Build Me a Dream

Kind of a quiet week on the home-front these past 7 days. :o/  ALTHOUGH…..we did have a septic inspection!!  Okay, I’m glad I didn’t have to do that!  Tony talked with the guy handling our building permit at the county office, and he said that we should have the building permit in hand by the end of next week….meaning this week since I’m posting this on a Sunday.  That is outrageously GREAT news!  Our construction loan is taking longer than either of us had hoped.  Part of this is because we have more than 10 acres, we had to go outside of Adair’s funding company.   I think the new finance company is stringing things along a little until I get my first paycheck at the end of the month, to prove that, “YES,”  I am employed.  Having an already existing mortgage in CA doesn’t help either, but…………

OK, here’s the “but”………we entered into contract for sale on our Mountain View, CA home!!!  I can’t tell you how awesome this is!!  Truly this is God’s handiwork to provide us THIS buyer so quickly!  Our home went on the market (in the MLS) on Monday the 22nd….we got an offer on Wednesday the 24th…., AS IS, no inspection other than what we provided (we paid for and received a home inspection and pest inspection ahead of time), they want a short close, do NOT want us to fix any of the items on the home inspection list, and……offered us a bit more than our asking price!!!!  So, we are in the middle of a 7 day contingency (apparently it is usually standard to have 12 days), and close in 30 days!!!   

So, with this, and my first paycheck a few days away….nothing should hold up the funding of our project!  In the meantime, we hope to start some excavating work that we have to do around the building site including building a retaining wall this week.

This is the area where the grade is to high - low for excavation. We need to build a retaining wall with steps leading up to the barn.The difference in grade looks a little more prominent here. It meaures about a 5 foot difference.This is from the barn side of the top of the grade. It is a 5 ft. difference toward the house.

This one shows the grade a little better. It is from the top of the grade on the barn side looking toward the house. It turns out to be a 5 ft. difference.

ALRIGHT!!!  We’ve got our plans in hand, the permits filled out and ready to submit on Monday!!  I’m pretty sure that the building permit process will go pretty smoothly…..check back with me in a week or so..HAHAHA.  We’ve also got a septic eval. coming up this week.  Actually though, because we are county, and not city we have a few less restrictions in some of the nitty gritty stuff, and that seems to be the case with what we have had to file so far.  So, let’s keep our fingers crossed, and throw up a few words to the man upstairs for a smooth process.  :oD

Anyway, to put it lightly….ADAIR Homes did an AWESOME job in getting all of our plans and building permits together.  They handled the whole process, handed us the whole package, and all I have to do now is submit it to the building department….along with a check, of course.   That’s one huge headache that we don’t have to deal with.  Charlie, is our go-to-guy who has handled things for us from the very first contact.  In fact, the entire office team in Aurora has been really wonderful.  I highly recommend these guys and gals.

The big question is….how are four cats, two dogs, and 3-4 grown people going to live in a trailer for the months of demolition and construction?Hmmmmm…….stay tuned for the next exciting episode!!

This big guy cracks me up!!

Who would have thought that small, microscopic, tiny fibers could cause such BIG concerns…but that is exactly what they have been doing to us this past week.  I’m talking about the dreaded word……..AASSSSBBBESSSTTTOSSSSS…asbestos!!  Before the demo / excavator could get moving with his end of things, we had to get the little old house tested so that he would have paperwork to show the guys at the dump.  Today we got the word……………….it turned out really GREAT!!!  Basically, the test went something like this…..NOT DETECTED, NOT DETECTED, NOT DETECTED, NOT DETECTED……!!!!   Needless to say,  Tony and I are VERY HAPPY!!

We also found out today that we may need a demolition permit for the little old house.  Another trip to the county planning department….sure, why not. 

So items on our “to do” list are slowly ticking away…..and so are the days of sunny dry weather.  I’m still stressed that we haven’t broken ground yet, but I know it will happen soon.  Tony has been praying, seriously praying, for the weather to hold out until we get the walls up and roof on before we start seeing the rain…he feels pretty confident….I’m clinging to that!! :o)

OK…so here it is in a nutshell!!  June 30th, my daugther, Roni and I packed up the back of our Suburban with 3 cats and took off for the Pacific Northwest!  We, temporarily said, “Good-bye”  to our 2 dogs, 1 elderly cat, a son/brother, and husband/dad while we began our journey north.  Although the house was mostly packed, the guys stayed behind to do the heavy lifting into the POD we rented for our move.  BTW, if you want to move a bit more economically, while at the same time keeping your items safe and secure…we found PODS to be a really GREAT alternative to traditional moving companies.  There is a bit of “sweat equity”, but it is well worth the savings!

So Roni and I moved into the trailer and created our little home for the next few months.  It is like…fancy camping.  I have learned a lot since being without Tony most of the time up here, and it has been quite good.  I learned how to dump the galley….uuhhuumm toliet holding tank, etc. , change a breaker in the trailer’s electrical system, and how to make toast in a trailer without setting off the fire alarm….not always an easy task. :o)

Tony, Will, and the rest of the animal pack got up here a week later.  Tony ran around doing everything he could to help set us up for the few days he had before leaving to go back to the Bay Area.  He wouldn’t be back for a couple of weeks, and then after that about a month.  It is amazing the amount of time and chores there are to moving your entire life to a new state (I really do mean entire life…Tony and I were both born and raised in the Bay Area…all of our roots were there.)  I found a really good job within a month’s time  that gave me an additional 3 weeks before my start date.  This has been incredibly helpful.  I just wonder how I’m going to fit it all in working 8 -5 everyday.  There is still so much to do to get this house even started. 

I get nervous because we are in August…fall/winter comes earlier up here than what we are used to, and we haven’t even broken ground yet.  We need to get the physical process started.  Today marks the day we got our Replacement Dwelling Permit approved (no appeals)…and now if we can get the financing end finished, we can get the building permit process going….C’MON GUYS LET’S GET MOVING!!

Welcome to the first post in a the adventure of a lifetime which included moving 600 miles away from the Silicon Valley Area in California to a much more remote area in Oregon.  So one day, we packed  up 4 cats, 2 dogs, a home we lived in for 22 years, and the 4 of us and headed north.  Well actually, it took more than one day, it takes the first step forward to make a dream a reality….so here is our story.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tony and I embarked on an adventure that began 6 years ago with the purchase of 34 acres in the heart of Oregon.  The home of this beautiful acreage consists of a 900 sqft, bungalow type home, built in 1949, updated in the 1970’s…and there it has sat.  It is a well built home for what it is, but with concerns about possible moisture problems, a dirt filled crawl space from the critters living underneath, an old, unstable fireplace, and much more, this little house needs to come down.  So, we’ve lived in it for our visits up…and finally we are at the place in our lives that actually moving is a GREAT option…not without some difficulties, but GREAT nontheless.

The “kids”, William and Roni, are out of high school and doing their own things…although…they both decided to make the move with us and continue / start their lives as adults in Oregon.  What can I say….that makes Mama happy.