Wednesday - July 13, 2005
Bare Dirt
The new house is bolted
together and I’m slowly beginning to feel like life is returning to normal.
We have power, phone, gas, water and I even had my Direct TV dish
transferred to the new place. Right or wrong, sitting around the TV makes me
feel like we’ve finally moved in. I suspect that prehistoric cave men felt
the same way when they were able to relax around the fire with their family.
I didn’t document the construction process very well. It seemed like I was
always in a rush to keep ahead of the inspectors and our contractor kept me
hopping, doing the work that I had agreed would be my responsibility. During
those days I just didn’t feel like getting out the camera to record my
efforts.
Though our new house is modest, we now have amenities that most people take
for granted. In the country, water pressure is a luxury and a side effect of
meeting new fire codes is that we were required to modify our plumbing.
Indoor fire sprinklers are now mandatory and to pass inspection, I had to
install an auxiliary water pump that boosts the household water pressure to
over 50 PSI. The welcome side effect is that we can now take showers that
don’t just drool water.
We have two bathrooms, a dish washer, central heating and air conditioning.
This three bedroom house is allowing me to set up my own office and I’ve
been slowly moving in my computers and ham radio junk. The nicest thing is
that I’m no longer under a deadline and can relax and take my time.
The forest service appreciates
the fact that we don't have vegetation close to the house but I've been
planting trees and shrubs just the same. We're looking forward to the
time when the property won't have that scraped, bare dirt look. It
will take years to accomplish that.
For a slightly more
picturesque view I have a web came set up that shows the view to the north
from our back porch. It uploads pictures every hour and updates the weather
every three hours.
Web Cam
At one point the shippers
abandoned the home at a freeway off-ramp 10 miles from our house.
Cathy and I spent a week sleeping in the thing to keep the vandals away.
That episode was worth a few journal entries but I just didn't have the
strength.
We're entering the
peak fire season in our area and I haven't forgotten how the 03' October
fire storm changed my life. This time I'm taking steps that will allow me to
fight the fire myself. The last time, fire crews were too afraid to
come into our valley so I've bought a water pump with 150' of 1-1/4"
fire hose. I've hooked it up to our 10,000 gal water tank and hope to
be able to make a stand if we get fire again. At the very least I'll be able
to hose the house down before we evacuate.
