October 2012 Update

Hi everyone...

Ryan and I are gearing up for winter at our home. Not much at all being done about the house since we are stretching it out a year.   I started a new job last month and am almost done with my exams to get a license that I need.  Ryan and I will work on our drawings as we get the motivation to. We still go up to the property every so often and Mike is doing s terrific job cutting the grass for us.

Things we need to do:

1) Perc test (to be done next summer)
2) redraw drawings as a result of the last meeting between Chuck and Ryan (eliminate some windows and other passive housey type things).

At this point, I am honestly not sure if we are in the counties pilot program any longer. They have a 5 year deadline which we will be unable to make.

We are putting this down for now and hope to break ground by 2014 but if we don't... that's ok too. We are very busy throwing as much money towards this project as we can afford to and as soon as we have enough to get a good, running start, we will start paying attention to how to navigate the hoops. In the meantime, you all have our contact info if you need to convey needed information to us about this project.

TTFN

Paige and Ryan

Update. AUGUST 14. Where we've been

For the last 5 weeks, Ryan and I have been tearing off the roof of our 1939 home. The new roof comes tomorrow and should be on the house by Monday. 

In the meantime, we have met with Chuck Dougherty and gotten started collecting all of the nigglibits that are going to be required in addition to our plans. We might be in this stage for a few months so check back later. Otherwise, full steam ahead paying down the property and getting ready for next year. We feel that we are still on track to break ground next spring and are not panicking.

The ball starts to roll

On Monday morning, Ryan and I have an actual meeting with an actual, live person!!

Chuck Dougherty ( Form Studio,
Creating Innovative Built Environments
360.573.8082 ) is going to give our plans the once over and give his opinion as to how we are doing. With his input we will be able to complete our packet and turn it in for review. Chuck is essential in the counties green program, so we feel lucky to have his attention.

To prepare for the meeting we need to get our list together for the Petals. If I can get through Chapter 4 in my PHP MySQL class today, I should be able to make that happen.

*** Note to anyone who is interested: once you get your WAMP environment set up on your Windows machine, don't mess with the settings ( even if you are trying to learn something). I totally broke mySQL in AAMPP last night. An uninstall, regedit search and several repeats of a fresh install ( even in safe mode) did not fix it . The AMP stacks on the Mac are a lot more forgiving I am finding.

Changing the root password manually on some of this open source is dangerous business. Had to go with another WAMP stack. That's 4 hours I'll never get back, so I'm behind.

Will update again after our meeting for next steps...

Roof Square Footage Update

Ryan got the roof plan done today and we have final numbers for rain water collection

The main house and garage combined are at 3198 sq.feet. Which, for our purposes equates to 3198 * .55 = gallons per inch of rainfall. ( see House Elements page above).

This is good news because we will have the capacity to collect more water than we would ever use during the rainy period and have no troubles during the summer. The plan us still for a cistern between 10 and 15,000 gallons.

Cheers!!

Checking In

For those of you who don't live in Washougal, you may not know that they are working on the road. For 15 weeks we will not be able to go the direct route to the property. We might not get there all summer. Ryan is finishing the basement and roof plans now. I have to finish the Petal information. We just had a giant project thrust upon us at work so we are now " officially" behind schedule. 

More later

Checking in... Memorial Day 2012

Well... here it is, Memorial Day weekend. I am going to try and work but am torn between wanting to give my extremely overwhelmed 4x+ a week, brain time to catch up some more VS taking a break so that I don't burn out. I don't know why but every task, no matter how small, seems so daunting. It's hard not to feel like I am disappointing everyone. Maybe I took too big a first step. I've never been a quitter so I am crossing my fingers and hugging Ryan a lot these days.

To take me away from my quandary, Ryan and I decided to gas the truck up ( $3.89 a gallon with our Safeway card), which led us to the property. Here's a photo or two. We are very humbled by the task ahead and excited to start the adventure.

Second Floor Drawings

Here they are!!


I got Ryan to make some labels for this one. Of course, it site directly atop the first floor.

Second Floor Drawings

I don't like the behavior of the document in the IFRAME, so I am only providing a link here. Next step is the basement drawings and a site plan drawing alsong with all of the Petal stuff (which is on me). Pete, we'll be contacting you pretty soon. Abigail... here is your second floor if you are still liking it !!