Well & Septic - Check!

Sorry it's been a while since we last posted. I'm battling some sort of stomach flu/food poisoning, and just haven't had the energy to post. Last Thursday, the well and septic installation started. While this might seem boring to most, it's obviously two of the most important items for our future home. All I can think of Uncle Eddy's famous phrase..."shitters full!" Ha! Luckily it won't be a while before Brad can use this exclamation! Our tank is 2000 gallons - and that my friend, is a lot of...well, you know. :)

Anywhoo, the septic design has been a hurdle. Johnson County requires that you have a soil and septic engineer come out, evaluate your property and design a system even before you get your building permit. Although we have over 3 acres of land to choose from, it seems our soil showed signs of saturation that didn't make it fit for a traditional "gravity" system. We had to have an at-grade system installed which essentially requires a pump from the septic system out to a leach field located higher than the tank. It involves a whole lot of gravel, dirt and earth moving. Butch, our excavator disagreed with her decision to have an at-grade, and we'd tend to agree with him, but our engineer didn't think it needed a second look, so we proceeded as designed.

I know it doesn't seem all that large, but the hole this puppy went in was probably 8' deep by 10' wide. Brad and I almost fell in it at night when we were checking out the progress, but luckly Butch knows to anticipate morons like us and parked his backhoe in the way. Good thinking!

 

So that's what 90 tons of gravel looks like! Yes, 90 TONS! I guess that's what our at-grade system calls for. Seems like overkill if you ask me!

Eventually we will have a dirt hump that will be a nice mounded flowerbed on the west side of our property. It will definitely be a challenge to disguise, but we are hopeful it won't even be noticable in the end.

This is the pipe running from the septic tank out to the leach field. Seems wierd that we have all of the house plumbing funneling into a small tube, then into a 2000 gallon tank, then back into a tiny tube.

Although it might seem tempting to use these as field goal posts, they will be promptly chopped down flush with the ground - of course after okaying that with the county. Me and the folks down there are going to be great friends ;-).



The second tank seen here with the concrete collar is our pump chamber. This will have an alarm in the event it ever goes out. Translation: anticipate sewage backing up into the house. No way jose!



While the basement was being poured and the septic system was being installed, our well went in. Initially we bid it out at 385' but were keeping our fingers tightly crossed that somehow the aquifer was much closer to the surface than anticipated. When all was said and done, our well came back at 390', so only 5' more than planned. Which is great, becuase every additional foot is an additional $21. That adds up very quickly! The process of digging the well involves the worlds second largest truck (aside from a concrete pump truck) and lots of PVC piping. I wasn't able to witness their work, but will trust that this wasn't their first rodeo. All we're left with of our 390' is a small portion of tube which will eventually be disguised as a flowerbed.

It's crazy how some of the smallest items cost the most amount of money! It's like we have our own little city sewer system just for ourselves!

Oh by the way, our garage got poured too. It is absolutely gorgeous and we can't wait to have an attached garage. Something we've never had! With the temperatures dropping by the second, it definitely was the right decision for our hilltop location.
 

This is a site for sore eyes!

We love this shot as you can see both the basement and the garage finished. The footers for the porch and deck also got poured. You can see the deck footings to the right of this picture.

Our general contractor said that if the weather holds out, he's hoping to start framing on Friday or Saturday. We're not even sure what we'll do when the lumber starts to arrive. We're pretty much at a stand still until that point. I guess the roof trusses are going to be delivered on Monday, so things will start to move vertically - and quickly!

So in the meantime, we plan on sharing some of our ideas for decorating our future home. Stay tuned...

Love,
The Crawfords

It's about time!

We have CONCRETE! It's one of the most exciting things that's happened so far! Every task we complete leads to another more exciting task. Next up, framing! Well, amongst other things! Today the basement floor was poured and floated, the garage is prepped for tomorrow with gravel and rebar, and our "Megatron" transformer was installed. Our yard looks like it was on the movie Caddyshack! When they trenched in the electric cables, they did a number on our freshly excavated yard.

The garage should be poured tomorrow (fingers crossed) weather permitting. The weather isn't really getting any better, so hopefully Mother Nature can hold on for us a little while longer!



Our electronic transformer. The well will soon be its neighbor, which will then be followed by plantings...lots of plantings! :)



OMG - can you believe it! It looks so much bigger with the concrete in. The guys doing the "flat work" as they call it are absolutely artists! Well done!

I guess the burlap helps the concrete dry a bit more quickly. When I got there today, the guy was standing on top of the concrete, so whatever they use must set-up pretty quickly - with or without burlap!

Here's the 'ol Caddyshack  yard. All signs point to...they're not coming back to fix that. I guess we better get a good landscaper - or a tractor with lots of yard attachments! Who's up for grading?? Anyone?

View from the garage

The garage ready to roll.

I guess they weren't kidding when they said the dirt wouldn't go far!

The garage got back-filled today which means that concrete is next in line! Woo hoo! The moment we've been waiting for. Even though the walls really made the place take shape, filling in all the low spots with dirt help us really visualize the actual size.

It's a beaut Clark! You can also see a bit of the "Black Jack" waterproofing peeking out. Can't wait to have a dry basement!



Same photo as above, just the left (single stall) side of the garage.



Brad checking out the plumbing and backfill in the basement.

One of our largest piles of dirt was gone after the house was backfilled. The garage took a nice chunk out of another pile. It looks like a dirt Stonehenge around here!



We are so excited to have an attached garage. On this day the ambient temperature was about 42 degrees. The wind was about 30 mph which made it feel about 20 degrees and freezing cold. I guess we need to invest in a windbreak ASAP. I feel bad for our roofers! We'll pray for a non-windy day for that!



Our totally hidden downspout drains.

A nice top view of our sump pump and plumbing.

Plumbing - check!

Things are progressing nicely here at 3298! On Thursday, the plumber came by, worked his magic and roughed in all of our main drains. While plumbing isn't the most fun item, it sure does make it feel like it's taking shape. You can see the basement bathroom drains for the toilet, sink and bathtub/shower, the sump pump, floor drains and more!

Future basement/mancave bathroom rough-in.

The front wall of the house. Gravel will eventually cover the entire floor prior to the concrete being poured.

The main drain which will eventually be attached to our septic tank.

Eventually our gutter downspouts will be directed into these pipes so we won't have to constantly move them when mowing. It's really the little things in life...

Oh yeah, and E&J Electric (also geothermal) came and put up our temporary electric pole. Next up, the transformer - and we don't mean Megatron! Although that might be cooler :)

Geothermal!

Last Monday, the geothermal loops went in. Brad stopped by at lunch and literally couldn't believe his eyes! The installation of geothermal requires an enormous amount of dirt to be moved. Hopefully the investment in this relatively new heating/cooling method will really pay off. Rumor has it our annual heating and cooling costs will be around $300! Gosh, I think we easily surpassed that in two winter months at our house in Cedar Rapids and that was 1/2 the size! If you're interested, visit Climate Master for more information!

So here's how the geothermal loops work:



Summer Cooling - I believe the heat is drawn out of the house and released back into the earth.



Winter Heating - the heat is drawn from the still warm earth and transferred into the house. I've heard it's not a hot heat, so thankfully the wood-burning stove will turn up the toasty factor!

Can you believe the amount of earth that was moved? Everything was all done in one day!

Up close - sorry for the blurry pictures. They are courtesy of Brad's Blackberry camera phone.

This is where the loops go. Precision digging.

I think Brad may have ventured to the bottom of the very deep geothermal valley. To compare, that's a normal size shovel - maybe about 5 1/2 feet tall.

 The geothermal loops peeking out in the soon to be mechanical room.

 The ant hills have been flattened. Hopefully this will settle overtime as we were looking forward to this being nice and flat.

The foundation looks so tiny compared to all the dirt!