What's Next for Rick and Cathy?

 This blog started as a way for us to capture and share our travels around the country. For the last year-and-a-half or so, we - and this blog - have been much more focused on the tribulations and triumphs of having our new house built.

So, as I shared in the last post, that's done. We're comfortably in the house. In fact, we joyously shared Christmas with the entire family. We had nine adults, three grandchildren and three dogs here for three glorious days and nights, with the added bonus of having three of the kids (Scott, Heather and Sherry) spend an extra night because of bad weather along I-5. 

Here's the whole tribe, after a wine tasting at a local winery. 

Now, they are gone home; our house is both clean and quiet. Our attentions are now turned toward to the question posed in the title of this post: what's next?

As you might suspect, the inside of our home doesn't need any immediate attention. The only major inside project that we've ID'ed is to rip out some kitchen cabinets and replace them with open shelving; we'll add a tile backsplash at the same time. For reasons that pass my understanding, the cabinets are only 12" wide; two of them are in spaces at least 18" wide and, to my mind, look funny. This project is not urgent, though; it's just something that we want to do. 

The outside is another matter. We are literally sitting on an acre of bare dirt. With the rains we've had so far this rainy season - Paso Robles has already exceeded last season's rain total in only two months! - we've grown accustomed to muddy shoes and the constant cleaning of mud, dirt and gravel tracked into the house.

Fortunately, we had 8' of gravel placed around the entire perimeter of the house. Additionally, our driveway and parking areas are all road base, which drains very well. Because of this, one can get into and out of the house without too much mess being made. Beyond the immediate perimeter is another story.

Our immediate focus is the front of the house. We need to install rain gutters first. The way that our roof is constructed, the gables from the garage and porch dump the majority of their collected rainfall right in front of the house. Even with drains installed at the corners, our front "yard" is swamplike.

So, first gutters, then a sprinkler system, then grass out for 25-30' or so. After that, we're putting a rose garden out front; Cathy's already ordered some bareroot roses, which I believe will get shipped next month. 

After all that's done, we'll probably do something quick-and-dirty for a vegetable garden. I say "probably" because Cathy wants to build the deck out back next. I think we can do a garden quicker and easier, first... stay tuned.

What about the RV?  We are going to downsize. We're going to sell or trade our 40' fifth-wheel trailer in for something in the 30-32' size range. We recently went to an RV show and saw several models that will meet our downscaled needs. We fully intend to hit the road again - but we won't be living in it. That makes a big difference. We want something a little smaller; it's both easier and slightly cheaper to tow, and will allow us to get into some state park and forest service campgrounds. The beast we've got now is pretty much restricted to RV parks. Also, we will be getting a trailer with an RV refrigerator, which will allow us to boondock (camp offgrid) which isn't possible with our current home. 

WE ARE HOME!

 Yes, we are finally in our new home. It's been a long haul. Here's a brief timeline...

July 2020 - We purchased our lot and closed escrow on it right at the end of July.

October 29, 2020 - We ordered our home and submitted the building permit. The long delay from the purchase of the property was because of numerous tests and surveys that needed to be done for the submission of the permit.

January 2021 - The permit was kicked out because of some unmet requirements of Cal Fire.

April 2021 - We were informed the permit would not be issued until we had a well onsite. This was contrary to everyone's expectations and prior experience - even the well company!

June 14, 2021 - Well drilling commenced! After completion of the well, the water was tested and a report submitted to the county.

June 29, 2021 - Building permit issued!

July 31, 2021 - House arrived onsite.

November 16, 2021 - Final inspection completed. WE ARE DONE!

November 18, 2021 - First night in the new house.

Obviously, a lot happened in between, mostly summarized in previous blog posts. Here, I'll capture what's happened since my last post.

One story about the final inspection, and the huge bullet that we dodged. Our driveway plans called for a slope of 11.9%. Slopes above 12% grade trigger a Cal Fire requirement for an "all weather" driveway - one that's paved with asphalt or concrete. That's really expensive: like, $30K or so!

Unfortunately, the plans and the reality didn't mesh. Our grading contractor couldn't get the grade below 15%! How could this happen? Lots of finger-pointing here: the grading contractor, plan engineer, survey company all felt the other guys were at fault. At the end, we decided to wing it. Our contractor said he'd never seen a fire marshal pull out a grading level to check the grade.

So, the fire inspector pulls up. First words out of his mouth were, "You guys planning on paving this?" 

"No, we weren't."

"You got the plans handy?"

"They're inside."

We walked into the house; he took a look at the plans, saw the grading plan, commented "11.9%" and never said another word about the driveway! Cathy and I worked really hard not to bust into our happy dance until the guy left!

Prior to final inspection, we continued with the numerous pre-move-in tasks we had set for ourselves. This includes things like installing ceiling fans (5) and assembling a lot of furniture. Bear in mind... we essentially had no furniture. Aside from a TV, a piano, grandfather clock and antique library table, we were starting from scratch. So, we spent a number of days assembling bed frames, a TV stand, end tables, dressers, etc. 

We also had all kinds of deliveries. We had movers move our belongings, including the piano, out of storage on the 15th. We had ordered recliners and a sofa; they were delivered on the 15th. 

Oldest daughter Sherry spent Thanksgiving with us, and it was great having her here. Not the least of the reasons: time spent with her was time we weren't spending working like field hands around the house! It was a welcome break in the action.

Right now, the house is pretty much assembled inside. We don't have anything on the walls yet, but we have a number of items set out which will get hung in the next couple of days. We are starting to morph into a more "normal" life style for us: Cathy's busy organizing the inside of the house and I've been able to focus a little more on outside activities. We are busy planning on having the whole family here for Christmas. Not surprisingly, we've got a bunch of things to do before then, but they'll all get done - I think!

Was it worth the wait? You bet. Here's the view out our back door...

Not Yet? Really!?

No - we are NOT yet in our place. Real Soon Now. We hope.

In hindsight, we were probably being unrealistic in hoping to be in the house by October 15th. A lot of things needed to happen, and they didn't.

Nevertheless, we are almost there. The house is 99+% complete. We've got not only the power turned on, but the water and internet are functional. We even bought and had installed a new washer and a dryer. What a luxury after 3-1/2 years to do laundry without paying for it!

The good news is that, with all the utilities in, we moved our trailer onsite on October 15. We are thrilled to be here. It's quiet and beautiful; being here has quelled a lot of our anxiety and impatience about getting in the house. 

The house is beautiful. Here's what it looks like right now:

Actually, that's not completely accurate. A couple of days ago we painted the garage door the dark brown trim color, but I don't have a pic. (More on that below.) Final grading will bring the driveway up to the bottom of the garage door. 

So, what's holding us back? Our grading contractor. He was originally scheduled to finish our driveway and grading the front of the house the week of October 18. He postponed his work until this week, stating that he's got a bunch of people out with COVID. Of course, this same contractor delayed putting in our septic system because he had a bunch of guys out with COVID! Go figure. Anyhow, I've been told they will finish things up 11/3 and 11/4. We'll see.

Meanwhile, we've taken advantage of the delay, and our proximity, to get a bunch of tasks done inside the house... you know, all the little (and not-so-little) things that you do in a new house. Here's a list of what I can remember:

We installed tile backsplashes in both bathrooms

Added extra towel bars and hooks in both bathrooms

Installed paper towel holders in bathrooms and kitchen

Installed extra clothes rod in MB closet

Build out shelving in hall coat closet

Build out shelving in linen closet

Painted garage door

Install external keypad for garage door opener

Added the shower curtain rod in the guest bathroom.

LOTS of cleaning, with lots more to do.

Pending: 

Install five ceiling fans. Actually, got one done today, so it's four more. 

Figure out the sliding glass doors. They shipped without latches installed. I am sparring with the manufactured home people to get this done, but they are ignoring me. I will probably have to do these myself, since I can't believe the house would pass inspection with exterior doors that don't latch or lock!

We hope that next week we will get the final inspection and, assuming no issues arise, the long-awaited Certificate of Occupancy! 

Are We There Yet?

 Almost. Maybe. Probably real soon now.

This is probably going to be a rather disjointed post; a lot has happened since I posted last month. As I write this in early October, we are quietly optimistic that our house will be "done" by October 15. Why so specific? Our monthly rent here at the RV park is up on the 15th, and we'd really rather not pay another month's rent. Even if the house isn't liveable, if the utilities are in, we are gone from the RV park. We can legally park and live on the property, since we already own it outright. 

So much has happened with the construction of the house that it's nearly impossible to capture it all, at least without boring you to death. Here are the key points:

1. There is electricity to the house, although it hasn't been turned on yet. (Not sure why, though... we keep getting vague answers on that)

2. We managed to get AT&T to splice in a new phone line under our driveway, at no cost to us. This, after our grading contractor dug a new, deeper trench for the new line - at a cost to us. All in all, though, this was a net win for us: it'll cost us about half what AT&T quoted us. 

3. The septic tank installation has been completed and backfilled. The back half of our lot has been graded. The front part plus the driveway won't be done until work on the house is nearly done; driving big trucks up and down the driveway really beats it up.

4. Our garage and porch, which are both conventional, stick-built additions, are getting completed. They really add a lot to the house, in terms of both functionality and adding dimension to the front of the house. 

Here's the porch. The deck will have Trex matching the small, built-in porch that's barely visible. 

The garage... and a huge trash pile.

This is an older pic, showing more of the front of the house. 

5. The Wall - This could probably be a post all by itself. Several weeks ago, our contractor - who is a great guy - approached us about building a "small" retaining wall. We intentionally had our house built as far to one side of the lot as possible. We did this in order to leave room for a driveway around the other side. Basically, the house is shoved as far east as we could; since the land slopes east to west, this necessitated a cut about five feet tall right up against the property line. Building code requires that this cut be backed with a retaining wall. 

We're talking about stackable block that you can buy at any big-box hardware store. I had experience using these in Ohio, building a number of planters on sloping ground. 

Like fools, we agreed to take this on. Our original thoughts were that this would be a wall about 40' long and maybe 2-1/2 or 3 feet high. Wrong.

First of all, when we factored in the depth of the porch - an additional 8', plus the slopes in the cut, the wall ended up being just under 60' long. But that's not all.

A week or so before we were going to to this, our contractor said that to do this right we should lay down a 6" bed of fill (crushed gravel) plus a 6" bed of sand. We did some calculations and that worked out to about a ton of each. 

One last tidbit from our contractor: "You really should set a perforated drain pipe, buried in 6-12" of gravel, behind that wall before you backfill any soil, for good drainage."

We got a little lucky with the gravel and sand... I think. A local sand and gravel company sells this stuff literally dirt-cheap. The only hitch is that they charge a fortune for deliver. Fortunately, the Beast - a so-called one ton truck - can in fact handle nearly a ton-and-a-half of total payload. Using our truck saved us over $500 in delivery fee... on sand and gravel that cost us right at $100. Of course, we had to unload it ourselves!

So, Rick and Cathy, a pair of 68-year-olds, hauled and spread a one-ton load of gravel and then a one-ton load of sand... all in the same day!

Putting the Beast to work!

This is just the base of crushed gravel. A ton of sand was leveled on top of this.

The next day we started setting the previously delivered block. We set and leveled a couple of courses of block, then hauled and spread 1.3 tons of 3/4" gravel, the drainage line, and a couple more courses of block. We finally ran out of gas, quitting when we still had another 3-4 courses of block to set - plus backfill with dirt. 

You can see we still have a ways to go... this is too low.

Surprisingly, we were able to move the next day without too much drama. We put a couple of courses of block on the wall and shoveled some more dirt. Both of us felt we needed a couple more rows to get the height up where it should be, but we'd had enough for the day. We ended up waiting until the next weekend to finish things up.

It wasn't until we moved over half the block that I checked: they weigh 23 pounds apiece. We moved over 550 of them... for a total block weight of over 12,600 pounds, or 6.3 tons!

So, this whole project required that we move about ten TONS of material! I'm glad we did it - it turned out nice and we're both proud of the work, and I am sure we saved a ton (pun intended!) of money, but, Oh, Lord, it was a lot of work!

The finished wall!

We are having our flooring installed this week. The well guys are supposed to finish their work this week, as well - we think. The garage and porch should be done this week, or early next week - we think. A lot has to happen before the 15th!

Movin' Along

 This past month continues the rapid pace of construction that we've enjoyed since the house arrived on site at the end of July.

The house was originally set over the footings for the foundation, high enough that our contractor could build the foundation walls beneath it. A few days after the two halves of the house arrived, a crew came in, bolted them together and nudged them into the exact position over the footings. Our contractor then went to town building the foundation walls. 

Here's the foundation wall. The house is still setting a few inches above the pressure-treated wood that's bolted to the top. Additionally, before the soil was backfilled the wall was treated with a waterproof coating. 

While all the was going on, we took a quick trip to Seattle to celebrate Parker's second birthday. The trip was shorter than we would have preferred, for two reasons: 1) we had also committed to watching our other two grandchildren when their mother went back to work before they started back in school; 2) we suspected that we'd need to be home for consultation and decisions.

Parker and Dodger, getting ready for the birthday party!

So, we returned to Paso on Friday, August 13 and met Jill and Joe in Santa Barbara on the 15th to pick up the kids. We had them with us all week, returning them home on the following Saturday. Additionally, we watched them on the following Monday and Tuesday before we were finally released from duty on Wednesday afternoon. We had a ball with them, but chasing after two little ones, especially a three-year-old, just about did us in.  

Teddy's a huge fan of Grammy's spaghetti!

A tragedy ensued while we had the kids. Our beloved Copper collapsed on a morning walk. We managed to get him on his feet and back to the truck. We immediately took him to a veterinary hospital, where he was quickly diagnosed with an inoperable bleeding tumor on his liver. We made the tough decision to have him put to sleep right then. The vet said one of his lungs was full of fluid - probably blood - and we didn't want him to needlessly suffer any more. 

The grandkids were with us while all this happened. Poor Madeline, who loves dogs, was just devastated. Teddy, at age three, struggled to understand the finality of death. 

I discovered later that over 60% of golden retrievers die of cancer, mostly the hemangiosarcoma that Copper had. Here's our precious one...

Meanwhile, a ton of work has been done to the house, both inside and out. There's people working on the utility trenching, and the plumbing under the house. The septic tank has been set in place; while I write this, the grading crew is excavating for the leach field for the septic tank. The foundation was finished and the grading backfilled around the house; it's really starting to look like something now! They're supposed to start work on pouring the concrete pads for the porch and the garage today or tomorrow. The well people will be out in a couple of weeks to set the rest of their equipment. 

We're even more involved. Our contractor asked us if we wanted to take on building a retaining wall along the east side of our house. This entails a wall about 3' high and 45' long; if you look in the picture below, we're talking about the space to the left of the front of the house. The work will entail setting about 400 stackable blocks, which we'll have delivered as close as we can to the site. 

The front of the house. Our porch will be attached to the gable, and project out 8'. 

With all this going on, the obvious question is: when will things be done? We really don't know for sure, but we know that it won't be sooner than September 21. That's the date that PG&E has scheduled to attach their meeting and provide us with power. 

Also, we just found out that AT&T needs to move a telephone line that runs along the street. It's buried too shallow to allow for the proper excavation of our driveway. AT&T wants to charge us some $6-7,000 dollars to move this thing, which I think was improperly buried in the first place. Also, the guy told us it will take 30 days or so for them to do the work! UGH!

We've Got a House!

 I started my last post by saying that a lot had happened since the previous post. This post puts that one to shame.

To recap: we had a big meeting on 6/29 with all of the involved people. The house transporter said they were "about a month" out on delivering the house. The general contractor and the grading contractor needed a couple of weeks to prep for the house.

Well, just about all of that happened according to schedule. I've been posting a lot of pictures and videos on Instagram (see me at shook.rick), so I won't be putting too much more in this post.

Things started off pretty slowly. The general contractor and the grading contractor each thought the other guy was going to get the property staked; they managed to waste eight days until I started making phone calls to find out why nothing was happening.

After that, things started moving quickly. Since we had an operating well onsite, the grading guy said that if they brought up a generator we could use the well pump to provide water to a sprinkler to wet the property prior to grading. This would eliminate the need for water trucks to do the job - saving us significant cash. 

We readily agreed to manage this. It turned out to be a little bit of a chore. We were onsite three times a day to start, refill, or shut off the generator. We were buying 8-10 gallons of gasoline a day (it's a big generator!) at over $4 a gallon. Also, most of this time was blazing hot. The city of Paso Robles set an all-time high temperature record of 115°F on Saturday, 7/10. We were hucking five-gallon cans of gasoline at that fun time. 

After the watering was completed, the grading company got to work, with a vengeance. They had several pieces of very large earthmoving equipment onsite, usually with two or more running at the same time. They hacked the top of our lot down to the final depth, then excavated an additional six feet down where the house foundation was sited. The permit requires a six-foot excavation with four feet of dirt backfilled and compacted; the foundation itself is set two feet below grade. 

Grading for the foundation. They are compacting the soil. The final grade will be a couple of feet above this; you can see the partially completed final grade along the back of the excavation. 

They also got most of the driveway graded. To keep the driveway below a 12% grade, it serpentines up the slope. 

After the foundation area was set our general contractor excavated for and then poured the footings. He's also set the backer board for our electric meter and, with us, met with PG&E to coordinate running power from the street to the backer board. 

Our contractor putting Cathy to work, laying out the footings.

Footings. Concrete block will be set over the rebar and filled with concrete.

Remember the house schedule? "About a month" from 6/29? Well, they hit that one just about dead center. The original schedule was for delivery on Friday 7/30. The night before, we were informed that they would bring the trailers into the area (from Sacramento, about 250 miles away) on Friday but it would be too late in the day to place them safely. They rescheduled the actual drop for Saturday 7/31. In all honesty, I think that they wanted to visit the California Mid-State Fair on Friday night - which they did. The Fair, held in Paso, is kind of a big deal in this part of the state. 

First view of our house! This is the front half. The back half is down the road. They simply parked these on the road overnight!

That was OK with us; we weren't going anywhere. The early morning (0730) start meant it would be relatively cool.

We were absolutely dazzled by the organization and professionalism of the crew of Russell's Transportation. These guys had noticed that our next-door neighbor's driveway gave a nearly straight shot onto our property; on Friday they reached out to our neighbors, who we already knew are great people, to see if they could use their driveway. "Sure, no problem at all." 

I knew from my brother having a manufactured house deposited onto his property in Arizona that these guys use a small, remote-controlled tractor to give them a huge boost in control and mobility. Even with that really cool tool, it was beyond impressive. These guys backed a 66-ft-long trailer up a curving driveway, onto our lot and dropped it over the footings in little more time than it's taken me to write this! Seriously, though, the whole job on Saturday, including some time for some minor regrading of the access route, took right at three hours.

Next week, a crew will come in and lift the two halves above the footings; at that time, the contractor will build a reinforced concrete block stem wall around the perimeter of the house. Once that's been inspected, the house will be lowered onto its foundation. All of this is expected to take several weeks. 

The photo below shows the two halves of our house today. We will be having a two-car garage that will attach to the gable on the right side of the house; that's why that portion isn't fully finished with the board-and-batten exterior. The gable on the left side will have a porch attached to it. Both of these structures will be built after the house is bolted together and set on the foundation and the land is regraded. The final grade of the house is about where the bottom of the house sets now; the house will set 8-10" above grade. 

To say that we were beyond excited to finally have our house onsite is a huge understatement. Word's can't express what we're feeling right now. There's a lot more to be done - we were told it'll be 8/10 more weeks before completion - but we can FINALLY see the light at the end of this very long tunnel. 

PERMITS - FINALLY!

 Quite a bit has happened since my last post. 

Briefly, we got the well dug and the water tested. With that information submitted to the county, they issued the building permit! With that in hand, everybody involved is raring to go. Finally - it took eight months and one day since the permit was originally submitted!

Here's some of the details....

To recap, we were told by the drilling company in mid-May (5/16 to be exact) that we were in the queue to get our well drilled and that it would be "about a month" before that would happen. I expressed considerable skepticism in my last post that it would happen in that time frame - the guy didn't sound super positive about that timing.

Well, I was wrong. We got a call on 6/9 that the equipment would be moved onsite either Friday 6/11 or Monday 6/14. Sure enough, they sited the equipment on 6/11. A visit to the site on the afternoon of 6/14 showed the crew hard at work - glorious! My birthday's on Flag Day, so this was a pretty nice birthday present!

We were astounded at how quickly the drilling went. The guys didn't start drilling until sometime around midday on Monday and finished drilling an 800' deep well by the end of work on Tuesday! Watching them work was fascinating; they were pushing a 20' long section of pipe into the ground about every ten minutes. Adding a new section of pipe was a well-choreographed drill, with the drilling resumed within a couple of minutes. 

After the basic hole is drilled, they insert the casing, the piping that holds the well open. The casing is packed with sand between its outer surface and the bore hole. The whole thing is then capped with a plug of cement on the surface. This took the guys a couple of days to do all this; they were wrapped up and gone Thursday.

The guys estimated the well was capable of putting out about 75 gpm (gallons of water a minute), which is a LOT! It works out to just over ten pounds of water every second. Here's a link to a video showing what that looks like; this video was shot by the well drilling crew:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CDVUqSaxUxwEyxXk9

Early the next week, a separate crew came out and installed the well pump, which is inserted into the casing, with electrical wiring to the surface. 

After all of the digging was done, the well drilling company needed to prepare and submit two tests to the county in order to release the building permit from permit purgatory; one on the water quality, primarily the absence of coliform bacteria, and what's called a four-hour pump test. For the latter, the drilling company set up a generator onsite and pumped on the well for four hours. They pumped out 14gpm, measuring the water depth (don't ask me how they did that). Afterward, they monitored the water depth for one hour, looking for recovery to the original depth. Our water depth dropped from an initial 425' to 436' over the four hours, recovering to 428' at the end of the one hour hold. Don't ask me what constitutes acceptable performance - I don't know that either!

Here's what that looked like:

That's our well putting out water! That's our next-door neighbor's house in the background.

The next day (this is now Friday 6/25) the drilling company told us the reports were ready! They had previously told us that they released the reports when they were paid, so we were ready to descend on them with check in hand. The reports were immediately forwarded to our engineering contractor, who in turn obtained an appointment with the SLO County Planning and Building Department for Tuesday 6/29. 

After we took care of the drilling reports we stopped by MHS, the vendor of our house, to let them know what's going on. That worked out really well. It turned out that they had already scheduled with their house transporter to visit several of their sites, including ours,  in the area to examine these sites for potential problems with house delivery. This visit was already scheduled for Tuesday 6/29! 

Earlier today (6/29) we met onsite with the house transporter, the general contractor, the grading contractor, and a guy from MHS. The critical piece of business was for the transporter to determine how they would get the house up the hill to the house site. For review, the house is coming on two trailers; each piece is 13-1/2 feet wide and 66 feet long. The lot is 100 feet wide. The house site is 15-20' above the road, above a 12% grade on bare dirt. 

It's nice to listen to a professional problem-solve. He walked through his thinking on what it would take. Basically, they intend to simply drive up the hill; of course, he doubts their tractor will have the oomph and/or the traction to do it alone, so he asked the grading contractor if they'll have a BIG tractor onsite. This is not the grading contractor's first rodeo, either, so he admitted this was a fairly common occurrence for them. Problems (apparently) solved.

The only downside is that the transporter is about a month out for scheduling the move. Some of that time is needed for calculations and permits; the house units are coming from Sacramento, some 200 miles away. 

In the interim, and starting next week (joy!) the grading contractor will get to work, as will the general contractor. They have a couple of weeks of prep work before the house units arrive, so the timing really works out pretty well. 

 After months and months of waiting, things are finally starting to happen. We couldn't be more pleased. Everyone involved seems to be as anxious as we are to get this started. We expect things to start happening fast and furiously now! 

Are We Ever Going to Start Construction?

 Maybe. I hope. Eventually. 

All of these words, and a lot more, continually echo through our daily conversations as we continue to wait - seemingly endlessly - for construction to start. 

Where are we at right now? Waiting. We received approval for our well drilling permit in mid-May. Unfortunately, the well drilling company is backed up on drilling. They told us, with not a lot of confidence, that it will be a month (!) before they can start drilling. Our guy tells us he has equipment to field three drilling rigs, but only has one crew. He's got people out injured and says he simply can't find anyone to man his other rigs.

What frustrates us is that he told us this when we drove the well stake in the ground on April 6. We asked (pleaded!) then that he put us into their queue. It appears that, despite some vague assurances, that didn't happen.

Once the well is dug (3-5 days) the water has to be tested and the test report submitted to the county. Once the county approves the report, the actual building permit will be issued. Our engineering contractor assures us that everything else is ready to go on the permit. We'll see. I am enough of a pessimist to believe that all of the above work will take 2-3 weeks at a minimum. So, we are fervently hoping for construction startup some time in early July.

So, the endless waiting continues. It's been seven months since the permits were issued.

One very fortunate happening: MHS, the local manufactured home vendor, received a model home that is nearly identical to the one we are purchasing. Although some of the interior finishes and accessories are different, the actual size and layout of the kitchen/dining/living areas is identical. This has allowed us to make numerous visits to do a lot of planning, and check sizes, colors, etc. Most of these tasks are things that would otherwise be done after the house is done. As such, we've been able to do the following:

1.Flooring: we don't care for the flooring offered in the house. We're going to keep the carpeting in the bedrooms, but the rest of the house will be covered in a high-quality waterproof laminate. We found a flooring that we both like that will nicely complement the wall and cabinet colors. We'll order it and coordinate the installation when we get closer; we don't have space right now to store the flooring. 

2. Bar stools: we found, bought and checked for suitability a set of bar stools. Our kitchen has a 9-ft long island with seating; the bar stools will come in hand, especially since we aren't going to have a dining room table right away. 

3. Living room furniture: we were able to measure the living room and, with those measurements, order two recliners and a sofa for the living room. 

4. Dining room sizing: Our dining area is not large. The lack of size is exacerbated by having a sliding glass door into the back yard at one end of the area. Balanced against that, of course, is our desire to have lots of room for family gatherings. We decided that a 60" round table will fit nicely in the space. For big gatherings, we'll simply spill into the adjacent living area; it's all one big room, anyhow.  In a moment of weakness and perhaps misplaced confidence I committed to building a farmhouse-style base for said tabletop. I've got some ideas for building the table top, but we might end up purchasing one. So, we won't have dining room furniture right away. 

5. Closets: Cathy spotted this. The linen closet is in a hallway immediately adjacent to the garage entrance to the house. Around the corner, next to the guest bathroom, is a coat closet. To us, it makes more sense to switch these locations. We got the home builders to simply leave the built-in shelves, clothes rod, and other stuff loose in the closets and we'll switch them when we move in. 

6. Tile backsplash: the model home has a subway tile backsplash as an option. While we didn't particularly care for this specific tile, it got us thinking about a tile backsplash for our kitchen; we're no strangers to installing ceramic tile, having done a backsplash, countertops and floors in the past. We found a lovely tile that goes well with the kitchen decor and matches nicely with the tile found in the shower; we'll probably end up putting a backsplash in the master bathroom, as well.

7.Cabinets/shelving: while staring at the kitchen wall, I noticed that two of the cabinets are really weird. Flanking the hood over the range are a pair of 12" cabinets - in spaces that are probably 20" wide. It's one of those things that once you notice you can't help staring at - these cabinets are way too small for the space. Cathy wants some open shelving for display in the kitchen, so at some point in the future we'll rip these cabinets out and install a tile backsplash and open shelving in part of the kitchen. 

8. Bathroom fixtures: Cathy tracked down the manufacturer of the towel bars and related hardware in the bathrooms. We ordered additional towel bars for both bathrooms, identical to what comes in the house.

9. Bed: We found and ordered a bed frame for the master bedroom. We've got room in our storage unit for it, but not for the mattress, which we'll order when we get closer. 

10. Ceiling fans: We ordered the house prewired for ceiling fans in the living room, the three bedrooms and the den. We found a fan that we like that we'll use in all five locations. By an astonishing coincidence - not because he's a paragon of good taste! - both the bed frame and the fans are identical to what my brother Brian put into his new house in Arizona!

As you can see, we've got a number of inside projects already planned when we finally get into our new home. In some ways, the timing will work out well: late summer or fall is a lousy time to try to plant anything in California, so we won't be running around like mad doing a bunch of planting. We'll take care of some of the inside tasks and then start building the infrastructure outside... whenever we get done! 

One Year...and Counting

The following is just some rambling thoughts on our new hometown. I’ll post a separate update on house construction... 

We rolled into the Paso Robles RV Ranch one year ago today (6/2). At that time, we had only an intent to find a place to settle down, and a vague wish/hope/desire that Paso Robles was that place. 

No regrets on Paso at all. This is a lovely area, anchored by the semi-rustic little city of El Paso de Robles, population around 30,000. Having lived most of our lives in proximity to far larger metro areas, living here does take some adjusting to. For example: there’s no hospital here. The nearest hospital is in Templeton, a very small (ca. 8,000 population) city immediately south of Paso; the hospital is some 10-12 miles from where we are, on the north end of Paso.

Paso’s got moderate day-to-day shopping: several grocery stores, a Walmart and a Target and a Lowes can all be found here. What Paso has is restaurants and wineries. There are dozens of nice restaurants in Paso’s vibrant downtown area. Also, as I’ve previously reported, the greater Paso area is home to literally hundreds of wineries. If wine’s not your style, there are a half-dozen or so breweries in town and even a couple of distilleries nearby. Paso is also the home of the Mid-State Fair, which is supposed to be a huge event; last summer's Fair was canceled due to COVID, but we are looking forward to enjoying this year's event, later in the summer. 

The nearest “big” city is San Luis Obispo (“SLO”), some 30 miles south of us. It’s twice the size of Paso, and is the county seat and the home of Cal Poly. For all these reasons, SLO’s got a lot more shopping, including a Costco and an REI, plus a lot more medical and healthcare options, the nearest commercial airport and much more. 

The nearest really big cities are all coincidentally about 100 miles away. They include Salinas to the north, Fresno to the northeast and Bakersfield to the southeast. Santa Maria, a city of around 100,000, breaks the pattern: it's about 70 miles south of us. 

While we are in our seemingly endless wait to begin construction, we've continued to settle in here. We've joined a local church and have begun getting involved in activities there. This has been a lot of fun, and a very welcome break in our otherwise mundane life of waiting.  

Road Trip... and Another Delay!

 Let's talk about the good stuff first.

Everyone in the family - us, our children and their significant others - has been vaccinated! Son-in-law Joe just received his first shot; everyone else is all done. We've managed to get through this pandemic without anyone being infected with this dreadful disease. Although we've all had to weather disappointments and disruptions, we HAVE survived.

With vaccines in hand, we needed to get up to Seattle to see our beloved granddaughter Parker. Oh, seeing Heather and Dan, and Scott and Sara would be nice, too! We hit the road with the dogs and drove up to Seattle over Easter weekend. Since Heather and Dan's house is well set up for guests, it's easier, faster and cheaper for the four of us to simply pile into The Beast and drive like crazy up I-5. It's right at 1,000 miles, and we can do it fairly easily in two days drive. 

Parker is at an absolutely adorable age. She chatters up a storm, and doesn't slow down from the minute she wakes up until she goes to bed. She's got a will of her own. Her "NO!" followed by an emphatic shake of her head lets everyone know if she disagrees with what's going on.

On Easter Sunday, we drove over to the University of Washington campus, a few miles away, to see the magnificent grove of cherry trees on campus. We also wandered around their arboretum and botanical gardens on the edge of campus. 

Other Stuff

We got thrown a massive curve by SLO County's Planning and Building Department. We were expecting to have final review of the permits shortly after we returned from Seattle. We knew that we needed to have a well dug on our property, but we'd held off on getting that started because where we want to site the well is a spot that also needs to be graded. Both the drilling contractor and the grading contractor felt it best to grade first and then drill the well; this minimizes the chance of damage to the wellhead. Our general contractor also felt this was OK.

Well, the county disagreed. Our permit, which is otherwise fully approved, won't be released until they have a water quality test report in hand... which requires the well be drilled! NO ONE saw this coming. In fact, when we told the drilling guy about all this, he asked us "Is this a new policy?" Had we known this, we could have had the well drilled months ago! 

So, now the drilling guy is moving full speed ahead on getting a drilling permit and has us on his drilling schedule. The problem there: he's shorthanded and the current queue is about a month long! We figure that this delay will cost us, at minimum, 4-6 weeks. Oh, well. 

The first step in getting a drilling permit is to simply drive a stake in the ground at the desired location. The county will come out and check that it meets their location requirements. So, as you can see below, we have visible activity on our home site!

We have been informed that everything else is good to go; the county has said all we need to do is pay the fees and submit the well water quality report. There shouldn't be any last-minute surprises.

On a bit of good news, MHS, the local manufactured home vendor, has received a model home that is the same model as ours. Although it differs in some details and options, the basic layout and dimensions let us plan and measure to our heart's content. We've been there twice already, with another trip (at least!) in the near future. 

FOUR MONTHS... and Counting!

The first 8-10 paragraphs of this post are simply a rant about a petty county beauracracy; skip down to the heading "Other Stuff" if you don't need to read this... 

Since my last blog post was several months ago, let me summarize: we submitted our building plans in late October. At that time, our agent told us the county was currently taking 8-10 weeks to review permits.

That was about right. We heard in late December that they had completed the initial plan review and had some questions and comments. That's when things started to unravel.

Our crack team that prepped the building plan - which is a very lengthy and complicated set of drawings, with pages and pages of mostly boilerplate notes - proceeded to take FIVE WEEKS to begin to gather the response to take back to the county. It appears that the various parties involved in the preparation all sat back and assumed that someone else would take charge of gathering the information and organizing a response.

In the perfect clarity of hindsight, we should have taken a more active part at this point. Our sales agent, who doesn't get too involved in technical details, told us in very general terms what the county was asking for. We didn't delve into these details, nor did we ask who was doing the work or when it might be done; we simply assumed that the "team" knew what it was doing. 

Long story short, finally our contractor took charge. He's the guy who's responsible for putting in the foundation and septic tank, doing all of the trenching for plumbing and electrical, and arranging with PG&E to tie in the electricity. As such, he's the guy who we're paying the most money to... aside from the house, of course. 

He's been dealing with the Planning and Building Department regularly as part of his job. He has been telling just how screwed up things are there. Using COVID as a shield, these people have thoroughly bollixed up the building permit process. One has to make an appointment to appear in person simply to drop off or pick up documents. Right now, appointments can only be made for TWO WEEKS in the future... that's just to transfer documents. 

In ordinary times, we have been told that revisions to a plan application go to the top of the review queue. We do now know if that's the case now; further, we have been told that it is typically taking 3-4 weeks for review of plan revisions. 

We are roughly halfway in this 3-4 week time period. Assuming it holds true - no guarantee, that! - we are looking at having our plans approved some time around the end of March. That would be FIVE MONTHS since submission!

Clayton Homes, the manufacturer, had already made it very clear that they won't make and ship the home until it has a place to be set. Because of the delays in the permit process, the ship date on our home has been pushed back to May 30! It's being made in Sacramento, so it should be delivered on or around June 1. It typically takes 45-60 days to get it assembled, plumbed and wired for occupancy. That means we might be in the house by August 1. 

Other Stuff

We keep reminding ourselves that in the grand scheme of things our frustrations aren't all that important. We are safe and healthy, as is everyone in our immediate family, which places us well above the 500,000+ Americans who have lost their lives in this dreadful pandemic. We have received our first COVID vaccination, with the second one scheduled for next week (3/9). Daughters Sherry and Jill, both teachers, received their first vaccine last week; daughter-in-law Sara, a health care provider, has already been vaccinated. 

The biggest issue for us is boredom. We don't want to go anywhere, at least until we've been vaccinated. We keep hoping the building plans will issue and we'll be busy "supervising" things onsite. Also, the local Clayton dealer is getting a model home in identical to ours. Once that's here we intend to descend on it, taking pictures and measurements. With that info in hand, we plan on getting serious about identifying furniture we want to buy - we've got a whole house to furnish!

By the end of the month, we'll have completed the two weeks after the second vaccine shot and will be fully protected. Right now, we are planning road trips to see the grandchildren - and their parents, of course. We haven't seen Parker in Seattle since Thanksgiving; she is long overdue for some spoiling. We did have Christmas with Madeline and Teddy in SoCal, but they are overdue, as well. 

Once we start construction, blog posts will be a little more regular... I promise.