Welcome Home!

Considering that what's we talked about doing if the City didn't approve our variance, I figure that's as good a way to start this new blog as any. And since most of you know what 'Welcome Home!" refers too, you'll understand why we were unsure how to feel when we got the okay from the City to continue along.  House renovation? or DVC?

DVC would have been nice, but in the end, this will be where we live until it's time to pack it in for the final big trip, so we may as well make this place the way we want it to be; to put our stamp on it and call it ours.  And so we will.

Eventually.

Maybe.

If I can ever get into the ground to start excavating and drilling for piles.

You see, I had my sewer and water contractor by on Friday to scan and locate my water line that runs from the front yard, under the house, and all the way back to the utility room in the far south west corner back there, where it comes through the floor and where we read the water meter.  Grant brought his hi-tech looking scanner wand and the transmitter that gets clipped to the closest hose bib or spigot - in our case we have one just around the front corner by the cedar there, no, the other way, yeah, that way, around the corner, and down just a bit, can't miss it.

He started out at the curb-stop - the City's circular brass valve that lives just under the grass in the front yard with the large bolt-like fitting in the centre - you've seen them before:

This one is now blue, no longer brass, with a red ring around it. 

No, it doesn't have an STD. That's just how it is these days.

and then, like some voodoo magician, he waved his scanner wand thing back and forth and it emitted a tone that changed pitch as he passed over the water line buried some 8 feet or so below.  The higher the pitch, the closer he location of the scanner to the buried copper line, and on the scanner there's a screen that also registers depth of signal, so he can tell approximately how deep the line is buried.

This is Grant.  He's too tall for this job. My back hurt watching him.

So back and forth he went, and every so often he'd spray a mark of blue paint to track his progress.  After about 5 minutes or so here's what he left behind:

A blue line that seems to curve right into my grade beam layout...

Like a good professional, Grant couldn't or wouldn't be held to anything he had laid out - the onus is on me to verify actual locations within 3 feet ON EITHER SIDE OF THE LINE! 

WTF?

A 6 foot swath?  I could have done that! And I didn't need a fancy scanner and transmitter!  I know where the line starts - its back at that blue and red target thingy back there, and it runs more or less straight to where it pops through the basement concrete floor in the utility room way back there! Hell, if I'd had known I needed to stay 3 feet off that line...

ah, nevermind.

it's done.  we have a line.  And so what if Grant won't lay his credibility on the line? (pun intended) The reality is we probably couldn't hit the water or sewer line with a 10 foot pole if we tried.

Actually we will try - but it will be a 20' drill bit, not a 10' pole - and if we hit the water line it will be like Old Faithful, and if we hit the sewer line, well, let's just say the shit's gonna hit something, and it won't be a fan...

Speaking of sewer line, I measured from the clean out inside the basement this morning, and it should be coming under the basement foundation almost 5 feet from the corner of the house.  And it should be buried in the same trench as the water line...

Grant's location line

Grant's line is not 5' from the corner - it looks like its coming around the corner...

sigh.

Let's find a contractor with one of those hydro-vac trucks that shoots a big jet of high pressure water into the ground to make a hole, then uses a gigantic vacuum on the back of the rig to suck up the mud.  

Hey!  Where's Ken when you need him?