We had our
water well drilled back in the summer months, and in January had the well pump and a 2500 gallon holding take connected. The house wasn't ready for the water supply, but the crews on site needed access to water and this solved the problem. Unfortunately it was a 200' walk from the house to get to the tap.
Now the time has come to get the water to the house, and start work on the septic system. The timing could not have been better because we were issued our septic permit last February and were just a few weeks shy of letting it expire. Didn't even know that could happen... we just lucked out.
As I have mentioned previously the septic and water systems are not the responsibility of the builder. Roberta and I need to provide the well, septic and electric connections to the house. So we had to call in the big guns to make this happen. First, we needed to get a couple hundred feet of trench cut to bury the water line up to the house, and a trench from the power pole to the well pumps, and over to the house. Plus the septic field and tank needed to be excavated. We also have a ton of dead trees on the property thanks to the ongoing
drought and figured we may as well have the crew remove those to reduce wildfire risk. This made us nervous because it was going to completely alter the look and feel of the site. By the end of the carnage they filled three 40-yard dumpsters with trees, and we lost a lot of privacy we'll need to establish with some new trees.
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| Here is the trench that will contain the power and water lines from the utility pole and the well over to the house. |
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| A rock saw made quick work of these utility trenches. |
So, here is an opportunity to relay one of the random, unplanned hurdles that present themselves when building a home. When the well pump and tank were installed we had 400' of 10-2 direct-bury wire run from the utility pole to the well. Since the ground wasn't trenched we just lay the wire on the grass until we could get it in the ground. A week later the trench was cut, and I got a call from the contractor explaining that he went to bury the cable and was almost electrocuted. He claimed that the wire had been either dragged behind a vehicle, or was re-furbshed, or run over by a tractor... Whatever happened the wire was ruined and it needed to be replaced.
That wire cost us $700 and it needed to be replaced after just a week.
So I called the well installer and questioned the history of the wire and was assured that is was, indeed, new. Curiosity got the better of him and he offered to go check it out. Long story short, a varmint (or many varmints) considered this rubber insulation to be a delicacy. There were teeth marks up and down the entire wire. They we devouring the stuff down to the copper like a giant ear of corn. I was able to find a supplier of the wire that had a 500' spool for $500 bucks.
Mike, over at
APEX drilling rewired everything without charging us. I'll give him a plug here - if you need a well in Central Texas you won's do better than Apex drilling. He and his staff really are fantastic. When I met him at the property for the first time he used divining rods to locate where to drill. I had never seen a good ol' fashioned water witching before... obviously I can't say it didn't work!
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| And here is the trench with everything buried and tucked in nice an tight! |
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| The lot looks barren with all of the dead trees removed. The drought has been brutal. The broken earth in the foreground is where the septic field will be located. |
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| This is just the start of a massive hole that will host the 2 septic tanks. About 4 feet down the rock got seriously tough. We had to bring a giant jack hammer. This hole needs to be 8 feet deep to host the tanks... |
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| Here is the pile of dirt and rock excavated from the septic site. Let me know if you want it.... |
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| A view looking away from the garage with the septic field underway on the right, and the water tank off in the distance. |
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| We didn't recycle all of the trees. I'll put these to good use when the outdoor fireplace is ready! |
Here are a few shots of the water tanks and lines installed at the well. This is only temporary as we'll get these enclosed in a shed this summer. Unfortunately, it was a brutal winter down here and we had to be mindful of the pump and plumbing during several hard freezes. We suffered some freeze damage to a couple of lines, but Apex fixed them up straight away and we got serious about make plans for an enclosure. Right now we are really liking the
Kanga Room systems for a small storage shed to house the pressure tank, plumbing and provide a nice space to keep misc tools and items.
More on the septic system in future posts. Thanks for checking in!
Of course, after considerable investigation we decided we wanted a steel staircase in our home with big, chunky PSL treads (you can read about earlier stair discussions HERE). Roberta contacted a dozen welders in the Austin area to bid the project. Some were interested but were scared off early on and never followed through with quotes. Others priced themselves out of the job (perhaps intentionally to avoid the challenge). A couple were so unsure of the design that I fully expected to get a Dr. Suess style stairway to Cukooville if we handed over our money and faith. We did find one shop that had everything we wanted - tons of experience with stairs, dozens of references and great prices - but when the time came to get to work they were inundated in work and were booked 8 weeks out. Go figure.
