Building/moving to a new home – day 93

The pace is picking up

As the sun struggles to make it over the hill on this sub-freezing morning we are poised for another day of activity at the new home site. Patches of glare ice lie in wait on all secondary roads and many driveways are actually impassable. This makes for extremely hazardous driving and throws a big crimp in delivery schedules, but we seem to have found an answer..

We were able to lay down enough crushed rock on our job site to ensure that work could continue in all areas. As a result, Our well drilling contractor was finally able to get his trucks and ditch digging equipment out to our site and start the final phase of getting us connected to the well that he dug so many months ago.

Yesterday the wellhead was prepared for installing the pump and some preliminary work was done on the long trench from the well to the house. This trench for a water pipe and the electrical cable for the pump will pass under the driveway. To ensure that the driveway will not have to be disturbed in the future, a pipe will be installed under it as a conduit for the water pipe and power connections. The trenching and the laying of pipes and electrical cable will occur today.

By the end of today, we should have a complete well water system installed. This will include the submersible pump down in the well and a water tank in the crawlspace of our new home. Once that is done, our on-site contractor will install the hot water heater and connect the well water system to the house plumbing.

Another trench will be dug from the house to the workshop to bring water to the workshop, which has its own water heater. This should occur in a few days.

Today’s site activity will also include hooking up the new electrical service in the workshop. At this point the 8000 watt auxiliary generator, which has been running for many weeks to power the job site, will be shut down and prepared for its long-term use as a back-up emergency generator.

Important Note

I had mentioned in an earlier post that water damage had occurred to our house modules because of improper preparation for transport to the site. The builder, Souther Heritage Homes, responded promptly to my request and put in temporary heaters to dry out the wet areas. We did a walk-through yesterday with Jason, the installation manager, and Butch Jarrett, our sales contact, and satisfied ourselves that the dampness has now been totally handled and that a program is in place to handle any damage to the drywall.

The modules are extremely well-built and they survived the long trip to the site and being hoisted by a crane and being placed on a foundation with virtually no stress cracking. I was impressed, as I have seen more evidence of drywall joint stress cracking and nail pops on some new homes that were built in place.

There is more to be done by the builder, but we need to get the house heated before this work can proceed, which leads to the next big action item, installation of the wood stove.

Upcoming event of note

We are expecting delivery of our Dutchwest wood stove tomorrow. The hearth will receive its final polishing today, so all will be ready for this most important event. I have even ordered an initial delivery of firewood, so we can begin using the stove immediately without having to get out my chain saw and making some.

This installation requires that an insulated stovepipe be put through the roof, so I will be watching the process quite closely. This is not an area where a quick and dirty installation will suffice, as we are providing a conduit for extremely hot gases through a joint which must be leak-proof for many years.

There is an elaborate through-the-roof installation kit involved which provides both insulation and sealing, which I will describe in a future post.