Our first (of 2) EF Block delivery was scheduled for Saturday, June 11th. Then, the Wallow Fire, the largest forest fires in Arizona history, forced the closure of Route 60, a main route that also happens to be the most direct route from the EF Block manufacturing facility to our staging site for the construction of Vista Grande. Getting accurate information during a forest fire is not an exact science. But the Arizona DOT website showed the road was closed, and we decided to trust them! So we called EF to make sure they and the trucking company were aware of that closure and to make sure everyone understood the implications; a MUCH longer route to get here from Tempe = more time, more gas, etc. We were assured that the trucking company was aware of the closure and had everything under control, and that our delivery would be made, for the quoted price, at 3 PM on Saturday.
We lined up a local contractor who we had worked with in the past on projects such as building our driveway and digging a trench for our phone line. Although semi-retired, Richard still puts in fuller days than most. Richard and his Kubota were scheduled to arrive at about 3PM, to coordinate with the scheduled delivery.
Since our building lot does not allow for delivery from semi trucks (too steep, too tight a switchback, nowhere to turn around or pull through) we asked Jim and Pam, friends and more recently, neighbors (since they purchased the 40 acres north of our building site), whether we could stage the blocks on their property, aka Javalina Holler (a story for another day). Graciously – and hopefully not foolishly – they obliged. Jim & Pam had recently hauled off the doublewide that previously sat on Javalina Holler, leaving behind a somewhat flat area perfect for unloading the pallets. We were in Albuquerque early on Saturday morning after picking up our friend Joanne from the airport, but we planned our day in order to be home in plenty of time to get set up and await the truck.
At 1:30 PM, we were en-route home from Albuquerque when the truck driver called to say “Gee, Route 60 is closed so I have to make a detour and will be about 2 hours late.” Wow. If only we had known about that road closure earlier (insert roll of eyes here).
Unfortunately we couldn’t contact Richard to alert him of the time change, and at 3PM sharp, Richard and his Kubota were at the Javalina Holler gate as scheduled. Which, as it turned out, gave us plenty of time to stage the unloading site, head down to Richard’s for a pallet jack, and shoot the breeze. At just before 5PM, the semi turned off Highway 12 and onto subdivision roads. With the birds-eye view we have at Vista Grande, this advance scouting information allowed us to go intercept the driver and lead him through the subdivision to Jim & Pam’s lot for unloading. It wasn’t easy for the driver to navigate the tight turns on the way to the unloading site, but after some spinning of tires and scraping of branches, he managed and the unloading began.
As you can see from the slideshow, the unloading went pretty smoothly. There were a couple of breaks to re-oil the pallet jack, but Jim kept the pallets moving forward on the truck and Richard never had to wait for one; when he was ready, the pallet was ready. There was an “oopsie” when one of the 19 pallets was completely unbalanced and toppled over sideways once Richard had it clear of the truck. We lost most of the 32 blocks on that pallet, but considering the amount of jostling and bumping the delivery truck endured getting through the subdivision, we considered ourselves lucky there wasn’t more damage… Perhaps we should ask that the pallets be stacked a row or two lower for the second shipment, which does not require a full truckload. All in all, we were very happy with our first real “hands-on” construction delivery.
Next up, the house gets staked out on Monday, June 13th…