Hooray! Sixty gallons a minute! That’s huge! We don’t even need 60 gallons a minute, so will install a 20-gallon pump, enough to water the apple trees, take a shower and simultaneously run the washing machine. We don’t yet know the quality of all this water, so will have to run a so-called 4-hour flow test, as mandated by County, and test the water for purity. Four hours of water flowing at 60 per is one heck of a lot of water to waste, so we hope they don’t quite mean what they say.
In the meantime we have to question if we even own this property. Thought we did, until Brett (new well guy) phoned County to be sure his drilling was approved for this site, and was told that they’d never heard of this Larry Viehl person. Nope, the land under consideration belongs instead to the people who have just bought the twenty acres across Llewellyn.
But, but . . . we have a Warranty Deed to the land we bought! What the heck? How can this be? The sale has been duly recorded, etc. So Larry called the title company with this little situation. And by the way, taxes are due, where’s the bill for the taxes? Title Company calls County. No one will admit to the error, and now the attorney for Across Llewellyn is involved. We aren’t really worried, it’s just a nuisance, but another reminder to mind County very very carefully in our dealings.
With the well dug and the road built, we move on to consideration of the house plans. Met with Rod and got some new sketches, some improvements. Not that it’s all that easy to meet with Rod. He works in a office adjacent to his home clinging to the side of a hill over the Willamette. First you have to find his driveway, and then negotiate the thing. You hope that your car doesn’t miss the hairpin turn off the top and plunge, catapulting end over end to Macadam Avenue below.
It’s fascinating to watch him manipulate his computer program and show us the living room end with windows or French doors. With or without “eyebrow.” I asked if I could post his sketch on my blog and he agreed, with the caveat that I should add the following: “If your last name is Viehl or Ederer, you are free to comment. Everyone else, keep your own council, and above all, please do not email Rod with suggestions for changes or additions.” Says the voice of experience.
The only way I could manage to show you this computerized sketch was to take a photo of my computer screen and move it over. Hence the bits of computer in the image. Now you just have to imagine the apple tree.
“Okay, Ma,” says Pa. “Guess that’s it for the winter. Just tuck ourselves in and wait for spring.”
Not quite! Next up, fences. And cows. The cows are coming back. The old house has to come down. What about that pick-up? Right. But here we are in Sacramento on the way to Pasadena for some celebration. I’ll leave you for now with a photo of the site where the little house is to be built.
