Sagebrush & Solar

When is being ankle deep in mud worse than being waist deep?

When you’re upside down.

It’s been about two weeks since we’ve posted an update; the weather has continued to hamper our progress, in addition to removing all of the block down to the subfloor to make corrections, adding reinforcements that should have been utilized in the first place, and reinstalling block. When you look at pictures, it definitely looks as if we’ve moved backwards; which, by definition, I suppose we have. This step backwards was necessary — there’s a good chance our home wouldn’t have been structurally sound, passed inspection or livable.

We are currently up to the third course of block. There are a total of six. Window and door openings have been accurately cut and correctly placed in accordance to our building plans. Window bucks (supports for when the concrete is poured to avoid a collapse) have been constructed and placed. Rebar reinforcement has been installed in the openings.

The garage is still standing with the incorrect type of block. We haven’t taken it down yet because a) the correct block isn’t here yet (waiting on our contractor) and b) the block is light, and we don’t trust it to not blow away during one of our crazy wind gusts. It’s been too muddy to get our trailer out here to place the block in, so it’s not hurting anything or holding us back to leave it up for now.

Our goal to finish the house walls and remove / rebuild the garage is February 6. My dad is leaving for another project out of state and we learned our lesson last time — we want to get his sign off prior to pouring concrete.

In other news, due to the unusually high precipitation this winter, our driveway is a bog. At one point, several parts of the driveway were a foot and a half deep of sloppy, gooey mud. For things like lumber or window delivery — or even just a trailer — the driveway simply isn’t drivable.

Before last year when we started our road project, I couldn’t tell you what a culvert is. Now I can. And it’s basically a four letter word these days, if you get my drift.

Culverts are large pipes that lay underneath the road way and help prevent standing puddles of water by allowing water to flow downhill. This helps with drainage and will increase the lifetime and drivability of our driveway.

We rented (another) excavator and have been digging trenches and soupy mud to place pipes and lay pit run.

When we began this house building project, we naively budgeted $12,000 for the existing road improvement and the creation of our driveway. We actually thought that number was too high, but we figured it was smarter to overbudget and be left with cash in the end.

We budgeted so, so wrong. As we have with several things, because as it turns out —- things are expensive! Especially dirt.

Our road/driveway is not only a mud pit, but a money pit as well. When it’s all said and done, the road improvements and driveway will have cost us about $20,000. Yes, for a dirt road. This was all required by the county for our building permit to go through, so it’s a requirement — just a costly one.

And one final update that kind of pains me to announce: we will not be completely off grid.

WHAT? I know. It’s kind of our whole ‘thing’. Several weeks ago, we received our quote for what our battery and solar system would cost — $50,000. Yes, it was nauseating.

Over the summer, I’d checked with Idaho Power to see how much it would cost to install lines out to our house. That estimate was about $100,000. We knew at that time that solar was our only option.

Between summer and now, the ranch behind us build a little house for their ranch hands. Apparently, they paid Idaho Power to install lines to it — meaning it’s now only $13,000-$16,000 for lines to be installed to our house. The significant savings is worth it to us to give up being off grid; we’re still trying to pay for as much as we can out of pocket and avoid financing, so it was really a no brainer. We’re on their books and will know more soon in terms of when they will get our lines installed.