First Steps

 We've seen some progress this month! It's exciting to see things get started. 

First up was the driveway. The land came to us with a 2-wheel track through the woods. It was perfectly situated to reach the building site, but was a steep downhill into the valley, and an equivalent uphill to the future house. Not something that is desirable in winter with snow and ice. 

Two weeks ago the excavator came out to build up the driveway. Job one was to remove all the topsoil, which is not stable when wet and therefore does not provide a solid base.

Step two was removal of the topsoil from the hill in our small section of farm field in order to access the clay underneath

Then the clay was pushed through a gap in the tree line to the driveway, where a bobcat pushed it into place on the driveway. 

One layer at a time, the clay was put in place, then packed down by the roller. There were several layers built up, but I didn't watch closely enough to keep track of how many layers it took. 

Not quite finished driveway, from the middle to the road:

And from the middle up toward the house: 

It still awaits gravel, which will come as soon as the spring road restrictions are removed, and the top portion near the house and garage will get finished off after construction. 

This is the side view. That huge expanse of black dirt is the new hillside tapered down from the new height. A few trees got partially buried around the bottom. We might dig out around the most-buried one in hopes that we don't lose it to root suffocation. 

Today we had the first step toward actual house construction. The surveyors were onsite to stake out the corners of the house and shop, which is required before submitting our permit application. 

This is a shot of the home site, taken from the top of the mountain of topsoil that is currently piled on the west end of the "house". They put stakes at the actual corners of each building, and also further out from the ends to make the string lines that later will make the front and back lines of the house when they excavate. The tall black stakes that are visible are the ones Sid and I had placed to approximate the house position. We weren't too far off in our estimate. :)  The first black stake and the second wood stake are at the house corner. The second black stake is at the front door. At the far end of the house, and going out to the right, are the stakes for the shop.

We also had the surveyors add some additional stakes along the north property line. Originally only the property corners were staked, and that line goes over a hill and through the woods. It was impossible to see both corner stakes at the same time, and therefore impossible to know where the line was in the trees. Now we can tell exactly which trees are ours, or not, before we start cutting out buckthorn, or making other changes. 

Now we are awaiting the final plans from the architect. He and the contractor need to confer on some of the details before those are drawn up. Then we can submit our permit application!! 

Bosky Glen

 Bosky Glen is the name we have chosen for our new home. "Bosky"is Middle English for shaded or covered in brush. Glen is Old Irish/Gaelic for a small valley. So Bosky Glen is a small shady valley. A very appropriate name for our place. I changed the name of the blog to reflect this, as the blog name I started with was purely due to all the other similar names having been taken.

Builders!

There's apparently good reason that builders and contractors have a bad reputation.  We THOUGHT we had a builder lined up. We thought wrong. 

Last fall we met with and interviewed (in our clumsy totally-lacking-in-knowledge way) 3 different builders out on our property. We asked for bids from 2 of them, and were told "a couple weeks" till we received them. Two weeks came and went. This was also when Covid was beginning it's climb to the peak, so we allowed for the chaos and were patient. Eventually sent emails, were promised we'd get them soon. Wood prices were climbing and we realized that any bid we got at that point in time was useless anyway as the estimates would have to be redone before we could actually start building this spring. 

Based on non-bid factors we decided on a local General Contractor. He seemed very willing to work with us as far as finishing some things ourselves, and asked a lot of detailed questions in order to give us an accurate bid (which we never got). When we contacted him to let him know our decision, he seemed agreeable, and communicated with our architect at least once. It was mid-winter, so still nothing that could be done for months. At least twice I mentioned our lack of knowledge with the whole process, but he never responded re: that. When I asked that we set up a meeting he said he would be out of town until mid-February and would contact me when he got back. That date came and went. After waiting 2 weeks I emailed him. No response. Waited a week and tried again. No response. Waited another week and then a third e-mail. This time he responded and said he couldn't put us in his schedule until Sept.! NOT good! We discussed this and decided to stick with him as we really did not want to start the process over again.  Three days later he emailed again and said he had more signed contracts and could not schedule us until NEXT spring!! NOT HAPPY considering the biggest delay was him ghosting me!

So, we decided to contact the second-choice guy from last fall. Set up an appointment for the following Wednesday.

On Monday we met with the excavator out at the property to review the needed work for the driveway, septic and other dirt work. We told him our sob story, and he immediately offered to contact a GC he knew. We agreed and he immediately called him, verified he had time this year, and forwarded him my email address. I had an email from him the same night, sent our plans etc, and set up an appointment with him for Thursday evening. 

Wed. we met with the 2nd choice builder. He apologized several times for not getting a bid to us last fall, blaming it on the Covid surge. This is a person who works with a "custom home" builder. It didn't take long to decide that this is not the type of builder we want. Basically they let you choose from the finish options that their supplier offers, and will work with your floor plan. He said they'd be willing to work with us putting in some sweat equity for some things, but it was obvious that this was not their normal way of working. While it's certainly possible that things would have been fine, stepping outside the norms for a process this complicated is bound to cause issues at some point. 

One thing we did come away with was that we would NOT be doing a metal roof like we want. Cost was $73,000 for the roof alone!! Apparently, MN requires "standing seam" roofing in heavy guage steel for a metal roof on new construction, the most expensive type. In contrast, an asphalt shingle roof would be about $7000. That night we also brainstormed a possible change to the floorplan that might be less expensive. 

Thursday the meeting with the GC went MUCH better. I had told him we wanted to do some work ourselves, and he came with a contract form (just as a worksheet at this point) where he had filled in the things he obviously would be taking care of, eliminated those things that we have already dealt with,  and all the "maybe" slots were discussed, and the decisions noted. We gave him our sketch of the possible change to go along with the floor plans for estimation. He does not do the estimates himself, but works with a local lumber yard who will figure it up. They're pretty busy so it might be a few weeks.

He mentioned several other homes he had built up the road, and since I have a friend with a new house on that road, I asked for names. He WAS the builder on that house, so I contacted her to get together. Her review of his work was very good. They had had him do work on a previous house and liked him well enough to have him back for the new house- and her husband is a GC himself, so he certainly would not hire an inferior builder. 

Best part- he can start our house as soon as we get everything on our end ready!  We need several things before we can apply for the building permit. #1- we need a survey and the site staked out. But that can't be done until the build site has been leveled, and That can't be done until the frost is out of the roads next month. (When the roads thaw out in the spring, the ground underneath is very soft. To prevent damage, the roads have weight restrictions in place until it all dries out. Excavation equipment and trucks full of driveway gravel are too heavy.) #2- We also need our final plans, in a more detailed version than what we have so far, and until we get our estimate back and decide on that possible change, those cannot be completed. So, potential timeline- 2-3 weeks for the estimate, unknown amount of time for the plans, and then 2 weeks for the permit process. MAYBE break ground mid-May. 

But, spring is here! We are getting our own small projects done at Bosky Glen. Removal of old barbed wire fencing, beginning work on the garden, putting paths in place, etc. It feels SO good to see things finally in motion!

The House

 This is what our house will look like. Probably not red though.The top picture is the west end of the house. That's the living/dining rooms with a 2-story ceiling. The bottom picture is the front/south side. 

After we knew where our house would actually be going, we made a few more changes to the plans. The main floor just got some tweaks, the biggest being the addition of a garage stairway to access the storage space above, and reinforcement of the mechanical room to upgrade it to a storm shelter since we won't have a basement. 

The upstairs got totally flipped front-to-back. Since the house will be facing south, I want my sewing room on that side to take advantage of the sun. This will also allow more sun into the downstairs living space. The south window on the living room will be shaded by the front porch, so that window won't allow much light in. The big windows on the end will, but the winter sun will only reach them from a very oblique angle.  

My sewing room will be HUGE! It wasn't a goal, but it's how much space is left after putting a guest room and bath up there. I'm not complaining! Sid gets a den downstairs, as well as a separate building for a wood shop. 

Trees

 The overall process of building a house is still pretty much a mystery to us. We are trying to piece together the various steps that need to be done before the actual building begins, and have yet to see a list of which jobs should be done in which order. I've asked a couple of the people we will be working with via email and those questions have not been answered. Very frustrating. 

Before winter hit, we had hoped to get the building site cleared and leveled, the driveway in, and the septic done, so the house could get started quickly this spring. That didn't happen, mostly due to the fact that contractors are so busy that we went weeks without getting responses to our inquiries. In the end, the only job that was completed was getting the trees cleared. 

There was a large grove of trees right where the house will sit, trees around the edge of the site that were too close, and trees where the septic tanks will go, along with lots of deadwood and buckthorn. Much of the buckthorn was in places where would have liked to keep trees, but it made more sense to let the tree guys take it the easy way rather than to deal with it ouselves later. I spent 2 days on-site while they were all removed. It was pretty cool to watch all the big equipment. I went into the day wondering if I was going to be more upset by seeing all the trees getting removed, or excited about the beginning of our dream. Excited won. 

The tree-cutter was really cool! And the driver was very skilled. It had a big claw to grab a tree with a large saw blade to cut it off below the grab. Then the driver could manipulate the very well-jointed arm to lay the log down without ever bumping a neighboring tree. 

We chatted with the driver on his lunch break. Turned out he was from the same small town where I lived with my dad for a year after high school. He was within a year of my age, and every name I could remember from those days, he knew! 

The second day was the clean-up. The biggest logs were stacked to one side for future use however we want, and the smaller logs and branches were all shredded and piled at the back corner of the property for use in landscaping and the garden. This is the shredder. It ate whole trees in seconds. 

All the remaining stumps were ground down by this grinder. The big wheel spun while the driver swung the blade back and forth. Basically obliterates everything at and just below ground level.  

We now have an empty building site. We have the excavator on deck to do the dirt work as soon as the ground is workable and spring weight restrictions for the dirt roads are lifted. "Dirt work" includes installing the septic, leveling the house site, and building up the driveway using dirt from a hill on our little section of tilled ag field. The rough driveway that was already in place goes down to the bottom of the valley and back up the hill to the site. As is, it's undriveable when wet due to the mud and the incline. The lowest part will be raised several feet, and the house site will be lowered a bit to level it off, so in the end the driveway will be much more drivable.

While waiting

 While waiting for things to happen with contractors, we have been having fun doing non-building prep work. There's plenty to be done. 

One area under the trees was covered in wood nettle. Sid took all that down with a swing blade. 

We've mowed the area where the garden will go, and covered that spot with black plastic to kill the grass.

A good friend supplied us with FREE water tanks for watering the garden. The site is across the ravine from the house, so a hose won't work, and a second well is cost-prohibitive. 

We set up a campsite on the building site and have enjoyed a few picnics there. 

Made a trail through the woods to the future garden, and I put in steps in one of the steeper portions. I'll probably be doing more steps in needed spots. 

Put a temporary bridge across the ravine, which is currently being upgraded to a more usable form. 

Moved the campsite to a different location so the first spot can be cleared of trees.

Sid set up some targets and a shooting platform for some plinking fun. 

We've pulled LOTS of baby buckthorn. the campsite above was covered with it. The green seen beyond the picnic table is all baby buckthorn. 

Getting to know our land

 Apparently I should remember more often that I started a blog!

Pretty much as soon as we signed the papers, we started enjoying our land. We set up a "camp"  with a fire pit, Sid's hammock, and an old picnic table, and hosted a few cookouts for family and good friends, and started getting to know our land.

Did I describe the land before? It's almost 8 acres. It's the NW corner of a standard 40 acre farm section, so the west and north sides are straight, but the SE side is a wiggly diagonal, which is deliniated by the tractor access road. The survey stakes show that this road wavers back and forth across the property line, so we figure that give both us and the tractors access to it. There is also path from the back side of the building site down the hill to this road (actually 2 wheel tracks in the grass) so we have driveable access around most of the property, particulary to the garden. Across the middle of the property is what the listing called a "seasonal creek". It's more accurately described as an overflow drain from the lake west of us to the swamp east of us. It flows in a deep ditch at the bottom of the valley, from a large culvert under the road to a straight ditch that follows the edges of the fields behind us to the swamp about a mile east. One of our first jobs accomplished was a bridge over the creek for easier access to my garden on the far side. (I thought I had a pic of it, but I guess I need to take one and add it here later.)

The plant life here has been a fun aspect to learn about. We have 4 trees that are probably 100+ yo. Three oaks, and a maple, plus the dead stump of a 5th one. Two of the oaks are very near the driveway location and the septic route, so work is being planned to attempt to minimize the effect on them as we get things done. The valley was filled with a plant that a friend called "itch weed", which gardening friends IDed as "wood nettle".  Sid cut most of it down with a swing blade, but it will probably come back up this spring. Mowing and pulling should eventually take care of it. The other big issue is buckthorn. Everywhere. Extremely invasive, and a long-term project to eliminate it. Big ones will get cut/poisoned as soon as it wakes up; the little ones are easily pulled; the medium sized ones will be the long-term part. The one good aspect of buckthorn is it's ability to be a good windbreak, which means we need to replace it with better trees in the areas where we want that quality. 

I've had fun finding all the edible plants. There are several small patches of raspberries and some wild grapes- I found one patch that was bearing fruit this year, and there are many dead vines. There is one crabapple tree at the top of the driveway, and a second behind the house location. That one will probably have to come down when we build a deck, but for now it's a God-sign for me. We had 2 houses in Grand Forks that had a crabapple tree out the kitchen window, and when we bought our current house we planted one outside this kitchen window. This one is right outside where the dining room window will be- about 15 feet west of the kitchen window. For me that was a sign that this land is a gift from God.  We have high hopes for morrel mushrooms as there is a lot of dead elm on the property. The search for that will begin as soon as things begin to green up. We also have a baby apple tree planted by the previous owner, which will soon be joined by a few other fruit trees. 

The southern half of the lot is mostly hip-high grass, with a line of trees down the middle, shading another section of creek. My garden will go on the SE side, across the valley from the house, with the trees providing plenty of wind protection on the north and west sides and full sun all day. It's going to be a big job to get it going this year though. Those grass roots ought to be real fun to deal with. :)  It's a good climb up the far side of the valley, so I made a few steps at one of the steep places. When I was little, my grandparents had a flight of similar stairs that went from the yard to the river, so this is a little bit of my childhood at our new home.