A Quiet Week

Not much has been happening over the last week or so. The weather here has been brutally cold with temps down as low as -30*C in Barnhartvale. We took the car up on Saturday to install the "Private Property" sign we made at the shop and to just enjoy the scenery. Robbins Range Road was pristine. It had been snowing overnight and there was 4 or 5 cm of fresh, powdery snow over everything. Our tire tracks were the only ones to mark the soft blanket of white. When we hit the first section of the driveway through the crown land 1/4 section, we realized that Jayson's crew had been busy for at least some of the week. All the areas that were wet and boggy last fall had been excavated and filled with crushed rock. It had not been compacted and was quite soft in spots. The underside of our poor little Suzuki SX4 made quite the racket as it scraped over the high spots! No harm done and it may have actually cleaned some of the frozen mud off the bottom.
We arrived at the newly-installed gates, installed the sign, and let Joey out to run up the driveway to the house site. She loves to be the leader and bounds quickly ahead of the car. We parked the car and walked up to the spring that will serve as our water supply. Under the fresh snow we found two enormous piles of crushed rock that Jayson will use when he "formalizes" our well.
Earlier in the week we received the bill from Tim, our septic planner. We mailed out a cheque to him and assume that he will do the same with our septic permit. We also got word from Tom at Linwood that the colour samples for the siding and roofing were in the mail to us. I left a message with the Owner Builder Permit people to inquire on the ETA of our permit as their website gives no indication of how long we were going to wait for it. I received a phone call from them later in the day informing me that it was normally between 7 & 10 business days after receiving my paperwork. That would put the ETA sometime later this week (March 3rd or 4th). Once it arrives and we receive the paperwork from Tim we can actually go and submit our Building Permit application with TNRD. We're kind of excited about that prospect as one of the first things they do is assign us a street addresss. Should be cool...!

...and then there were two.

Joey & Carol admire the new gates.

Carol, Joey & I took the car up to the property this morning and put in the second half of our front gate. Another beautiful day up there, we drove the car right up to the house site. It was the first time we were able to take the car up there as previously we were unable to navigate the "road". It was so water logged and rutted, we were sure we'd get stuck and never get out again!
It was still quite cold, about -8*C, but it felt much cooler if you were in the shade as we were while doing the gate.
Joey had another good run but was happy to get back in the car to get warm!

We have gate...

The original barbed wire "gate".

We woke this morning to a beautiful, clear sunny day. With clear sunny weather, however, comes the cold air and cold it was ... -18*C. Tim, our Septic Planner, had arranged to meet us at the property around noon, so we picked up Alex at 11am and headed for Gull Lake Ranch. We already had the gates in the back of the truck. We had left them there after we picked them up at Douglas Lake Equipment earlier in the week. I threw the tool bag with the cordless tools and small hand tools in the back of the truck ready to mount the gates.

Alex "supervising" while Mike drills through the post.

The first of the new gates.

Not long after we arrived at the entrance to the property, Tim showed up driving a small fwd car. We exchanged greetings and then led him up to the house site. On the way up, we noticed that Jayson had managed to install some of the plastic culverts under the road ready for the spring melt and the inevitable runoff that accompanies it. The road seemed quite good and even Tim's small car had no problem making the trek. We talked a bit about our septic needs (I have never really thought much about my septic needs before, but building a house makes you think about lots of things you didn't think you would ever need to know!) before he trundled over and down into one of the test holes Jayson had dug for him. We headed back to the entrance to attempt to install the gates. After making some measurements we drilled the holes for the first gate. After much futzing and finagling we managed to get the first one on and relatively plumb and level. Yay! We pulled a string line across the opening to ensure both gates were installed at the same height and went to drill the holes for the second one. Now, this is where the cold weather comes into play. After about 30 seconds of drilling, both batteries were completely dead - victims of the bitter cold air and the laws of physics as they pertain to stored electrical energy devices. The second gate would have to wait until tomorrow after the batteries had a chance to warm up and have a fresh charge applied.

Plans, and gates and permits...Oh my!

We have picked up a couple of 8ft. steel farm gates for the entrance to our property. On Saturday, with Alex's help, we are going to try and install them. Hopefully, the weather won't be too miserable and we will be able to concentrate on getting them level and plumb. We'll post some pics of the "fun" tomorrow.
We applied for our "Owner-Builder Permit". This is necessary in BC if we are not hiring a General Contractor and is required before we can apply for our building permits with Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD). Of course, they want us to pay them a few hundred dollars for this piece of paper. We were also informed that we need to get the report from the septic guy on the results of his "perc test" and the suitability of the proposed site for the septic system. Aaaaaaahhhhh...you have to love the bureaucracy!
The house plans arrived yesterday! Thanks, to Tom and Jim at Linwood Homes for getting them out to us...finally! It feels very real now that we have the plans in hand. It was cool to see the house with the basement under it for the first time.

The new driveway is in!

 Ok, it still needs gravel and a little grading in a few spots, but for the most part our new driveway is in. After you enter the property through the gate, the new driveway bends off to the right. It takes a gently sloping path up past the pond that was the original well and then straight up toward the house before it joins back up with Sinclair Road just below the building site. 

Jayson is getting ready to put the domestic water system in place and asked us to put stakes approximating the location of the house. This will let the septic system designer see where to place the septic field. It will also help Jayson and his team locate the 1,500 gallon cistern that will store the water from the well. They will put a "hydrant" (tap) above the cistern to allow the construction crew access to the water. You can see Carol walking up the path that has been cleared where the water line will be buried as it comes down to the home site.

Alex and Carol just below the spring that will supply our domestic water. It was a very warm day, approximately +8*C. Back in Knutsford it was blowing a gale but as you can see, it was quite calm up in Barnhartvale.

Joey's helping Alex and Mike put the stakes approximating the corners of the house. She just loves the property and runs around like crazy whenever we take her up there. Today, she got out when Alex opened the gate and ran all the way up to the house site. I don't know where she gets the energy!



Carol is standing in what will be the living room. Actually, she is more likely in the basement, below the great room.