Week starting 15th September – A new home with furniture, digging to China, and architectural problems
After nearly a month in the cabin in the woods, it was time to move onto something a little more permanent. We had to leave on Wednesday morning, but we couldn’t move into an unfurnished house without the furniture in our 40′ container. And that was still in limbo somewhere between Charleston and us. So, back to hotel existence for a couple of days. We decided to get closer to where we really need to be, in Dahlonega, and booked into a hotel just off the main square (which gave us convenient access to the town centre restaurants). Meanwhile, we chased up the shipper for more news. And hurrah – the US Customs had decided to release our worldly goods with no fees to pay (apart from the cost of X-raying the container). Delivery was scheduled to Choctaw Ridge on Thursday morning.
Now, this seemed to present its own problem. Choctaw Ridge is just that – a road running along a narrow ridge with houses clinging onto the precipitous slopes. To get there follows a narrow winding road with hairpin bends and very very steep climbs and descents. How on earth would a 40′ shipping container get to the house. Ira, the chairman of the local residents association, was somewhat sceptical that it would be feasible, but volunteered to help close the roads when an attempt was made. So was agreed to ring him once we knew exactly when the container was scheduled, and he could spring into action. We waited at the house on Thursday morning with trepidation. No news on the container timing – nerves jangling. Suddenly there was a rumble of diesel engines and squealing brakes – the container had arrived without any notice and with some extraordinarily skillful driving. We (and Ira) were amazed.
The rest of the day turned into something of a blur as the moving crew carried about 400 cartons, chairs, tables and everything conceivably required for modern living (including our custom-made 4′ wide weather vane) into the house. After about four hours the container was empty, the fragile contents checked (amazing – absolutely no breakages) and the house was totally uninhabitable. So much stuff, you nearly had to go mountaineering to get across most rooms. A long job of unpacking and sorting awaits us – and we had to move in from the hotel on Friday. So we slaved away all afternoon and finally retreated to the hotel for our last night on the road.
Friday was another day of unpacking and moving contents about. The house has a lower floor with a double garage, one room and then a large unfinished storage room. That room was one of the biggest attractions of the house, and it is now stuffed full of cartons, stacked four or five high, which we don’t expect to need until the new house is complete. The lower room is similarly full of furniture not needed at present. But there are still dozens of cartons lined up against the walls upstairs. And of course, every time we decide to consign a carton to the not wanted now store, that means another trip to the basement. Part of the problems in sorting things out lies with the packers back in London. Whilst they did a masterful job of packing the cartons, they were less good at describing what they have packed – so the information on the cartons is often very misleading. A box of table lamps described as cushions, a carton of electrical and computer kit called books (OK, there was also one book in there!). So virtually every carton has to be opened to unearth the buried treasures it contains. We have plates, but no bowls. We found the carefully packed contents of a rubbish bin. I can see we will have continuing surprises for weeks to come.
Digging to China is an American phrase comparable to the English term digging to Australia (actually if you were to dig straight down throught the centre of the earth from London, you would come out somewhere East of New Zealand, but so much for details). After the surveying had been completed on the build site, the graders went to work with gusto. We went out to inspect the results with Bill. An enormous hole in the ground (and the area beyond the site where we plan to plant apple trees is now a temporary dump for storing the excavated earth). The back wall is more than 20 feet deep. Amazing. I am glad we have an experienced builder to control what currently looks like a quarry in development. Interestingly, the digging has been easier that it might have been – the ground is all clay to a significant depth. And now we are ready to move onto the next phase – filling the hole with concrete for footings (= foundations to English speakers). BUT………….
This has opened up the first big problem – a clash between the house design and the topography of the land. The land slopes very steeply in several directions. We had known from the beginning that part of the lower floor would be subterranean, and had that part of the floor designed as unfinished storage and the slab under the garage. But the way the land lies means that unfinished storage would have a fine view over the creek, and living space would be windowless. Discussions with Bill over plans spread out on the bonnet of his pickup truck revealed a solution – we reorganise the internal layout of the lower floor to swap the living and subterranean spaces about. The building footprint stays the same (so we can carry on with the foundations), but a trip to the architect for some redesign is called for. Luckily (no, actually no luck involved, it was a major factor in selecting Bill as the builder) Bill and the architect have been close friends for 40 years, so we are off the Atlanta office of Garrell Associates next week to get this organised.
An exhausting week, but things could be a lot worse – this week demonstrates the need for a flexible attitude in life!