3 years, 2 months, 164 hours, and now it's over.

[ProDave]

July 2013 Douglas (Doug) came into my life. We hadn't even quite completed on the purchase of the plot then. So in the early days he sat on my drive waiting. Time for me to fettle him a bit, service his engine so he was ready for action.

 

It wasn't long before we started working as a team. Sitting in his big comfy arm chair, pulling his levers, and his rams responding to my commands.

 

We had some good times together. Clearing all the scrub from the plot and grubbing out some tree roots. First real test was preparing a pad for the static 'van. Then preparing the proper site entrance.  Then the real fun started. Getting services on site, and digging the foundations, that was the biggest single job, shifting over 200 tons of soil in the process.

 

Next was all the drainage, including putting the treatment plant in the ground. That had him reaching at almost full stretch down into a big hole in the ground. Then all the rainwater drainage.

 

The last job was leveling the site and basic landscaping, Spreading all those heaps of soil about to make a flat and level(ish) garden.

 

Then the work was done. There's nothing more to do. Our time together is finished. Time for Doug to move on to new challenges in a new location for a new owner.

 

Today was the day he departed and I can honestly say not without a bit of sadness. I sat in that seat playing with those levers for a total of 164 hours in the time we were together.

 

Here he is about to depart for adventures new.

 

I had no trouble finding a buyer. I already had an interested party lined up, the man that bought some of my scaffold a few weeks ago said he might be interested.  You may also recall I recently discovered a structural defect that needed some welding.  I faced the choice of find someone to fix the fault, or be totally open an honest and see if the new owner would buy Doug knowing the fault and what needs doing to fix it, at a reduced price of course. And that is what happened, the new owner has bought Doug knowing he needs a bit more TLC before he is ready to embark on his next adventure, helping a self builder on a croft about 15 miles away realise his dreams.

 

And to anyone reading, buying my own machine for this build was absolutely the right choice for me. It has been so handy to have the machine there for whenever I needed it, not to mention the cost saving compared to hiring a machine.

 

[Construction Channel]

Nice name  

I think you have now become the first person on build hub to actually "sell it afterwards"  

sad day, but good to know its staying local. 

[Redoctober]

Shame ............from the heading of the topic I thought I was going to read about you finally selling your house !!!!

[Nickfromwales]

I was welling up reading that. I feel your pain. I still won't sell or give away my first Dewalt combi drill which went around the world with me for 5 & 1/2 years.......and STILL bloody works ! It'll stay up the attic until I get buried with it.

At least you 'other child' is only 15 mins away, so you can visit whenever you like.   Couldn't you have arranged custody ? Every other weekend or something ?!?

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, Redoctober said:

Shame ............from the heading of the topic I thought I was going to read about you finally selling your house !!!!

 

Dont kick a man when he's down eh? 

[Crofter]

Well done on shifting it, nice wee pot of money towards your build.

I might well have been better off buying a machine myself, and if I build more of these little houses I will probably go down the route of a 2.5t machine on a trailer.

However with this site I had a lot of rock to break, and watching the guys grading and levelling the access left me realising just how much skill is involved- it would have taken me far, far longer and the £2-£3k that I spent on plant hire was probably money well spent.