Doe Trail Barndominium: Preparing Land Before Building

Clearing the Building Site

After weeks of trying to get someone out to mow the ~~grass~~ weeds, we gave up and took our riding lawnmower out there. The nearest neighbors drove slowly down their fence line to see what we were doing. I'm sure they were laughing as I drove through grass taller than the mower and Hubby disappeared into a plum thicket with his super trimmer. But we got the probable barn spot mowed, the culvert spot, and a driveway from the culvert to the barn. Hubby measured and it was 950 feet from the road to the barn. We may have to compromise location once we get an estimate for running the electric line from the road to the barn.

This is a neighbor building his cattle barn. We won't be facing that direction though.

This is our front view from somewhere near the living room.

This is our back view. And that is me pointing my INDEX finger at Hubby, telling him not to take my picture. But he did anyway. He never listens to me.

I came home covered in dirt and grass, and Hubby came home covered with poison ivy. I only thought we were giving up the hard work and maintenance of a house for an easy life in the country.

Published Sep. 19, 2016

Maintaining the Agricultural Exemption

After watching the vegetation on the land grow since April, it is quite obvious that it is not hay as we were told before buying it. The lesson here is to get an expert out to check that before purchase. Our land had just been mowed before we bought it, so that might have been difficult.

This week, Hubby found someone else to mow since the first guy doesn't seem to be in any hurry. This was to become a continual problem, especially when cutting and baling hay. These people want to do the largest number of acres first because they make more money on them. People with small acreages are last. Every. Single. Time.

There had been a big plum thicket across much of the front and he mowed that down. Bummer. The neighbor said the plums were really good and I wanted to keep those. The stumps still have a little green on them, so maybe they'll grow back.

We also had a culvert put in today. Yay! It will be so much easier to drive onto the place now.

I wish we could put the driveway in next, but the ditching for the electric and water needs to be done next.

Published Nov. 11, 2016

Digging For Water

Not a well. Just a trench, but that was bad enough.

Part of our deal with the sellers of this land is that they provide the water meter. It was supposed to be done before closing, but the water co-op decided they needed to do a study of the area before doing any more meters, so that not only delayed closing, but it delayed the installation of the meter also. And, like everything else, it required a few trips to the water co-op department and a lot of paperwork. Finally, the week before Christmas, we had a meter.

Since Hubby had time off between Christmas and New Year's, he rented a backhoe and trailer, and spent the day trenching for the water line. He opted for a 1-1/2 inch continuous line instead of pvc pipe so there will be less connections and less chances of leaks. He installed a frost proof yard hydrant, so we have water during construction.

He also trenched a line for his radio antenna wiring, which meant he had to decide on a permanent location for his tower.

Clouds were building during the day and he finished about an hour before the rental place closed, so he dropped the water line into the trench and then decided to return the backhoe early rather than risk getting it stuck in the mud the next day. As it turned out, there was very little rain, and the next day, he was able to finish it up and a neighbor covered the ditch with his tractor.

Published Dec. 28, 2016

Preparing the Building Site

It is finally happening! I can't believe the amount of paperwork and permits that have to be done to build these days. And we aren't even inside the city. I imagine they would require twice what we've already done. We've still got to get another survey done for the electric company, but it is not delaying us.

Today, the crew arrived to level the pad site. Fill dirt or sand was supposed to be delivered today but it rained Saturday and they can't get to their sand. Maybe tomorrow. Because we have black clay soil, they scraped off about ten inches of topsoil and will fill with select fill, which when firmly packed will not have as much movement as the clay during rain and drought.

This morning:

And then at 5pm:

Published Jan. 23, 2017

Garage Doors and Roll-up Doors Installed in Barndominium

We are officially closed in!

Yesterday, three of the six garage doors were completely installed. One was started but not finished. Two roll-up doors still hadn't been delivered but came in yesterday afternoon, so today all the doors are finished.