Brush/Tree Clearing-Take 2

Well, now that we've got a preliminary site plan, it stands to reason that we now have a better idea of where we need to clear more trees off the property.
So the plan was to go out on Sunday to do some more chainsaw work. Good thing we checked the weather and changed the plan to Saturday!
Also, we were very lucky, once again, to have the help of a friend.
The guys started about 11am and when I showed up with the kids after nap we were amazed at the amount of work that had been done . They now had a truck all the way back in the property!
You can see we have a pretty awesome bonfire in our near future...

Unfortunately the work did not come without some minor injuries.
For the tree huggers out there, stay away from Black Locust, which has thorns.

Ouch

The kids and I also visited with our new neighbors-2 horses. I have a feeling we'll need to set up more comfortable seating. James could have spent all day there watching them!

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!)

Why the Triple V?

        It's Alex and now it's my turn for a post, so by now I'm sure you're wondering why in the world are they calling it the "Triple V"?  Some of you know and some of you don't know that you pronounce our last name Voigts as Foes. When I was a kid and we lived in Green Bay a guy my Dad worked with started calling me Freddy with V to match the pronunciation of our last name. Kind of a running joke since then, so much so that before Liam was born I started saying we should name him Freddy with a V. That didn't happen but when we found this property we decided it needed a name. Kelly and I went into full planning mode (naming the place you're going to live forever is nothing to take lightly).  I recalled Freddy with a V and suggested the Triple V for Voigts Vamily Varm, so there you have we had a name. There is even a rough logo drawn up that needs to be finalized, soon I hope!

Floorplans!!!!!!!!!

Last Wednesday, Jan 21st, we had another meeting with our architect. He had made the changes discussed during our first meeting. Almost everything turned out exactly as we had imagined. There are only a few tweaks left and he sent us home with homework to do the electrical plan, which we have since turned back to him.
I'm hoping we'll get a call later this week to set up our final meeting to see the final plan.

In the meantime, here is a sneak peek at some the features we are most excited about:

FRONT ELEVATION (side entry 3 car garage)
 

Side entry to Mudroom/Laundry room/Walk in pantry/Command Center

 

His & Hers Walk-in closets (guess which one is which)

Stay tuned for our site plan, which we were also able to get the preliminary work done for this past week.

Contractor Interviews

Originally we had thought we would be GCing (General contracting-meaning doing all the hiring and coordinating of subcontractors and materials) ourselves. Of course the thought was to save the approx 15% of your project that GCs usually charge.
Turns out we changed our minds. About doing it, not about the savings, ha, ha!
We realized that this is a full time job (though we had been warned) already; that we couldn't imagine the way it will be once construction starts.
So, our architect has given us a couple names and we also have a couple names from friends.
We have 2 interviews set up for this weekend, so we are hoping to learn more about what this potential team member can bring to the project and budget (plus and minus) before proceeding. Honestly I am pretty excited because I think this is going to be the best and most important decision we make for the whole thing. Lets hope we get it right...

How's the house coming along?

I keep getting questions on our progress. I assure you things are happening. Granted they are not 'building' things, as the ground is still frozen here. But I will post as soon as I can about the floorplans progress and the siteplans progress. Thanks for being interested in our new home, it's really great to have all your support!

A Christmas Culvert?

Some people have been asking for an update. I'm sorry to say there hasn't been much progress, or at least "exciting" progress.
We did interview a final architect, that we really liked, so it came down to the first and last, and we chose the first, which we had also really liked. The difference came down to the costs (of building a totally custom home drawn from scratch vs using a pre-existing custom plan to which we will make changes). We have an appointment for our design session on Monday, so hopefully after Christmas we will be able to start sharing our floor plan with you.
In the meantime Alex has completed our culvert.  It was another one of those expenses that I really hadn't budgeted for. Thankfully it wasn't a big expense and as everyone always tells you, we had built a cushion into our budget for the unforeseen.
So, here's our culvert. Exciting, eh? Not really. But necessary.

Also, thought I'd share some non-house events/pix. As I had mentioned at the very beginning, while this house project will take up a ton of our time and energy, we weren't exactly bored to begin with. We are blessed with 2 young, very active, boys. The oldest is in Kindergarten and I've been working with another classroom mom to put on his parties. I didn't blog about the halloween party, which I was pretty proud of. But the holiday party went off yesterday, without a hitch. I just love seeing how excited the kids get over the themed crafts, snacks and games we bring. Since I also work full time, I can't be in the class as much as I would like, so this is the least I could do.

Santa's munchies cup (filled with goldfish & m&ms)

Melted snowman (water) to drink