Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A livable house on your property is an asset,
providing shelter while you build. Or it can
be a source of material for your log house.
People have always hung houses on ledges, dug
them into slopes, perched them on spaces just
foundation-sized. (This seems to be a fetish in Cali-
fornia.) This is almost always a mistake, as time goes
by. A mudslide or earthquake tells you why.
So locate a good building site before you part with
your money. Remember, you'll drive or walk up to
your house thousands of times in the years to come,
and it must be in the right place, look right, and, in
short, the house must belong there, like it sprang up
after a spring rain.
the house is livable for you at that moment, it's best to
figure it a liability — with no dollar value. And tell the
owner or real estate agent so in no uncertain terms.
The Site
All right, the land is yours. You have several sites in
mind. Find the spot you want, the view you want, the
approach to your house you want, and unless it's phys-
ically impossible, build there. (If it's level, you'll never
pass for hill folks. They have one leg shorter than the
other from walking around hillsides.)
The first thing you will “build” is the driveway to
your site. That driveway becomes a very important
aspect of your life and lifestyle. Build an approach to
your site that is both attractive and practical. A good
driveway will make construction easier and cheaper.
And it will create fewer maintenance problems and
feel right every time you drive up to your house.
Points about the house site itself: Can a well-driller
get to it? Or is it close enough for you to pipe water?
Those rigs are enormous, and their drivers seldom
respect a graceful limb that's in their way or want to
risk their equipment on a pitching road. Will you have
to carry materials in? Logs are heavy, and don't bend
well around tight turnings of your path. Is there room
Land with a House on It
Of course if there's already a house of sorts on the land,
it's probably in the wrong place, or facing the wrong
way. We found lots of solid, restorable houses with the
character we wanted, but every one of them was either
too close to the road, aimed wrong, or just on the
wrong part of the land. Too many times houses were
put on the worst piece of ground, where crops or live-
stock wouldn't grow.
If there is a restorable building there, you need to
know something about the costs of reclaiming it to fig-
ure into the purchase price. Charm comes with a high
price sometimes, and it often includes termites. Unless
