Site plan

I titled this post "Site plan" because I think that sounds more interesting than "Septic Design". But really, that's what started it. Because we will live in an Unincorporated area, we will have to install our own septic system and well too (more on that later). We had been referred to this septic designer early on in the land purchase process and he has proved to be an invaluable resource.

So it went something like this...(over the course of several emails and phone calls-which by the way I also had 2 other septic designers bid the project before finalizing with JR)
Us: We need a septic design to apply for our septic permit, so we can apply for our house permit
JR: Do you have soil borings/reports
Us: Yes, but they are from when the prior owner planned on putting in a sub-division
JR: We need a topography survey as well
Us: We have that, but again it's from when the prior owner planned on putting in a subdivision
JR: I can take care of it/you
And that's how easy he made it all sound!

So we scheduled an appointment for him to come out Saturday (1/24). He looked at our floorplan (septic is based on # of bedrooms) and elevation, then we walked back to the property and literally just pounded in a couple of stakes of where we think the home and outbuilding will go. His assistant then used GPS and one of those cool surveying tri-pod things to "shoot" the land. This gave the actual elevations.

GPS

Tri Pod

Monday (1/26) we get this preliminary drawing:

I know it's a bit difficult to see, but you get the gist. You know from reading this blog about the 'flag' shape of our lot. So you can see the long skinny driveway. In the middle is the house, off to the left is the outbuilding (Alex's motorcycle garage). The dashed lines are the proposed location of the septic field (which I've already asked him to change-move farther left/down). The well is not on yet, but it will go on the opposite of the house from the septic (so when you visit, don't worry about drinking our water, ha, ha).

So in the last week or so, I have been calling and/or setting up meetings with the utility companies (gas, electric, phone) to determine if running service back to where we have placed the house on the preliminary site plan if financially feasible. After all, someone has to pay to dig the trench and bury the lines....and we do have a budget. We like where we placed the house on the site plan but if it is out of our budget to run utilities that far back then we will have to revise the site plan. For those of you keeping track, I did have this in the budget, as we priced out the cost prior to making an offer on the land and starting this adventure. However, placing the house on a boundary survey vs staking it on the actual land, as you stand on it, gives very different results (when you have so much space). What this all means is that the home is set back further on the property than we originally thought. The reasons for this are many:
We want the house more secluded and there are more trees at the front of the opening that we thought, so it makes sense to keep the trees
The house will sit atop the highest elevation point, not much but you'd be surprised what a few feet difference makes.
The house in relation to the neighbors and the outbuilding makes more sense further back.

I'll keep you posted after I'm done "talking" to the utilities-it really does deserve it's own blog entry- and we have the final site plan.

P.S. Did you know that you have to have a larger septic tank if you are planning on installing garbage disposals? You do!
Also, our basement will be unfinished at this time but we planned our septic for the future probability we will be putting another bedroom down there at some point (guests welcomed!)