Things have been quiet on the construction front. We’ve been waiting on the metal fabricating company, Talley Metal Fabrication, to complete their work and come out and install the steel. This has taken longer than expected. It is a complicated job, and they have done excellent due diligence in figuring out how to implement the design.

The big news is that the steel arrived today. It would have been installed, but today was quite a rainy day. They’ll be back tomorrow to do the install, then Greg will start the framing on Wednesday. Unfortunately, our plan to see the work in progress was foiled by the rain.

Here is the steel, sitting where delivered this morning. The two long pieces in the background are the 28 foot supports for the roll-off roof. The other parts are the six supports and a piece to connect the south-east end together. All together, they will form a 28 foot by 12 foot “U” shaped support structure for the roof.

The steel pieces are four-inch tube steel with the fittings welded on. Here is a close shot of the two long pieces that will support the roof.

This next shot is a close-up of the angle iron the wheels on which the moving roof will roll. You can see how the angle iron is cut away and descends to a bead of steel. This will allow the roof to sit lower in the closed position, providing a tighter seal against the elements.

If things stay on schedule, there should be a lot of progress in the next week. We’ll be out at the site next weekend. I hope to have many more pictures. Once framing starts, things move very quickly.

We had a chance to visit the job site this weekend. I was hoping to see the steel being set, but that has been delayed as some engineering details get worked out. Things are moving forward well.

Here is the full foundation, looking to the southwest. The pier footings are in the foreground. The floor of the observatory will be about at the top of the piers, sitting on a 2x12s on a 4×6 bottom plate.

Clicking on an image will take you to the photo gallery.

The completed pier footings. The approach of building it with blocks worked very well. This is a very heavy, very solid foundation.

This view is looking east. The slab in the foreground is for the pump equipment room.

Our local inspector checked out the pier and found it met standards.

Another milestone in construction of the observatory has been reached. We’ve poured concrete and set the first course of block for the footings. The work was done on Friday, January 9th 2009. The day dawned bright and clear. Not too cold or too warm, in the mid 50s with a good breeze.

The steel for the foundation had already been set. (Click on any picture to go to the gallery. It won’t open a new window this time.)

There is a solid set of steel in the pier footing.

The cement truck arrived with 5.5 yards of concrete, about 21,500 lbs worth. We needed a cement pump to get it into the footings. Here the crew fills the pier footing with cement.

Here the first course of blocks is set on the pier footing. All the footings, including the pier footing, will get another course of blocks. The pier will be filled with additional steel, then filled with concrete. To sonotubes of concrete will bring the footing to the level of the observatory floor.

Work is done for the day. Here is a panorama of the completed first set of blocks for the footings.

A view looking east.

There are more pictures in the Construction Gallery. Check them out!

On Monday of this week, December 29, 2008, we finally broke ground on the new observatory. Having survived regulatory challenges, pump failures, and weather delays, we were able to break ground. Finally, the Tom Jungbluth’s vision for the observatory is taking shape.

A quick word on the well work. The new pump, a 3 horsepower, 20 gallon-per-minute, Berkeley submersible pump, is working just great. We learned that we have a 360 foot deep well, good water since only 2 sections of pipe needed replacing after 9 years, and a static water depth of 65 feet. Eric Haley of Heritage Well Service did a great job. I credit myself a bit for turning the water off at the house. I was more or less just planning for cold weather, but it turns out the water in the shower was on, so it was very good not to have water running for the better part of a week.

Back to construction.

Our contractor for the project is Greg Staten of Staten Construction Company. We met up on Monday morning and awaited Terry Phillips of Anza Valley Backhoe. Terry did the work on our driveway earlier this year and it was excellent work. He showed his skill again with the days work on the observatory. Here is Terry making one of the first cuts on the grade. We have begun! (Clicking on any picture will open the gallery in another window.)

The pad was quickly graded. We rotated the building slightly to minimize the need to set on fill and reduce the amount of grading. Here is the pad fully graded. There are two levels to it. The well equipment room and warm room are at one level, and the observatory is six inches higher.

Watching Terry at work is a joy. He moves that backhoe with great precision. He can eyeball the grade and get it just right. I swear he could pick up an egg with the shovel and not break it. Here he is digging out the footings.

Here is the site at the end of the first day of work. We are looking to the west, with the observatory in the foreground. The hole in the center of the near footings is for the pier base, 16″ thick and 4′ by 7′. I think that will hold two scopes quite well. The warm room is just back from the observatory, and the well equipment on the far end. The hole at the back on the right is for the pillar that will hold the back end of the roll-off roof rail.

We ended up with very little cut required and no fill at all. The ground is all decomposed granite and quite hard. I’ll post some photos of the cleaned up trenching soon. The steel for the foundation is supposed to arrive this weekend. I hope to get back out and check out the progress frequently, but I know work is going to be crazy, so there will be gaps in my overview of the project.

Here is a before shot, taken on Sunday, December 28.

And here is a similar view the next day.

With permits issued and the contractor hired, we are poised to start construction on the new observatory in Lake Riverside. Events, however, have been working against us.

Two weeks ago, I went out to do some basic maintenance, shut down the irrigation, and just make sure things were all right (no gophers!) after being away for several weeks. I was happy to find no new gopher holes. But after mowing the grass, I went in to wash my hands and there was no water pressure at the tap. I checked the water shut-off (it was on), power to the well (it was on), and my heart sank.

Getting three references for well service from Dennis McQueary, a plumber who has done excellent work for us, I reached Eric Haley of Heritage Well Service who was able to come over and look at the problem. He replaced the control box and we were up and running. Whew. He did note that the pump was drawing more amperage than it should. That meant it is getting old and may fail soon, in two weeks or two years, no way to tell.

We learned last night that it was two weeks.

At about 8:30 pm, I saw my wife at the sink and saw the water running slower and slower. Out to the pump, I checked the points that trip when the pressure gets low, they were fine. There was power, but resetting the control box did not do anything. Eric was good enough to take my call on a Friday night and came out this morning. The diagnosis was quick — the pump is dead, probably with worn out bearings. He’ll pull it on Monday, and I’ll get a bid on the fix at that time. The plan is to replace the pump on Wednesday, just in time for Christmas.

So how does this relate to the observatory? Well, I’ll tell you. Rain kept the excavation from starting on Monday 12/15. Then it snowed on Wednesday, dropping 8 inches on Anza. They were going to start on Friday, but Terry Phillips of Anza Valley Backhoe could not get his equipment out of the ice and snow.

The next target date was Monday, 12/22, but now that’s the day the well is set to be pulled. They can’t really work in the same area. The observatory will be next to the well, and will house the well equipment that is above ground now. This picture shows the proposed location outlined in green.

Clearly not safe to be pulling the well pump and digging a foundation right next to the work. I hope that construction will begin on 12/29.

After a bit of an adventure with the planning department, I have a building permit to build an observatory out in Lake Riverside. I wrote earlier (Regulated! and Regulatory Update) about how Riverside County made us go through a formal process so that we could even apply for the building permit.

The building permit process went much as we expected it. After about a month, the on-line status showed that Building and Safety had looked at it, rejected it and passed it on to Engineering. They had some updates, and our architect took care of those and resubmitted the plans. Then the fun began.

I received a call in early October from Building and Safety. I was told that they “just realized that our property is in a high-fire zone.” Let’s see. The county had the plan through two planning processes since the first week of July. And they “just realized” the fire classification? The net was that I was called the next week and told that the plans were ready but I would need clearance from the Fire Safety Department.

I spoke with the representative in the office. She said she didn’t want me to panic, but the rules stated that there is a 100′ setback rule, mandated by state law, in any high-fire area. I told her that this couldn’t make sense because that would make about 2/3 of my property unusable. She said to come in, an appointment wasn’t necessary. So I worked my schedule to stop at the office in Riverside on the morning of October 17th.

I’ll just cut to the chase. The gentlemen I spoke with that morning basically said that the law is the law and that 100′ setbacks are required in a high-fire area. It didn’t matter that those setbacks would render a 350′ square lot mostly useless. I was a bit upset, but he said that I could set-up time with his boss and we could look at the plans and perhaps a mitigating plan could be put in place. I left in a state of shock. I had spent over three months and almost $4,000 in fees to Riverside County and they were saying there is no way the structure could be permitted.

I met with another contractor the next day. He had been recommended by Dennis McQueary, the plumber who has done a lot of very good work for us. The consensus was that I should go to the Murietta Fire Safety office and see what I could do there.

I arranged my schedule so I could go out there the morning of October 30th. That required driving to Lake Riverside the night before to get there at a reasonable time in the morning. I prepared pictures, printed out Google maps and aerial photos, I had a whole story set up. After all, the law defines “high-fire” as covered in brush and remote from roads. The area around the house is neither. I was ready.

I got to the office, and the person at the desk went to the back to get the fire safety officer. I told him my story. Permit denied, no point in leaving for review, must make an appointment. He asked who had told me I needed an appointment and I told him. He said “let’s look at the plans.” It was straightforward. 280 square feet, next to a gravel drive, about 100′ from 5,000 gallons of water. Het stepped to the next cubicle and I heard the tapping of a keyboard. He returned with a stamp and started stamping and signing each page. The stamp said “approved.” I left the office shortly a very happy man.

At this point, I decided to push it all the way. I went to Riverside and picked up the permit. There were a few other bumps, but they were all cleared within about 90 minutes from when I arrived at the Building and Safety office. I left with approved plans, a building permit, and a job card. Ready to go!

The project isn’t totally a go yet. We still need to have a contractor’s bid that can be built within our budget. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Here are some of the details of the planned (and permitted!) observatory. The first image is the floor plan. You can see the large observatory area with room for two telescopes, a good-sized warm room, and a place for the pump equipment.

This next image is the elevation from the east, looking at the entry door to the warm room.

Finally, here is the planned site for the building, next to the existing pump equipment. The rough position is outlined in green.

The hearing for the plot plan change was last Monday and it was a non-event from my perspective. Our plot plan change and about 12 others were all approved in one motion in the first five minutes of the meeting. I’m certainly not complaining. We are in the 10-day comment period. I am hopeful there will be no comments.

Since I was at the building department, I filed the construction plans, complete with engineering. They are in plan check now. So we are moving forward.

With a vacation last month, I missed getting this posted, but here’s the news.

The forces of zoning and regulation have slowed progress on the new observatory. When our architect went to file the building permit, he was informed that, because our garage is detached, a plot plan change would need to be submitted. This will require a review by the planning department and a public hearing.

Riverside County instituted a new rule in March of this year to require a more public review on new accessory buildings. Apparently, some people were building large or ugly or view-blocking buildings and neighbors did not have a way to comment or possibly prevent the construction of an inappropriate outbuilding. We got snagged by that rule.

Normally, a building under 400 square feet doesn’t require a plot plan review. However, any second building, regardless of size, does require a review. At 208 square feet, this seems a bit unfair, particularly because the project is subject to Lake Riverside Estates’ CC&Rs, and that includes a review by the Architecture Committee. We are all OK on that front.

So we are now waiting for the next step. The planning department has apparently approved the project from their perspective, and I am waiting to hear what the next step is.

UPDATE August 4, 2008

We’ve been notified that the hearing is next Monday, August 11. I hope that it goes OK.

We have completed the first step of the new observatory project. The driveway at Osage Court has been re-routed and re-graveled, and a parking area has been added near the observatory site. Here is a view looking down the drive to the south. (Click-through requires a login.)

We hope that this re-routing will prevent the problems we have had with erosion. The pipes are the temporary irrigation until the observatory building is completed. The new building will have an equipment room so we can move the pump equipment inside. At that time we’ll also re-do the irrigation so that it is more effective, more reliable, and, most importantly, requires less maintenance.

There was a small problem with the temporary irrigation. An open pipe created a flood, washing down dirt over the lower drive. This was caused because the order of the valves did not match the circuit number on controller. The 2nd, 7th, and 9th valves were used, but the circuits are the 2nd, 6th, and 8th. Yet another slap-dash job by the prior residents here. This caused a bit of anguish, but it is all fixed now.