It is time for an update! Life has finally slowed down enough for a chance to document some of my thoughts and some of our progress. 

Drum roll please….

We have a WELL! It finally happened. The drilling contractor finally came and drilled the well. And after drilling 250 feet he hit good water! Our well produces at a rate of 25gallons per min (GPM).  You need 5GPM to pull a building permit.  Turns out my two neighbors and us have some of the best producing wells in the valley. The drilling contractor finished another well before ours and they drilled 500ft and barely had 5gpm.  This is a very big blessing! Very grateful that it turned out so well!!! (corny pun intended)  

There was a tad bit of drama with the well drilling site (We got very lucky). They moved the rig onto our property when we were out of town at an extended Banner Family Reunion out near Idaho Falls. They were supposed to start drilling the day we drove back. We stopped in to see the rig on the drive home and saw the rig set up. However, they were not there drilling and had not started which was a VERY good thing. They were about 10′ off of where we needed it to be, and that 10′ is a big deal based on where the house needs to be as well as the septic location. The well head is almost exactly 100′ from the property line (required set back) and the septic also has to be 100′ from the well head and with the required set backs it is all very tight!  

We were able to get ahold of the contractor and got them to move their rig the required 10′ before drilling. That could have been a decent catastrophe! Technically it was the drillers fault, it was clearly marked.  He had made an executive decision to move it the 10′ for a more convenient set up and didn’t notify me.  In the end, we caught it in time and it worked out.  They have set up an appointment with weber county to come take a water sample this week and then the whole process will be over. And after a signature from Karianne and I at the county office, we will have a developed, building permit ready lot!  #BIGDEALFORUS

And that brings us to a major life update and the work we did this weekend. Second drum roll please….

 I left Northrop!  I am now a contractor for Boeing (working with Doug, Karianne’s brother, in his group).  Things were getting pretty weird at Northrop and there were some calls that my director was making that seemed fairly unethical and I didn’t want to be a part of that (feel free to ask me offline if you care for any of those details).  Between that and being on the schedule to get shipped out to Dugway for two years, I decided a change would be good.  I am sad not to do the Dugway project. That project is building a missile silo out in the middle of no where and then blowing it up, pretty cool. However, Karianne and I REALLY want to build our cottage and house. And Dugway would stop the project in its tracks.

The best part about the new gig is it is a mostly remote gig. I still need to go into an office twice a week, but the Boeing office is 10 mins from my current South Jordan home. With all that in the works, we decided to move forward with building a shed/bunk house/”potential remote office”/power station for us on the property.  And we got after it this weekend! I’m building a 10’x20′ insulated leanto style shed that can be moved/drug to a new location later on in the project. 

I lost my CAD software with my NG laptop so the design is actually all in my head. Karianne seems to be a little nervous about that, but I promise.. it all makes a lot of sense in my head :).  The leanto roof will be facing south and we will be able to fit 18 of our solar panels up there. This will give us a place to generate AC power up on the property, have a place to store stuff, and much more comfortable sleeping accommodations.  The intent will be to use that AC Power to run the construction of the Cottage with out needing to hook up temp power into the grid. And with AC power we should be able to get internet on the property which then means…. I can work my remote job from the land during construction! Which will make getting 2-4 hours of construction work done after my real job possible (a tad more conducive than being shipped out 3.5 hours away from the jobsite for the next 2 years, which is probably more like 3 years cause it is a government job). 

So this weekend Mom and Dad Ballash let us borrow their dump trailer to get a majority of the materials up on site. Since I was towing the the dump trailer, Karianne got the privilege of towing our tent trailer up to the property, her first time towing a trailer. She was a natural 🙂

After getting to the site and with several helpers, Andrew, Jon Nash, and James (not listed in order of ability to actually help 🙂 ) We were able to get the foundation skids in place, run the floor joists, insulate the floor, and put the subfloor in place .  A big shout out to Jon for his help! 

Karianne and I can manage, but if there are any crazy people out there that want to bake in the sweltering heat and throw up the walls and roof (the fun part) this weekend, let me know! .. We are hoping to get up there Friday around 3p.m. and will be returning home late Saturday night.  I recommend bringing hearing protection, gloves, and eye protection.. I did the best with what I had, but my makeshift solution was not great 🙂  

Other project notes:

• On the excavator front, the mechanic is coming out this week to do one more test to find out if the hydraulic pump is failing.  After that we can make a decision on its path forward
• We want to get started on the septic if possible, so I’ll be reaching out to our septic designer and will try to set up a meeting with him to make a game plan
• The soils from the Geotech have been tested. The engineer is waiting on me to send him a land profile so he can do his stability analysis. Unfortunately I am still waiting on a CAD software and will need that before I can send that to him.

And that’s it! Short and sweet 🙂

Until next time!

Mark