16-31MAY11 - Monroe, WA (house construction starts)

After returning to our RV spot at Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA, on 16MAY, we began to prepare our property outside of Sultan, WA, for construction of a small three bedroom rambler. If you have followed our BLOG for the last couple of years you will remember we spent most of the summer of 2009 drilling the well from hell, dealing with environmental wetland issues on our property, & finally getting a permit for a septic installation.

In 2010 we settled on a house builder, while spending the entire summer trying to obtain all the other necessary permits, & finally getting the local power utility (PUD) to install permanent power. The permits & power installation occurred at the end of SEP10 & our contractor wanted to start construction immediately! Since we didn’t want to spend the next four months in the rainy season of Seattle, we said “no & we’ll see you sometime APR11 or MAY11”.

So once the local weather was reasonable (did we tell you the Seattle area has experienced the wettest & coolest winter & spring in decades?) we headed out to our property to do prep work like - installing a silt fence to protect the wetlands, staking out the exact house location, improving the gravel driveway for heavy construction equipment, installing temporary power, etc. In addition, there is the unpleasant task of finding & getting bids from sub-contractors for the digging of the foundation, digging & installing the septic system, & installing a water treatment system for our well (did we tell you that our water is safe to drink in every county in WA state except the one we are in?).

On Sunday, 22MAY, we took a break from the property work & headed to Dan’s cousin Paul’s & wife, Shannon Peters for a family get together & BBQ’ing hamburgers & hotdogs. Followers of our BLOG will also remember that we try to visit with them often during our annual stays in the Pacific NW, & that Aunt Jan (Paul’s mom) lives on the property. We were also joined by Paul’s brothers Jim & John (& John’s kids). So it ended up being a small family reunion. However, it was a bitter/sweet time because John’s wife, Michelle, had unexpectedly passed-away less than two months ago. Another sad reminder that life is far too short & nothing is guaranteed!
http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2010/08/08-20aug10-monroe-wa.html

The following day, Monday, our excavation contractor arrived on scene to dig our foundation. Dan thought this would be a two day job, but it was done in six hours. It was amazing to see how much dirt one man can move with the right machine (ie track hoe) & a laser survey system. On Friday, 27MAY, we learned that the forms for the concrete footings would be installed Saturday morning! So first thing Saturday morning Dan headed out to the property to find two workers staking out the location of the footings. Dan was surprised to hear that the entire job would be done in two hours (it actually took them three hours)?

The next step in the process was for the Snohomish County building inspector to come out & bless the footing forms. Since this was Memorial Day long weekend, the contractor assumed we wouldn’t see anyone until Wednesday, 01JUN, at the earliest & that he would probably return on Thursday or Friday to pour the concrete for the footings. So we were very surprised to hear late Tuesday, 31MAY, that not only had the county inspector approved the work, but the contractor had poured the concrete.
Dan immediately drove out to the property to find that the work had indeed been done; & also the concrete truck had dumped its excess load right in front of the future garage! So a less than cordial call was made to the lead contractor to inform him – 1) that we wanted to be informed before hand of any work being done; & 2) we wanted the mound of now hardened concrete removed. Hopefully the rest of the construction will go smoother than this, but we have a sneaky suspicion there will be other bumps along the way.