Dream House

I am in the fortunate position of being able to afford to build myself a new house (well...perhaps myself and the bank). Having been to several 3rd world countries and knowing that there are lots of people in the world who don't even have housing, I felt a few pangs of guilt about this. I had a decision to make: rehab the old or build new. The cost to rehab my old house was going to be substantial. It was October of 2009. My husband had passed away in August from liver cancer. I was in the depths of grief and sorrow. I needed a project. I decided that if I had to plunk down a lot of money anyway, it was better to build new. I also decided that if I was going to build new, I was going to build green. My new house will be both beautiful and "green". I will share the journey and the adventure with you.

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Well

The Well Rig used to dig my well
Its been a tough couple of weeks for spending money. There are so many expenses to building a house that you do not fully appreciate until you are in the midst of the process and cannot turn back. One of these is the cost of the well. Way back nearly two years ago when I decided to tear down the house and rebuild, I was told I would need to cap off my old well because the new house would be covering it over. This cost about $900 to do. The cost for the new well was contracted in to be about $5000. I was told that sometimes they needed to dig a deeper well, and I would have to cover that cost. Being, by nature, an optomistic soul, I figured I had a good chance of getting a well that was the approximate depth of my old well which was 108 feet deep. What no one told me was that the DNR (the Department of Natural Resources) in Wisconsin instituted some new regulations regarding wells in Winnebago County where my property is. This a happened a few years ago. In one township of Winnebago County, there has been a problem with arsenic in the water. I would agree that this is a bad thing. However, in my area, near the lake, which has a high water table, there has never been a problem with arsenic. In fact, I remember getting the well tested when this problem first cropped up in the county (it was required), and the water was fine. The new regulations allow for shallow wells, less than 100 feet, but no wells are to be dug in the acquifer that is 100-200 feet, if there is sandstone because it can potentially cause the formation of arsenic. The DNR did not want to have to designate only one township as being bad, so they decided to make the ruling for the entirety of Winnebago County. So they dug my well. There is no water at less than 100 feet, and there is sandstone in the aquifer at 100-200 feet. This means they had to dig down to the next aquifer. Mind you, they charge per linear foot. Want to guess how far down the next aquifer is? Answer: 400 feet! So...my $5000 well has turned into a $15,000 well. I was talking to the well guy on the phone a few days ago while I was riding in a car, asking about the final pricing, etc. I had been nauseated and sick that day and so my sister was driving. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach again, told her to stop the car, handed off the phone, and started vomiting out of the side of the car. My sister explained to the well guy that I would have to call him back later. He apologetically said, "I hope she is not getting sick over what we have been talking about...".  In actuality no, but it was nice to feel that I caused him some anguish too! I am hoping, after spending $15,000, that I have great tasting water without a lot of iron it. My prior well had bad tasting water with lots of iron in it that caused rust in the toilets and baths.

1 comment:

  1. That's pretty funny about vomiting. I hope we do get great well water....I have fond childhood memories of cleaning toilets with Zud to try to get the rust out...not an easy job.

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