Breaking Ground and Breaking Up

Yesterday we broke ground on our new home.  Today we parted company with our septic contractor.  It just wasn't working out.  I know it's a business deal, but it's hard when you hire people in your "new" community and you like them very much and then the business relationship goes awry.  You feel bad.  You do everything in your power to keep it on track and sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Let me back up a bit.  Five years ago, we took a road trip and discovered NEWA.  It is such a beautiful place.  It's Truckee California at 2000' elevation.  The North Cascades National Park in Western Washington rivals Yosemite.  Water flows from everywhere, even underground.  The wilderness is abundant.  White tail deer browse the countryside AND the towns every evening in search of delectable goodies and (I think) to entertain the locals and any visitors passing through.

Elk, moose and black bear are sighted frequently and we've been told (haven't tried  it yet) that it is a fisherman's paradise.  So five years ago, on a road trip through NEWA, we felt like we were coming home.  Thus, the journey began.

Along with a GREAT Realtor, Jim Sweet we began the search for our new home.  There is so much to choose from in this area - bare land, farm houses, modulars, view property, waterfront, the options are endless.  You can be hidden right near the highway or up a long secluded road.  Close to town or far away?  Creek or lake or river?  This was a two year process, finding our "ideal" home.

After two summers of searching, in the spring of 2008, I see this ad on Craigslist.  It's for a property (20 acres) just north of the very first place we looked at, very near the Canadian border.  There's a creek running along one border and a county road along the other (no properties to drive through, no easements).  We made a quick decision to run up there (900 miles) on Easter break (Daniel was in 8th grade).  We loved the property the moment we saw it even covered in snow.  The location was perfect, just the right mix of trees, meadow and southern exposure.   So we bought our new home from Grady and Gail in the spring of 2008, and could not wait to begin our adventure.

Well as things go, our plans did not come to fruition right away.  We returned to Nevada to ready our log home for the market when the market decided to turn, fall, retreat, give up, lay low, falter.  It was another three years before Valerie and Dave came along and bought our home in Silver Springs.

We moved out of our log home in Silver Springs on May 25, 2011.  We moved into our travel trailer and the new adventure begins.  During the summer of 2010, we managed to have the power brought into our property (it was at the road), and the well dug (119').  We also managed to have our site plan approved by Stevens County and our septic permit issued from the Health Department.  The Health Department called for an engineered system.  The engineering was completed in September 2010.  The installer could begin. 

Yesterday, nine months later, Black Bear is breaking ground on our home and the septic is not complete.  It isn't close to complete.  It even looks scary.  The builder cannot get started until he removes and buries much of the the semi-installed pipe.  And that is where we are today.

A new adventure is never flawless.  That's why they call it an adventure.  We will have our challenges and our mistakes and our triumphs.  Little victories will happen along the way, making the entire project worth the effort.  We've been here before.  We would not go back.  It's part of the challenge, the joy, the effort.  Welcome to the NEWA Experience.