Installation Day!

Today's the day! Yesterday evening our mover (who is also installing our foundation) dropped off his tractor after finishing another job a few miles away. On his way to work this morning, John called me and said, "Honey, I think part of our house just drove past me!" Sure enough, 20 minutes later the crew showed up. I'm going to have to bake cookies for our neighbors because pieces of our house were in other people's ditches and chilling in the parking lot of the gas station at the end of the street.

It took about two hours for them to spread out and tamp down the foundational clay. I'm sure their tractor is first rate, but it made me miss the backhoe from yesterday. It probably could have taken out that dirt in half the time. :-/

As soon as the foundation was laid and everything was leveled to spec, the moving process began. Meet Snuffy the Freightliner. He brought each piece in one at a time.

What can only be described as a giant jack with bulldozer wheels then came out and was slid under the first piece to move it precisely into place.

When planning where your house will sit, there are a number of things that you have to take into consideration. First, there needs to be 16-foot wide clearance to haul most pre-manufactured pieces into place. That's why we had to cut down the leyland cypress trees flanking the driveway. While the pieces themselves are only 13-foot wide and the driveway is 14-foot, the trees made the clearance unacceptable. Once they started pulling in I could see why. The truck beds were shadowing the trunk stumps.

Another thing you have to consider is where all your utilities will be coming from. The back/front/side/whatever of your house must be at least 5 feet from the edge of the septic tank. Also, depending on your local code, you may have to be a certain number of feet from your electrical pole. Our pole isn't in yet, but the engineer has already come out to look at how he needs to run wires around trees and existing poles. He staubbed off where he wanted to put the pole with a wooden stake and a white ribbon. That means the crew not only has to be about 5 feet from the staub, but they have to account for the inches radius of the pole as well. The mover told me a story about being just one inch off of a septic tank and having to either pay the septic installer $300 to move the tank or losing $2000 in work for his guys to move the whole house.

Once you have your first piece in place, they roll out a moisture barrier on top of the foundation. Then they begin to build up the footers with different sizes of cement block and wooden shims.

After a break for lunch, the crew got back to work moving in the rest. Installation won't be finished today, but they promised to be back out "first thing in the morning" to assemble everything else. It's exciting! Now that it's here I'm no longer freaking out that everything's going to explode. Now I'm freaking out because it's not happening fast enough. Can you imagine how miserable I'm going to be staring at a house that has no power or water all weekend?

All About Septic

Well, the house was not installed today. We still don't have water, or even a foundation, but by god we have septic! It was actually a pretty fascinating process to watch.

First he was kind enough to take out a few sassafras trees with his backhoe. It was like watching someone flick over the candle on a cupcake. John called shortly after this display and refused to bow to my pleas that I NEED a backhoe.

Next he dug a hole for the box.

Then they lifted the septic tank in. It's a giant concrete rectangle, somewhat like a mausoleum. This is funny because Mr. Jones also does "vault" work. Staring down into the six-foot hole with the multi-ton concrete box dangling over it, I felt a little sick. I've never had a particular fear of being buried, but what coursed through my veins could only be described as terror. I told John when he got home that he could gift me, he could sell me, he could even set me on fire, but he could NOT bury me in the ground. *shudders*

This will hold about 1,000 gallons of waste and water.

Once the tank was in place, it was time to dig the trenches for the fill line. Because of the angle and length of our lot, they had to do two runs. Something to keep in mind when planning your septic system is that (at least in Alabama) you must stay at least 5 feet from all property lines.

The really cool thing about the fill lines is.... everything. The middle piece is the actual pipe to the septic tank. It's just a piece of accordianed plastic, but the ends are specially molded so that they each snap together both effortlessly and tightly. The stuff surrounding the pipe and filling the two "logs" on either side is: Ba-ba-bum! Packing peanuts.

Yes, they've finally found a use for styrofoam that doesn't end up in a landfill or an ocean. Because styrofoam is non-biodegradable, lightweight-yet-sturdy, and shaped to allow airflow, it makes the perfect fill material. Years ago they used varying grades of gravel to achieve the same filtering effect. This makes the job go much faster, though. Just lay out the "logs" and go.

Between the concrete of the tank and the peanuts in the fill, our system is rated for 200 years!

Once everything is in place, they used the backhoe to fill the gaps and spread out the excess dirt as evenly as possible. The only thing left was a tiny corner of the tank and a pipe to connect to the house. Ignore all the roots. They are one of the major reasons I hate pine trees so much. The roots can go deeper than you'd think and they spread out unbelievable distances, and they're almost impossible to get rid of.

All in all, it took two guys about 2 1/2 hours of steady work. Now if only the rest of the process could have been this easy.

Wednesday Catch-Up

Is it really only Wednesday?

My schedule has been blown to hell and back, and it's so early in the morning that I'm not sure what will happen today.

We still don't have water. Septic was delayed by a funeral and will, in theory, happen this morning. Power has been a nightmare of different people giving me different schedules. One truck full of foundation dirt arrived Monday night without warning. The other two showed up Tuesday morning during breakfast. No one has yet come to turn the big red piles of Alabama clay into a foundation.

And the house is supposed to arrive at some point today.

If the house arrives while the septic is being put in, a stand-off is going to happen because the septic guys won't be able to get their equipment back out from behind the house. If the house arrives before whomever is setting our foundation does his job there will be nowhere to put it. Supposedly, all the people that are doing these jobs work together pretty consistently. Supposedly, when I get off work, it will all be done and ready for final assembly (power, cable, water, etc). All I can say for certain is that I'm really glad John bought a bottle of Jack Daniels on the way home yesterday.

I'll update you tonight when I get home.