Updates From The Cottage

We have been working on the Can Do Cottage.  The big blue box delivered a load of cement blocks so that our favorite brick layer could build a foundation for the house to set on.

We were glad to wait for him and his crew. He did our previous move on house and we can't say enough about how professional and how perfect and level his foundations are. He uses this device often to make sure that the blocks are perfectly level and plumb. 

We had requested the foundation be about four blocks high on the highest edge, and the foundation crew had to even it out all around. On one corner the blocks are only about two and a half blocks high. They had to build around the iron beams the are still holding up the house. 

They also had to build piers under the house to hold it up at critical points. 

They left with a beautiful, straight foundation. We called our house movers who came out the next day and set the house down on the foundation.  They jacked it up a tiny bit, removed the pilings the beams were setting on and then set it down - corner by corner. 

This house had lost most of it's bottom sills when it was removed from it's foundation, so we had to add some 2 x 10 pressure treated boards to the top of the foundation to replace them.

The house has a carport that's completely under the roof and at the back there is a small storage room. It's only single wall construction and had a washer and dryer in it and a lot of water damage. This part we replaced a bunch of the foundation pieces and our movers took out a vent to make a place for a jack and the  jack supported this area until it could set on the foundation. We know we need to rebuild some of this area which will become part of a new bathroom.

 When it was all set down their winch truck hooked up the beams and pulled them out.

Our little house has touched down and home for good.  Off went the support beams it had rested on since it left it's birth place.

Only now could we call our insurance office and tell them we had a house and they could cover it against loss. They couldn't insure it until it was on the foundation.  It's no longer mobil but a house. 

Moving Day

On Monday, the stars finally were in alignment so the Can Do Cottage could be delivered. This house moving company moved it in the daylight. When we moved the first house we did this with they moved in the wee hours of the morning and rolled in about 5am.  We were told it would come before noon but they wouldn't get on the road until the morning traffic was cleared out. Right on time, we saw it coming down the road.

There was one little branch that blocked the way.

But it was removed and the real work of turning the corner began. There is only about 30 feet between the electrical pole and a tree on the adjacent property. The house is a little over 28 feet wide.

They did pull a fence post out to make a little more room. Where the truck's front tires are going has been filled up with wood beams.

They inched their way through the turn. The moving company is a multi-generational family and the father and son and helpers are shouting directions back and forth.

They cleared the turn, but have to keep the truck's wheels on the road because the area in front of the truck wheels is a mud hole. (Remember the cement truck?)

It straightened out perfectly! That's some truck driving. I have trouble backing out of my driveway. After a few more yards our house leaves the road for the last bit of it's journey home.

As it travels a bit south of the footings and over a bit of a rise, the truck gets a bit of assist from a winch on one of the other trucks that came along.

The house is facing backwards, so they need to do a bit of a pirouette.

There was some back and forth and jogging around but they pull it in over our footings.

They then went to Lunch! So did we. They returned and spent about 2 hours fine tuning the placement so that the house was exactly centered over the footings. They have it balanced on four stacks of timbers that hold up the two huge iron beams that have supported the house since it left it's original home. Using jacks, the winch and pushing with a truck they fine tuned the placement.

And there she is! We've ordered the foundation blocks, vents, mortar and sand and the contractor will start to work on the foundation next week (as long as we don't get any bad weather). When it's done, the house movers will return and set the house down on the foundation and level it so it will be as if it was built there.

Clearing! And The Countdown To Delivery

The mess of tree tops on our lot had a solution. Meet the chipper.

 I became way too involved with this bad boy. It will handle any tree limbs up to six inches in diameter.  That's pretty big.

 We also had the Three Amigos. Well, two cousins and their friend. BLBaby Boy, our nephew and their friend were persuaded (and paid $10/hr plus meals) to provide the labor. (Bad picture of them, but ladies, they're all cuties and two are unattached!) Of course, we needed some obstacles to straightforward work. The chipper was rented for 24 hours, BLHubby took off two days from work and after about three hours the belt broke. It was hauled back to the rental yard where they replaced the belt but some other little cog needed to be fixed and the part wouldn't be there until the next day. The boys worked the chainsaw and stacked stuff up but we quit early. Next day, chipper is ready but BLBabyBoy and BLNephew have to work at their "real" jobs. Their sweet friend came and we all chipped wood until dark. I don't think I've been so tired and sore ever. We had the chipper until noon the next day (the rental company was great about making up the time) so we came out and finished most the next morning. The Three Amigos arrived to help, too.  With their help we had several piles like this:

 And a lot of these:

 On Saturday, BLHubbs and I started burning the bigger logs. We had hoped that the house  mover would be able to bring the house in on the Monday (it was Presidents Day) so we had to get at least the front area cleared of obstacles so the house could move on in. A darling enterprising man approached BLHubby with a proposal for him to clean up the area with his tractor. Deals were made:

 Buddy the Tractor Driver was heaven sent. $40 per hour was a bargain. He piled most of the wood onto the existing fire and made another big pile at the opposite end of the property that we will burn at our leisure. Buddy is a prodigy with a tractor. Remember I said that many of the trees were hollow? One of them had a wild bee hive!

There were only a few bees. (Thankfully) I'm not convinced they were domesticated bees. The few critters I saw looked less round than the honey bees I've seen. The comb that fell out didn't feel like bees wax but was  "papery". I didn't put my hand inside the hive to check out all of it but I don't think there was honey in it. Sadly, it's a goner. So are those stumps. We hired another local boy who came with a huge machine on the back of his truck and ground those huge stumps into dust. The stumps now look like this.

I didn't get out there with my camera for the process but when all were ground it looked like we had been invaded by R.O.U.S.'s

Never fear, Buddy the Tractor Driver spent two more hours yesterday smoothing things out and we have a clear lot!

He really is a tractor driving genius. Just in time. The house mover has inspected the site and thinks we can move the house on this Sunday or Monday. It will be in the wee hours of the morning but hopefully I can get some pictures of the trip.

Where are we cost wise? We had labor (the Amigos), Chipper rental, a new chainsaw and chainsaw blades and sharpening (we sharpened several blades a couple of times at our local True Value), stump grinding and Buddy the Tractor Man - grand total was $1679.  Not bad for removing over 25 trees. Only problem, it wasn't budgeted, so I'm looking for some savings elsewhere. I think BLHubby and I will be hanging our own siding.  So far we've spent $11,674 plus land. We still don't have a house but we're ready!

Move On Cottage - One Step Forward, One Step Back

When we laid out the house foundation we knew we would have to remove one tree so that the house could be maneuvered into place. BestLoved Hubby spent two hours cleaning and tuning up his chainsaw and headed out to the property to chop down the offending tree. We also considered a couple more trees might be candidates for removal.  Easy, yeah? BLHubby came back home within twenty minutes.  Wow, quick huh? No. The offending tree was MUCH bigger on closer inspection. Hubbs is six foot eight with gorilla arms and he could barely reach around it. The others we were considering removing were much bigger. On reflection (and fear for his life), he decided this was a job for the experts.  A job that we hadn't budgeted for. What might it cost?  BLHubbs just contracted for some tree limb removal and clean-up at his work.  Limb removal on 15 trees cost $3600. Complete removal of bigger trees would cost a lot more. But, he's not an international purchasing agent for nothing.  One of his suppliers is a sawmill and they recommended their best log contractor.  When we met with him he pointed out that most of the hardwood trees on our site were old and diseased or lightning struck.  On a closer look, there was one big one that you could see through!

Peek-a-boo tree! A good wind storm or ice storm and all our work renovating the cottage would be smashed. BLHubby's sawmill friends also coached him in what the business side of getting the trees removed should be. The tree contractor told us the trees were not worth anything except to sell for pulp. (Just what the sawmill said they would.) BLHubby then asked them if they would remove the trees and take the logs for free. They agreed. This was the desired result. The log contractor would get a couple of loads of logs worth about $1000 and we would get the trees safely removed without blocking the road, smashing the storage building or killing anyone. The only "catch" is that the tops and smaller branches as well as the stumps will be our problem.  Here it is, trees removed

Most of the lot covered with a tangle of tree limbs - some of them huge. But, no damage to the shed, foundation, road, or any people (that we know of). Those trees you see are not on our lot. We are about to put some sweat into sweat equity. Stay tuned.

More Can-Do Cottage - We Get Concrete

 The day after we got our trenches dug we poured concrete in them. Not without a little drama.

A big yellow cement truck arrived promptly at 12:30 pm.

And promptly got stuck in the mud.

Really stuck! Of all the routes to the house site he took the one with a soft spot.  We  now had a load of cement, starting to set up - in the truck - not in our trenches. We're responsible to get the cement to the proper place. The truck's delivery chute was at least 20 feet from where it needed to be.  The workers didn't even have a wheelbarrow.  The truck cannot be pulled out of the mud until it's unloaded. Fortunately, The BestLoved Hubby has a bit of experience expediting job sites. We could have called someone but the heavens opened and we were gifted with a cement fairy.

   Our neighbor, an elderly gentleman by the name of Billy Bob (really, his name), has spent a lifetime as a heavy equipment contractor. He built the roads that run by our home. He had just pulled up to his driveway with the lovely tractor/front loader shown above. He and the Best Loved Hubs struck a deal.

Billy Bod drove the loader to the truck, his scoop was loaded up with concrete and he drove it to the trench and neatly dumped it in.

While unloading the first truck, one scoop at a time, the 2nd truck arrived and back up to the trenches, NO PROBLEM! The 3rd truck in the background is a "rescue" truck send by the concrete company. It's loaded with 10 yards of rock to give it some "heft" to pull out the stuck truck.

Truck number two unloads, easy peasy, just as planned.

Once unloaded, truck three hooks a huge fabric covered chain to truck one. And pulls.

Truck one stays stuck. They think they can hook the stuck truck from the back and try pulling it out that direction:

It's a little hard to see the big chain, but they tried. Yellow truck number one still stuck. The contractor had not estimated quite enough concrete, so a FOURTH truck (2nd yellow one) came and delivered it's load. We have our footings. We also have a huge yellow truck stuck in the front yard. Best Loved Hubby starts to talk about decorating it with Christmas lights. The concrete company had a smart foreman that had the last truck bring another big huge chain. Apparently, sticking trucks in the mud is pretty common.

 With a longer chain the truck loaded with rocks can get onto the road which gives it better traction.

The mud was defeated! Success! Trucks gone!

Just us and our footings. The concrete had to cure for at least 14 days before we can move the house on over them. The trucks, with the weight of the house will cross over parts of the footing so it has to be strong. 

How much? Concrete was $1607.98, re-bar $284.57, labor to dig the trenches and pour footings $1600 and last but the best money spent $70 to Billy Bob for his skip loader.  So far all spent, $9974. 

Can Do Cottage, 2nd Installment

Since we got our Sanitary Certificate, we haven't been idle. For a move on house, you pour concrete footings, then move the house on over them, build a cement block foundation and then lower the house onto the foundation.  Oh, but first, we bought the house. We had verbally agreed to purchase the house. The owner/house  mover had checked out our lot and confirmed that it was possible to move the house on. (Not every lot is feasible.) Once we got our "go ahead" from the county we could then sign a contract.  We're paying $14,000 for the house, set on a foundation (which we will supply). For now we pay only $5000 deposit. The rest will be paid when the house is delivered and we hold the large amount of iron holding the house up hostage until the house is installed and leveled on it's foundation. If you're confused, follow along and you'll see.

The house mover, sent us a detailed "footprint" of the house. We had also measured it and drew it out on graph paper. This helps us to know the exact dimensions of the foundation.  Everyone met at the lot and the foundation contractors measured and strung line between posts (look close) so they had the exact position of the outline of the house and the interior piers that will hold up the interior.

They came the next day with this cute little Bobcat and dug neat straight trenches right where the foundation will go. In our climate (no frozen ground) 18 inches is deep enough for footings.

The trenches get filled with a crosshatch of steel re-bar. This keeps the concrete all together and strong.

They smoothed out the dug out dirt and called it a day. Next day, concrete!