blogging our home building process

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Diggin' Dirt

Dirt flew this week as excavation kicked off!  It took 3 1/2 days but we now have what looks to be an actual construction site!  And, we managed to get it all done before the rain came which was a BIG bonus!


Lots of activities went on this week.  The bobcat and backhoe from Headrick Excavation dug our walkout basement and garage.  (Due to the uneveness of the lot, the garage had to be partially dug for the footers and to make it level.)  They also dug the hole for the septic and built up the driveway.


starting to clear the drive
 
starting the basement





basement hole is 50x34 and garage hole is 29x29

roughed in dirt drive - 140 feet long



The septic was delivered to us from BargerAndSons.  It's been dropped in the hole but we still need to clear the leach field and install the lines for it to be complete.

how many men does it take to set a septic??



Progress was also made on the utilities.  The temporary power pole was made and installed.  The ditch was dug to lay the pipe for the electric and water.  The water meter is in and the line running from it to the main house is hooked up.  The underground electric pull box was also put in but we are now waiting for the transformer.


The big day was the day the port-a-potty arrived on site...not only was it equipped with toilet paper but also with hand sanitizer!  As the only woman on the job site thus far, all I can say is WOOHOO!  (Brought to us by Fay Portable Buildings in Athens, TN.) 




Lastly, we got the first truckload of gravel for the drive and made a makeshift gate with galvanized cable so we could hang our private property sign.

the first of many truckloads to come

the entryway to Deeradise

Oh and we've had our first guest tour of the walkout basement and garage by the deer.  While still MIA during daylight, the little critters are sure making the rounds at night!

look carefully and you'll see deer prints







Friday, February 18, 2011

Timber!

Trees fell right and left this week as they succumbed to the buzz of the chainsaw making "cleared" areas for the house, garage and driveway in preparation for the excavator.  The house site and drive were also staked with bright orange stakes for easy identification.

chainsawn alley

Most of the cut trees were small - the oldest tree cut down was 19 years old based on counting the annual circles.  (ie the rings on the inside of the tree)  We also think we may have some small sassafras trees as the smell of licorice was in the air!  Sassafras is known for tea, rootbeer and my favorite, furniture!

We have also discovered with the clearing that the ridge off in the distance is starting to become visible (see picture above).  It looks like we should have a decent view from the 2nd story windows!

In addition to the chainsaw action, we obtained all of our permits and disrupted the deer first thing Monday morning.  They haven't been back but who can blame them from running away from the chainsaw noise!




Sunday, February 13, 2011

Deeradise

Welcome to Deeradise!  Deeradise?  Yes, Deeradise.  You have never heard the word I'm sure but I know you have heard of Bearadise especially if you have ever visited East Tennessee.  Most cabins in East Tennessee and elsewhere have names that embody that particular cabin.  Recently, we were driving and discussing what on earth we were going to call our future cabin and Deeradise was born.  We aren't sure this will be the final name of our cabin but for now, we're calling our future paradise Deeradise!

Deeradise is 4+ acres located in East Tennessee and will be our future home.  We are building a rustic-themed cabin nestled amongst the beautiful acreage of woods.  It is in a one street subdivision with an abundance of privacy and an abundance of four-legged creatures!  It took approximately 10 long months of searching anywhere and everywhere around Knoxville but we finally found our little piece of serenity.

This blog will follow us as we build our beautiful cabin.  Jason is our contractor and he's built many beautiful cabins before.  We are going for a very rustic themed cabin and look forward to sharing all of our accomplishments, setbacks and joys throughout this building process.

Thanks for reading our blog and we hope ya'll stay tuned...
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