I didn't have the skills or the time to build the cabin myself, although I could help out a bit. I figured that I'd need to get some help building the cabin. I'd need someone to improve the road to the cabin, and prepare the building site. I got a one-man contractor from Sacramento to do the heavy stuff. It cost extra to have him drive up there, but he was 'hungry' (and single, so there were no family baggage problems), so he agreed to the work. We decided that he would stay on the property as soon as the garage/workshop/cottage was done.
The first step was to build the garage and workshop. It would have to be fairly large to store the trucks and for the shop area. I also wanted a small living area, so that the contractor would have a place to stay during the week, and I'd have a place to sleep while I made some improvements to the cabin on weekends.
Jerry (my builder) helped with the modifications to the building plans. It wasn't a problem to get them approved by the county. It was way outside the city limits of Foresthill, so there wasn't a problem with the plans there. The plans weren't modified that much from the originals, and there weren't any special features that would be built, at least at first, I planned on making some changes after the final approval when the cabin was finished.
While waiting for the plans to be approved, I contacted PG&E to get the power line in. That wasn't too hard because they weren't too busy, and so it only took a few months to get that work done. The electricity wasn't really needed during the first part of construction; I purchased a good-sized generator for Jerry to use during construction. By the time that electricity was needed for the cabin, the PG&E guys would be done.
The plans were finally approved, so Jerry rented a small Catepillar tractor to even out the road and prepare the building site. He started work on the garage first. It was a pretty simple plan, so that didn't take long. Once the garage was finished, and well secured, it could be used for tool and material storage while the cabin was being built. Jerry was a single guy, not really sociable, so a lot of the time he stayed in the garage to get more working hours, especially during the long summer days. I had promised him a bonus if he got finished by the winter rains, so he was well motivated.
The garage itself was big enough for three full-size cars, plus the area for the workshop and the small living area. Jerry leveled the area for the buildings, dug the foundations for the garage and the house (along with the basement) and was done in a couple of days. Getting the cement to the lot was a challenge. It would take a couple of truckloads.
Jerry found a few of his construction buddies to help out with the cement work. He got the foundation forms ready, and got the steel ready. A promise of prime steaks and some fishing and hunting got his buddies motivated to help out. I promised the barbequed steaks and beer, but only after the job was done. It took a Friday to do the final preparations, and a long Saturday to get the cement for the foundation and slabs finished. Jerry's buddies worked hard, and well. I helped out as much as I could, and got the beer and steaks going for the big barbeque after we were done. Sunday was spent with a little fishing. Jerry's buddies were a bit wiped out from the work, so a morning of some fishing was about all they could handle.
Jerry got the garage done in three weeks. He had one of the guys helping out a couple days on some weeks, usually on the weekend. Jerry would work all week, get his buddy out there on Friday and Saturday when needed, and they would use Sunday for a bit of fishing and relaxation. I'd also help out whenever I could, and learned quite a bit about construction during that time. That knowledge would be useful when I was on my own after the Problem.