We have a Bulldozer on the property!
It is just sitting there, very peaceful. I didn’t see any broken ground, but it is still pretty significant. There was also some mystery to it because we had not actually hired anyone or setup a start date yet. I had called Roe Brothers Excavation company a few times trying to ask them when it would be a good date for them to start. I had left several voice mails and emails, but not heard back at all… I assumed they were taking the whole week off (it is a holiday weekend here in the USA).
I have heard of sending messages by bottle or with smoke rings or even, in extreme cases, with bullets, but this was a dozer message. I called them up and cleared up the miss communication. They had planned to start first thing Tuesday morning (Monday is a holiday). 
A catch… In our state, you are supposed to call “Miss Dig” before you dig. They mark all the buried wires and pipes. Sherri had already called them, but with the holiday weekend ahead, they said they might not get out there until Tuesday or Wednesday next week… There are power boxes strung along the roads, so I am pretty sure I already know what they will tell me. There are almost certainly lines buried under where the drive way will cross, but only right by the road. There shouldn’t be any lines under the home site, which is essentially in a corn field. The excavator says he only needs to go down a few inches for the driveway and the wires and gas pipes are located at least 2 ft below that.
Another catch, we haven’t actually closed on our loan yet (see the hurdles from a few days ago)… We don’t even have a closing date yet, but we are close enough that I am willing to go ahead anyway just to avoid losing more of the summer.
The weather forecast isn’t being very helpful either. They are calling for thunderstorms for most of this week. Next week, I am going to Washington state to visit Boeing (for work), so that won’t be good either… Anyway, I hope to post that we broke ground soon.
In the end, we setup a start date of Wednesday morning. ;^)
Picked Up My Building Permit…
I was only visiting the property because we were required to post a sign with our address and the permits clearly displayed. This is to help the inspectors find your lot. I picked up the “official” plans along with the permit. These need to be kept on site also, but probably not until things really get rolling.
The inspector had written notes on the plans, but fewer than I had expected. A couple were not a problem. For instance, he wants me to make sure that the ducts under my floors slope to an accessible point and to make sure that I have a good system of french drains. These were things that I planned to do, but were not spelled out clearly enough in the plans.
A few of the other notes don’t go as well with my unusual construction and I will try to talk to him about those over the next weeks.
The biggest issue was that he didn’t like my Frost Protected Shallow Footings. I sent him info on the ICC (International (building) Code Council) and ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) outlining how to properly apply this method. Hopefully he appreciates that because I planned to offset the additional cost of insulation with the reduced cost of shallower footings.
Another smaller issue was the specification of a “concrete encased electrode” in the foundation (aka Ufer ground). He probably recommended it because he could see how much rebar I already had in my foundation, and it is probably a good idea to tie my grounding system into all of that (although there have been cases when lightning strikes actually cause the moisture in the concrete to rapidly expand, crack and occasionally explode). Normally, a concrete encased electrode is a very effective grounding system and the NEC allows it to be used as your only grounding, but since my umbrella will be keeping my foundation very dry, it will not conduct electricity as effectively, I will probably still want to include more traditional grounding rods outside of my umbrella perimeter and also tie my ground wire into my well casing.
The inspector also added a number of additional inspections for the footings, arch placement, etc. including some “special inspections by a third party” for my arches (I assume before each is poured), my rebar and my shotcrete. I have no idea how these “third party inspections” will work, or who will do them, but I am guessing they won’t be cheap… I still need to talk with the inspector about it.