WE'RE (not quite) DONE!

Some of ya'll might have seen I posted the cabin ready to rent on Facebook today. It is! I mean, it soon will be!

Friends and family are welcome to stay and check it out beginning this September, when we'll have it all ready. The rest of this month we're finishing up some final details on the main build. Small details, you know like water.

Believe it or not, we have a WELL! It only took literally 8 months to get it done. We have a 180 foot well producing a not so amazing 6 gallons per minute. It's as good as it gets there and we'll take it! It is not, however, currently plumbed in. That's coming the weekend after next. 

We also have a functioning full blown septic system! That, took two tries...

The last blog post I made in April told you about how Michelle and I started to hand dig the septic. Yeah, bad idea. It soon rained (if you follow these blog posts you know that's not out of the ordinary) and filled our hole in (in more ways than one). We soon ended up renting an excavator and got it dug and put in quickly, mud and all.

Much easier!

We ended up getting it set, the leach field put in and everything buried that weekend.

Then we filled it with all of the water we had on hand, about 150 gallons. It's a 500 gallon tank, so we knew it wasn't enough. But there was no rain in the forecast so we figured we'd just bring more water the next weekend to finish filling it. After all if you don't fill it with water and it rains, it will float up out of the ground. Thankfully though, no rain was forecast.

So we came back the following weekend with additional barrels of water and pulled in to see this...

You guessed it. It fucking rained.

So it was back to square one. We went several weeks waiting on the rain to stop and lo and behold it did stop in late June. 

Now that we were in the dry season we were able to get topsoil, fill dirt, road base and gravel brought in.

Soon thereafter we were able to put in our permanent gates. My dad built the H braces and I installed them and the new double gates. The idea was now that we have the road base in and our permanent wide entrance we'd be ready for the well drilling rig soon.

Meanwhile, we were able to do more interior decorating and furniture buying.

We even put in a porch swing.

Forth of July rolled through and we were treated to an awesome fireworks show by our neighbors across the road. This display went on solid for hours!

Then my folks came down and helped put the septic back in. It was awesome because my dad is a professional heavy equipment operator and he made it quick.

This time we buried it deeper and ran a 100' lateral line.

Then came the day these guys showed up.

The well drillers are here!

And two days later we have a well!

It may not look like much but it's everything I always wanted!

With the septic in and well dug we were then free to begin the outdoor kitchen and living space. We've been waiting so long to start that addition! Michelle and I built it in a weekend.

It's a 10' X 20' addition.

There's lots more left to do, but it's happening fast! There will be gutters all around with rain barrels. Those will be used to irrigate the raised bed gardens that will surround the front porch and other side of the cottage.

These two 60" fans put out a lot of cool breeze!

The white pipe sticking up is our future outside bathroom and shower next to the hot tub!

We also have a bar going in, including a 2 keg kegerator, stainless sink, shelves and tables and furniture.

We'll be all set by September and can't wait to see our friends and family enjoying it as a soft opening. Then we'll go live on Air B&B and VRBO and see how it goes. 

After that we plan to take off the rest of the year and hunt and enjoy the place. Then early next year we will begin the second project we're calling the Hideaway...