Part One- Still near the beginning.

The building permit has been issued, and the foundation was poured last week, at least most of it. It was quite a sight to see a concrete pumping truck and not one, not two, but three concrete trucks all squished into our little (unpaved) driveway turn-around. (At least we can be reasonable certain that the CDF fire trucks can get up to the house.) We have been taking pictures, and hopefully have some posted on a website soon.
The tricky thing about building in the country is you start with nothing but land. We were lucky in that there was a developed water source, a nice spring with a 10,000 gallon water tank. Then you need a septic system, electricity and phone. Oh, and a propane tank unless you want an electric stove top. (Gads) Every step you have the nice folk in the Mendocino planning department 'helping' you along. The septic permit was issue last year, and now that the rain has stopped, we can get the tank put in, assuming the guy calls me back. We are getting an electrical line from our neighbors, who have been very helpful, but PG&E (aka Power, Greed and Extortion) have been a little slow. Five weeks ago the guy doing the engineering design said that the plans would be ready in two weeks. The next thing I heard from him was that he was transferring to an office in the next county, and he "looked forward to working with me in the future". Does he know something I don't? So I placed a call to the woman who replaced him, to check on the expected design completion. "Um, do you have the trench drawings?" Not a good sign when the person in charge of your project is asking you about the drawings you expect them to do. Meetings will be held, and..?