3 - Planting New Roots: Site Clearing, Maintenance, and Fencing

Cold temps and lots of snow in early 2015 lingering through early April drove our schedule a bit, but that's expected up north. By mid-April, temperatures started to warm (30s-50s), rain came along to melt the snow, and in two weeks it was melting away and getting muddy.

Our plan was to start building our barndominium in 2015, a 24'x36', two-car garage with almost 500sqft of living space on the second floor loft.  We selected a building design from CADNW and purchased the plans in PDF with hard copies mailed to us, including a materials list.  This was a huge decision for us to settle on.  We looked at a lot of floorplans and went with a very simple layout that we could customize beyond the structural design.  We went with the CADNW plan because it gave us the most information, including a materials list, it the most freedom to customize while meeting building code requirements.

The old foundation is too close to the road for current building code.  Even if we built on that site, it would be a major undertaking to reconstitute a house on an old stone foundation that served as a base for two old structures that burned down in the past 70 years, so we planned to take the driveway back into the property about another 80 yards.

Will it have electricity?  Sort of...we will run the wiring in the new structure eventually, but we will have to run a new line from the road underground back to the house and don't have any plans to do that immediately.  We do have a generator for temporary power now and it can be used for emergency use later. 

Will it have running water and sewage? Again, not at first.  We will also have to run the existing well line underground (currently located near the road) back to the new site and we have to put in a new septic system because the old one near the old foundation is probably as old as the old house was. 

So what's the plan? We plan on using a composting toilet and bottled water.  Interestingly, there is a fresh water spring on the property and rain is usually not a problem.  We also plan to build an outdoor shower, consisting of a combination of rain barrel collection and a pump-supplied receptacle.

For our April projects we accomplished the following:

1. Met with excavation contractor to go over work needed for extending the driveway and digging out the foundation.
2. Raked out all underbrush and juniper bushes from pad and future yard site.
3. Cut down trees in and around pad site and driveway.  We also cut down any trees that pose a future threat of falling on the new house due to a weak root system, dead or otherwise unhealthy, and some that were just unsightly.
4. Installed split rail fencing from north end of property to a point past the driveway along road frontage.
5. Chipped and burned brush from cutting last September and this project's cutting/clearing work.
6. Sprayed brush killer on blackberry, raspberry, and sumac.
7. Staked out the new driveway and foundation pad site.

The land was still heavily forested, so we had to clear cut an area for the foundation and extend the existing driveway back about 80 yards.  We purchased a Ratchet Rake for the tractor bucket to help tear unwanted vegetation and rocks from the ground and perform a rough grading of the driveway.

The tractor was bought by my wife's late father years ago and is about 30 years old. This tractor is a workhorse and is still in great condition. The family has been good about maintenance, however some things can't be prevented. As my wife was starting to fill in a deep depression in the yard caused by the previous owner, the arm on the bucket gave way--there was already a stress fracture and it suffered a clean break straight through.

Our brother-in-law knew a welder, so the next day we took the bucket in for repair.  A slight setback, but we were able to use the tractor on other projects, like installing fencing along the road frontage.

With our brother-in-law's help operating the tractor, using the post hole digger we purchased from Tractor Supply Company (TSC) we made short work of the fencing, installing over 220 feet of split rail fence.

We also purchased a gate from TSC to control vehicle access to our property.  We had trespasser problems twice last year, and yes we caught them on camera.

After meeting with the excavator at the beginning of our trip, we scheduled the earthwork for early June 2015.  The concrete team would follow up with their work and once the foundation walls were poured we started building.