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Friday, May 9, 2008

Building News

Last week I mentioned that it was our rush week and that we were trying to turn in the papers for our loan. Unfortunately, we continued to have delays with the perk test and septic bid so I wasn't able to meet my goal. Even so, this week has been more relaxed. Pretty much it was just a wait to have things finalized on the contractors end.

We finally got the results in for our perk test. Not good. We have some nice thick clay 1 1/2 feet down. Instead of the $3200 system, we are now looking at an $8000 system. There will also be some extra expenses with moving the building a bit further from the road to make this system work.

Even though this is a bit more than we were wanting to fork out for the septic, I think it will be better in the long run. We had planned on just putting in a second septic system if we build a stick house down the road, with the purpose of keeping our costs down right now. But with this one costing so much, we are going to position it so that we can use it for the house if we end up building one.

Ethan was concerned about placing the septic system in this spot because it is in the middle of the pasture land. You can't drive or graze over a lateral septic system (the cheaper one), but you can graze and bale hay over a sand filtered system (the more expensive one.) With going the route that we are forced to go, we will have a septic system in the pasture area that can be driven over and grazed over and that can be used for a stick house down the road. So although the price seems discouraging now, it is probably the more beneficial route for the long term.

Finally, the news I've been waiting to share. Today I turned in 25 pages of pictures, drawings, bids, and material lists to the bank!!! I have been waiting to do this for a LONG time! We first set our eyes on this piece of land in January, and I have been setting aside housework since the beginning of February until now piecing this all together.

I can honestly say that this project has taken more planning and time than planning our wedding did. I had no clue how it would all fit together or even what needed to be fit together when we started. So I thank everyone for the prayers and encouragement that were sent to me! It was amazing to see how right when we thought we had hit a locked door in our project (which happened A LOT!), we found a window to crawl through to keep things going.

What now? Well, we wait for the appraisal for our construction loan, the land to be released between the two lenders, and then we can start building! I will be very relieved when we get the okay to build. Hopefully I will be posting construction photos in June. :)

3 comments:

Julie said...

I'm glad everything is moving along. The plans look and sound great, but I have one question - where is the kitchen!

The Beginning Farmer's Wife said...

Julie-
On the right side of the page, there is a topical index of posts. If you click on "The Homestead", and scroll down to March, there another picture of the house that was in the packet too. This one is a computer drawn picture that shows the house decorated and furnished.

In the dining room, along the outside wall, is my kitchen - all two cabinets, the sink, stove, and fridge. There is also a sideboard in the dining room for extra storage. All of the rest of the kitchen things will go into the pantry in the hallway. This is to save money on cabinets, which are quite expensive! Even so, the dining room/kitchen is designed that we can add more cabinets to the wall with the sideboard if we want to someday. :)

Julie said...

Ahhh! Now I can picture it. I love your idea and am looking forward to pictures of it as its being built and then the after pictures when its finished!
I hope you had a nice mother's day.

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