Pad and septic are done, BUT!

Lot #8 was perfectly orientated to take advantage of southern exposure and include some passive solar design. The goal was to build the home on a fully insulated concrete slab and then acid stain the slab at the end of the project. I ordered special glass (Cardinal 179) for the south facing windows to allow much more solar heat gain in the winter, but still having a low U-Value. The original excavator (who had to be fired for not showing up to work 3 times in a row) and the eventual excavator both told me the house would sit about 2-5 feet below the back fence line depending on where the county layed out where the septic tank and drain fields would be located. Because of the septic layout, the house needed to be pushed back much closer to the back of the lot than was originally intended. With the pad moved further back, my expectation was that the house slab would only be about 2' below the back fence and still allow the home to take advantage of the views of the pasture and mountains behind the house. To my surprise, and I do take some of the blame for just trusting in the excavators experience, the pad was more like 5-6' below the back fence. I am 6'1" tall and as you can see in the picture this was an obvious concern moving forward.