Doctor Dave Builds

We are off and running! When you purchase raw-land you are required to call the county to get a fire number.  The county then asks if you have an address to attach to said fire number.  In this transaction, we had neither.  What I am about to share with you is a logistical mess, fraught with obfuscation, and the age-old finger pointing.  The lot that was purchased can be accessed by two different roads.  One is a public access road off of the main highway. The other has been officially tagged by the county as an abandoned county road.  This abandoned county road directly links to our driveway.  There is no desire for us to access the public access road due to the fact that the state of Minnesota has an easement for this road, which the county doesn't recognize, and the county doesn't plow it because it is not a county road.  Did I mention that in both scenarios the county is not maintaining either road? I called the county to inquire as to wh...

The first weekend we owned the land I called upon some close friends to come out and start dropping trees.  We dropped 31 trees in one day, and broke one chain saw.  Kelly and I went to the land on Sunday and bucked up more logs and took care of some small twigs.  I was startled when my phone rang on Monday morning from the previous land owner.  He called and informed me that there was a fire on the lot.  I asked him where the fire occurred and how much damage there was.  I figured there were only two rational explanations for the fire.  One was the train tracks and the other was the power lines.  A large, albeit skinny, balsam top broke off and landed on the power line starting the fire around 2AM Monday morning.  The neighbors smelled smoke and called the Murphy Lake Fire Department.  We lost 3 huge old growth white ceders and some smaller trees.  I went out on Monday, and thanked the fire crew who was still out there sawing logs ...

Reached out and asked a close friend of mine if I could rent him and his wife out for a day of felling and bucking trees.  They were kind of enough to bring food and adult beverages for break-time.  Not that I would ever advocate in mixing chainsaws and beer, but when you are all done with the sawing there is nothing better than a sit down with friends and cold beer. A person really doesn't get a sense of the size of the house until you start stepping off actual footage on the parcel.  What we did was stake to out the approximate size of the footprint of the house.  It was in that moment the gravity of the chores before us was no joke.  I have no problem dropping a few balsams here and there or a big aspen tree, but when the task is reaching into that 40-50 tree scope, my back starts to twinge just a bit.  We spent the Saturday sawing and sawing and more sawing.  I am proud to announce I only hung up one tree into another!  I know it doesn'...

This next stage was fraught with stress, and inconsistent messages.  I called a contact for septic design and septic construction.  For the record, you need both components of building a septic system a) designer and b) contactor who actually build the septic system.  Some constructors have a designers license and some do not.  The first person who came out and looked at my lot shared with me deep concern that the area I wanted to have the mound system was going to be classified as a wooded wet land.  Did you know that St. Louis County has 8 different delineations of wet lands? I did not! https://www.stlouiscountymn.gov/departments-a-z/planning-development/land-use/wetlands#4094363-wetland-types https://www.stlouiscountymn.gov/Portals/0/Library/Dept/Planning%20%26%20Development/Land-Use/Wetlands/Type-7-Hardwood-Coniferous-Swamp.pdf Coupled with the 13 different lake categories and designations, I am beginning to understand the need for additional pers...

I thought it would be valuable to offer insight and resources in the new home construction process.  Step one was to find a lot that checked the boxes for purchase.  Location was a key element, and locating a lot that suitable for construction.  Some of the elements that were investigated were access to a paved road, access to the highway, distance from schools, and the consideration of hooking utilities up to city water and sewer.  Additionally, the lot itself was of critical importance.  Was there high ground to build, was there an acceptable access to the property.  Were there any easements that would need to be in place to access the lot.  This week two topics were investigated.  The first one was organizing the well portion of this project.  I spoke to a local well drilling service ( Graves Well Drilling- Pike Lake) and got tremendous service and information.  I was told the first step is not the well!  The first step is to...