First step towards that new house!

[Bikewanderer]

The bride and I bought our property in April of 2008. My folks and I went in halvsies on a half quarter section right outside town. I got 40 acres along the road with a small house on it (not much of anything) and they got 53 acres. It was a closing section, hence the extra acreage. Got it cleaned up enough to plant 20 acres of beans this year. That ended badly.

Got tenants in the house in March 2009. We've had problems with the shallow well ever since. Not enough water... I sank a deep well out front in 2011. Went 280' and gave up. No water. Picked another spot about 800' south this year and drilled again, 150' this time. Nothing there either. So, we've just pulled the trigger on 1/2 mile of 4" water main from the nearest water district (sigh). At least my folks are splitting the cost of the pipe with me, but it's still pretty expensive.

Anyway, after we get this in we will be starting construction of our house in May. I just got the beans out of the field a few weeks ago and we're putting the house where some of the beans were planted. I've got plans to get out there and start staking out the house location soon. All that's left is to get the property platted and split again so the county will let me put my house on it too and get my road put in.

Anybody else building next year too?

 

[stingray1]

I wish you good luck with the house.

 

[TripleR]

Congratulations on your upcoming home. We built our new home in an old bean field in 1994; love living in the country.:thumbsup:

 

[Deere Dude]

I hope everything else goes better than the well. About 30 years ago I had a well started and I came ho,e at night and he was down to 225 feet. I was devastated. I told my wife to just tell them to keep drilling to hit either water or oil. Luckily 10 more feet did it for me. But that is stressful. Good luck on the rest of the build.

 

[toppop52]

We just built last year, started October 17 and moved in January 14, 2012. There had been an old block house here at one time and a building, as well as thick woods and 26 junk cars! Got the lot/yard area cleaned up between July and October, put in the septic, planted 1 1/2 acres in grass. Thankfully we're sitting on top of the east coast's most productive aquifer, the Paleo Channel, so the old 65' well produces enormous amounts of great tasting cold water. If I had been forced to replace the well the minimum depth is 250', down where the minerals make the water irony and taste bad.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good luck with your house. Be sure to post pics as you go along and remember that the comments on here are meant to help when somebody sees something that catches their eye. Better to get it right then ignore it and have to deal with it down the line when its ten times harder.

Eddie

 

[creekbend]

Sincerely wishing you the best.

 

[TripleR]

Very good advice on documenting the construction. I didn't live in the area when our house was built, so my father in law over saw the construction and documented it with a video recorder for reference on construction, how the pipes and wiring was run, septic system etc.

Unfortunately when he died, someone lost the tapes; several times since, it sure would have been nice to have them as we made changes to the original blueprints.

 

[Bikewanderer]

thanks a lot everyone! I made it out last night in my brief evening and got a location for the house staked out before deciding I don't like it as much as another spot about 50' away. So, I'll go out tonight and repeat the whole procedure....

Got the trencher picked up and will be cutting trenches soon.

 

[deezler]

Congratulations and good luck building. Take your time with the planning though. If you are changing home site locations on a whim right now, you might want to slow down a bit and think things through. Just sayin'.

My wife and I bought our own 19 acre parcel last January, hope to start building in 2013. Life is exciting, eh?

 

[TripleR]

Agree, take your time, we switched locations more than once and then staked it out and ran string to get a better idea. We finally brought a dozer in and leveled out a 40' tall ridge to get it in its final location.