The Saga of Big Pink

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We moved into Big Pink on November 1st ten months after purchasing the house. We . still had no water or septic tank, but we'd, been living that way for nearly eight years, and at least the move increased our living space. By the middle of December we had out well, so water was only a few feet from the back door, rather than a six-mile truck ride away.

You may not be able to get blood out of a turnip, but we discovered that you can get water out of granite, although it may cost a small fortune. Contrary to popular opinion, granite is laced with a network of groundwater cracks and crevices, but hitting one with a drill is another matter. Our well driller pounded down through 163 feet of bedrock—at $20 a foot!—without finding more than a trickle. Fortunately, he used a technique called hydrofracturing, which actually lifts the rock with the pressure of the water being forced down the well shaft. That pressure also forces open new cracks in the rock, which allow for a better water flow into the well. To our amazement, it worked! We now have a well which produces four crystal clear gallons a minute, but the bill was nearly double the amount we had budgeted, adding further to our cash crunch. [EDITOR'S NOTE: For information on how to save money on well drilling, turn to page 74.]

The final obstacle, waste disposal, remains to be solved. As of now, it's the old outhouse routine. Vile have plans for building a composting toilet, but—to satisfy state codes and to keep the bank happy—we still have to have a septic system or holding tank installed by a licensed master plumber. (Wisconsin is often heralded as an environmentally progressive state, but composting systems are not yet recognized here as legal primary-waste disposal methods.) To cut costs, we opted for a holding tank along with our composter, but that project is waiting, as usual, for the contractor to do the work.

All in all, it's been a long haul, but the effort has been worthwhile, despite the work that still lies ahead. We still have to repair the living room ceiling, rebuild the torn-apart back porch, finish the solar room, and landscape the grounds. The house also needs to be resided. (Goodbye, pink!) And we're still dealing with the mover over the damages to the house that could have been avoided had his crew followed instructions.

So far we've found that the costs for this house-moving operations tally up as follows:

Nowadays, that's not a bad price to pass for a roomy, comfortable house. Even with the original cost of our land figured in, it comes to $25,000 ...still well below the median price of a home today. And even without improvement our dwelling has been appraised at substantially more than our original investment.

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