July fourth Camping

Took the trailer up to West Point for the long holiday. Coretta came up and we had some time to relax by the creek and bbq. Good to know the place is more than just a project.
Did a little more demo and worked with my septic guy to trench out the stem wall footing.
Another demo pictures

and the foundation perimeter.

Trailer

I went ahead and bought a trailer for people to stay in while we're working. Once we're finished, I guess this will become the guest house. Of course when the days hit 100 degrees, the AC might make this the place to be.
I was planning on just renting one, but the cost is ridiculous compared to buying a used one. After a couple weeks searching, finally found a deal on one in good shape.


Here's the galley and table/sleeping quarter #1

Here's the living room, the couch turns into another bed.
The Commode.

And the bedroom that sleeps two.

Second Demo Day

Tore down the front half of the cabin. I plan to leave the living room/porch area for now. It's covered, screened in, and doesn't seem to have as much damage. If I need a place to store the futon, I think that parts habitable. The cabin came down pretty easy, with three hours, we had the roof and walls off. I got two trips to the dump, before heading home. You can see the damage I've made so far.

Forgot to mention, I did have one problem. While I was loading the truck, I slid a piece of paneling in too far and blew out the back window. Replacement cost $185m, but I did get a sliding rear window out of it.

First Blog

This is the first blog entry. While it's not the first post in order of this project. It's the first I'm putting down. Editor's be damned. I'm just gonna keep typing.

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.