By that I mean that I wanted to start with the bad and end with the good. I find that this tactic helps me process the bad and still remain hopeful. So let’s talk about some of the progress that we’ve made recently as we look forward to building our homestead.
First of all, we finally got our gate put in at the end of our driveway last fall. Now, this isn’t any special, ornate gate or anything but it is symbolic of progress and sentimental to me for two reasons. Practically, it is important because it helps keep our parcel secure. As we begin increasing the value and building and our building supplies are being delivered I will sleep better at night knowing that there is at least some deterrent preventing people from stealing our belongings or damaging our property. Before the gate was up we had visible signs of people driving around through our field and trespassing. The thought of that occurring once all of our materials were lying around was enough to make me nervous. Emotionally, this was important to me because it was the last project that I did with my dad. He was always there to help me, and this was a classic example. Even though he wasn’t feeling particularly well that day, he still came out to help me. I cherish that thought every time I see our new gate.
We were also informed a few months back that we had been approved for our septic permit. I discussed this in a previous post, but it was substantial in that it allowed further progress. Our county and our local zoning authority requires an approved sewage treatment permit prior to approval of a land use permit for construction of any building in which people are to reside. That’s a mouthful, but it boils down to the fact that without a sewage permit, we would not be able to live there. We could build a cabin without plumbing, but that would be the extent of it. Obtaining this permit has allowed us to accomplish the following steps.
Once we had gotten approval of our septic permit we knew it was time to get things moving. It was then that we sought out estimates from all of the subcontractors we would require for this project. For us, this would be subcontractors for the site preparation and slab, rough plumbing, well, septic, and spray foam insulation. It took some time to get all of the estimates back because I tried to get 3-4 estimates from different contractors for each need. Not all of them got back to me, but that made it easier in choosing which ones we would hire.
The well and the plumbing contractors did not require a down payment, so both contracts have been signed and they are awaiting scheduling. We have signed a contract and paid the deposit for our septic contractor, and he is awaiting scheduling. We have not yet signed the contract for the spray foam contractor as we want to ensure that our budget will allow for this, and is not yet necessary at this time. Most importantly for us right now is to sign the contract and pay the deposit for the slab contractor. The only reason we have not yet done so is because the deposit is 20% of one of our most expensive bills. This was originally supposed to be paid out of the loan, but in order to maintain my timeline I’m going to have to pay cash so that we can get the project moving while we wait for the loan. I am hoping to do so within the next week.
Also of equal importance, we had our land use permit approved. Most people would call this a building permit, as it gives us approval and the ability to construct our building legally. The difference between a land use permit and a building permit is that an inspection is not required by our local zoning authority, so it cannot legally be called a building permit. A land use permit gives us the ability to build, but the zoning authority cannot guarantee that the building is built conforming to all building code. This is because our local zoning area does not have enough residents to warrant a building inspector, and is commonly practiced in rural areas.
Furthermore, and I touched on this briefly earlier, THE WEATHER!! Holy cow; I have lived in this area for 31 of my 32 years, and I can’t ever remember a winter/spring such as this. In comparison, this time two years ago we got almost four feet of snow in April alone. It is extremely uncommon for the snow to have melted so soon and especially for the ground to be thawed. I can only imagine that dad is up there doing his part to ensure that we have an early start on our project.
Next steps on the Homestead
While the weather did kind of screw me up with our loan processing time, it has given me another opportunity, and that is to get our temporary electric in. When we first bought the parcel, we paid the local electric company to run our primary electric from the road to a transformer and meter pedestal near our building site. I still have to trench in the secondary cable from the meter pedestal to a temporary panel so that I can have electric during our construction. This will also be situated so that once the cabin is up I can just partially dig up the cable and move it into the cabin for the service line. To locate the temporary panel, I’ll be putting it in my dad’s “little red shed.”
As you can see, the shed isn’t actually red, but it used to be – hence it will forever be called the “little red shed.” Dad built his little red shed right before he built his house. *edit: I was informed by my stepmother that Dad did not actually build the shed, but he moved it from her neighbor’s place in town. In fact, he lived in the shed while he was building his house. It is an 8×12 shed with a small loft in it. He completely wired it for lights and outlets, and he made it pretty comfortable for the six months or so that he lived in it. While it obviously wasn’t plumbed, he had a rain barrel shower and a privy out back. It certainly did the job, and I couldn’t be more excited to put it to the same use. While I won’t be living in it, I will be staying in it while I’m building. It will give us an opportunity to store some of our tools or supplies, and if I have a few days off from work I can just stay there instead of dealing with putting up and taking down a tent every time. Again, practically and sentimentally, this means a lot to me.
Because it means a lot to me to move dad’s shed, I have accepted the fact that it won’t be easy. First of all, the shed is 25 years old. It’s not in perfect shape, and there are things that I probably need to repair. Secondly, dad has a car trailer that I’m going to attempt to move it with. As the move is only two miles, I’m not terribly worried about that part – it’s getting it on the trailer that has me worried. The fenders of the trailer stick up a foot higher than the bed, and the bed is not wide enough to hold the shed. This means that I’ll have to lift and support the shed an extra foot higher to clear the fenders. I’ve got to do some more investigative work but I don’t think that the shed is on skids either, which makes it more difficult. Moving the shed is my next priority and I will try to document/record this whole process once it’s (hopefully) complete.
The next priority is the temporary electric. All of my contractors requested to have electric on site to do their work, so I’d like to have it put in and complete by the time they’re scheduled. In order to do so, I have to trench 270′ from the meter pedestal to where the shed will sit. I’ve gotten a few estimates from people with backhoes ranging from $550-1250, and that’s way too expensive. While I thought about digging the trench by hand, I was quickly reminded that our property is heavy red clay and digging that would be miserable. The solution that I’ve come up with is to rent a Dingo Trencher at a cost of $130 a day which should work perfectly. Once the trench is done I can lay the cable, hook up my temporary panel, get it inspected, and then tie in to the meter pedestal.
The only other current priority is to pay the slab contractor and sign their contract. Again, I’m hoping to do that concurrently with the aforementioned priorities so everything will be scheduled seamlessly. My hope is that with the weather and getting the shed moved and power in this week the slab contractor will be able to begin the site prep and forming for the slab next week. My ultimate goal is to have all contractors done with their work by the end of May so that I can begin framing in June. That said, it’s currently raining here and has been for the past 36 hours, and is expected to continue through tomorrow. That might delay the shed move as I won’t be able to access it or deliver it to its destination in our field if the ground is too soft. Regardless, when it happens it will be a joyous occasion.
Wow, I guess there was a lot to talk about. Sorry this post got a bit lengthy, but thank you if you made it through it. Otherwise, you could have just watched the video! This is something that I hope to continue in the future so that it physically makes me get out and make the videos, and it provides alternatives for people to follow along. As I said, the shed move should be the next topic so I’ll let you know how that goes!