It all started like this.

Once the decision was make to get started, the first thing to do was determine a floor plan for the garage. I knew I wanted it to be large enough to house both vehicles (my truck, Dana's car) and I wanted a wood working shop once the house was built. The first objective was to get the apartment completed in the end of the garage so we'd have someplace to live while we rebuilt the house.

After drawing up many different ideas I decided on basically a retangle that would measure

24' X 48'. This would allow three overhead doors each 9' tall by 10' wide. This meant I had to go with 10' sidewalls which I wanted anyway. I framed the wall with the doors with headers with the idea I would enclose one of them now and install the overhead doors in two of the bays. This would leave one bay that we would use for the living area.

I was fortunat enough to have a land surveyer as my next door neighbor and he was kind enough to bring one of his crews down on July 5, 2003 to lay out the garage.

I had planned to do ALL the work myself, with help whenever I could talk somone into helping.

I have two boys, only one of which lives close enough to be of much help. And then I had my father-in-law, thankfully!! Without his help, I'd still be tring to finish the garage!

It turned out that I needed to move my sewer line and water line as a first step in this process.

This seemed like a simple enough project but, it turned into a story I have told many times.

While preparing to get started, I called several dirt contractors around the area to get quotes on the dirt work. More on this later. One of the contractors that came out told me that he had done the initial work and put in the sewer and water lines going down the street.

I should tell you that being on a lake away from the city, sewer and water are difficult at best.

Initially when my cabin was built, it had a typical septic system and somewhere down the road a little municiple water and sewer company was formed to provide these services for a fee.

Since this contractor assured me where the water line was buried, I rented my Ditchwitch and started digging a new trench to move the water line.. I had barely started when as you might have guessed by now, I broke the water main and a coupld of hundred homes down line from me were without water!

I celled the water company and they sent a crew out to fix the line which wasn't that big a deal. While talking to the crew chief, I ask him to explain to me exactly how the sewer system worked as I was going to have to break into the line at the street and tie in my new line. He assured me it was no big deal and that it was not pressured up unless my pump was running. This didn't sound kosher to me so I asked him if he would come make the cut over for me the next morning for $50. He was more than willing to do it and agreed to show back up at 6:30 the next morning ready to do the job.

This was the best $50 I ever spent in my life! When this guy cut into the old sewer line, the _hit hit the fan!!!!!!! I mean it went everywhere. I had dug out a bell hole next to the area he would have to tie in the new line and it and the trench began to fill up rapidly. I'm at a loss but, this guy runs to his truck and grabs a huge can of pipe glue and a swab about 2-3" in diameter. He took the fitting I had laid out, dobbed some dope on them, underwater, and stuck them together! He did this like it was no big deal, asked if I had a hose he could rinse off with and commenced to take a bath with all his clothes still on right in my front yard.

Like I said, the best 50 bucks I ever spent!

Picture description: date 5/7/03 shows the area the garage will be built looking from the road. You can see the south end of the old cabin and the lake off to the right side.

Picture to the right of the one dated 11/07/03 shows the same area where the garage will sit and if you look real close you can see the stakes placed by the surveyors.

Picture dated 11/7/03 shows the same area with the ditching complete and pvc ready to go in the trench. Pic was taken from in front of the cabin looking back to where I was standing when I took the previous two pics.

Picture above and to the right of the last pic and also dated 11/7/03 shows pvc again from east side of lot looking west.

And last picture dated 9/8/03 shows the area just in front of the cabin with the trench backfilled and grass growing once again....lots of other work on the slab during the time from July till Sept will be shown in the next segment.