Petals start to open!
It took just about two weeks for the engineer to get back to me, and that was after working on the plans for my home for hours. That time length was because he, the engineer, had wanted to give me multiple choices. He produced three different concepts in design for my house for me to consider. He figured he had my taste and likes down on paper in detail. With the basic layouts the engineer had also included a finished drawing.
Like most humans, he based his thoughts more on what he did not know than what he knew. Having no real knowledge about me, he had no clue that I would see everything he proposed for my home as a luxury. For nine years I had slept on a brick floor in a bed made from bamboo. Yet in his eyes they were what most homes needed just for one to live comfortably.
If it had not been for meeting Alana, I would have told him where to go and how to do it. However, Alana made me understand that others' needs would have to be considered. In the end, I had to acknowledge that I would have to accept what was considered normal in society as an acceptable part of his design.
When talking with the accounting department, they had decided to factor in that with the amount of mass we would have to move for the new concrete road to level it to the same height out the way the engineer, David, was designing it. Saving time transporting it for uses elsewhere would more than be offset by adding the height and shape we wanted to build up the land up to my future home.
Since we were underwriting the cost and donating the road to the county when it was completed, we figured the full amount could be written off. The accountant saw it as a win-win solution where everyone benefits to the good.
They also decided that because I did not take pay for the extra hours that I put in the company that they would only charge me the actual cost they incurred, not the retail market value. It turned out that the actual cost for labor and materials at wholesale prices was estimated to be beneath thirty-five thousand. I told David that if that were all it was that I could issue a cheque for full payment when completed.
In talking with the county to get their blessing on extending the road, they had requested that we put in the wiring for electrical, phone, sewage and water underground, with a perimeter of transformers built-in, as we built the road. It would say the county millions down the road.
It was part of the normal costs for anyone developing property in the county for resale. The problem was we were not a land development company. Unfortunately, the county did not see it that way. As a result, we had to turn the problem over to the lawyers.
The county suggested to us that the cost of it could be added to the electrical generation plant. That was when we learned they had a company interested in the plant when it was finished, assuming the state was willing to sell. We learned it was the same reseller that was providing them with electric power. Everyone in the know saw their request for what it was. A friend with benefits relationship.
As a result, we sent their request to the governor's office since they were funding the building of that part of our project, knowing that the county had no clue as to who they would be dealing with. Let the governor's office deal with the political bull shit. Along with their request we asked that if the government were to sell the operation, once completed, that we have the first right of refusal to it.
My advisory team and I would learn much later on that making that request was one of the smartest moves we ever had made because, after diving into it, we learned the governor was on the verge of retiring and decided to sell it to us at cost providing we agreed to certain environmental standards.
The three interior layouts of my future home were startlingly different. I chose the design that left part of the house exposed on the side where the huge flat area that would be built. By the time it was done, I would have about three to four acres of flat land in front of the house.
The new yard would also give me added exposure to the whole valley below. It was decided that when we built the driveway, we would build in such a way that there would be room to push the winter snow off on both sides.
The chosen design would also give me an overall view of the valley from both the kitchen, the kitchen nook, and the family room. The French doors into the patio area would be between the kitchen nook and the family room. It would leave us with a huge patio that was eight feet wide and forty feet long. An added feature was that kitchen nook, which stuck out from the side would give us a clear view of the pond.
The actual shape of the home would be longer than it was wider. We would only have two levels to it, but it was to be built with a crawl space between both levels. That was done to allow the fixing of plumbing and electrical without having to disturb things in the house.
The space for the pond would be made of rock, gravel, sand, and concrete blended to make it seem that it had always existed. Its depth would reach a maximum of ten feet. There would be two concrete steps from each end of the patio going down into it. It was large enough that my guests and I would be able to swim under the falls if we wanted to.
The way it was designed it was going to end up being bigger than the total length of the house. The falls would come down in the center of the pond. The secondary falls would drop forty five feet before creating a pool that when filled up would run under the road via the huge culvert that we would have to install. There would be shrubs planted around the perimeter of it to give my quests and me complete privacy.
David and I both understood that we were creating a new creek for the area, and that we would have to keep adjusting the layout of the stream as we raised the soil level in the strip mine. Once the water started flowing a whole bunch of new challenges would confront us. One thing we did not want to end up with was a deep depression where the water flowed in relation to the rest of the land.
What appealed to me was the fact that we would have the backside part of the cavern that we did not need, covered with a concrete floor so that we could store extra vehicles if needed. It would be lighted from the lights attached to the house.
Looking directly at the front of the house by the time it was done would be the only way to tell that part of the home was built into the mountain. The only drawback was that we would have to check the roof of the cavern regularly to remove any rock that may become loose over time so that it did not cause damage to the roof.
The second floor had four bedrooms all laid out so all would have window exposure to the valley. The large master bedroom to be built in the front corner gave me a view of both my flat land and the valley. Each was laid out to have their private bathroom and walk-in closet. I was impressed with how much actual sunlight would be brought into the home.
David was going to cut stone to mimic the rock of the mountain and apply it to the side that was visible from the country road making the part facing the valley almost impossible to see. He had estimated that once we started extending the county road it would take three months to complete.
What convinced me to move forward with it was the fact that David thought that the cavern would help to control the temperature of our home year-round and that we would use electricity to heat it. That would remove the need for air conditioning.
