It’s official – we are under way. Ground has been broken, trenches have been dug and we’ve even passed our first round of inspections.

There’s a lot to learn about building a house out of nothing. It’s one thing to build in the city where much of the infrastructure is already in place, and quite another to have to figure out things like: where does my water come from? Where does my poop go? How does it get there? How do I get power when the nearest house is over a quarter mile away?

You tend to take these things for granted in developed areas where it’s just a matter of connecting to the pipes and wires that are already in place.

Ian explores the 5′ deep trench before we drop in electrical conduit

When excavation started last week the first order of business was to lay down the driveway. We designed the run so that it would weave around the big mature trees so we only had to remove the fast growing under brush like vine maple. The first step was to scrape away all the plants and topsoil in our way (known as grubbing), next packing down the soil below with an excavator, and then tapering the edges to make a nice even transition with the forest.

The minute the driveway was in place (but before the gravel) we tore it all up again digging a long trench that ran almost the entire length of our property. This will hold our water lines, fiber internet lines, power lines and our septic line running to our future drain field. Of course, each has it’s own restrictions and requirements for how deep and close together they can be and there are at least 3 different entities that oversee this work, so it’s a total mess to figure out.

Excavation work is shockingly expensive. You only want to dig a big trench like this once, so you want to make sure you do it right the first time. We’re trying to plan ahead for future expansion and it’s way cheaper to lay some extra conduit (the PVC pipes that carry the wires) while the ditch is already dug than it is to dig a new trench down the line. So to make matters even more complicated, we are adding some extra offshoots where our internet, power and water can link up with a future building.

At 5 feet deep, the whole ditch looks like something out of World War I warfare.  The layers below are like looking at a cake, except instead of frosting you see a cross-section of roots and old eroded stumps below the topsoil.

Ian examines the layers of roots in our trench

We’ve walked in it every day and discovered a host of forest creatures inside. One morning we found this cute little NW tree frog.

Another day we found a brown snake that looked like this. It turns out, it’s a rubber boa and it’s unusual because it’s a native NW boa constrictor meaning it strangles it’s food. We didn’t even know such a thing existed in Washington, and here it was hunting next to our conduit.

A NW Rubber Boa

Of course, piles of dirt are heaven to a kid, and Ian has spent most days scrambling up dirt mounds, racing cars down the slopes and using his toy excavator to dig trenches of his own.

Digging is fun!