Catching up to the 21st century, part 12...neighbor's home construction

July, 2007

Construction started on my land partner's (K) home. This created several opportunities to share infrastructure costs - one of the advantages of sharing land with another party.

• Septic System - K and I installed a 2000 gallon septic tank with a leach field approved for both his home and my home. The system uses chamber leaching devices which are slightly more environmentally friendly than rock trenches due to their smaller footprint.
  
  
• Water Supply System - In my county, a home requires a 5000 gallon water storage tank hooked up to a hydrant for the fire department to use in case of a fire. Both K and I bought 5000 gallon tanks, but we shared the pressurization pump and fire hydrant. The hydrant had to be located between 50 and 150 feet from both homes. Fortunately, I knew roughly where my home would be built. We found a convenient location for a shared hydrant.
  
  
• Drainage System - On my property, the roof runoff through gutters must be directed to a device called a level spreader which diffuses the runoff and spreads it over an appropriately sized land area. K and I shared in the trenching and installation of the level spreader and water lines leading to the level spreader.
  
  
• Electric - The local utility (PG&E) required a connection to the main transformer supplying power to our parcel and the 3 parcels that neighbor ours. K and I shared this connection fee as well as the cost of trenching the underground conduit to a splice box near our future home's utility room.
  

Each of these systems will be ready for a simple hookup in the future when my home is built. Thanks for reading. As always, your comments are appreciated.