After the driveway was put in, we decided to try to get an address. We thought it was going to be a pain to do, but really, it was quite easy! We need the physical address for the State for when we submit the Septic Design.
How to get a physical address:
Contact your Selectman's Assistant (at least that's what we had to do!). Let them know you are looking for a physical address and they will contact the Emergency Services person (in this case, it ended up being a friend of my Dad's!). This individual is in charge of making sure that addresses are updated for emergency purposes (if you call 911 and need ambulance services, he makes sure that everything is up to date). What he will need is your lot and map number (and frankly if you don't have it memorized at that point, I'd be surprised!), and you need to sign a little piece of paper that goes to the state. THERE IS NO CHARGE (how awesome is that!?). Anyways, it takes about 2 weeks normally to get the physical address. The way they figure it out is they take the numbers from either side of your property (if you have neighbors) and do some measuring. Figure out feet and have some sort of calculation that figures out what your physical address is. It's kind of neat really. They have to measure to the driveway apparently.
The other thing we've accomplished is an approved Septic Design! Our Septic Guy (Pete Bissell) came out after the October storm of 22" when all the snow had melted off again, and did some digging. He did the perc and did some calculations and what not and drew up a really nice design. It's pretty impressive actually. You have to go to the Selectmen at your town to get it signed off on. He explained it all to us at a meeting a couple weeks ago now. We were afraid that the town was going to give us trouble at first, but I think they were sympathetic, listened to Pete, which explained everything, and signed off. It was really cool actually! An example of what a Septic design looks like is:
This is kind of what one looks like. Ours has lots of pretty colors, some elevations, etc. It's really neat to look at actually! Pete did a great job in designing it.
After the town signs off on it, we write a check to the state DES (Department of Environmental Services). You also write a check to the designer of course! But there is no other cost at the town level... yet. Once you get the signatures, the designer sends it to the State. They approve it and send you a piece of paper (which I didn't really understand at first... it's all in typewriter format on a carbon copy type paper). The Septic Designer then sends you a copy with the state signatures/approval on it.
We also accomplished cutting many many more trees to clear the land since I last wrote. We will have a rather large yard when we are done. We were afraid that we were going to have to pay someone to take the logs out (very few hardwood, lots of soft), and were blessed to have a friend of my Dad's come over and wanted all the short softwood that we cut (5-6 foot lengths so that Mike and I could man-handle it to a pile somewhere... what a workout!).
He asked what we planned on doing with the rest of the logs (the large ones) and we said we needed to find someone to take them. Our prayers were answered about 2 hours after this friend of my Dad's came. He brought back another guy, an older gentleman, that trucks for a mill. He said he'd take it all! :) Mike and I had been moving slowly to clear because we'd clean up and move the logs/brush out of the way to try to keep it cleaner. Now we found someone to take the logs! How exciting! He's already taken 50 tons of logs off our property, and still has quite a bit to go! Mike worked all week to clear the rest. The only thing standing now is the hardwood. Pictures Below! Please know this was soooo wooded at one point, that there was much more shade!
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| Where our house will be... |
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| Love this Tractor. I want one just like it! Winch, Thumb, and All! |
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| The left side of our property now |
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| Backyard area |
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| A small portion of the logs coming off the property! |
Mike did have a mishap last week when he was clearing (without me since I had to work, but was with his Dad and this older gentleman). He cut a tree down and it got wedged in another. He started limbing it and one of the big limbs jumped up and whacked him in the face. He chipped his front tooth, got a nice gash on his chin, and his mouth was so swollen that night. Not exactly what I wanted to hear a mere week before the wedding!! Fortunately, his beard covers the gash, the swelling has gone down, and if you didn't know the story, you wouldn't know that his tooth was chipped. It's crazy though because we started slowly clearing the property in July, took a break when Dad ended up in the hospital, and then again when his cousin was building his house, and all this time, no one got seriously hurt until then. Of course, that makes me feel comfortable that he wants to go and keep cutting. Ugh!
Next step: We are going to the bank tomorrow to see if they will approve our house and give us money!! WOOT!
That's the update for now! I've been crazy busy with wedding planning and such. I can't believe that I'll be taking his last name this Saturday. It's come up so quick! Can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.
Building Dreams, Building our Future <3
