Tuesday, November 23, 2010

It's Too Early For a Setback

This past weekend, we were at the land clearing some trees. We decided to take a break and go for a walk. During the walk, I tripped over something and fell. On my way down, I held out my right arm to break my fall, and proceeded to break my arm.

I took an ambulance to Leominster Hospital and was treated and released. They diagnosed a "radial head fracture". Luckily this kind of break does better if you start to move it after just 2 weeks of mobilization. So no wearing a hard cast for 8 weeks. I'll have to start physical therapy in a few weeks.

At least it's getting cold and it's not the beginning of our work season. That would have stunk.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Blogs Tool Giveaways

There are many blogs that I regularly read. I find it's a great way to learn about a given subject area I am interested in. Sure, I could read a book about whatever the subject is, but blogs are typically written by people just like me - the average American - who has tons of knowledge and real life experience.

The blogs that I like to read are posted in the bloglist on this page. The three subject areas I read the most about are cooking, personal finances and home improvement.

This morning I was reading the latest posts over at OneProjectCloser. They are a group of friends from Baltimore that write about their home improvement adventures. I really enjoy reading their blog; especially their product reviews. Right now, they are doing a tool giveaway (which they regularly do). This giveaway is for a Dremel Trio. I haven't seen this tool before, but it looks really cool.

Check it out:

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Requests for Septic Design Bids are Out

Today I sent requests for septic design bids to the two firms I want to hear back from. It's the first bid requests we've asked for on this project.

I feel a little guilty asking a firm to spend time writing up an estimate for me, knowing that I'll be saying no to one of them. I don't want to waste anyones time. But I guess that's the name of the game. Every book you read on the subject, and everyone you talk to about hiring contractors, tells you that you should always get three bids. How else are you going to know if you are getting a good price.

I think I have a lot to learn about this whole bidding process. This is a good place to start though. Hopefully it will be a smooth process.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Septic Design

On one of our recent tips to the land, we ran into a neighbor (Don) who was talking to the owner of a well-drilling company. I had not yet investigated local well drillers, so it was good to meet him and get his contact information.

My neighbor Don has had a surface well on his property, but now wants to put in a deep well. We also will need a deep well. Don will hire the man he was talking to, and is going to talk to him about giving us a price break if we both have wells drilled at the same time. We think we could get a price break since it means only having the drilling equipment brought in one time.

To be in a position to hire a well-drilling company to put in a deep well, we need to first have a septic design done (I'm sure) and have it approved by the town (I think?). Having the septic design done will also include plotting the location of the well.

Once we have that, the drilling company will know where to install the well. From what I understand, we will not need a permit from the town to have that work done.

Don plans to have his well done in the spring, so if we want to take advantage of using the same company at the same time, we need to get going now on having the septic design done. I am going to get quotes from two organizations. Normally I like to get three quotes, but the two I am going to get quotes from both come highly recommended.

The first is the organization that did the perc tests on the property originally. They are David E. Ross Associates in Ayer. They have all the documentation already, and the man we bought the land from told us that they were good top work with. I have talked to them a few times already (when I was looking for the perc docs) and I was happy with the interactions I had with them.

The second is Purcell Associates in Oxford. My cousin Pat, who is a local builder, uses them and recommended them. They are more local to our current location, and it may be easier to conduct business locally. I have to get them all the documentation from the perc tests, but that's really no big deal.

I think the winning bidder will soley depend on price. I am interested to see how much of a price difference there is between them.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Welcome Friends and Family

Welcome to our blog

Hi all. I wanted to invite you all to my new blog. As you know, Justin and I have bought land that we intent to build a home on. We know this is going to be a long, physically and mentally demanding process. Many of you have started to ask us how it's going and what are plans are. We thought that having access to the blog I started would help you to follow what we are up to and the progress we are making.

I started this blog when we were looking for land, and knew that I would continue it through every phase of this project. It's a way for me to keep my thoughts straight, express my feelings and sort things out in my mind.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with blogs, it's just like an online journal. The authors writes "posts" (journal entries) as often as they like. Those posts are listed on a web page with the most recent ones first. Readers can scroll through the website to read the posts. As the blog grows, if you get to the bottom of the page, you may need to click on the OLDER POSTS button to see more.

So if any of you are inclined to check in on us, this is probably going to be the best place to do that. You can even leave us comments if you like. I intend to write at least one post per week and include information on what are plans are, what type of work we are doing at the time, how we are feeling about the project and what obstacles we are facing. I will also include pictures along the way to record our progress.

This is just an invitation. No RSVP required.

I'm going to write this blog for myself even if nobody ever reads it. We certainly don't want to push our stuff on anyone else. We know that just because we love our new project that others may not care to hear about it. This is just an invitation. Please don't feel obligated at all. No RSVP required.
Thanks all!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go



So we are officially land owners, and we're not wasting any time getting started. Where to start isn't exactly clear though.

On a recent visit, we realized that there are a lot of trees that need to get cleaned up, regardless of where we plan to put the house. A few years ago, there was a massive ice storm that went through the area and did significant damage to the trees. There are now a lot of dead tree limbs hanging way up in the tree canopy. On top of that, there are just a lot of dead trees that need to come down. We felt pretty unsafe walking around, not sure of what would fall on our heads.

So we decided the best starting point would be to take care of some of those issues, particularly in the areas where we know we will be building. We have a small chainsaw already, and this week we bought ourselves some hard hats, chainsaw chaps, loppers and a good hand saw. This weekend, Justin took down about 20 dead trees, and I took care of clearing out the saplings that were in his way.

It was a good start. We worked for about 4 hours and felt like we made good progress. At least it's much safer now. It was nice to be outside getting some fresh air too. I think we're in for a lot of that in the future.

So what did we learn this weekend?
1. We need to drink plenty of water while we are working.
2. Hard hats are our new best friend.
3. Dressing in layers is best.