We’re building a new house. People warned us. They said it would ruin our marriage, cost more than the builder’s original estimate, and take much longer than expected. Well, they were mostly right. I’m happy to say our relationship remains intact!
But the whole process has been an eye-opener. We’re now five months into it but nowhere near as far along as we’d hoped. Why the delays? Well, first there was the rain. We had the rainiest summer in years.
Once the foundation trench was dug, it promptly filled with water. We called it “The Moat.” Geese would land and frolic in the Lollar wetlands. And once my hard working husband bailed gallons of water, it would rain and fill the trench right up again. He must have bailed water on at least 5-10 occasions along with putting a pump into action.
Once the rain abated, there was the matter of setting the drainage pipes around the foundation. But the contractor we had didn’t believe in quality work. When we tried to encourage him to up his game, he got porky and quit.
So my hard working hubby took the reins and tackled the job himself. He worked every day and into the night. There were a few times he was working in the dark until past midnight. I was a construction widow.
Doug Takes the Reins
The process wasn’t easy. Doug had to widen the trenches the contractor had dug, then lay down lengths of fabric that spanned the bottom and up the sides of the trench. After that he had to shovel in crushed rock and place the drainage pipe on top of the rock. Hauling the rock was laborious since he had to scoop it out of the bed of the truck and place it into buckets to lower down into the trench. He worked his way all around the footprint of the house and garage — about 320 feet.
Once the pipe was laid down he had to haul more crushed rock to cover it up, then wrapped the fabric like a burrito around the rock and pipe. On top of that went the dirt. It took him weeks of working in the hot sun to get this job done. And now we have more rain, which is going to delay the back-fill process and placing of the concrete basement floor and garage pad.
I have newfound admiration for my wonderful husband. He wanted the job done right and was willing to put his back into it. He wore through ten pairs of gloves and shoveled 10 1/2 tons of stone. He grew muscles in places he’d never had them before.
He had also constructed the septic system. You remember the story about the septic tank, right? That project took months of work. Then, after he had put in the chambers and pipe leading out to the leach field, we had a terrible hail storm, which drilled numerous holes in each pipe. So his choice was either to dig out and replace the pipes, which would have cost over $1000 or do a patch job. He opted for the patch job. There are three pipelines and each one has taken days of back breaking work to patch each hole.
A Major Project
Building this house has become more of a project than either one of us imagined it would be. In the meantime we’ve picked out kitchen cabinets, windows and doors. That process had quite a few iterations. Early on we spent days drawing up plans for the architect to then formalize. And we spent more days to select a lender for the loan. It’s been a huge investment in time and we’re far from being done.
After I lost my house in the wildfire, I remember all the decisions that had to be made to get the new house built. But I didn’t have to do any of the foundation or septic work. I was blissfully ignorant of what went on below ground.
Still, I’m excited about the new house. I’ve been in our present house almost ten years now. And Doug, being an engineer, has wanted to build something with better design features and a little more room. When I drew up the plans for this home, I hadn’t yet met Doug, so the walk-in closet wasn’t designed for more than one person. Surprise! I met the love of my life!
The new house is projected to be done in May/June 2024. So we’ll have a very busy Spring. I’ll keep you posted as the building process proceeds. Wish us luck!
