OK so I had my permit and my plans – which was great apart from one small detail. Now I had to actually do something. And we had just bought a rental property which was in original 1970's condition – the story of that reno is here. So I had two choices – one was to perfect cloning, clone myself several times, learn all about excavation and concrete work, and do several hundred man hours of work myself… or I could find myself a great team of contractors to help out. Guess what I chose?
Here are some of the things that had to happen during part 2 of Building a Cottage:
Digging a big level hole in the ground (several actually – house site, trench for power and water lines, hole for a septic tank). This involves a lot of machinery – excavators, bobcats etc, and more importantly someone who knows how to use them – so many thanks to Ryan Bradley of Bradley Excavating. If you need any excavating, driveways, rock walls etc on Saltspring he is your man.
Building the form work for the concrete – this requires a lot of knowledge and experience (which I don't have) or a lot of mistakes (which I am not prepared to make). We employed the services of Cyrus and his crew from Elevated Construction – and their dog Diesel which made Dexter happy. If you need an easy to work with construction crew on the island I would speak to Cyrus.
Once this is done then the concrete comes – this involved a cement mixer and a pump truck as you can see – and if you think that's fun, getting the pump truck stuck at the top of the drive was even better. They ended up dragging it out with the cement mixer. Not sure they ever came back….
Filling the whole thing back in – more machinery, lots of gravel etc. And we popped in a septic system while we were at it – thanks to Robbie from All Island Septic for making that happen quickly – another recommendation if you are looking for someone to do your dirty work!
Once this was all done there was somewhat of a pause – Cyrus was tied up finishing off an amazing house elsewhere on the island, and I was working on our rental property.
Doesn't look much like the artists impression yet does it!