About six or seven weeks ago, some earth moving equipment started shaping the empty lot across the street from us. We live a block away from a light rail station, so density is definitely in our future, and this lot was inevitably going to host a home. It’s a bit shocking how quickly the house is going up, and somewhat disheartening.

I came home one day a few weeks ago and Morgan said, “did you see that they built their foundation forms today and will be pouring tomorrow?” It took us two months or something to build our footings and foundation forms. Now, to be fair, our situation is completely different, given that the land we are on required fancy footings with pin piles and that the foundation walls are also the walls of our new living space, but still. This week they slapped a roof on and started popping windows in, to Morgan’s great chagrin. They are, of course, doing it wrong. Or at least, that is not how we are going to do it, and for very good reasons.

We are reminding ourselves that what we are building will be bombproof and beautiful, and what they are building is clearly for profit and on the cheap. It might be sour grapes, but it also happens to be true!

At least they didn’t chop the trees down.

I haven’t posted anything in awhile because Morgan went to work for other people. I thought it might be a smart thing to post the various jobs he’s been doing so you all could see the breadth and depth of his mad skills, but you know, I didn’t.

He’s been *mostly* back at work on the Hammershack for the past week and a half, doing little bits for other folks here and there. It takes a bit to get your groove going again on a project as big and intimidating as this one. The other day he announced that he had a new strategy for dealing with that– “I’m just going to do what is in front of me!”. I don’t know what the strategy was before, but that seems like a good plan to me.

I am doing the same thing, putting one foot in front of the other, with a plan to create a new healing arts center in SODO that I can work out of in the company of other wellness professionals. I have my eye on one particular building, but no matter where I end up, if I want to make this a reality there is a certain amount of work that needs to be done. One step at a time.

Slow and steady wins the race.

   

  

Last week Morgan finally had a bit of time to fill this crazy hole in our living room floor. Once a vent to a heating system from before our time, it was for us a grate with a big dust-bunny and Lego collection vault beneath it. After demolition, it became a huge freaking hole to the outside, covered by a thin mat. 

Once we set the house down again, the new floor joists pushed the grate up so that every time we stepped on it it would make a huge thumping noise and give us a little bumpy ride. Annoying, but not dangerous, and not a priority. 

Finally, while the floor guys were working, the magic combination of time and available materials gelled, and we no longer have that noisy, cold-air channeling amusement ride in our living room floor.

 

   

We got back from a little spring break getaway last night and got our first look at the finished floor. It’s good, much much better.

A ramp had to be made of all available plywood and much of the available lumber so that a 1000-pound machine could make its way into the space. This effectively halted the framing last week, but that machine came through and polished off the rough and ugly remnants of a difficult concrete pour in December.

  

What we had saved, finance-wise, by not having a professional do the concrete pour, we have now spent getting it ground down and buffed– essentially a wash. We do have a somewhat prettier floor, though, because the aggregate now shows through– a look we like. Win!

                      

We are completely blown away by the help we got this weekend. We did weeks worth of one-guy framing in two freaking days! Such an enormous boost for us, thank you thank you THANK YOU Kevin, Dan, Damian, Shelly, Matthew, Greg, Jesse, Nathan, David, Mom, Jennie Kay, Matt, Ben, Ken, Jole and Justin. We owe you one. Or maybe two.

Now, to get some sleep 😴💤

 

   

This week has been defined by the intrusion of regular life into our project. 

The shop had to be cleaned for metalwork to commence, both as a means of earning money with a commercial job, and for the making of a beautiful object in which to place the ashes of our dear friend Amanda Corr, whom we recently lost to cancer.

Inevitable, these things, grief, loss and the need for money.

Although I am sad that his creativity had to be sparked by our friend’s passing, I am nevertheless delighted to see Morgan’s skill as an artist being used after what seems like a very long break. Thank you, Amanda!

As for the money, those of you with jobs that seem Morgan-sized (but not house-sized) can go ahead and start calling him again. He’s got mad skills in many realms, and can put them to good use for you.

Edit

A week of resting his body and taxing his mind on bookkeeping has Morgan really ready to start cutting and hammering wood again. His body needs to go slowly, with frequent rest, but what a relief to just be able to do even a little bit! 

Pictured is our back door from outside looking in, and vice versa. I love seeing it take shape.



Work on the house has stopped for the moment, while Morgan recovers from two small surgeries. Two! He is trying to cram all of the “don’t lift heavy objects” recovery time into one shorter period, because there really isn’t any good time for him to stop lifting heavy things.

So! Vasectomy last Thursday, and Vitrectomy yesterday. The vitrectomy he had done for his right eye a couple of years ago, and his left eye this time. It is a surgery to deal with “floaters” created by fracturing the jelly that makes up the eyeball; chunks of that jelly will break loose from the fractures and then essentially just get in the way of the eye’s ability to see. Both eyes had big obstructions, and we were marveling today that he could actually just go and get them fixed. It’s painful for a few days, and then he can see again! Amazing! The procedure is that they basically suck all the jelly out of the eye and replace it with saline. He is guaranteed at some point to need cataract surgery on both eyes as well, but those surgeries are quick and common, and HE CAN SEE!

I was feeling pretty bad for him about the pain from the vasectomy, which is still quite tender. I did, however, carry our son in my body for 9 months, and then squeeze him out without any painkillers, so though I feel sympathetic, I stopped feeling bad. I do appreciate his sacrifice, as he did mine.

The house waits, the sun shines, and Morgan heals. Towards a better day!