05/28/10 - Today I am starting a diary about the construction of our new home. As many of you know, we started this adventure in 2006 when we purchased 27 ½ acres of land with Lorrie’s brother David and his wife Kathy. The land is located up a holler and high on a flat topped, tree ringed field. We divided the property in half with the old farmhouse and 2 small ponds going to David & Kathy. We both have plenty of woods and open space on our properties. While we have neighbors, we really don’t see their homes from our construction site.
In 2008/2009, Gary Brill, our excavator, built our road into the property. It rises about 100’ or so through the woods making a slight ‘S’ turn as it climbs the hill and opens out to the field where we will build our house. John Weimer, our builder, has already built our workshop and equipment barn for us.
Lorrie and I sold our home in Chevy Chase in July 2009 and in October, we moved into a rental home in Yellow Spring, WV while we get organized to build our new home. We have lined up our builder and the various contractors who will work on the house and are about ready to go.
Last week Gary Brill put in the conduit for the underground electrical power and underground phone line. I am now waiting for the electrician to come and install the meter socket box on the temporary post. Once that is done Allegheny Power will come in move a pole on David and Kathy’s property and then pull the underground wire to a new transformer and then the temporary power will be in place.
Today, Lorrie, John Weimer and I went to the Hampshire County Planning Commission and filed the application for a building permit. Unlike Montgomery Co. where it takes 8-10 weeks to get a building permit, we have been told, barring any problems with the application, we should get it sometime next week. Finally, we are getting started! So, come on and lets take a ride up to our property. The property is about 3 1/2 miles east of the Capon River and Rt. 259. Then we go up a hollar about a mile before we get to our driveway. Let's see what Gary is up to.
Country Roads
06/7/10 - Well, today I got a call from the Hampshire Co. planning commission and they told me my building permit was ready to be picked-up. This sure beats the time it takes to get a permit through the bureaucracy in Montgomery County. Dad and I got in the car and rode over to Romney to pick it up. Finally, we are ready to go. Allegheny power should be out next week to reposition the electric pole on David’s property and to pull the power cable to our new transformer and temporary box that the construction team will use. I will be notifying all of our contractors that we now have our building permit and plan to start digging on June 14, 2010. If all goes well then the foundation team should come in on June 18th and start getting ready to get the foundation in. Pray we don’t have any rain for the next several weeks. While I would love to have a swimming pool, I don’t want it to be our basement and crawlspace. Thanks for going on this trip with us.
06/11/10 - Today I actually did something regarding getting started. I went to the property to mow the grass where the house will actually be located. I did this in preparation to paint the outline of the house on the grass. Why you ask am I doing that? The builder (John Weimer) is going to paint an outline in the grass so Gary Brill will know where to dig for the foundation. On Sunday afternoon we will go do the paint job and Monday Gary will start digging for the foundation and footers.
06/13/10 This afternoon Lorrie and I met John Weimer at the property so we could layout the house. A couple of weeks ago we laid out a rectangle from which we will layout the house. Today, after mowing the grass the other day, we wanted to make sure that the rectangle was still where we put it and still square. After getting that task done, we helped John get the measurements of the foundation from the blueprints to the ground. THAT, is a lot easier said than done. Since our house is not just a rectangle but bump-outs here and there and a partial basement and partial crawlspace it took a while. When all was said and done we were out there a just at four hours. With the lines on the ground we are ready for Gary to come and start digging.
Our New House Construction
