1 am.
I mean, I started driving this afternoon around 1:15 pm and I had to take an alternate route from Houston to bypass a complete highway shut down for yet another I-69 project. It just adds more and more time every time they start up a new construction site for this Interstate venture they are building.
They either don't understand that there are a lot of trucks out there that are on schedules that need to be kept - or they don't care. I'm guessing the latter. At the rate they are doing these construction popups everywhere, it will eventually become necessary to take a completely different and much longer route down there.
Regardless, there are a few things. First, after getting to the yard, getting all of my stuff out of the truck - there is another driver using it this morning, he has to be at the plant at 6:00 am, lucky him lmao (his truck is also broke down) - I did indeed drive by the property. Just to see if they completed the water installation project. Lo and behold, it was all done. I don't have water turned on yet, I have to pay the city $600 for some new start up fee that they charge everyone when a new line is installed. And then I can have it turned on. I may or may not do that tomorrow.
Second, of course they want me to go clear to Tyler to get my truck from the shop. That's how they justified booting me out of the day cab - I can't say I'm unhappy about getting out of that ridiculous machine, but going to Tyler is a bit far fetched as well. I'll have to drive to the yard and then either get a ride over there or take an Uber. I'm guessing an Uber. It will take a minimum of 3 hours out of tomorrow's available daylight hours to get it done. I'm charging them from the time I leave my house to the time I return to it. The entire trip is solely to get the truck, I don't see how I should have to pay anything to get that done.
Third, this RV park that seems to be turning into a nightmare. 26k just for septic. I realized today that that doesn't even include the sewer lines being run to it, it's just the system itself with the vault and I think this was an aeration style that has sprinklers. I would rather have the leach fields under ground.
I came to the conclusion this morning that I will simply further reduce the number of sites to start with again, going from 25 down to 10. Bigger is better - excepting in this case. Well, it is better, but it's out of reach at the moment. Well out of reach, at least without getting a huge loan.
If I can't do 10 sites with 50k plus whatever I have in the bank I can afford to spend plus if necessary maybe 10k in credit card debt or a little more - maybe even 20k - I'm going to stop what I'm doing and just not do anything. I just can't believe the costs of some of this stuff. I'll have over 15k just in gravel even with only 10 sites - but that's because I need a driveway that goes clear to the end of the park and then does a turn around. If I do a turnaround at the end of the 10 sites, I'm going to have to clear all of those trees out of there, all of it, for that turnaround. It would shorten the driveway to 350 feet, tho, and drastically cut the price of the gravel.
So it may end up that I do that. Then I've got around 7k worth of gravel which includes one driveway and 10 sites.
The water installation to the property is completed, btw, I checked on the way home tonight. I haven't even heard from the guy about the bill, I'm guessing $2,500 to $3,000. The parts are ridiculously expensive, I already knew that from my years spent in the waterworks industry and we now have high inflation. Actually it's probably going to be more like $3,500. I think there is about $2,500 worth of parts in that little setup with a stainless steel saddle, 2 2-inch brass ball valves and a $1,100 meter. I'm still wondering what the need for 2 2-inch ball valves was for, but it's a done deal now so eat it and move on.
The funny part is that the ball valve attached to the saddle doesn't even have any access to it. They just buried it under there without putting in a pipe with a water valve lid on it to access it with. That's pretty odd stuff right there. That $325 or so part will just get filled with dirt and if it ever had to be used? Good luck.
I have no clue about electric costs, still waiting for that phone call from the power company engineer. However, I am going to start calling electricians in the area tomorrow and see if anyone does this kind of setup and actually knows about RV electricity.
Now, don't read anything into what I said. I'm not giving up by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just continuing to decrease the number of lots until get to what I can afford. However, 10 is the threshold. I will not do any of this if I can't at least get 10 sites in there with the available finances. 15 would be better. But at this point I don't really care how many RV sites there are as long as it's a minimum of 10. If it's a grand per site, which that appears to be the calculation, then I'll go with 12 sties and call it a good start. I'm guessing electricity will cost me $500 per site what with the new power pole, the cable running along the driveway and the cable going to each pedestal and the pedestals themselves.
That's for the materials, tho, not including labor.
Water will be whatever this install costs plus a couple of thousand worth of pipe and fittings and the cost of a ditch witch rental. I doubt I'll pay anyone to install that, it's easy and saving money on labor would be nice if only somewhere in this deal. So let's say 5 grand for all of that total. No, let's up it to 6 grand. I'm going to go with 10k worth of gravel and hope I can make that work. I'm somewhere around 33k.
Land clearing. I think around 5k. No make that 6.6k for 3 days. Shouldn't take them longer than that, much smaller job. We're basically around 45k at this point. I want a small, portable office building. But I'll buy one on payments and just pay the down payment. Oh wait, those are unfinished tho. Maybe no office building necessary for only 10 lots. I will not have a full time staff, I won't have any staff at all unless I can find someone to live on the property rent/electric free - supply your own RV tho please - and simply be the face that represents the property.
I'd like to have at least a small laundry room. One washer and dryer, that's it to start with. A small shed would do for that.
A website that makes the reservations online and takes the payments online. Everyone is doing that, you don't even fool with money on the property. I dunno how much it costs to have one of those built.
We're in the ball park of 50 k after all is said and done. I'll have to have someone come out and finish the trails for me, but that's a days work, we'll figure a grand for that.
Picnic tables and fire rings for 10 lots will cost around $2,000.
I'm figuring a pond will cost around 12k. It shouldn't take them more than a week to dig the thing out. Yes, folks, it's going to be a large pond, more like a small lake. Still, it's just digging dirt and doing something with the dirt. Actually, I could have the dirt hauled to the front of the property and level everything out. Instead of digging down on one side going to the other, just have it dumped in piles all over the place and get them to level it out with their equipment. The pond goes well beyond the 50k, but it could be put on credit cards. It's necessary. I need something that says look at me! I have something here that you want! Hiking trails in the woods and a huge pond filled with fish!
So next on the list is clear the land - meaning I need to go out there, measure everything out, mark the lots and the driveway and then get someone to do the job. Then I need to see if it needs leveled. If it does, let's do the pond next. They can haul whatever dirt needs to be hauled to level it and then the rest can be piled up in a huge pile near the pond for future use - namely - leveling the rest of the RV sites once I get to doing more. They can make a mountain over there, lol.
Everything leveled and compacted, we can do the water, electric and sewer installs, then lay the gravel and then - we're done.
My mind gets carried away with this stuff and the time passes.
And I'm starting to get tired, finally. Second wind hit me earlier and the drive was easy after that. Mostly that was due to curling up in a ball in the truck and taking a nap on my 30 break, lol.
G'nite.
