Workshop

Just because we are living in the new house,  doesn’t mean the work is done.  One way we tried to keep a handle on the budget was to not finish the basement. We have now started the process of finishing it on our own. We figured the best place to start was my shop.  Once we got it done we could use it work on other projects that would finish the downstairs.

The builder put in the stud walls for the downstairs.  We have my shop, a bathroom, bedroom and a large room for playing games, watching television and just relaxing.  It will include a kitchenette. We already have the fireplace installed and the rock surround built.

To finish the shop we first installed some overhead lights.  You have to have light to work. To put in the lights, we just added them onto the circuit already installed in the area.  We did have to run some wire so we had to remove and then replace some ceiling insulation.  An itchy business.

With some light to work in we had to put in a new circuit to run my shop equipment.  That involved running wire around doors and windows and into the crawl space where the service panel is located.  I should probably explain, our crawl space has nine foot ceilings so it is not too miserable working in that area. We got the wires run and the outlets wired up.  We added a new 20 amp circuit and the moment of truth was at hand.  Would the electricity fresh from Peninsula Light Company find its way around the circuit to each box energizing it for use.  We tentatively tried each box.  Success on the first try.  I could now run my saws and other equipment.

Janice now was free to insulate the walls in the shop so we could start sheet rocking.  She got the room insulated while I was at work.  It is amazing how much quieter and warmer six inches of pink stuff will make a cold basement room.

When Joe was here for his grandmother’s memorial service he worked with Janice and me to put up the sheet rock.  They did most of the measuring and cutting, I got to do the screwing.  Guess who had more fun? We didn’t do the ceiling.  When we finish the rest of the wiring and plumbing in the basement we are going to have a professional sheet rocker come in and do the whole downstairs.  We figured having someone who really knew what they were doing would get the job done more quickly and more neatly.  I have done a little sheet rocking and I’m sure I don’t have the patience to do a really nice job of taping, mudding and sanding.

The last two projects, for now, in the shop were to make a bench and install the sink and drain board from the old little cabin on Puget Sound. When we demolished the old place we salvaged some things to use in the new house.  I had been looking forward to using the old kitchen sink in my shop.  It is an old classic Lyon set of metal cupboards and double porcelain sink and drain board. We had the plumber stub in the water and drain lines when the house was being built.  We just had to build in the cupboards and connect it to the plumbing.  We refurbished the cupboard to its previous high gloss white so now I have access to water and lots of new storage in the shop. This is  the third reincarnation of this set.  It was in Janice and Joan’s parent’s house when they were growing up.  When the house’s kitchen was remodeled the kitchen sink and cupboards were moved out to the beach, like so many other house hand me downs. This particular throw away is a big winner for me.

I built a work table for the shop as a last project.  It is made of left overs from the building process.  Along with the old cabin sliding interior doors I am using as a work bench along the twelve feet of windows looking out onto Puget Sound and Mount Rainier, I am about set to begin a project or two.

I am now moving all my junk…er…tools into the shop.  Right now it is a mess, but soon everything will have its place and be neatly stored for immediate use.

First Official Use

The new house had its first official function  in January.  We have had Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the first truly official use was for Janice’s and Joan’s mother’s memorial service. It included all the grandkids, and about fifty old friends and neighbors.

Mom passed away January fifth.  She had been living in the house she built as a gift for her children since September.  She came to us with a compression fracture in her back. We will never know how that happened, except when you are eighty-nine, those things occur. With the help of therapists, hospital beds, walkers and a few pain killing drugs she had the run  of the place.   Her mobility didn’t last long and she was soon confined mostly to her bed.  The beauty of this house is the windows looking out onto the Sound.  Even though she didn’t leave her room, she could lay in bed and be surrounded by trees.  The firs outside her window were  resting places for eagles,  food larders for chickadees and nuthatches and  playgrounds for squirrels.  Looking beyond the trees she enjoyed a view of Henderson Bay on Puget Sound all the way to McNeil Island.  It was teaming with jumping salmon, the winter influx of ducks including; harlequins, scoters, golden eyes and buffleheads, as well as some loons and grebes. Beyond the opposite shore rose Mount Rainier in all its snow-covered, cloud laced glory. Nancy’s own personal bubble had shrunk to the room she was living in and the hospital bed she was laying on, but the world outside her window was alive, beautiful and always changing. She lasted past her birthday in October, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years and left with the view of the sun in all its blazing glory rising over Rainier and shining in her eyes.

Fittingly, we held her service in her house.  To honor her Scottish heritage, a piper greeted the guests as they arrived.  After the eulogy the drone of his pipes played Amazing Grace,  then danced her to heaven with a medley of Highland quick stepping flings. Her closest friends celebrated her life with happy, funny and sad stories. These same people brought their children and grandchildren, a reminder that as one generation moves on, another carries on the memories and traditions. We all talked, laughed, cried and ate.  We knew Nancy and  the rest of the old gang was there with us.  We could feel them in the warm fellowship we were experiencing with each other.

So, the first official function is over.  Our hope is this little cabin on Puget Sound will be the vertex of many more through the  years. We already look forward to when my niece, Meredith, will have her wedding here overlooking a high August tide this summer.

Landscaping

This past week we have had Olmsted’s Landscapers in to do their magic on the property.  They were actually in at the end of the construction to do some temporary stuff so we could pass  final inspection.  They put in gravel for the driveway, required for inspection.  They mulched the side yards, again required for inspection.  The mulch prevents run off into the bay.  The yard also had to be seeded and covered with straw, again to prevent run off.  The landscapers are now back to finish up what they started.

The first thing they did was to install a sprinkler system.  I personally had no desire for this luxury.  We do live in Western Washington and it does rain most of the time.  I also planned on planting native plants which, when established, would need very little extra water.  The landscaper wouldn’t guarantee his plantings without the system, so we now have a sprinkler system.  It is quite impressive, seemingly miles of pipe, two valve boxes and a control panel.  It covers the planting on the road side and the beach side.

Next came the fill.  The beach side of the house needed to be leveled to create more usable space.  Forty yard of fill was dumped and sculpted to contour and level the yard.  It really is going to look nice and be functional when they lay the sod next week.  To accomplish the leveling they had to build some retaining walls.  They are not only nice looking but are functional for holding the slope and for sitting. They included several large rocks already living on the property into the plan. The rocks being used are ones that made digging holes or doing any yard work nearly impossible because of their size and number. Now they are useful and attractive.

They have started the plantings.  One steep slope is planted with kinnikinnick, a native plant that will act as a ground cover. They have included salal another native plant I’m not too fond of, but it will work where it is being planted and be low maintenance. We are using evergreen huckleberry as a buffer plant between the neighbors.  We lost quite a bit of huckleberry during construction and would like to replace it.  Besides, it has great berries to eat. We are including a maple tree on the road side, a dogwood and some cedars all native. For some natural color we are putting in rhododendrons. So far the work they have done looks great and the yard will be more functional, starting with the wedding planned for next August.

Moved In

It has been months, So I hope there is still someone reading  out there.  Christmas came and went.  We  celebrated it here at the new house.  We had a tree, lights, and the appropriate amount of fir boughs decorating the log mantle.  The new house was made for Christmas with its rock fireplace, fir beams and surrounding views.  We were sad that we had neither of our kids here to celebrate and Joan  only had one of hers.

The last four months were spent fighting with the contractor, moving in, getting settled, preparing for the next step in construction, and working with Janice’s mother who moved into the house with us.  When we chose the  contractor to build our house we thought we’d made an informed decision. He was very friendly and outgoing and had solid references.  The problem was his failure to live up to expectations.  He couldn’t control his subcontractors, over charged for services, and accepted bids for services that couldn’t meet  specifications. It took longer to finish the project because we had to keep having subs return to complete unfinished projects or do work that was contracted for but never done.  Words were exchanged and threats were implied, but we finally pushed through the conflict and without ever speaking to him again, finished the house, contracted the landscaping out ourselves and denied him from even seeing the finished product.

Moving in took several weekends of work.  We had three storage units to empty.  One of the units we hadn’t seen the back of for four years. It was like Christmas opening those boxes! They say if you don’t use something for six months, you don’t really need it.  We hadn’t seen some of that stuff in storage for four years and were excited to make it a part of our lives, once again. Being the hoarder I am, we built a storage area above the garage.  It is 12X36 feet and eight feet tall in the center.  All the unused good stuff is up there.  We also have some of the kids’ junk up in storage.  Someday they will come and claim it and make even more room for us to compile stuff.

I mentioned Janice’s mom moved in with us.  She had some medical problems.  She needed more care than she could get at her assisted living home.  She came to us the beginning of September.  It was really great timing.  The house being finished and her getting sick allowed her to move in here.  It is her house and she was able to enjoy the place in a way she could never have enjoyed the little cabin on Puget Sound. She spent the last months of her life experiencing the eagles, water, sky and changing seasons on a daily basis.  Her last words to me, several days before she passed, were ,” lovely, just lovely.”  That about summed her thoughts about the new house and its location.  She was right.

Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad, for sharing this special spot with your family and giving us the where with all to build this wonderful home.

A Giant Jigsaw Puzzle

Jigsaw puzzles are a popular pastime.  When I was little I did puzzles that had ten or twenty pieces.  As I got older I was fascinated by larger puzzles that had 250 or 500 hundred pieces.  Now the puzzles that have a thousand piece or more seem to be the big challenge. I’m not a really big puzzle aficionado, but a lot of people in my family definitely are.

Building a house is a lot like putting a puzzle together only with more small pieces and intangible parts than one of those really big puzzles  of Notre Dame sitting magnificently in the middle of the Seine River on a glorious shining Autumn day.  A house has nails, boards, ideas, pipes, tile, flooring, windows, stairs, paint and a thousand other parts that must be put together, not only in the right place, but at the right time to complete the picture.  Sometimes you find that you have to create pieces to fit into certain parts of the picture.  That would be like having to make the rose window for Notre Dame, with a crayon, in your puzzle without even having a picture on the lid to peek at.

You remember the person in your family that liked to hide one piece of the puzzle so they could put the last piece in?  We are at that point in the house.  Nobody is particularly hiding the last piece, but we are finding about all the pieces that fell off the table and are hiding under the rug.  We are also to the point where we have to make new pieces to fit into spaces we didn’t know we had or were mismeasured earlier in the project.

Joan’s bathtub came the other day.  The framers had built a nice pedestal frame for it, the sheet rockers had neatly closed in the pedestal, and the tilers very artistically covered it with tile and glass. The problem is, the hole was cut the wrong shape to fit the drop in tub.  Oops! Ten days to order and receive the correct tub.

The project manager attempted to put the new refrigerator into its final resting spot last week.  Oops! The space for the refrigerator was too small. Call in the cabinet man to move the cabinets 3/4 of an inch higher.

The fireplace guy came in to hook up the fireplaces to the propane system yesterday.  Oops! These were natural gas fireplaces not compatible with propane. To make matters worse, there was no propane line serving the downstairs fireplace.  Keep in mind, both fireplaces have been permanently put in place behind cemented in river rock.  That will be another week or two to convert and run a line to the one fireplace.

The main entry light fixture and the front sconces are back ordered.  Oops! that will be another three weeks.

You can’t have a keyed dead bolt on the inside of your main entry door.  Oops!  Maybe you can fake out the inspector and he won’t notice, otherwise another two weeks to get the proper part.

The fire suppression system people won’t hook up the sprinkler system until the back flow valve is installed by the plumber.  Oops!  The plumber did it two weeks ago! Are we talking to each other?

Speaking of the plumber, he installed the shower heads in both master baths in the wrong place. Oop! Call back the tilers because they will have to replace the ruined tiles and regrout the mess left behind.

The hardwood floors we chose for the house have been recalled.  Who knew wood was technically complex enough to be recalled? Oops!  It will be a month to get the new wood. We can give you an alternative.  Fortunately, the alternative was an upgrade on our original choice.  I guess we won on that one.

The guy came to install the shower enclosures.  The one in Janice and my bathroom looks great!  Oops! They measured Joan’s incorrectly. We have to manufacture another part.  See you next week. There seems to be a theme going on in Joan’s bathroom.

Last week we got running water in most of our sinks.  I don’t think the water was supposed to be running into the basement like a midsummer rain storm.  Oops!  That plumbing joint had a factory defect.  Call back the sheet rocker and painter because they had to cut a hole in our bedroom wall to find and fix the leak.

That was short list of puzzle pieces that have fallen on the floor and been lost in this giant puzzle we call our new home.  Hopefully, after crawling around on the floor and searching  we will find all the pieces or at least be able to get out our markers and crayons and make something that looks like it may fit.

House Poles

One of the architectural details we wanted to include in our new home, keeping in the tradition of the Pacific Northwest, is having totem house poles greeting visitors to our home. The natives of the Pacific Northwest perfected the totem poles as a traditional method to convey legends, family lineage, notable events and even as a way to express public shame. We don’t have any shame to share or cast on anyone, but we thought it would be a nice way to celebrate Nancy and Bill’s grandchildren, our children and their place in the beach place’s traditions.

When we cut down the fir trees to be milled into finishing lumber for the house we saved the tops of four of the trees.  They made logs about ten feet long and ten to twelve inches in diameter.  I will carve each log with something that represents each of the grandchildren lives.

I was going to carve the logs before they went up, but they were too heavy.  I am now going to carve them in place.  It may end up being easier in the long run.

Yesterday the logs, rather unceremoniously, went up.  They are the supports for the main entryway. They form the base of the roof which includes several large beams also from the property’s trees. the roof, for the last several months has been supported by a pair of fragile looking 2x6s that seemed about ready to snap and drop the whole roof crashing to the ground.  Using a hydraulic jack, they ever so gently raised the roof a fraction, removed the tired  2×6 and slid the largest beam into place.  It took three guys and several large hammers as well me taking pictures to urge it into position.  That was post number two, or Joey’s.  With it in place they put post four into its spot.  It was MacKenzie’s.  One side of the entry way roof was now solidly supported by two big fir logs.  Logs one and three were soon in place and the main entry now has a very solid  and firmly grounded base.

The next step, after securing the logs, was to place a fourteen foot long 6×12  beam on top of the front two logs. The beam was topped with three 6×6 beams, one placed vertical and two placed at a 45 degree angles.  The rock entry wall and fir door is now covered by a massive, sturdy portico that gives the impression of permanence.

My job is to now carve the house poles.  While Joey’s will have an orca and an eagle’s wing to symbolize his strength and running, the other three poles will have less Native American symbolic figures.  They will include things like a double helix, music, mice and art Muses; all things that represent the grandchildren.  I also will carve a native plant into each log to represent the nature that surrounds us here at the beach next to Puget Sound. The logs are installed so my work is about to begin.

Granite Slabs

Our kitchen and bathrooms are going to have granite hard surfaces.  That means the countertops are going to be granite.  We have an island in the kitchen plus the counters.  We are also going to use the same granite in the powder room.  The two main bathrooms are going to be quartz which is a whole other story.

What seems like months ago, we chose the type of granite we wanted to use in the house. It was a fascinating experience.  We went to Pentels, a solid surface supplier in Fife, WA. They have a huge warehouse with rows and rows of granite, marble, and quartz.  They are stacked on edge like books in a library.  The amazing part is the variety of stone available to choose from. It was hard to believe this stuff comes out of the ground and with a little polishing turns into stunning pieces of art.  Some of them could actually end up on a wall as art.  We saw one that could have been a Van Gogh with swirling colors and swishes of brushstrokes lighting up its surface.  Another was deep dark blue with iridescence purple only seen at an angle. Of course, those were really expensive and would never match our house.

After salivating over the exotic stuff, we got down to business and starting looking for something that would actually go with the house.  We narrowed it down to two, Geriba Beach and Golden Crystal.  I liked the Golden Crystal because the pattern in it was wilder than the other granite.  Joan didn’t like the Geriba Beach because it was too orange.  We found out Joan has a bias against orange.  Do you know how much orange there is in the world?  Janice was a Geriba Beach fan as it had more cream  colors and less black.  It was a 2-1 decision for Golden Crystal.  I took my future happiness into my hands and sided with my sister-in-law against my wife. Maybe not a good idea, but we are all still talking.

After making this important decision, we now sweep months into the future to the present time.  Our cabinets are all installed and the stone guys are coming out to measure and make a template for our counters.  That means we had to go back to Pentel to choose the actual slabs we will be using in the house.  You see, Golden Crystal is a variety of granite, but each large slab is unique, so you want to get the ones that are the prettiest or most dramatic.  Sounds easy, but it is not.  We needed three slabs to complete our project.  You can not, in all actuality, just choose any old Golden Crystal slab.  They must be slabs that were adjacent to each other in the original block.  Think of granite coming from a block, like a loaf of bread.  You want three slices that were next to each other in the loaf.  The reason is, granite within each block is extremely variable as to pattern and color.  If you have adjacent slices they will match more closely so your counter tops look like they are from the same type of granite.

We chose three adjoining slabs but unfortunately somebody else wanted one of the slabs in our series and had it on hold.  We chose an alternate to the two matching slab that was a close match.  We were hopeful the one on hold would be released so we could have a matching set. Happily they release it so we have three of a kind.

We now are looking forward to the next couple of weeks when the slabs are fabricated into our countertops and we can enjoy their beauty.  Sorry they weren’t your favorite, Janice.

The Old Tool Shed

The only building left standing since we demolished  the old cabin is the tool shed. The shed is an old 8×8 cedar structure that Janice and I built in 1992. It was a kit her dad bought from Home Depot or Lowes, if they even existed back then.

He cleared a spot for it behind the original cabin and near the old outhouse.  The shed was ostensibly for the lawnmower and other garden tools he had acquired over the years.  It really was for his collection of nails, nuts and bolts and assorted screws.  I think I have mentioned his number one rule of building was; “If one nail is sufficient then five will be even better.”  About 20%  of the old cabin was steel from the nails he pounded into the structure.  One whole shelf in the tool shed was dedicated to fasteners. He had finishing nails of all assorted sizes, galvanized and not, roofing nails, large and small framing nails, brass tacks, cement nails, electrical staples, large spikes, lag screws, round and flat-headed screws, Phillips headed screws and all kinds of matching and non matching nuts and bolts.  The most common repository for each variety of fastener was a Sunny Jim Peanut Butter or jam jar.  The really special stuff could be found in old Christmas fruitcake tins.

He had an interesting array of hand tools stored in the corners of the shed.  He had several old logging saws.  One really long model  needed a man at each end to operate.  The saw could also be used to make weird musical sounds in a logging camp band.  He had a large selection of sythes and sickles as well as iron bars, winches, block and tackles and ropes.

The shed was an upgrade for the property in 1992, and all those good nails were moved  out from under the beds in the tiny cabin and into their own dedicated space. It must be noted the cabin also had  a tool cabinet which contained the really good nails and screws as well as the prized hammer and a set of screwdrivers.

The cabin, not only gave us more storage room in the cabin, but it also gave us a family story that grows each time it is retold.  When Janice and I built the shed in 1992 her dad was in his mid seventies and not as spry as he used to be.  His job on projects like this one was more supervisory and technical than actual labor. He took that aspect of the project very seriously.  We were on the second day of building and had progressed to roofing the structure with cedar shakes. Janice and I were on ladders and Dad was  sitting on the ground firing up directions and advice in staccato like fashion about how to choose the proper shake,where to place it, and how to nail it securely to the roof.  I mostly ignored him as I had done this before.   Janice, on the other hand, was taking the brunt of his advise and most of the criticism.  After two days of this constant hectoring she finally broke.  She grabbed a cedar shake, threw it violently at her dad’s head telling him to come up on the ladder and do his own damn roofing.  Only she could get away with telling a seventy-five year old disabled man with braces on both legs to climb an eight foot ladder and finish the job.  She then slid down the ladder and disappeared onto the beach. I finished the roof while Dad rubbed his head in complete silence and the shed has been standing a stoic twenty year testament to the day Janice beaned her father with a cedar shake.

When we demolished the cabin, I voted to follow suit with the tool shed.   The infamous shake roof was rotting away and the building itself was in the way of the new house. It would be cheaper to buy a new one from Home Depot or Lowes.  Janice believed in the old structure and convinced the excavator to relocate it with his earth mover for the duration of construction.

He cut a hole in the roof and floor, strung a large chain through the holes and lifted it off  the perch it had rested on for the last twenty years and placed it at the edge of the property.  The framers, roofers and other workers used it to store their own tools as it sat on the property line at a slight angle waiting to be moved into its new spot on the property. After the house was completely up, we prepared a new site to place the shed upon and eventually it was once again unceremoniously yanked into the air and placed on its new foundation.

The last two weekends have been spent power washing the old building, and removing its crumbling shakes and brittle roofing felt.  We put new plywood sheeting on the roof and covered it with the same shingles we used on the house.  The floor was reinforced with new underlayment and  we painted the siding and trim. The old tool shed is now tucked into the huckleberries behind the new house sporting  matching colors.  Soon, we will be moving the lawnmower, saws and, and of course the  shelf of assorted nails and screws into a  dry, secure, refurbished tool shed.

It Breathes!

What is it that makes a house a home?  If it is the fact that it breathes then we have a home. This last Monday, Peninsula Light arrived and transferred the power through a new transformer and into the house energizing the outlets that actually had plugs.  Our motor home is being powered by the mother ship as our electricity now flows to us from the house’s system.

Today, the HVAC guy came and hooked up the furnace.  The painters wanted to have the house heated so the paint would dry more quickly and thoroughly.  When the heat went on today for the first time we were standing in the great room. We heard a slight click, a low hum, and the air started flowing.  The house has lungs and it was breathing.  For the first time it pulled oxygen into its cold air returns, sucked it into its lungs, warmed it and blew the warm breath back into the house.  We were standing quietly and witnessed the house come alive for the first time.  The house is still far from complete.  The painters still need to finish the painting.  The trim carpenter showed up for the first time today and started installing the fir two panel doors and trimming windows, the mason still needs to build the rock fireplaces and the kitchen and bathrooms are not even near completion, but the house took its first breath and put us on notice that it was alive and becoming a living part of our world.

Is it a home yet?  Probably not, but it took a first step in that direction and we were glad to be there when it gasped for its initial breath.

The Rock

A long time ago at the beach, when the Greatest Generation was in charge, there used to be an outhouse.  That generation of people were made of sterner stuff and things like smelly outhouses seemed normal and natural.  This one was better than most because if you left the door open you had a commanding view of Mt. Rainier on a clear day.  I mention the outhouse because very near this little building was a large rock.  As the Boomer generation entered the picture and were forced to use this musty, uncomfortable bathroom with a view, the rock became a place to climb up and over to avoid the time spent in the shack out back. After they had done their personal business the rock became a place to leap into space with the new-found lightness gained from visiting the outdoor privy.

I write about this large rock used for playtime because it became a major concern when we started building. Would it compromise the building site?  What we, and the contractor, could see in the beginning was a large moss and fir needle covered rock, about two feet high, and maybe four feet long. It sat like a benign lump beside the path to the now nonexistent outhouse.  With the boomer children entering their dotage and the Xs and Millennials now grown, the rock was mostly forgotten and half buried by needles and over grown with huckleberries and ferns. What was not known about the rock was its true size.  A little probing with a rusty shove revealed nothing but more granite extending deep into the ground.  The contractor started having dreams of diamond drills and dynamite.

Puget Sound was carved by ice age glaciers and filled with water as these large sheets of ice receded.  In addition to the water, the ice left gravel, rocks and large boulders it had carried down from Canada.  Some of these boulders were enormous and our contractor was anxious this outhouse rock could be one of the mountain sized models.

When the excavator arrived, it was with sweat on his furled brow that he attacked the soil around the rock.  He dug and he dug deeper.  He moved around to the other side and continued his digging.  After digging seemingly endless large scoops of dirt the rock’s edges started curving under into the gravel and stones.  The rock now had a top, sides and the bottom was beginning to reveal itself. It was not mountain sized, but it wasn’t exactly tiny either.  The excavator could not pick it up with  his large mechanical maw but he could push and man handle it around with great difficulty.

The rock never moved too far from its ice aged resting spot because of its size.  The house was built with the rock’s presence in mind the entire time. It now sits near  the front door and outside the front hall window, greeting visitors as they arrive and giving a sense of solid security as you glance out the window from inside the house. It is a large chunk of black and white speckled granite from another Era polished by time and the hands and feet of children using it as a launching pad for adventure.

Come visit us and pat its solid flanks. Feel the rock hard comfort  it provides in this time of fleeting security and the rickety foundations of life. The Rock stands firm.