There is nothing more discouraging when starting a project only to find out that you can’t really start. We ran into this problem early, when we were researching and planning.
A Common Question
What’s the address? This seemed to be all we heard at the beginning of our build. We had purchased land without a driveway and therefore without an address. I cannot count the number of times we were asked this question. We needed an address to get electric service, building materials, some of our estimates, internet service, etc. Knowing the location of the property only got us so far. Some people did not even want to answer our basic “how do we do this?” question without an address. Thankfully, our land is in a rural area and off a state highway, so many were able to figure out or even knew the parcel in question.
A quick call to the county’s environmental services department asking for an address gave us an answer we were not expecting. In order to obtain an address, we first needed to build a driveway.
What?! We just wanted to ask how to obtain utility services and line up contractors. You mean we have to wait until our driveway is built?
Uncooperative Weather
It turned out that a driveway was more difficult to have built than we expected. We knew that frost would be a problem, so we had fully planned on a mid-May start. The weather that spring, however, was warmer than usual and our snow melted quickly which encouraged us to plan on an earlier start.
Boy, did we have that all wrong. With the weather warm and dry, fire danger was also high. Our excavator needed to have his machine at the ready during high fire danger which meant it needed to be loaded up on the trailer ready to go help fight a fire at all times. Not only that, but our excavator also needed to have an employee at his shop at the ready and not at our land. This was so discouraging. Our hopes of an early start seemed to vanish as each week passed by.
Yes, weeks passed by without rain to calm the fears of the Department of Natural Resources. When a good gentle rain finally did come, we had only days before fire danger marched right back up to high levels.
High fire danger, according to the DNR’s website, means that fires start easily and spread at a fast rate. There are 5 levels of fire danger in our area, and I would have preferred to be in moderate or low, but one cannot control the weather.
So much for hoping for a dry spring for building.
So much for successfully lining up the few contractors we needed for this spring.
So much for trying to prepare as much as possible before our sixth baby was born.
Oh, the things you learn as you prepare to build a house!
A Slow Start
Our driveway did get started. This is how far it got in one day.
The following Monday we were told that part of our driveway was started, but that he would need the bigger machine to do more. Guess what? That machine is the machine that needs to be at the ready, and it was high fire danger again.
Unfortunately, I tend to show my emotions pretty clearly a lot of the time. My entire demeanor dropped right before a lovely meal with the family. Sometimes it takes a lot for me to get back to what is important. Thankfully, we still enjoyed dinner together, despite all the wiggly bodies at the table, and I quickly was reminded that I am still blessed even if my driveway wasn’t on time.
Finally, A Driveway!
When fire danger did finally pass by, 2 months later than we had hoped, our driveway was built pretty quickly. Thankfully, our land has a lot of sand, so the excavator was able to use some of that sand to build our driveway, saving us time and money in material. Then came a lot of crushed gravel.
It was fun to drive over and check on their progress. Being able to access our land all the way to the homesite was even better. We had been used to donning our rubber boots and marching the whole family through a wild overgrown hayfield, but now we could drive right in.
Now For The Address
Finally, we could call the county back about an address. It still took a couple of days to get an address and a few more for the permanent sign, but it was far easier than building our driveway. With a homemade address sign posted in the meantime, we were ready to move to the next step. Drilling a well!
Pingback: We Have a Well! – Roxy Builds