Dream house -Part 1 (2022)

I’m breaking this up into several phases, arbitrarily determined by me, to avoid a massive blob of content. I jump around from certain tasks, but things get done. The journey begins in 2022. 2023 work can be found here!

Who doesn’t want a custom home? I sure did. I thought about it for years and years and looked at various land on Redfin and watched things come and go. In June 2022, I had been thinking about it again and decided I need to actually move forward if I was going to do this.

Getting the Land

You can’t build a house without land. I had strict criteria for what I wanted:

1. No more than 30 miles from Costco(you might laugh, but this is important for me).
2. Acreage. I wanted at least 5 acres.
3. High speed internet must be available(cable/fiber). No DSL.
4. Not on the water.
5. Somewhere in Western WA, still in Zone 8b/9a. 
6. Not too far from emergency services.
7. No HOA.
8. Not near a highway.
9. I don’t want to see my neighbors’ houses from my house.
10. I can actually pay for it.

I had found something that fits the bill, with the caveat that there were wetlands onsite. I had some data from the previous seller with some basic information of location and restrictions, but this was far from a delineation. More on this later. Before looking at the parcel, I scoured GIS maps looking at elevations, water flow, zoning, and other possible constraints. I had a very good idea of what buffers were required for the land. I also mapped out driving paths to various locations and analyzed local roads to understand what weather issues may arise.

I had some basic information from the previous owners looking to develop:

• ~ $16,000 for a well
• ~ $25,000 for septic
• ~ $30,000 for power

I went onsite, shorts and t-shirt through walls of blackberries, scotch broom, and tall grass down and and an overgrown driveway to get to the meat of the parcel. I managed to get about 50′ into the corner of the 8.2 acre parcel, but I was satisfied with what I saw. 

Next step was an offer, all cash with 15 day septic contingency. Seller disclosure had said a perc test was done, but I was not going to trust that. I managed to find a septic design company to perform test pit excavations with not the best results, but still stating the site was suitable for a 4 bedroom system. Good enough for me, time to move forward with closing.

After the purchase

I knew there were wetlands, but I needed exact details before I could make any further plans. This is the data I had prior to the purchase:

After nervously awaiting the report from the county, I was delighted at the final results:

I had no real constraints for my project. This was better than the best case scenario I was expecting as the actual wetland were far smaller than expected. On to site stuff and permitting!

Site work – Sep 2022

At this point, my plan was to build a 24×24 pole barn. I knew I wanted a house, but that was years down the road. I had the land and wanted to build something to hold me over. I purchased plans for a barn and started the process to gain approvals for site work.

I could barely get my newly purchased Kubota to the site. No way my 2WD truck would even stand a chance. Hills and mud and brush. It’s hard to picture, but there were no walk-able areas. No fields. Just walls of blackberries and brush.

Read more: The saga continues in 2023