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Friday, 19 October 2007
Designing is not a linear process
So says the authors of the Solar Shelter Manual. We have a very
unusual building lot. I have already mentioned that it is wet field
in one area and somewhat boggy woods in another. I have also mentioned
the ditches. These ditches are quite the defining features of the
lot.
One long ditch defines the eastern lot line until it veers east,
then south and ends up somewhere in the golf course. This is such
a magnificent ditch that we had to go to the provincial maps to
make sure that it wasn't a legal waterway of some sort. It isn't.
Running across the lot are a number of other ditches, that all
drain into the magnificent one. Our prospective driveway would
have to cross these ditches, if we were to have our house situated
where we wanted.
We wanted to have our house as far from the road as possible, without
making the driveway too long for winter snow clearing. As well,
we had to consider the water and sewer lines between the house
and the road. The pipes have to slope away from the house at a
particular angle, in order to prevent potential blockage problems.
Bringing power to the house was a third issue that would help determine
where to build the house. It is expensive to put in extra power
poles from the road, so we would try to avoid this.
Our unusual lot is at its narrowest on its north side near the
road (with only about 70 feet of road frontage), gradually widening
to 110 feet over about 300 feet, then expanding eastward by hundreds
of feet. The nicest place to build our house was just north of
the expansive part, so that the southern vista of our backyard
would take advantage of that widened space. With the extra eastern
aspect to the lot, we chose the east side as our `front' entrance.
The house would show its back to the road.
One of the small excitements that we have at our home is when the
new Lee Valley Catalogue arrives. There are so many interesting
tools and gadgets to see. From among these, Eric and I purchased
a laser level, to use to get a sense of the elevation of our building
plot from the road. We needed to know this for the water and sewer
lines.
Maybe it's our middle-aged eyesite. Maybe it was the sunshine.
Or maybe it's a shortcoming of the gadget. But when we went out
one afternoon, to assess elevation, we had the hardest time finding
the little laser dot over the few hundred feet we were working
with. Eventually, we realized that if I focused the laser dot on
Eric's back, and then he walked away from me toward the road, I
could keep track of the dot enough to get a rough elevation measurement.
I'm sure we looked kind of funny out there that day.
We went to see the Town Engineer, to find out how deep the water
and sewer hook-up was beneath the road. Then, we did the math to
find out how far we could build from the road. We were happy to
find that there was just enough slope available for us to build
our chosen distance from the road. We decided to deal with the
power pole issue later.
After hiring a surveyor to clearly mark out the western lot line
(our southwestern corner marker was deep in the woods, and so we
could not accurately ascertain this on our own), Eric and I took
some string and stakes, and laid out the general area where our
house would be built. It was quite satisfying to stand at the southern
edge of this area, and begin to dream about the view that we would
be enjoying through the large, southern heat-collecting windows
that would highlight our new solar home.
Next time: Let the digging begin
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