New house build had begun: Footings and Foundation done!

25 Aug, 2021

August 2021

BEFORE OUR ARRIVAL…

This trip is dedicated to setting our RV as our temporary housing. Up until now, we have been staying in hotels because when you work all day, it is super important to have water to clean up. Secondly, we needed the internet service to correspond with people. I have found a fairly reliable spot on one remote corner of the property where I can text, receive texts, and call – spotty cell service at best. Hotels are getting expensive, so I am excited to have a place to stay! With our water totes that we placed last month, we should be good on water. Power by generator because our temporary power supply is far from where we will be parking the RV and we do not want to park in the way of the workers. Only downside is spotty cell service, no internet – we will have to leave the property and go to town for that…maybe…

So this trip, I will be testing a cell booster that I found on Amazon. I have Verizon as my carrier which is for the most part, the most reliable service overall – just not in my location. I purchased a HiBoost Mini system for $240. It had the best overall reviews. I researched bands that Verizon will most likely be on over there and this system has several band options just in case. If you buy a cell booster and it only has 1 band, make sure it is the one you are on! Better bet is to buy a system that offers several. I use a phone app called Network Cell Info Lite which tells me several things. With this phone app I can see how much cell service and Wi-Fi I have at any given location, what tower I am connected to, and what band. BTW…I am no expert on this, there are loads of informational YouTube videos I have gone through to understand! And I learned about the app through Scot from Hidden Valley Homestead at a YouTubers gathering in Sandpoint! I also follow Martin Johnson Off Grid Living, Good Simple Living, and Living Life in North Idaho. All of these YouTube channels have been very informative and have helped me in different ways.  

Since our last visit last month, we have received our report from our perc test. But not much can be done with that quite yet.      

Construction Management Team has been working diligently on property since late July, digging our house site for the foundation, all the while battling smoky air from nearby fires. Leroy has been keeping me up to date with photos since we were not on site… Photos of the air look worse in North Idaho than it currently is in Central California. 

Coming through Oregon, we drove through a massive bug storm cloud, something I have never seen before…a thick fog of tiny green gnats that stuck on the windshield and made it hard to see. After we passed through this bug fog, we needed gas and stopped at a gas station…unbelievable mat of bugs thoroughly stuck to the truck and front of the RV.  

ARRIVED in North Idaho!

…with our 5th wheel RV intact and a paddle boat strapped on the back (sitting on a utility rack attached to the bumper). We made it to the Sandpoint Fairgrounds (free RV dump and water) and filled our RV with water and met some very nice people there. We have met many friendly people here. So far, we have not met any California haters, and so many locals came from CA themselves at some point.

Leroy and his family from Construction Management Team have been busy…house site looks fabulous! It is all level and neatly cut out…ready for foundation....could not have gotten this far without them!

Can’t wait for our meeting the next day…

We planned to install the HiBoost cellular booster and got right to it the next morning. We purchased a flagpole from Harbor Freight…perfect! Prior to this, cell service has been hit or miss, spotty at best at the house site and there is one spot at a far corner of the property where I can make phone calls (still get dropped calls) and receive and send texts. We dug a hole for the flagpole and set it with the booster antenna attached and raised it up. Kit only comes with two 30 foot wires. I thought this wouldn’t be enough, but this length proved to be more than sufficient. Internet searches stated that extending this length decreases strength anyway. 

This is the outdoor antenna mounted on an extending flagpole from Harbor Freight. The coiled cable is run through our RV window to the interior.  

The wire from the antenna was fished through one of our windows and inside the RV. Inside, we mounted the indoor antenna on the wall. The outdoor and indoor antennas must face different directions. From the indoor antenna, another wire connects to the booster. Then the booster gets plugged into a power source. We plugged it in and then 3..2..1..BOOM! I got 3 bars instantly…UH-MAAAZING! Texts came through, I checked my emails, and was able to send texts. My YouTube video research showed me that to get better signal once installed, you can turn the outdoor antenna until you reach the best signal. Using the Network Cell Info Lite App on my phone, as my husband turned the outdoor antenna, I called out what it read and we captured the best signal we could. Anything -100dBm or better is in the green on this app gauge…UH-MAAAZING! The signal waxes and wanes, but still, I am now able to check my Facebook, post & reply, stream videos, and send picture texts! …there’s still some buffering and room for improvement, but I am truly impressed.  Cell booster is only active when plugged into power. This was well worth the $240!

Next on the list, meeting with building project manager, Ryan, and Leroy from Construction Management Team. Our meeting went well. This was the second time meeting Ryan, our Project Manager. The last time, Ryan came out and measured the boundaries of the house so Leroy could dig down for the foundation and it was very constructive because the Panhandle Health inspector was also on-site for the septic inspection. Having them all here was helpful to collaboratively discuss septic placement and some other things. This meeting continued on the same path. Ryan was happy with Leroy’s work and stated that it was exactly as he imagined it would be…Perfect! Other things we discussed were where the propane would go into the house for the kitchen gas stove and water.  Ryan brought up some good points when I was deciding placement of the gas line. The propane tank will be placed on the side of the house where it would not be in view from any window. Temporary power and water (totes) checked off. I signed the final agreement to begin our build.

After our meeting with Ryan, he called back later that same day to say that his team had a free day the following day. I imagined that construction would not start yet so we were Ecstatic! that this could start so soon and while we were in the area. The following day, framing for the footings were constructed with concrete poured the following day which was a Friday. You can see how the smoke from nearby fires are affecting the air quality. The air here is worse than it currently is in Central CA. 

Then Monday, the 3-man crew returned to take the forms off and constructed the foundation walls. 

Tuesday, they finished up the walls and concrete was poured that afternoon. Wednesday, forms taken off and now, awaiting inspection by Ryan. From start to finish, the footings and foundation took 5 days! Now…at least 10 days from this and inspection, walls can be waterproofed and then backfilled 24 hours later…this will happen in a few weeks when we return. Winds blew the smoky air away from us and it was nice to the familiar blue sky before we left!

Next, we visited the appliance showroom at Fred’s Appliances and picked out our appliances on this trip. This is something we had scheduled for our last trip and had to cancel due to scheduling and time constraints. In my mind, I really thought I wanted a double oven, but after seeing it and touching it…I am going with a single oven. The top oven seemed too small and the bottom oven seemed too low to have to stoop down to get a dish. We also ordered a dryer to match my washer and a dishwasher. My washer is an original Kenmore from Sears, 24 years old. It has never broken and I would like to keep it. My Samsung refrigerator is a dream. I can’t let it go.      

We got quite a bit done. Our original plan was primarily to drop off the RV and test the cell booster. I am so pleased with our progress.

Priced out. Another thing we considered was buying another 20-foot container, but the prices have really increased. In July 2020, a 20-foot container cost us $2900 delivered. Now, a year later, it has doubled in price. We had also planned on a pole barn, but that also has increased so much in price that it is something else that we will have to wait on. Winter of 2020 when I was gathering quotes, it was about $60-80K for a 40 x 60 metal barn with a lean to and 2 large roll-up doors, no floor. Adding concrete floor would be another $20K. And now, summer of 2021, same thing would be about 1.5X that. Lumber prices have gone up astronomically from about $2.50 for a 2x4x8 to about $7.98 retail over the spring/early summer of 2020 and now in August, it is back down to $3+ each. However, our builder and most others as well have raised their base prices (+$50K for us). Lumber cost assessments of May and June, totaling $27K for us, are said to stick due to other rising costs. The Covid19 pandemic has changed the dynamic of the work force. There are hardworking people out there, but there are also people choosing not to work because they are receiving stimulus checks from the government and pandemic-subsidized unemployment. We have experienced restaurants who can only open drive-thru windows because they do not have enough wait help, long lines at DMV due to short staffing, and longer wait times at stores as examples. As we drive past lumber yards, they are stacked high with logs, but we suspect a huge increase in demand coupled with a lack of workers to process them, has caused a backup in supply.

Fires in California are growing in severity and frequency. Currently, the Dixie fire is 2nd for all time largest fire in California’s history and 1st for the largest single fire. North Idaho and Washington are also having more fires and during this trip, the air quality in North Idaho is worse than currently in Central California...And the Pacific Northwest has been unusually hot due to some fluke heat dome event in Canada.             

Our RV will not return to California; it has made its last journey for now. We went to the DMV to switch title over to Idaho and obtain new registration on our truck and RV. Both had to have their VIN numbers inspected by DMV staff for title. Our truck registration went from about $350 in CA to $137 per year. The RV registration went from $148 to $67 per year. Locals waiting in line were friendly and jokingly complained about how long the line was, but the process took us 2 separate trips, at approximately 30 minutes the 1st trip and 1.5 hours the next trip. We did not make an an appointment. Overall, a pleasant wait, I am not at all complaining. License plates are mailed to a physical address so we obtained a post office box which has the option of using a real street address.

As we leave to return to our current home state of California, I am sad to leave. More and more, North Idaho is where I want to be.