Managing 5 acres eats into Construction Schedule

Spring arrived and so did the growing of grass and the need for maintenance of the property. Unfortunately these items need regular attention, so construction has to halt for the moment. With this task, the hiring of Jimmy, a high school student, for yard work was essential.

Just after getting the gutters on to the house, we had the yard regraded and installed a rear sump line to draw water away from the rear foundation (see photos). Now it was "wait for rain"
and see if we still had water seepage problems". In the meantime, we continuously run two small 150 CFM fan to ventilate the space and keep the crawl space dry.

Currently, there is no standing water, but only dampness in the slab. The goal is to eliminate the small puddles in a few select areas and any future threat of any seepage. The moisture issue has delayed construction, because the house cannot be sealed up without first tackling the moisture in the crawl space. Mike is confident it can be remedied, but is being dealt with implementing one idea at a time.

The rain came and went and water still showed up in the crawl. I'm happy to say that about 60% of the previous seepage has been resolved (but that's not good enough). It appears that water coming front is the last source of water. A brick manhole 5' from the house appears to be the culprit. This was notice as Mike went to the house during a 2 1/2" rain and notice that 100 feet of driveway found itself to the manhole and nearly filled it to the top. The rear sump pump hardly ran, so is a good sign that the water is not coming from the ground up, but from foundation side wall seepage. So the next step is to mortar the manhole and make it water tight. Currently water is coming through the bricks of the old type manhole.

Maintenance of 5 acres. Thanks to the help of brother-in-law, Kurt, we have two tractors to tackle the growing grass and 1,000's of dandelions. The application of weed & feed took place in the front by the bag full ((10 )-10,000 sqft for the front yard). Considering the high water table and the concern for water run off, only a localized weed control was applied to the back (This is the best environmental option). Spring is also germination season, so out with the grass seed in areas disturbed around the house. Each week, a high school kid, Jimmy comes out for a day and helps with the mowing of the grass and other chores. Jimmy has been a great help as a second set of strong hands. Grass is looking great and trees are in full bloom. At the end of the season we will consider installing prairie grasses or wild flowers for a n acre or two. We are also working on fixing cracks in the 350ft long driveway to the house. I used to think my current 30 foot / 3 car driveway was a project, now I consider it a 2 hours short job (piece of cake).

The garage door and driveway under our exterior work did start and the header was installed by Mike, Jimmy and Kurt (see progress photo). Project was a little harder than expected, since none of us has done this previously. This also involved disassembling the wall cabinet in pieces, which was a two day project in itself. We expect the door to install the 1st week of June. If anyone has an alternate idea for finishing our driveway of some thing different than Asphalt we are considering this. Cherie and Sister Kathy have been working on cleaning up the planting beds, so all the existing beautiful flowers and bushes are kept in order during construction.

Time management. During the Spring priorities had to be shift, because many non-construction unplanned task popped-up. Maintenance of 5 acres is difficult, since the yard had been left for 9 month without anything being done. Four acres of grass takes a good 5 hours to cut, so you can imagine how much time is left to do construction. Grass must be cut each week, because it has to be mulched (because you don't want to bag that much grass). The removal of an old 1940's semi trailer in the back, is another task that needs that has been a project of Mike's.

I'd have to say 70% of our month of May has been dedicated to the exterior grounds (with no regrets). Mike got to the point that he had to create a running list of 25 thing to do (and assigning each task to the most capable person (Mike , Cherie, Jimmy or a subcontractor). Volunteers and family members are always welcome to picnic (and work).

At request, I have added interior photos of the house. Yes, the house looks somewhat finished on the exterior, however it more like a movie set on the interior, only framed walls exists (yes there's nothing inside). We have no plans to make any changes in the walls, because we feel the sizing of rooms are just fine. Our first task is the get the garage is somewhat order, so we have a staging and deliver area. We have registered the house for LEED for Homes with the USGBC to make it official that we are building a "Green Home" registration is $650. From what I'm told the balance of certification is another $1,500 for "Green rater". Cost is much more than expected for certification, because $2,150 buys allot of kitchen cabinets when your on a budget. I plan to discuss this with USGBC at my next Board of Directors meeting.

Doors, windows, siding and insulation is coming future posts.

LEED Registration/ Massive Yard Work/ Removing the Temp Divider

I have contracted the LEED certifier, Jason Lafleur of Alliance Consulting. Jason has been a great contact and will be a super resource during construction. Now that the water seepage issues appears to be in better control, it time to get back to construction.

Mike has met with a solar panel installer and visited a Woodstock firm that sells and installs wind turbines. He was surprised to hear that wind speeds in Woodstock are at 12 mph and that many turbines are designed to work at 27 mph. He also learned that as mph increases, output increase substantially. The speed to output is not a linear relationship (hence a wind turbine in Woodstock is not going to be very efficient option). Also, the big the propeller the less wind you need (but also cost much more). Solar is also going to be a challenge due to the tall oaks on the site and less it is implemented on the far NW corner of the site.

Getting control of the grass and weeds on 5 acres is a project in itself. The dry weather brought early dandelions by the thousands. Mike chose to weed and feed the front lawn and on spray apply weed control in the back, since there is an abundance of moisture (due to high water table) grass gets constant moisture. Also the pallet fertilizer could get into the site storm run-off. Safe guarding the storm run-off is a high priority on this site on the Northeast. Our goal is to get the ground rehabilitated while we are finishing out the house,so the site is in great shape by the time we move-in. Our goal to move-in is end of July, but not etched in stone.

Next item is to raise the header between the house and great room. Cherie and I took down the divider wall between the two spaces to get a better feel for the overall space (see photo).

We have guttters!!

Been almost a month since the last post. Hard to make the time when every 15 minutes count toward the house construction. Happy to say gutters went on two weeks ago and resolved most of the water seepage issue in the crawl space. Ventilator fans help draft and dry out the very west side of the crawl space. I'm happy with progress. Soffit priming and painting went as fast as I could paint, until the gutter guys caught up to me. Front and sides are primed and painted and back is at least primed with pre-primed Hardiboard. Grass cutting and fertilizer/ weed control has started to become and issue (yard was cover with a sea of yellow dandelions). As for the gutters, they were made out of recycled steel and we installed 5" gutters with over-sized downspouts. Leaf screens went in immediately.

With 5 acres, we brought on a second riding mower with the help of brother-in-law Kurt. Pool is still laying on the driveway until a scrapper picks it up. Semi-trailer in the back is the next big items to be removed.

We are finding we are always shifting the priorities based on what the weather says. We have been extra lucky to have minimal rain and allow use to dry weather to our advantage.

We were also able to locate Mr. Russ Reed who was the owner previous to the last owner of 10 years. Mr. Reed (who will be 91 this year), came by with his wife and shared an abundant amount of information from the 20 years they owned the property. His wife used to bake wedding cakes in the back house and Mr. Reed built 6 sided picnic tables and supplied scrap lumber to people in the area. We invited them to come by any time to property to visit and share memories. Mr. Reed was disappointed with the lawn condition and said he kept it like a golf course. Unfortunately, the lawn had been ignored for about 8 months and taking time to rehabilitate. Russ wants to bring his mower and cut his old lawn again. With 5 acres I said any time. BYOLM (Bring Your Own Lawn Mower).