We had a surveyor mark our back property line on Friday. He’s going to provide us with a site plan as well. That’s part of the county inspection department’s requirements for a building permit. Even aside from the necessity, we needed the line marked so we would know how far back we can place the house.

I met him at the lot after he finished the survey. It had been dry for a couple of days but the cleared area was still very muddy.

I had tried to mark the line myself, since the interior corner was marked and I knew the compass heading that the back line took. Unfortunately, my line was 10 or 15 feet further back than the actual line. That means we have to push the house a little further downslope than we had been thinking. It’s not much, but every foot further upslope gives us that much better opportunity for a view.

Today (Monday) we’re driving up to Summerville, about a half hour north of us, to meet the woman who’s going to draw our house plans. She has a full-time job and does drafting on the side, so we have to meet around 6:30 PM after her normal work hours. The Wendy’s on the north side of Summerville seemed a good place since we both know where it is; that means we’ll be having dinner at Wendy’s. We’ll probably take the dogs so they can help us finish the French fries.

She has estimated that it will take a couple of weeks to finish the plans. That gives us time to get a soil test for the septic system and, as I mentioned earlier, an actual street address.

We’ve had one piece of unsettling news – our new next-door neighbors are running short of water. Their well is around 100 feet deeper than ours and only about 75 feet away. We had to replace a failed well pump, but we have had no problems, even during the dry weather we experienced over the last few years. It’s still disconcerting to learn about it.

They just moved in a few weeks ago, so it’s more disconcerting for them than to us.