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[Ntrain2k]

You might look at a lumber company. Some of them will come in and cut the trees and pay you for them.

Someone around here recently bought around 5 acres. He made enough selling the trees off of it to pay it off.

[ratcityrex]

And that's a great idea, except for the fact that this entire property was logged back in the early 1980's or late 1970's. What they replanted was fast growing trees which don't grow large in diameter but grow tall. Therefore I have these tall spindly stick trees that aren't worth anything except maybe some homemade fence post.

[brine04]

Post pics, you'd be surprised what is considered merchantable timber these days. Why not burn the limbs and debris instead of chipping? Also are you not concerned with the stumps rotting over time and affecting the backfill?

[ratcityrex]

Ill try and get some pics next time im out there staking off the land the septic site. Well in our Tree hugging fucking state were not allowed to burn "clearing debris" Which includes limbs and stumps. Not to worried about it rotting and sinking down. Where I'm putting them is kinda out of the way and I won't be doing anything with that section of property anytime soon.

[n/a mike]

Just saw this, congrats man

[ratcityrex]

So I went out to the property on wednesday7/13, and friday 7/15 and staked out the whole drainfield and the reserve area for the septic system because the owner felt that I might have had the building envelope for the house on top of the drain field. Nope, I didn't so we're good to go there.

That's all for now. Kinda keeping this build as a log of everything on the land and house so I can go back and use it like a journal/log of the whole process.

[ratcityrex]

So the health department is going out to the property today to inspect the well. If all goes well, they will sign off on it and we can close on the property and I can start pulling permits. I should find out more in the next couple of days

[ratcityrex]

Oh FUCK what a shit show this has been. But it's finally ours. We closed on october 17th. Went on Tuesday the 18th and hung up some no trespassing signs. Also picked a whole pile of chanterelle mushrooms. I'm working on all the permits for it right now. Gonna try and have them all done and turned in Tuesday the 25th. Pretty much all done with them except the swppp. It's a fucking racket what the fucking Tree huggers want.

[ratcityrex]

Okay so we're about a month later now. I submitted our permits on the 25th of october, all has gone well until November 11th when I received an email from our Builder. He stated that if we did not have the footings dug out and ready to set forms by the 26th of December that our price lock guarantee was no longer valid, and that our price would be going up $6,000 due to the rising cost of materials and labor. So I haven't gotten our permits back yet and they're not due back until December 16th. I called the county on October 14th and inform them of all of my recent events. I politely asked them if I could start clearing my building site and Excavating the dirt so we can have it ready to pour are footings once the permits came back. They gave us their blessing and on the 16th we started removing trees. Next Monday we're going to dig a trench for utilities widen in the driveway Road a little bit. I'm crossing my fingers we don't have any hiccups along the way and we get our permits back in time to set up our footings and I won't have a $6,000 overage and cost. I'll post some pictures of everything here shortly.

I recived  a email from the county stating they needed a sieve soil analysis @ 75 microns. And our permits are on hold until they receive those results. So last night at 6 o'clock at night I'm out in the middle of the woods with my headlamp on digging a 4 foot deep hole to get this soil sample turned in today and hopefully get the results back to the county on Wednesday the 23rd before Thanksgiving.

Also found out that are excavation cost and tree removal in driveway install is going to be about $5,000 over budget. Fuckmylife!!!

[ratcityrex]

So the added $5,000 overage was going to pretty much be the disposal of stumps. And here In Tree huggers land you can't burn them. So...... I rented a 30,000lb excavator and we made a pile in the woods. Only cost about $675 for it with delivery and fuel cost. So now hopefully we went go over budget on the rest of our site excavation.

This week were going to trench for utilities and next weekend I'm going to install conduit and water line and backfill everything in. Once that is done we can bring in some rock for our driveway and start planning on getting all of our Timber off our property. It's crazy,to think that this big ass pile of trees is only going to net me about $400 I'll post some pictures later.

[turbohf]

only $400? can you sell it off to private locals for firewood for more? or just keep it yourself for firewood?

[ratcityrex]

The problem is, it would take me years to cut it up and chop it for firewood. Plus it in the corner of my building site. Plus I'm going to be cutting down so many more trees it's not even funny.

The $3-400 I make is me selling it off to a firewood outfit. The biggest expense is trucking it out of there. This is not timber that you can mill for boards. It is strictly firewood or pulp timber. Which isn't really worth shit. Secretly I'm just glad I won't have to pay to have it removed.

[ratcityrex]

Okay, so last thursday, friday and Saturday(December 1st, 2nd and 3rd) after work i went out and put in our conduit in and water line and meter. They back filled the trench on monday the 5th. Today the 6th l&i came out and signed off on my temp power pole and I've called PSE to come power it up but it looks like 10 business days b4 they can get out there. Met with our boulder and they staked off our foundation to be dug out. Next week gravel driveway gets put in and the timber guys will come out and get all my down timber. At that same time the guy doing all our excavation is also going to put in our septic system, grade our building site nice and smooth and dig out for foundation. I keep forgetting to take pictures because I'm taking videos and posting them on facebook.

[n/a mike]

I don't check in here, but I'm watching on fb
Shit is awesome, I'm super jealous.
I'll be buying land in the next 2 years, but I'm going with a double wide and a nice garage/shop.

[ratcityrex]

I post more details on here then in the videos because when it's all said and done, I'm just gonna hit print page and let it all go. Kinda like a journal.

If I was a single guy I would have land and then just a big Shop with 2 bedroom apartment above it. But I have a family and convincing them to live in a 2 bedroom apartment above a shop that smells like gear Oil isn't gonna happen...lol

[ratcityrex]

So not much to really look at because they are screens shots of video, but some are actual pics I took today.


Had a friend come fly his drone over my property and got some pretty cool shots of it. Here's what I got. Will have lots more to come.



Taking Tree with red x down.



Bringing in another 12 yards of gravel b4 we excavate for our foundation. Then another 12 after we backfill and that will take it right up to our garage. Then I need to bring in about 60 yards of five is he'd gravel when it's all said and done and compact it all down.



Also don't know why it's hot linking my photos but what ever.

Also here is my Facebook page if any of you nigh want to watch video of my dumb ass explaining what I'm doing on what steps.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009551341753

[ratcityrex]

I had a hell of a time trying to get the firewood guys to come pick up this timber so we could make our deadline. Called and called for weeks and kept getting the runaround. Pulled a few strings and spoke to a guy with a self loading timber truck and he took all but about 30 sticks to the mill. I had to cut the rest of the stick up into 12 chick's so I could move it off the build site. What a pia!! But it's done. So then the guys I hired to do the site excavation showed up and kicked ass!  So we made it. Everything had to be dug out and ready for them to come set up rear and forms by the 26th. We were done on the 23rd. Contacted the build he said that someone should set up a meeting with me in the next week or so to talk about the foundation and what's next. I'm pretty pissed off that I had to fucking kill myself trying to get this shit done in a quick manner for him to tell me they builder is gonna take there sweet fucking Tim to get shit done!

Anyways pics....

First lumber load, just pulp wood.


Leftovers after first load, this is going to be chipping n saw wood


Second load of timber chip n saw


Left over stick I had to move by hand. What a fucking bitch to do.



Guy's out doing the cut. Got it all done on December 22nd.

[crxvtec91]

Looking great, so did you hit the 24th dead line?

[ratcityrex]

We did make the deadline. So we avoided the $6,000 extra charge.

[ratcityrex]

Okay, So the saga continues.....

Builder called me finally on the January 6th saying he wanted to set up an appointment for the 9th at 9am. (mind you its been done for 2 fucking weeks now and I have been calling and email since it was done and getting nothing but the runaround) I show up at 8:55am on the January 9th with my 3 year old. At 9:30 this mother fucker still isnt there. I call the office to track his ass down and he tells me he has no idea who I am, or where my property is at. I about loose my fucking shit. Im trying to keep my cool and not blow up in front of my son. I have to give him directions to my place. He shows up 1 hour after originally scheduled. He has none of my paperwork, has no idea what house, what options or anything. This mother fucking hillbilly backwoods cunt is about as smart as a fucking fence post. I ask him how he has my fucking phone number but none of my info, he babbles out some shit explanation about how he has 20 other houses hes building and hes over worked bla bla bla. He tells me that they foundation guys wont be out on the property until the January 23rd because they are so backed up because of the cold weather. Alright, now Im fucking hot, my kid wants to leave and is not listing because hes done hanging out at the property for the last 90 min. I write a fucking nasty email to the head of the company after the meeting telling them this fucking hillbilly is retarded. I get a apology email back....bla bla bla

So yesterday January 17th, I receive a email from the county saying ive got an inspection for the footings for January 20th. Im like WTF? So I jam out to my building site and the fucking concrete guys are there setting up forms. He tells me that the hillbilly is retarded and that they arnt just gonna wait for the ground to thaw out. So while they are waiting for that they start setting up footing forms. FUCK YEAH!!

So it looks like they might pour the footings hopefully next week. and then they will strip the forms the day after they pour, and then start setting up rebar and forms for the stem walls. Hopefully I will have a foundation in the next few weeks. I can then do my footing drains and my downspout drains for my infiltration pit. and then back fill. Once the back fill happens, the build has 140 days to finish the house. every day after 140 days they have to pay me $100 until they complete it.

[ratcityrex]

So this morning Jan 20th I get a call from the foundation guy. He asked me if the construction manager Paul has called me ? I say no, why. He tells me that the footing inspection is today and they need all the county paperwork. He told Paul to call me and tell me this so I could take it out to the property. Did this dumb mother fucker call me? Hell no he didnt. I swear to God, I'm gonna knock the rest of this fuck Heads teeth down his throat. Guy is just,dumb as rocks. So I bust my ass and run the papers that I have out to the site.

County guy shows up today and signs off on our footing forms. So we're pouring concrete footings on Tuesday.

[rawr]

That shit would stress me the fuck out. I hate having to rely on people especially when I have a gut feeling they're incompetent.

[ratcityrex]

That shit would stress me the fuck out. I hate having to rely on people especially when I have a gut feeling they're incompetent.

The good thing is I'm on site almost daily checking the state of things and directly communicating with all the contactors.

On a side note I went to home Depot yeaterday and picked out exterior colors, flooring colors, interior paint colors, counter top colors, all our site drainage(footing drains and downspout drains that go to the i-pit) Also picked up a set of French doors.

[ratcityrex]

Well they poured the footings today. Stripping the forms tomorrow and hopefully start setting up stem wall forms next week.

[Tim]

Its looking good.

That's one thing that I struggle with, when you're forced to pay incompetent people to do something that you don't know/or aren't allowed to do.
It forces you to have to learn it/do it anyway just so you can babysit them.  It makes me bitter to have to spend that time and then still write that check.

I do it so often at work that it doesn't surprise me anymore.
I look at it as paying for my continuing education so that next time I will find a way to cut them out of the loop.

[ratcityrex]

Yes, it pisses me off to no end. I won't say that I know how to do everything when comes to building a house, but I have physically pounced nails on 10 houses from start to finish. Things I haven't done a lot of, plumbing, electrical, and concrete foundation work. Doesn't mean I wouldn't give it a shot, but time is money and I can't afford to do something that would take me 1 month to do when it would only take a sub 3 days.

The hard part is I'm financing all of this, so the lender/bank has a hard time forking over money without knowing who is doing all the work. So if I'm going to do the work they pretty much tell me no, we're not giving you the money. But, the dirt work, site drainage, water line to the property, and power to the property I was/am in charge of. I pay for this shit on my credit card, and then at the end of the month I request a draw and pay the shit off. Banking so many fucking airline miles on my card right now. Probably go on vacation with all the miles/points I'm getting....lol

When it's all said and done, the house will be fucking awesome. But I'm will probably do about 40 hours of work on it b4 I ever grab a moving box. I'm going to change out counteracts, hardwoods, and rear door. I just don't feel like paying for there overinflated prices when I can do most of it for 1/3 the price.

For example,
I wanted French doors off of the dining room instead of a sliding glass door. They told me it would cost $3000 more to install French doors. I about lost my shit. For those who don't know, the French doors only cost about $150 more then a sliding glass door and only take about 1 extra hour to install. So if your paying get the carpenters $100/hr for example, and it takes 2 of them your looking at a added cost of maybe $400 more. Not $3000

Needless to say i bought French doors and I'm going to install them b4 I even move in. Then I'll probably sell the slider and hopefully make a little money back.

[ratcityrex]

Sooooooo, inspection of stem walls on Wednesday Feb 1st. If all goes well they are set to pour the rest of the foundation on friday and strip forms sat morning. I'm going to go out there on Saturday afternoon around 1 and hopefully start doing downspout drainage and cleanouts. Then on monday I'm going to finish up what I didn't get done on Saturday and then do footing drains and I hope to have everything done by Monday afternoon. Gonna be a pretty good push for that to happen. Might also get up early on Sunday and go out for a couple of hours in the morning and do work.

[ratcityrex]

They came, they poured and they stripped!! Poured on friday Feb 3rd and stripped on Saturday and we're gone by noon.

Now I'm doing a little drainage work. All of the gutter downspout drains enter into 4" solid wall pvc pipe and go to a sump basin and then get pumped to a infiltration pit. I got most of the pvc done Saturday afternoon.

After i finish up the rest if the pvc, i have to do footing drains around the footing of the foundation. I have 4"×100' rolls of ADS perforated drain pipe to put down, then i put down drain rock over the top of it and cover it with silt barrier.

Im going to take today off and head back out on Monday. They are calling for 3-6" of snow today which is going to fuck me for tomrrows drain work. I'm suppose to have 10 yards of 1.5" drain rock delivered Monday. Don't know if the dump truck will be able to make it in the snow.

Anyways on to the pics.

[turbohf]

thats awesome    im sure every step is cool, but concrete. shit is solid and getting real.

[ratcityrex]

Well kinda got fucked by the weather today. We got 6" of snow overnight and I can't really do shit when I can't even see the fucking ground. So I won't be able to finish up drainage until next weekend.