We had holes and poles - now we have doors and floors!!!

We are back down in Port Orford for a week, we arrived to find the pole barn up!! and looking spectacular, it had no doors but that didn't seem to stop the "few" neighbors we have from stopping by to compliment us on it!  and apparently one of them has even been taken photos and making enquiries to the place we got it from about something similar!

Amazing what a bit of extra design by Mr M can do, takes a normally very agricultural building and turns it into something more garage looking, extra overhangs on the eaves and smaller garage doors etc. 

The guy arrived and fitted the doors, and they finished it off a treat.  The framing is all wood and we will be leaving the wood beams exposed whilst insulating between them.

 

Whilst we are down here Mr M has been working on getting the well up and pumping (it is and that is a whole 'nother blog post) and he has also had the trenches dug and he has been busy laying the conduit with power cables, and water lines a big dirty dusty chore, but  obviously a necessity.    We have a tap on the side of the barn and water comes out of it :) and we have a huge massive power cable running to the barn.

Basically when we arrive we can park the airstream up under the carport plug into the power, water and septic and we are good to go!

We had one of our neighbors come out with his tractor to dig our trenches, Dennis, he is a really nice guy originally from California and him and his wife have done exactly what we are doing.  He knows where to buy everything and where to get the best prices!!

Our direct neighbor brought us about 2lbs of red snapper the other evening, he had been out on his boat for about 2 hours, and he said if he has a good day he always shares it out amongst the neighbors - it was delicious!!!!!

I have been working my regular schedule, and during my lunch break popping down to see Lance at the hardware store (him and Mr M will become very close friends) I have also painted the well house walls and I have put my chicken coop up!

We are living in a bit of a dust bowl, but Mr M assures me this level of housework won't be necessary once we are under the carport, dust really does get everywhere!! Plus by then the rain will have arrived, so I guess mud will be my friend then!!

Well that's all for now folks, will be back soon with the tale of water and where it comes from!

We've got Holes and Poles!!! July 2015

Here we are, over half way through the year and we are finally getting our pole barn completed!! We just got back from a long weekend down in Port Orford where we completed our first camping trip staying up on our plot - it was brilliant, what a spot, all I could hear was the sea! AND the real excitement occurred when they started on the barn!

So lets spin back a few weeks, when I last "blogged" I mentioned that we were going to sell the campervan and buy a travel trailer so we would have something to live in whilst Mr M was converting the garage.  Well selling the campervan happened a lot quicker than we thought it would, we washed, polished and cleaned it all one Friday, advertised it at about 5.30pm and within an hour we had had 15-20 people email interested.  SOLD within 24 hours! should've asked for more $$$!

SO then we purchased a 1966 Airstream, that although it had already had plenty of upgrade work completed on it, still was all time consuming for the next month or so! because we needed another project to keep us out of mischief! however it was SO worth it, we love it and it is so spacious compared to the campervan, and will be perfect for a few months living in it *laughs manically* it will be fine!!

 

 

And now back to the present! Off we popped down to Port Orford, on a Gorgeous Sunny Day! which is proving to be pretty standard for the summer of 2015.  We got there and set up camp up at our property, we hooked up to the electric and finally used some units!! We aren't yet able to drag the water out of the well, so we carried enough and filled up the tanks whilst we were there.  We also went prepared for some level of comfort, we took a table and chairs for outside dining, an awning to provide some shade, some fencing so the doglets could come and go from the van as they pleased and fairy lights - lots and lots of fairy lights :)

 

 

The main purpose of the trip was because the pole barn was starting, the guys turned up bright and early on Monday morning and dug/drilled all the corner and post holes, they then put concrete in the holes to form a pad, the poles then get placed on the pads and packed in with gravel, they aren't actually fixed in the concrete, pretty clever, it is a self supporting structure.  When we left on Tuesday they were waiting for the Inspector to inspect, which he did and then they were carrying on!  We are going back down 2 weeks today to see the doors get put on and sign off on the build!! woohooo!!!!

 





 

 

 

Mr M worked on the well pad whilst he was down there, small scale build next to the barn, but he enjoyed himself, and now we are home he has all his well pump and tank etc. and is now busy building a well house that will sit over the top of the well etc. 

 

 

My chickens are also sorted for the big move! they have a new house.... I found a guy who builds chicken coops and runs, for a very reasonable price.  I know Mr M could have built me one but I also know it isn't top of his list of things to take care of, so I took the worry away from him and brought the ladies a new house! It's unassembled and just needs transporting and putting together!

 

 





 

 

So what's next.... we are back down to Port Orford in 2 weeks time, to sign off on the building.  We are going to be taking the well pumps etc. and the well house and the chicken coop and anything else we can squeeze in for the trip, the more stuff we can take now the less we have to move! 

 

When we are back home we are then going to be listing our house for sale!! WOW that is quite a milestone, we have had our photos taken of the house and I have packed quite a number of boxes and we have a plan for moving, it is always better to have a plan than not I think :)

 

 

 

 



Its April and its 2015 and its all happening!!!

Happy New Year :)

Well it's all going on! We are now in full swing and fully planning to move to Port Orford end of the summer this year.  We have just had a very quick trip down to the property this last weekend.  800 miles round trip, got there lunchtime on Friday and arrived home 6pm Sunday! we managed to squeeze in rather a lot whilst we were down there.

We have FINALLY made a decision about where we will live whilst the house is being built.  We have been back and forth on living in a trailer (caravan for the English folks - but a large'un) and living in the garage/workshop.  Well Thanks to a slightly complicated planning law it has forced us to make a decision and we will be living in the shop! 

So we went and signed the contract and paid the deposit with a local Oregon company who do pole barns.  It is a timber framed building clad in metal and I think we will be going with red walls and a green roof with white windows, doors and edging, a bit like this.

It will be a 3 bay garage with a carport on one end, but only 2 bays will have garage doors, the last bay will have a humanoid door, and we will insulate and build to code and live in 2 bays.  It will have windows, and Mr M is going to add some sun pipes to the roof to let in extra light.  The bonus of this is that we can use all our furniture, and no storage costs etc.

It's the little things, but I am happy that this decision was finally made! now to get it built, we are 3 months out, but once they start it goes up in 2 weeks!!!

Mr M has sold his car, which I was VERY Happy about! YAY - so he is now shopping for a truck! and we are also going to be selling our campervan and upgrading/downgrading/upsizing to an old airstream! basically we have outgrown the camper and we need something to live in for a few months whilst Mr M is getting the garage ready for us!

LOTS of decisions made!

The property looks really good, it survived the winter really well, we lost a few trees at the back of the property but we will get them taken out, plus another bigger one that is just plain ugly!  I was SO excited that my daffodils and crocuses I planted in October came up, I am sure they were a picture whilst they were out, but alas all I got to see was dead flowers!  Everything down there occurs about a month or so ahead of up here, so everyone has their gardens in fullish bloom.

 



The gates were looking a treat, they are really lightening up the way that cedar is meant to, and I think Mr M was surprised that they were still completely level - as I said at the time "completely over engineered"

 

We were also excited to see our well! we have water! well we will once we have a pump! but this is it, this is the end of water bills as we know it!!!

And we have a septic tank, I KNOW as I have said before, septic is sh*t blog talk but all good house builds must brooch this subject at least a few times, BUT this stuff was SO expensive it is nice to see what we paid for :) I won't be allowing anyone to use it!!

AND we met with Wayne, who has done all the hard work so far.  He will finish clearing out the area for the workshop, and put down the hard core ready for it to be built on, it comes complete with a polished concrete floor so no need to put a concrete pad down.

This is where it is going, conveniently right in front of the gap to next door, so they won't see us, and we won't see them! Hermit? Me? no!

That is the back of their shed, and they will sit back to back, nice and friendly.  We also have a complete driveway, one of the first things we will do in the fall (Autumn) is to grass the areas around the sides of the driveway, once the build is all completed we will have gravel added over the hardcore - but that is rather a long long long way off into the future!

FINALLY we are getting our house ready to put on the market, not too many projects to do, but a bit of tidying up and the wood shed needs re-roofing, and our swamp in the back needs some new turf! We are aiming to list around June/July, but need to be sure the barn is up or on its way, incase the unthinkable happens and we sell quickly and are homeless!  But we have a Realtor, (Estate Agent UK peeps) and she has given us a value and advised us on what/when/how etc. it is overwhelming but we are ready for this to happen!

And so that is it for this update, I am starting to panic plan about packing up the house, and realized we have rather a lot of stuff for the charity shop! I am also planting up my veggie garden in the hopes that it will inspire prospective house hunters to buy it for the vegetables that will be on offer! What a Deal, what a Steal! Sale of the Century right here!

And then there was water!!!!!

We had a great few weeks in Port Orford and did a lot of exploring, both around the little town and up in our neighborhood and all of the streets up around there.  We got to meet a few of our neighbors which was great and everyone is so friendly, or maybe that is nosey :) they all want to know what we are doing, what we will be building and when we are moving!  We are happy to tell everyone all about our plans, we understand that it must be quite disturbing to suddenly see a piece of land sold that has been wooded for a long time, and then it is cleared and of course people are curious!

Our direct neighbors have had to put up with a lot this summer, a lot of noise and a lot of dust, we have given them some of the timber that we couldn't sell, to use as firewood through the winter.  They are currently renting the property so I don't feel quite so bad LOL.  Unfortunately there is a huge gap where the trees were cleared and it looks straight through into their property.  We will be putting a privacy fence along the gap and also planting some fast growing shrubs/trees/bushes, and besides they are getting GREAT neighbors so they can't complain!

We also met with Joe who did all the land clearing, and he told us we made $3500 from our timber, that is pretty impressive and we weren't expecting anything like that much, it all goes back in the pot to pay for the land clearing!

So what else got done! we got power, that was exciting, it got hooked up to the main street supply so we now have power onsite!

 

The next big thing we got done was our gates!! Mr M had made the gates before we left, so we took them down along with the gate posts, hardware, hole digging equipment (spade) and wheelbarrow!  So one day we dug holes! 3 of them, 4ft deep, Mr M always over engineers EVERYTHING including post holes!!! *sigh*

 

Then another day we mixed concrete - not having water on site makes mixing concrete rather hard, so we brought water, 25 * 60lb bags of concrete and then sat back and wondered how we were going to mix it! Mr M got on google and discovered the Portugese way! the tarpaulin way!!! You tip the bag of concrete into the middle of the tarp, take 2 corners each add water and tip my right hand, Mr M's right hand, my left hand, Mr M's left hand, it basically mixes the concrete side to side and is amazing and WORKS!!! 3/5 of a tonne of concrete later and we have posts in holes!!

5 Days later we hung the gates... and Oh My!! they turned out amazing! Mr M should be very proud of himself!

I also did some planting whilst we were there, I planted some daffodils and crocuses around my gates and my power pole, and also our Realtor had emailed us at the beginning of the year to say she had a tree for us :) So finally on this trip we were able to tie up with her and get our tree, it is a Dogwood and I planted it and put some fencing around it to protect it from the deer and *fingers crossed* it makes it through the winter.

By the time we were leaving the grass was starting to grow over the septic area, and we had the house and the garage all staked out.  We met with Joe and Wayne to decide where the final clearing would take place and to discuss the tanks etc.  Now Wayne will complete the septic system and get the last few trees and bushes cleared out.  Then the land can have a few months peace and quiet to recover from the trauma of the year!!

 

 

Finally last week our well got dug, we were disappointed it didn't get done whilst we were down there as we would have liked to have seen it happen.  But it is done, it got drilled down to 45 foot and got a good flow, we will end up having a holding tank as well but at least we know that it is done and we that unknown is now a known!!!

 

And that is it! Spring time will arrive before we know it and we will be getting the garage put up.  We are having a pole barn and it is nearly going to be as big as the house *sigh*

 

Before I go! yes the beach was still spectacular... even during the stormy weather!!

 



Autumn 2014 and things are moving!!!!!

FINALLY it is Autumn and VACATION time!!! it has been a very long summer, we have both been working a lot with Mr M even doing 50 hour weeks (which if you know Mr M is unheard of) but whilst we have been beavering away up in Seattle things have been moving right along down here in Port Orford.

Firstly, we normally camp when we come down, but the middle 2 weeks in October was bound to see some rain, and after last nights storm I am mighty glad we rented a vacation home *feeling smug*.  We are right in Port Orford town, good and close to our property and we have a fantastic view of the lake out over to the ocean!

We haven't been down here since August, and since then the land has been cleared all bar a few trees that we have decided now need to come out too.  The cleared space was then backfilled and graded, and the driveway has been partially laid with compacted hardcore, the rest will go down now that we are here and can mark out the house and the garage etc.

Here is the plot, all cleared... looking in from the road..

And then looking up towards the back of our property, Mr M is stood where the house will go.  The garage will be down at the bottom right hand side of this photo, backing onto our neighbors and providing us with some privacy.

 

 

We were also excited to see our septic (it is all about poop) drainage field is in, this is a big deal as it needed to be in and inspected prior to the rain arriving, or we were going to have to push it back into Spring 2015, this way it is in, covered and has grass seed on it to allow the ground to stabilize through the winter and the grass to grow!! I was super excited to see this!!! *blushes*

 



AND this week we have also had our power meters put in, they are huge and will basically cover us for all eventualities, we decided if we are doing it now to put in a supply that can be isolated to house, or garage, plus an RV supply as we will be living in a trailer during the build.  THIS was very expensive, however it is done paid for and we have POWER!!!! another milestone!!

 

 

Today we spent the day digging holes.. OMG it was hard work, but the first actual HARD work we have done on our own land, we now have 3 x 4 foot deep holes for our posts, we are going to be putting gates up across the driveway, now we have power we don't want a hippy circle moving in with their damn bongos!!!  Mr M has made the gates himself and we brought them down with us, we are excited to finally be doing something ourselves!

 

This weekend we are having our well dug, so we will also have water, water and power and nearly somewhere to poop - what more could a person ask for!

 

I will be back next week with another exciting installment including pictures of well digging and gate erecting :) :)

 

Before I go I need to share what the crazy neighbor behind us has done.  She is basically very upset that this "woodland" is being built on, despite the fact it is 3rd growth and it had been for sale for a long time and she didn't buy it!  We met her last time we were down here and she is slightly loopy and paranoid, previously she had fenced her property line, brilliant saves us doing it!! This time she has added wooden stakes to her fence (spikes up) - gotta laugh, she is clearly more of a hermit than us and completely insane!!! I think I might like her!!

 

 

 

Oh and yes, the beach is still spectacular!

 

 

 



It's been a while............

But quite ALOT has been happening, really!! I promise!! loads in fact!!

Firstly, we finally got our septic system and plan approved - seriously this is a big deal, it can be the difference of $30k or $10k, fortunately for us it was the latter, this pricing being approx., we are hoping for less of course.

Once the septic was approved it kind of changed all of our plans, we had to re-arrange the site plan, and infact in hindsight this is a MUCH better layout!

So then we started paying $$$$$ out to our Contractor and he has been busy in there clearing the trees out, he will clear the trees, level and grade the land and grade the area for the garage and the house.

We have a culvert, and the start of a driveway, it is VERY exciting! we went down to Port Orford a few weeks back and got to see how things are progressing.

 

It feels so much more real now that the trees are coming down and the space is being defined!! Next the septic drain field is going in and then the tanks etc.. I could bore you with lots of talk of septic systems, but this blog is already full of enough S*it boom boom!!

We also got signed up with the power co-operative, they will be running the electric from the street through some conduit to a power pole, we are having our meter and power pole close to the property line and then Gareth will run the power to where ever it is needed when he starts down there.

We also have just signed a contract with the Well company, once the land is ready they will go in and dig our well for us, fingers crossed they don't have to go too deep, but it is all exciting stuff!   Hoping by the end of the summer we will have all the utilities in and running etc.

SO now, Gareth is researching garages, we have always talked about living in the garage whilst Gareth is building the house, enables us to use our furniture etc. rather than having to put stuff into storage.  Plus we found out that you can't build a garage and leave it as a sole building on your land, you can only build a garage before your house IF you are planning to live in it whilst building, so although we have tossed around the idea of living in a large trailer (caravan) we are now back to the garage idea.

Well that is about it... fingers crossed everything continues to progress forward... and in the meantime we will just keep on working hard ;)

Oh and this wouldn't be a good blog post without the obligatory beach photo!!