Electric trench

Most of our electrical trench is done. We are still waiting for the panel to come in, but that should be soon. Meanwhile, here is some of our progress.

Here is the mini excavator and operator who dug the 200' trench, 3' deep.

This is most of the conduit that we put in all laid out and ready to go. We put in one line for the well, one for the panel in the garage and one for either solar or wind power. We also ran one for an exterior outlet in the yard and an empty line for a future house. Also going in the trench is our phone line and a water line.

Here we are glueing the conduit together.

These poles will be what we set the panel on. The tubes are filled with concrete and then we set the poles in.

It's crazy the things they let you do when you get a building permit. There is 37,500 volts of electricity under this transformer!

Permission to Build

I don't know what the city was thinking, but they gave me a Building Permit yesterday!

Corrections

I got my plans back from the city last week. I was hoping they would not need any corrections. They gave me a list. Almost everything was minor mistakes for the Architect to fix. The Engineer's plans were good, but the city would like the Engineer to review my Truss plans. That is not a big deal, but it will take a couple of weeks. One big deal: The city wants me to install a residential fire sprinkler system in the ceiling. This is ridiculous. I am building a house out of a material that does not burn. A sprinkler system in my ceiling will cost me approximately  $6000.  They reason that because I am in a dry subdivision, meaning no city water, this extra safety measure is necessary. I explained to them that Flexcrete does not burn, but there is no exception in the code for type of construction. I am meeting with the fire dept. tomorrow, if I can get them to write a letter saying that I don't need a sprinkler system, that will satisfy the city. Otherwise, I have to have a system drawn up, take the plans to the Fire dept, have them reviewed and submit them to the city. We'll see how it goes. Other news, we went to the Flexcrete manufacturing plant last week for a tour. Here are some pictures.

This is the Yard. Our house Is probably in some of those pallets.

Here is the building they make the block in. We got a great tour. Lots of cool machines in here.
I got some samples to take back with me. 

2 Things

The City Council meeting was last night. The consent agenda was passed with nothing omitted. That means the easement I was requesting to abandon is now gone. Today we submitted our plans to the city for our building permit.  By "plans" I mean 3 sets of Architect / Engineers plans, 2 site plans, 1 application, 2 sets of truss plans, 1 copy of our septic permit, and 2 engineer calculation books. The city should be calling me within 2 weeks.

Quick Update

We got our final set of plans from the Architect. I am starting to get bids on block. The first one was less then I was expecting so that is good. I am waiting for a bid from a Truss company. Trusses are what hold the roof up. We need a Truss plan to submit along with our Architects and Engineers plans. Still waiting for our septic permit. Also, we have a request for a bid from a Stucco company.

Back in the day, I bought property that was bordered by roads on both sides. I split my parcels in half and sold the sides that were connected to the street with power on it. When I did this, we created an easement to my now powerless property. At the time, this easement would be the only way to get power to my lots. Since that time, my neighbor has built a house. This benefits me greatly because now there is a transformer right next door. The problem is that easement, connecting to the transformer would mean that I have to run my electrical through the easement, which is not allowed. Over the last month I submitted a request to abandon the easement. Last night my request was heard at a planning and zoning meeting. I was first on the agenda. They called me up and I read my prepared statement into a microphone. The counsel voted in favor of my request. Next it goes to a city council meeting which I must attend, but I don't believe I need to speak at.

Good news all around.

Well Pumps and Water Storage

Our Well now has pumps and a storage tank. Here are the pictures.



This device measures the depth of the water and the depth of the Well. Our Well is actually 597' deep. The water is at approximately 478'.

Here they are lowering the pump and the motor. These came separately and were assembled on site. The motor is 2hp and is the bottom portion. The pump is the top section. I think they set this at 520'. At that depth, it will pump 10 gal a minute.Here I am collecting a sample of water for testing.


This guy digs a very square hole.
This is our storage tank. It holds 1700 gallons of water. It contains a constant pressure system, level sensor, and another pump. There are many different ways to go when equipping your Well. Our system works like this. As we use water in our house, we are using the pump that is in the storage tank. When the storage tank gets low, the sensor turns on the pump in the bottom of the Well. This allows for less wear and tear on the pump at the bottom of the Well, and gives us a large storage of water, should anything go out.

Moving along...

We have been doing a lot of behind the scene stuff in January. Mohave Electric has been to the site and is working on a proposal for getting power to us. We had a meeting with the engeneer, it went well. We added a window and corrected a few things. They should be done with the plans early next week. We went to A-1 Well and gave them a deposit, they are coming out on Tuesday Feb. 10 to install the pumps. I believe they will need to come out a second time to install the storage tank. I have gotten a quote for a septic tank and instalation. I am waiting for another quote to compare. Other than that, we have been moving rocks and figuring out landscaping.