a fun wedding and serious research

On lucky 7-7-7, we made another trip back for Anne’s sister, Kathy’s wedding. The trip was a great chance to get some great pictures of the dam and mill building while the water on the lake is still down. You can see the two “plugs” on the dam – one is a three foot culvert running under the dam on the north side, the other is a concrete "box", approximately foot feet by six feet in area. During this trip, we had a great time, enjoying the weather (it actually rained!) and family, making the idea of moving back to the Midwest more real than ever.

Since that trip, we have gotten serious with preliminary planning for the project. We’ve got a copy of the Village’s ordinances, along with the appropriate Zoning and Variance applications for our project. We also have the as-built locations for water and sewer in the vicinity of the site. Both sets of survey data, along with the water and sewer information, have helped to develop a better site map (here). Anne has been busy researching and doing her own hydrology studies for the region. Anne’s sister, Karen, was also able to find some cool, old blueprints from the last time work was done on the dam in 1975 through the local engineering firm she works for. Soon we will be making our first submittals to get the project permitted – stay tuned!

Good-bye San Diego! More forward progress…

On June 8, 2007, we officially sold our San Diego condo. The market in the area had slowed over the last year, and properties hadn’t been moving, but we managed to sell it ourselves without getting a real estate agent involved. Thanks for the staging advice, HGTV! This was a big step for us getting un-tied from California.

Surveying: The perfect family bonding experience

In March 2007, I took a trip home without Joe and decided to do some more surveying to pick up on details in the area. Since the November 2005 survey, the Village installed a new culvert and rock outlet, and the brush clearing revealed more terrain that wasn’t as easily accessible the first time around. Anne’s sister is also a Civil Engineer and they had fun surveying with modern equipment w/ built in GPS. My other sister, Kathy, a schoolteacher, even got in on the fun, holding tree branches out of the way so Anne and Karen could get some hard to get shots. The weather was great, so the whole family - Mom and Dad, and the cutest nephew in the world, Karen’s son (Michael), and Karen’s husband (Darrick) stopped by to hang out while the surveying went on.

The Oakwood Lake Revitalization Project is still ongoing. The plug is still “pulled,” so the lake is down. While I was home, an intense storm happened, and the lake filled up temporarily, taking her parent’s boat dock from it’s location about a ¼ mile upstream, and floating it down to the dam. My Dad and brother ended up getting it back home, eventually.

There Goes the Waterfall!

The Village of Merrillan has been working on planning a project, “The Oakwood Lake Revitalization Project,” to remove built-up sediment from behind the dam for years. In fall of 2006, the stars aligned, all permits were issued, and a public works project to remove approximately 29,000 cubic yards of material was let. The project involves “pulling the plug” on the dam and draining the upper pond before the winter, with removal activities happening during the winter months after the bottom of the pond had a chance to dry up and freeze up a bit. Also included are installation of a handicapped fishing pier and non-motorized boat ramp. The project was awarded to Hoffman Construction in January 2007. The pond was drained in January 2007 and a majority of the excavation work was completed in February 2007.

lots of brush to clear

Went to Merrillan for the Labor Day Lions Club festival. While we were there we spent 4 days clearing brush and trimming trees from around the property. Anne's Dad and brother helped us remove what was probably 10-12 overly full truckloads of trimmings. While it was lots of fun (and hard work), we managed to get stung by a few ground bees which were well embedded in the tall grass . We really got everything cleared out and now you can see the old mill building clearly whereas before you might not even know it was there. Right at the base of the big tree near the water, there is a really cool rock with moss growing on it. It would be really neat to be able to expose the rock some more (after construction) for decorative purposes. You can see the entire set of pictures here.

We also tried to shore up the roof which has started to sag in partly due to the foundation starting to collapse partially due to a vertical crack. If this winter brings a heavy enough snow, the South side of the building might just collapse.

Met a great architect

We met with Jim at GMK Architecture inc. today. Without question this is the person we want to design our home! We sat in the conference room which was mostly filled by a big glass table and the rest filled with different material samples leaned up against all other available wall and shelf space.

After Jim showed us some of his previous work and told us about the firm, we showed him the topo of the site layout. His first reaction was "Are you sure that you will be able to fit a house here within the set backs from the road and water?" (Remember, the site is oddly shaped and there isn't much buildable space outside the footprint of the existing building.) Then we showed him pictures of the site. He almost started drooling immediately - "We have got to build a house here! What an unbelievable location!" he said. "We can make it work, we've gotta make it work." "I don't mean to presume that your going to choose me to do the design, but wow what a great site!"

He was very excited and started showing us ideas of what what he generally thought would work and asking us what materials we liked. It was great, because this is the exact reaction we wanted to see from the architect we would choose. We were looking for someone who would instantly see what a special location this was and not just do the design because we were paying, but rather to really feel passionate about it.

After a couple hours of discussing ideas Jim asked us if we wanted to go to a nearby project that he just completed. It was lunch time so he offered us some brats that they were barbecuing out back. He came back in the conference room with three brats on a paper plate, a bag of buns, and a couple bags of chips. I think that this sealed the deal for Anne! We ate, and then went to the site that he had just completed.

The home was beautiful - situated on a hill, sloping down to a lake with a great view of the state capital. The design was very similar to what we were looking for, eye pleasing rectangular shape (no curved walls), very open floor plan and no formal dining room. It was a mix of concrete, stucco, corrugated metal, and lots of windows.

Overall, we were very pleased with our experience. What more could you ask for, someone who was relatively close to the site, designed in the style we liked, and was super excited about the project.

The long beginning...

Here is where we stand in the project so far. Anne and I surveyed the property last November in order to produce a detailed topographic map of the site. We'll use the information for determining the drainage pattern as well as to get the actual property lines on record. As it is, the only official survey records on file down at the county are very inaccurate and very much incorrect. The nearly 100 year old hand drawn records show the existing street going into what is the lake and waterway. Thus one of our first tasks is to get the correct property boundaries recorded down at the county. Meanwhile, we are also looking for an architect who we feel is capable of producing a design that we like.

More to come!