Demo Day 1

Came out to survey the septic and get some bids on the foundation. The inspector came out as well. There's been a question of where I can put the cabin. At first I had planned to put it in the center of the building pad, with the deck hanging out over the creek. After getting the building permit I heard from pg&e that the inspector was asking about set backs. The issue is that the main PG&E supply line runs, directly over the center of our property. When I talked with PG&E, the answer was that we needed a 10 foot set back from the center of the lines. But the inspector was told there are no set back limits, and that plenty of houses have the line running right over them. In the interim of the two answer, I had already moved the location closer to the existing cabin. This meant that we would have to tear it down before we could put in the foundation.
I decided on a compramise, we are allowing a 10 foot easment for pge from the house, but we are moving it closer to the lines. PG&E will have access to the lines if need be. The inspector said that was fine, well actually, he said we could put it anywhere.

After I had talked to everyone, I got working on some demo. I wanted to get the roof off the covered deck. The deck will need to be removed as well to make way for the house. I was able to tear it down and save most of the 2X6 doug fir. It's about 5 years old and in good shape.
Here's a before and after photo of the demo.

Yurt Layout

This is the layout of the yurt. As you can see it's quite tiny, but I hope won't feel too cramped.
I've set it up for the large deck overlooking the creek. I assume we will spend most of our time there. I also plan on setting up a murphy bed, so that the living room/bedroom can be easily converted.

Septic Issues Pt. 3

Well we finally settled the septic issues for now. We will need to relocate the well.
The well is going to the other side of the property and the septic is going directly on top of that.

Septic Issues Pt. 2

The county basically ixnayed the secondary plan. Supposedly it is also too close to the well. We would have to reline the entire well down 300 ft. Not sure exactly why. The septic issue are by far the biggest pain I've ever come upon when dealing with city works. And this is out in the county, where they actually answer the phone.
I've also heard that 20K is about average for an engineered septic, so I guess things aren't as bad as they seem, just complicated. Being 2 hours away doesn't help any either.

Septic Issues

Turns out the property being .97 acre and next to a creek is causing some issues. The only realistic place for the septic seems to be right where the current well is.
The septic engineer is working on a secondary plan where the septic tank is a little closer to the stream and where we would be building and then pumps across the property to the leach field.

Abaondoned vehicles.

Those of you who looked at the flickr album, will note that we bought the property with an abandoned truck on it. The truck appeared to be worthles and we were planning on having it towed away after we bought it. Well at some point the truck found a friend and when I went up in early Feb, another car had appeared. This car was different than the one the squatters were driving. Who know what was going on. Anyways, I called the county and they hauled both away for $75 each.

Yurt is the word

We finally decided that a yurt was the way to go. Mostly for the price to size and that we can build it ourselves. We are working with Oregon Yurt Works on the project, it will be a 24' diameter building with approx. 500 sq ft of space. It also will have a 450sq covered deck. That was the selling point for the trashed cabin that was there, so I thought it best to continue the tradition.
The yurt people are working on a scale version that will include a bathroom and kitchen. For 500 sq ft. it might be cramped, but for a vacation place I think the size is right.

Got the house

The owners agreed to the 60K asking price. Should we have gone lower? Well it seemed a reasobly cheap price for what we are getting. We will see as the process moves along. Now we have to get going on the septic and figure out what we are going to live in. After cleaning out the bathroom, I don't think the current structure is habitable short term.

More Negotiations.

After finding out the septic is going to cost more like 20K and that the road was priced at 15K
we sent a second offer to the owner of 60K. Although it was listed for 96K, I think they had an unreasobable view of the value of the property. We will see what they say. All our quotes are in, I'm also investigating the best option for replacing the cabin. I'm hoping for a modular or pre-manufactured home. Most of the pre-manufactured homes, I've seen have outrageous shipping though, as they are made back east. Not sure I would want a modular home either.