Around the Neighborhood

This morning, the backhoes fired up and dug into our land. Once the excavators have finished their part, the building contractors come in to pour the foundation. From that point, they tell us we should move in after about 140 days.

Last night, on my way home from work, I stopped by the property to see where the builders had staked out the site for the excavators to do their thing. I started pacing out the stakes, measuring the setbacks and the dimensions based on the location of the stakes. After pacing the front and the back of the house, I noticed that they had made an error and were planning to make our house a little trapezoidal. We made a quick call to the builder and had him re-stake it so the excavators would dig their hole the right shape.

We narrowly averted a big inconvenience. From that experience, I’ve learned that I should keep a close eye on the progress, because even the professionals can make silly mistakes.

This photo was taken at the end of the first day of work.

Early last Sunday morning, the apartment complex at the end of the block from Mom and Dad’s house burned down. The building was a total loss. Two people were killed in the fire which has been investigated by the ATF and determined to be caused by an arsonist. They have a suspect in custody.

I took these pictures on Monday after the ATF arrived and began investigating the cause of the fire. While taking the photographs, I was asked by a security guard to be sure that I don’t photograph the faces of any of the ATF officers.

Editors Notes of 6/20/07 – Today, less than two weeks later, the structure has been completely removed and all that is left is a smooth patch of dirt.

We sold our house in March and are now living back in Toppenish with my parents. We have purchased an acre of property in East Valley and will be building a home. Here’s what we’re building. I’ve added a picture of the view from our property.

This is the view from where the back of our house will be. The gap in the hillside is the one you go through to get from Yakima to the Lower Valley. Our property borders an orchard to our west and a canal to our south. There are only a few homes on the adjacent properties, so we aren’t completely isolated, but it should be relatively quiet in the neighborhood.