The storm and resultant mudslides in January had a big impact on our area and on our construction schedule.  Now, this week we are bracing for another storm that is set to bring as much rain as we’ve had so far this season.  There is a lot of concern that the storm could cause another debris flow.  From the perspective of our construction, the worst thing for us at this point would be another freeway closure that would prevent personnel and materials from reaching us from the communities to the south of us.  That might set us back weeks more as we push to try and get finished enough for a May move-in date.

On site- we’ve done some extra preparation to prevent any of the dirt from our property (which has a descending grade towards the street) from flowing out onto the street.  We had previously graded the property to minimize any steep grades, and put down road base in various places to cover the bare dirt.  Now, we’ve added silt fences and straw waddles to filter any water flow and keep the dirt on the property.

Here is the back yard:

And at the street:

We’ve had some pretty regular rain in the last month or so, and we recently heard a prediction that this spring could turn out to be quite an El Nino event, with some pretty significant rain in our area over the next several months.  In addition to the potential disruption in availability of works and materials that any debris flow could cause due to freeway closures, the rain is also quite a hindrance to our schedule as we have much work to do outdoors, including plastering, additional retaining walls, finish stone work, building of wooden fences, the completion of our pool house, and landscaping.  If the regularity (and intensity) of the rain continues, we could see further schedule impact.