Delays can be frustrating however, they are still progress.
Deciding to build a house is an exciting proposition. You spend time picking a style of home, colors, finishes and interiors. What you don't anticipate is dealing with inevitable delays in the project before you even have a hole in the ground.
We have been working on the design of our house for over 13 months. This goes beyond just the house itself. This includes all of the items that go around it. That includes storm water management, fresh-water well and the septic system.
Power to the people
The very first item of business that we have to cover before digging is the relocation of overhead power, phone, fiber optic and cable lines. Being that the original land plot was 5 acres, all the power and communication came from a pole in the southwest corner to a pole in the middle of the property. Over the years, things have been upgraded however, the overhead lines remained. Now we are to where we want to build and all these lines need to be relocated.
The #verizon and #comcast lines need to be moved first. for #ppl to move the power feed and remove the pole in the middle of the land, the communications has to go first. In contacting both Verizon and Comcast, they both need to know where the pad mount transformer it going to go first so they can relocated their taps.
Getting these three services to work together is like trying to herd cats! Luckily, I have been able to get excellent contact at each of the service providers. The only kicker is that each is going to have their own fee for the work!
When it rains, it pours
#Stormwater management has become a very hot topic in the recent years in the middle Atlantic region. We are smack dab in the middle of the #chesapeakbay #watershed. This is an area where any surface water eventually makes its way to the Chesapeake Bay. To reduce the impact of pollution in the waterways, new construction must consider the impacts of runoff. For us, this means that we need to prevent any rainwater from leaving our property. Because our roof is approximately 52 square (most homes are 25 square), we must have a significantly larger stormwater catchment system. The basin to capture the water landing on the roof is 75'x25' and 4' deep. The basin to capture the water that hits our sidewalk and driveway is 40'x25'x4 (yes, we have to catch the driveway water too...). We will have more on this at another time.
To find out more about the Chesapeak Bay Watershed visit: www.cbf.org
Dealing with poop
The street we are moving to does not have public water or sewage. This means that we have to drill a well for fresh water and also install a septic system to deal with the gray and black water (the yucky stuff) on site. But of course, it isn't that simple for us! Because of some testing that was done on a piece of land 0.25 miles from us that resulted in a higher than acceptable level of nitrates in the groundwater, it requires us to install a #septic system that is capable of reducing the levels of nitrates in the effluent (discharge water). Only one system in #pennsylvania is approved by the #DEP and at is the Orenco Advanex AX20. It is basically a self contained wastewater treatment plant in my backyard. I will have more on this in a later article.
To read more about the Adventex AX20 visit: Orenco AX20
Here is the update video about the delays:
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