Visiting Mociu with the Pros

Last Friday (April 1st) we visited our land in Mociu a 3rd time, this time with a team of professionals. Every visit has awarded us a different color – the first was snow-white, the second earth-brown and this visit was dominated by fresh-greens. The last kilometer of road to our property can hardly be called a road (can only be accessed by a 4×4 vehicle or horse-drawn carriages) so we were fortunate enough to have had a few dry days which meant that the two non 4×4 vehicles managed to get to the property (with their gear) in a round-about way.

The first thing we did was decide on an approximate location for the house. We then planted a first stake to mark the south-east corner. Then the geological testing guys setup their drill in what we later realized was pretty much the center of the house …

… and began drilling to test the composition of the soil which needs to be taken into consideration in designing the foundations.

At first they drilled to a depth of 2 meters and then to a depth of 5 meters. They did an initial analysis using good old human touch (which showed tightly compacted clay) and then packed the materials in plastic bags that were sent off to a laboratory for analysis which will result in a detailed geological report. Here they are going over the findings with Andreea and Horatiu (our architect) as an audience.

Darius is an intern who works with Horatiu and will be involved in our project. He also had a long day of work making sketches and taking measurements of the existing structures. This will help us in landscaping work and in future renovations.

We also had with us a couple who do topographical maps. They set out to measure and map our terrain and the precise location of existing structures and other elements (such as the well) on the property. Here you can see the measurement laser being setup and in the background our neighbor plowing his land.

This was the first time we realized just how large our property was – especially back into the hills behind the existing house.

For the first time, in our presence, someone actually walked up the hill to the border of our property (supposedly marked by a corner-stone). Yes it’s the hills across the valey – and just to give you a sense of distance:

For someone who grew up in a lifestyle where 500sqm was large and 1000sqm was huge … this continues to be mind-boggling … but I am quickly getting used to it (more on that in the future). Here Andreea is explaining where our property ends to the east.

Which is that line of trees behind them:

Meanwhile we completed roughly measuring and marking (with stakes in the ground) the periphery of our future house. Here you can see Andreea stretching a thin rope to mark the periphery and then Horatiu placing the last stake that marks the end of our spacious front porch.

… and then Andreea, having made a full circle made her way back to the first corner post before jumping in joy and giggling crazy 🙂

Andreea and I walked up on the opposite hill to have a look at our property from it’s other end (though we only climbed up half way!).  On the way we encountered the neighbouring property covered by sheep we had seen earlier traversing the top of the hill.

Finally I asked Andreea to walk back ahead of me and to go stand on our future porch – and again to give you some sense of scale:

It was a spectacular day – a huge leap forward. Though it wasn’t physically demanding it was emotionally very intense! Our dream is transforming into a living reality 🙂