Building the Maxon House: Week 17

In our latest Backstory series, Seattleite Lou Maxon recounts the thrills and trials of ditching the suburbs, buying property, and designing and building a modern house with Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects. Week 17: Drilling a Well.

Because we are in a rural setting, we had to set aside additional financial resources to drill a well and support a septic system for sewage. The ability to locate ground water may be equal part skill and luck, but ultimately you don't know what you've got until you start barreling down into the earth. Luckily we heard positive stories about a couple local contractors and ultimately selected JKA Well Drilling to do our well work. Our site location and geology had some extreme challenges and there were no guarantees, even after we sunk tens of thousands into the ground, that we'd hit enough of a viable water source to support our residence. That was the terrifying part.