TV

We have not had any TV since Sunday when we moved over here. We paid the satellite guy to move our satellite last weekend but hooking up the TV has not been a priority - places to sleep, water, electricity were the priorities. Tonight after all the problems, Rod took the time to hook up a TV.

More water than we want

Well this afternoon started out a little rough.

1. The kids and I were locked out of their camper until Rod got home
2. The awnings were blown around with the wind today.
3. I started the generator and it ran out of gas in about 10 minutes.
4. But by far the worst was the extra water in our camper... yes it is leaking from the rain. We have 2 buckets in the bathroom and one over our bed. Looks like Rod and I will be sleeping on the couch in Tori and Tina's camper tonight.

One thing I am absolutely certain of, life will not be boring over here.

Continuous Water

One ongoing issue is the fact that we do not have electricity for the well pump without Rod moving the generator to the other side of the yard. The well is over near where the house will be built and we are about 300 feet away. Last night he ran electric cable from the pump to the generator. He will eventually rent a trencher and bury the line but for now it is across the ground. However, now as long as the generator is running we have continuous water. Now if we can just figure out the hot water situation we will be in business.

Tonight we spent time trying to organize our clothes in the new camper that we got 2 days ago. There is less space in this one for Rod and I to share. I packed up about 1/2 of my clothes but Rod seems to have brought more than anyone. I'm sure after a few weeks we will go through the clothes again and decide what we can do without and what we really need.

Last night was also the first time since Sunday that we all actually slept in a true bed. The kids went to bed on time and I was asleep by 10:30.

Thought I would post a picture of the new camper and also one of the beautiful leaves. I will be glad when we get all the necessities in order so we can enjoy how stunningly beautiful it is up here. I will be so excited when the house is finished and I can sit on the deck and enjoy all this.

Meet Dolly

Here is Tina and Dolly. The picture does not do her justice. She is bigger than she seems, at least compared to Molly.

A new way to live.

The last few days have been really full!!

Friday - (10/23) Rod and I both took off from work to begin the moving process. We had one of my friends (Shelli) and her kids (Zac and Hayley) come help us. We thought we had a lot of things packed but there was still so much STUFF!

Saturday - still more moving. On this day, My Mom and Mother-in-law came to help and Shelli and her family were still there. Again still MORE STUFF... By Saturday night we still did not have the house empty. Shelli, Zac, Hayley, Tori, Tina, Rod and myself spent the last night in our home that we had lived in for over 10 years.

Sunday - Shelton, Rod's step-dad came to help Rodney and Zac. The last heavy stuff went to the container and sheds. We had to use the 40' shipping container, TWO 10 X 10 storage units and all the cars are still packed. As if we didn't have enough to do on Sunday.... we also borrowed the horse trailer and brought home a new pot-bellied pig. We are hoping Dolly will be a Mollys buddy and friend. But right now they don't like each other.

Sunday Night - First night in the camper! It was hard. Crammed full with tons of stuff. Hard to move around, rabbits in the floor, dogs barking at the pig at 4:00 am, etc. I worried all night how long the generator was going to last. Since once it quits.. no heat. But it lasted all night long.

Monday morning - hectic. Rod and I were both off from work to close on the house. We got up early and all went to the old house to take one last shower. Teary eyed is how I was most of the morning. Rod had to go to Steiner Lift to take a load of junk metal while I was left frantically getting all of the rest of the STUFF out of the house. I really don't know when/how we accumulated so much junk. We left to close on the house with a load of trash left to haul off, the surround sound still up, and the chickens still in the coup. After the closing we all went back to the house with the new owners and took care of all the last minute items.

Monday night - ok, good grief.. more rain. The rush to move everything had many items left outside and not covered. Rain was in the forcast for Monday night and all day on Tuesday. Rod and I had to work until about 10:30 cramming stuff (yes another reference to all the STUFF) in the container.

Tuesday morning - First morning where everyone had to work. Tori was the first to try the shower at 5:30 in the morning.... A 5 gallon water heater only lasted about 2 minutes of shower time once she got the water right and finally got in there. She got out and was freezing! It heated back up and Rod did take one and he was able to do it quick enough. I ended up giving up and just working from home. Which meant we ran the generator all day. But it did fine and I was able to work sucessfully from my aircard just fine.

Tuesday evening - We took the rabbits to the "foster" home. Glad to get them out of the floor. We also had an issue with Sugar (one of the dogs) and Dolly (new pig). Sugar is posessive and they ended up fighting...

We also went to buy a 2nd camper. We got it home at about 10:30 last night. Didn't have any time to get it hooked up to the generator or anything so we all still slept in the original one. We had run the primary camper out of water. Since Rod has not run electrical to the well at 10:30 last night he had to put the generator on the tractor on haul it over well. String all the hose pipes together (including the new one we had to stop and buy on the way to get the camper). Turn on the pump, fill up the fresh water holding tank, disconnect the generator, haul it back to the camper, and plug it back in... Late night last night...

Wednesday morning - ok, forget the water heater this morning. Tori, Tina and myself needed showers.. Mom and Dad here we come. Rod did take a shower in the camper and he was fine. I think the girls and I are going to just go to Mom and Dad's until we get some type of instant hot water heater.

Stay tuned, will post pictures in the next day or two of the 2nd camper and Dolly.

Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork

I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out the steps to getting the financing for the construction loan and the permanent financing loan.

After talking with the banks we realize one decision that is necessary that we have not made yet is the builder. We are still looking at the quotes from 3 different builders. It is very difficult to compare because they do not all have the same items listed. After about an hour of looking at these, I realized we are going to have to go back to these builders and ask them to add the missing items so that we can truly compare. This has to be done before I finish filling out the loan paperwork for the bank.

The good item that came out of all my phone calls yesterday was a bank that will look at the value of all the land when determining the appraised value. They will loan us 85% of the total value of land and house combined. This means our equity in the land will be able to be used for that 15% that they would not loan us. We currently have 50% equity in the land.

Water in the well

We have water! We were getting worried, but they hit a good supply of water at 190'. He drilled down to 200' and the well filled up to about the 100' mark.

More Well Digging...

We got a call tonight from Mr. Perry, the person digging the well. He is at 175 feet and has not hit water yet. He told Rod that he hit the bedrock at 40'. His drill can go 225 feet. He also said that he has hit several crevices. He will continue to drill tomorrow. Our backup plan if he does not hit water, is to use this hole as part of the geothermal.

Well Digging

Perry Well Digging has started on our well. Mr Perry came out and did the "water witching" on Labor Day and found where he thinks 2 crevices are crossing. We drove a stake and put a Coors can on it to mark the spot.
It looks like he made it about 80-100' today. He estimated 170 ft would be necessary. The prices in TN are $16 per foot for drilling, $16 per foot for the steel casing. Codes requires 30' of steel casing at the top. We also have a $75 well registration fee ( state fee). Finally a $100 charge for benzonite to seal around the top of the well to keep ground water from seeping in.
There are no guarantees that we will not hit water or against sulfur, but he says he has a good track record in our area. He has done 10 within a square mile of mine. I should find out in another day or so if the well is successful and if the water is good quality and quantity.

Septic Permit

When we bought the land, it already had a septic permit. After closing when I received the copy of the permit, I started reading the "fine" print. The permit had expired 6 months earlier. So in Feb 2009 I called the TN Dept of Environment and Conservation Division of Ground Water Protection. I was told to renew the permit would cost $300. So in September 2009 I finally got around to going to renew the permit. Of course the price has now gone up to $550... I picked the completed permit up on October 5th, 2009. Today while adding this to my folder of paperwork, I noticed that he dated the permit 9-8-07 meaning it will expire in a single year! Now I am hoping we have our septic system in before 9-8-2010, but what if we don't? So I called him and he is going to change the date for me to reflect the corrected issue date. An early lesson that I need to watch all paperwork BEFORE I sign for it. I did not catch this when I signed to pick it up.

Passive Solar ICF House Plans Purchased!

Big step today - we actually purchased the home plans. Rod had been doing some research about passive solar houses. We bought a book called The Sun Inspired Home and have been looking at the plans in this book. We ended up buying the plans from their website www.sunplans.com. The cost was $1,645 in order to get the autoCAD files, PDF drawings, and the PDF energy specifications. We have 3 builders that we are getting quotes from. The only changes we are making to the plans are making the mechanical room into Tina's bedroom, making the root cellar into a closet the girls will share, and taking a portion of the rec room and making that the mechanical closet. We are also going to do ICF on both floors rather than just the basement.
You can check out the plans with this link Fernwood2

New "Temp" Housing

As of today we only have 15 days until we close on our old house. Today was the day to move the "new" temporary housing to the land. This is a 32' 1999 camper that we bought for $5,200. The guy even delivered it for free to our current house. The camper has a bedroom, full bathroom, sitting area, and kitchen.

Here are the pictures of getting the new 32' camper to the top of the hill.

Leaving our current house


Before getting to the building site you must go down and then back up. So here is the downward piece



And now the hill. This picture was taken from 1/2 way up the hill.


This will be half of our new home until ours is built. The plan is to buy a 2nd one and then we will have a double oven and 2 bathrooms :-)


What a view from the kitchen window...


And the view from the bedroom

Container Delivery

So we purchased a 40' shipping container to store our stuff in while we are building. Today was the day for it to be delivered. Right as the tractor trailer pulled onto the driveway (beyond the point of no return) the sky opened up. 40 minutes of hard rain and the driveway was now a muddy mess. It took almost 6 hours to get it delivered and the tractor trailer back out. I even had to help with some of the controls! It was certainly an adventure. So total cost - container + delivery + tip for the driver and the tow truck driver...$2,125

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. Here we will post about our journey of building our house on 50 acres of land in middle TN