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.
