Stilts -r- Us

Russ and some buddies cleaned out the dirt that the storm left in the holes last week. Today, they set the piers and now we are ready for concrete. It is being delivered tomorrow at 8 a.m. How exciting is that!!

Lots of crazy things going on. The electrician is coming out tomorrow to run the underground wires and set the meter.

We are waiting on the septic permit to be approved.

And the storm water engineer is going to come out tomorrow to be sure the excess water is running where it should. Then that dude has to write a report and give it to Bexar County's storm water folks. Once they approve it, we can get our electric...

I guess tomorrow is a busy day! And I won't even be here. Doesn't that just stink.

Also, we have new friends here on the property. Russ insisted on rescuing a dog that was about to be put down. Tuxedo is his name. When you look at his photo, it will be obvious why we named him Tuxedo. He is about a year old. He very pretty, and his coat is shiny and so soft. Tux has caramel colored eyes that draw you in. We have enrolled him in behavior classes at Pets Mart. He is full of energy and loves to catch a tennis ball. We want to see if he can play with a Frisbee too.

Also, the pig named Hagar (who we were sure was a male) had a litter of piglets - four of them - on Sunday. So, I guess we were wrong! He is a she. And we've decided to keep her name Hagar. It is too hard, after eight months, to remember a new name.

More Information

Someone asked how we made the decision to build our house from an old school portable... So I thought I would tell the story.



I drive past Dodson's House Moving on South Loop 410 every time I drive to Tejeda Academy to work. They had a cute little green house for sale and I was interested in it. Russ and I went online to Dodson's website and looked at that house and others that were on the website.



One day, we had some time on our hands so we went to Dodson's to look at what they had available. The little green house was REALLY small (probably not more than 700 sq. ft.), really old, very poorly laid out. They had several houses there, but all were too small or really needed too much work. Russ and I looked at several portables just for fun. Russ's dad, Pat, was wanting to build a catering kitchen for Gina and Russ and I talked to him about buying one for that purpose. While talking about that possibility, Pat said you can't buy the material for what they are selling some of these buildings for. That got Russ and I to talking about it, and finally deciding that it was a great idea.

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Russ is very excited. The building is at least 6 feet off the ground on one corner and about 8 feet off the ground on the opposite corner. He hopes to be able build a shop under there for his tools etc.



He has to clean out the holes that we drilled in the next few days because he plans to pour concrete on Wednesday. Then we wait for two weeks for it to cure. After that two week wait, Dodson's can come back out and put the building down on the piers Russ has set.



During the two week wait... Russ is going to put in our septic and hopefully our electric (from the pole to the building).



I also wanted to put in a photo of the tub we bought. I mentioned it in an earlier blog, just didn't have a photo of it then.

Home Sweet Portable

The house is on our property... YIPPPPEEE!!!!!!

I was able to take a half day of work off so I could be here for the arrival of our portable. The folks arrived a little earlier than originally expected. So when I arrived, the house was about half way to its destination on this property. I took some video and lots of photos. But I will only attach one because I realize it's not quite as exciting for y'all! =-)

We had to hurt a few more trees, which was unfortunate. But the building would have had some major damage otherwise. We still have a beautiful live oak out of our back door and quite a few persimmon out the front. And bluebonnets and many other wildflowers off the right side. It is a beautiful spot!

This day has taken many months of fretting, thinking, planning, working, and worrying. And I know that the worrying isn't over - but just beginning!

Propane, Holes, and Poles

Last weekend, we found a 250 gallon propane tank for $350. It was quite a drive, all the way to Poteet, to pick it up. Brand new, they run $800 to over a $1000. We found this on Craig's List also. You sure can find great deals on that website if you know what you are looking for.

We borrowed a skidsteer from a neighbor and rented a 18" auger to dig holes for our power pole and our piers. We are going to put our house on pieces of telephone poles. When Russ was almost done, I took this photo. Russ and I both said that it looks like a mole was loose on our property. (Or for those Nascar fans - Digger was loose.)

We got the news on Saturday that our building will be delivered on Tuesday. We are very excited about that. But now there is a long list of things that need to be completed before the building arrives. And since I am working day and night, I cannot be much help. To top things off, Russ's truck decided to break down today. And although it is just the starter, it is going to take some doing to get it fixed tomorrow because it is on the bottom of the engine and some other stuff has to come off just to get to it.

Our Home Site

One thing that I haven't done is put in a photo of our land. So I took a picture about a week ago.

We received our 3000 gallon water tank about two ago.

Russ went on Friday and picked up our telephone poles. We will use one pole for our electric. The rest are to hold up our house, like a pier and beam.

We have a friend that can get electrical stuff below retail. We finally got our bid from him this last week. Russ is planning on picking this stuff up today. Russ is meeting with our electrician today also.

I guess I should be very thankful that Russ is well versed in machinary. He ran the trencher like a pro. And we have to borrow a neighbor's back hoe. And he uses all the implements for his dad's tractor without a problem. Because of this, it has saved us a LOT of money.

Water Line and More

It has been so long since I have written... I am sorry about that.

This past Saturday, we rented a trencher. Russ ran the trencher while my dad and I connected 1700 linear feet of PVC.

The trencher decided to die about 2 pm. Russ tried everything to revive it. He finally called the place where we rented it and they sent out a repair dude. Come to find out, it was just a fuse...

Up to that point, Dad and I had barely stayed ahead of Russ. We managed to finish and I sent Dad to take a nap.

Russ finished trenching for our water line about 5 p.m. Then he had to do the neighbor's.

We are actually going to use Russ's Dad's well. That is why we had to run sooooo much pvc. Eventually, we hope to put in a rain water collection system. But for now it is too expensive. Russ has signed up for a rain water collection class through Northside IS

D community education where he hopes to get the newest scoop on filtering the rainwater, which is

the costly part.

The Utilities

Septic:
We are using our neighbor's engineer, Felix. He came out to talk to Russ about our septic system. He was very forthcoming with information and held nothing back. He told us not to have the property deeded to us until after the septic field was in and that would save us a LOT of money. He also had Russ take soil samples, two holes that were four feet deep. Samples at 1 ft, 2ft, 3ft, and 4ft to see if the soil would accept a standard leech field septic system (not aerobic, not low pressure). Felix got the samples and had them tested. Thankfully, we can put in a standard septic system. And Felix is letting us put the system in that he designed. He will inspect it before the county comes to make sure it will pass inspection.

Russ has found a company that is going to sell us a 1000 gal septic tank for $650, including delivery. That would usually cost us much more.


Water:
We wanted to do rainwater collection only. But we found that the roof washer and filtration system was going to cost about $2500. That cost is without the cost of a water tank. Our neighbor (Antonio) had to order a water tank for himself, his mother, and he had promised to buy one for Pat (Russ's dad). Russ went online and found a company that would charge one shipping fee if they are all sent to the same address. So Antonio put in the order and we paid him for our tank (3000 gal). We are going to use the well here on the property but we have to put in about 1/2 mile in PVC from the front of the property to our acre. We still hope to put in a rainwater collection system, but that will have to be at a later date.


Electric:
We had CPS come out to access the situation and tell us what we needed to do to get electric back to our property. Thankfully, our neighbor on the other side, has his son living pretty far back on his property. His last power pole is about 300 ft from our property. CPS wants us to set a pole 300 ft further back for $1800 and $1000 for guy-wires on our pole and the previous pole. Then we have to set our 20' meter pole. Instead of spending all that money, Russ's dad has agreed to give us right-of-way for our power pole. Then we will bury our line after the meter.


So... That is all about our utilities. We cannot start our septic system until after the building is put in place, because the building will be brought in over the top of the leech field. Russ will rent a Ditch Witch so we can bury the water line and the electric line. The lady down the road has a backhoe that she will let us use for as long as we need it.