We have water!

Although it took months, another milestone has been met for #WildernestBuild - the drilling, testing, and installation of our well.

Back in the summer, I started reaching our to well drilling companies in the hopes we could get someone booked to install our well before the end of the year. The well was the final piece needed in order to pull our building permit in the town of Acushnet, and our contractor was afraid pulling the permit in the new year would mean price hikes and code changes for us.

For once, it didn’t take long to get quotes from the four or so companies I contacted and we made the decision to hire an acquaintance. His company was very well known in our area and his pricing was even a bit more competitive than some of the other quotes we had received.

For a 300’ deep well, 60’ of casing, town permits, water testing, drive shoe, and cap, he quoted us at $5,200. Keep in mind that this doesn’t include the whole pump or filtration system that will bring the water to the house - that comes later at an additional $2-3k.

We signed his contract at the beginning of October, but were told he was booked until mid November (as was everyone else). This would be cutting it close to that end of year deadline we wanted to hit, but we didn’t have much of a choice.  

In typical New England fashion, however, the only weather we got for the next two months was rain. This pushed out all his jobs another 3 weeks, and he never actually started on our well until the very last week of December. Not only that, but the water test results took an additional THREE weeks to come back, pushing us well into January before the project was complete.

As it turns out, we had some unfinished paperwork to get regarding the variance and another redesign to our septic (reasons why will be revealed later) - both required for the building permit - so a 2018 building permit was just never realistic for us.

But alas, our well went in with minimal issues. He didn’t hit water until 400’, so the final cost was right around $6k instead of the quoted $5.2k, but our test results came back normal and we have a decent flow rate that shouldn’t give us any issues in the future (unless we wanted to put in an irrigation system, which we don’t).

Next steps? Waiting for our redesigned septic to be approved by the town on the 27th, and then we’re off to the races to get the building permit pulled.