Category Archives for remodel

Happy New Year/Goodbye 2017

I didn’t manage to put together a physical holiday card this year, so I thought I’d do a little something here.

This has been a year with more than the average amount of sorrow for us, but we find ourselves appreciating our joys that much more. Growth doesn’t happen without some discomfort (Huck can tell you that on his way up!) and every discomfort offers an opportunity for growth. Personally I struggle to be gracious about it, but that struggle is exquisite in its own way.

Our house largely sat and waited for our attention this year, though the big rock wall and paint job sure make us look spiffy. It seems likely that we will get somewhere new and interesting in 2018, but I am not holding my breath for “finished”. We are warm, comfortable, and used to the privation of the toilet in the kitchen, so it’s all first world problems from there.

I submit to you a small gallery of photos from our lives in 2017, and a story of grace. Please take care of each other out there! Sending our warmest wishes,

Bevin, Morgan and Huck

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/friends-honor-artists-last-wishes-with-water-ballet-in-a-seattle-kiddie-pool/

 

 

 

Polishing up our image

It’s been a big week here at the Hammershack, after many months of relative standstill. Morgan has been earning money, so no time to spend on our place- But!

We paid our old housemate Ben to prep the cedar part of our house for painting this summer, and today he, Morgan, and Monica sprayed two coats onto the sides of the house. Transformation!

Rubble field below, primer above.

Sharp!

You might notice another big transformation in that picture- our glorious new retaining wall and gravel bed! Made possible by a generous gift from Morgan’s father, Chris, this beauty was installed earlier this week by Joshua at Noble Stone.

Big rocks are so much better than black plastic.

Last weekend was a frenzy of preparation for us as we scrambled to finish the footing drains and install a proper catch basin at the corner of the house before Joshua arrived on Monday. And by “we” I mean Morgan, with support from me. He has been busting his butt.

Trenching for drain pipes and catch basin.

Remember how tall this is when you see it buried below!

Late night glue session.

Drains passed inspection Monday afternoon which meant we could bury the whole thing and forget about it.

All tucked away and scaffolding on top.

Remember how tall this thing is? Lots of gravel.

And now, the detail work of both the paint job and the gravel and rock wall installation will keep us busy for many weekends to come!

This needs a couple feet of topsoil and some nice new plants.

Stairs, someday, and a front door landing.

Trim and detail work awaits!

Priorities

I know that Morgan is a little frustrated with the pace of progress around here. Sometimes I am, too. Mostly, though, I’m just fine, and Huck seems to be fine about it as well. 

We could prioritize getting it done, but we have instead made living a full and joyful life number one on the list; we have been home all of two weekends this summer. Instead of toiling towards an idea of future happiness that may or may not be the result of finishing our beautiful home, we have been making extra time to enjoy the beautiful Pacific NW with our friends. (See my Flickr page for evidence!) 

We have the rest of our lives to finish this house, but Huck will only be a kid for a little while longer. As my esteemed and philosophical dentist likes to say, “Life is a journey, not a destination!”

As long as we have heat this winter…😉

Weathering in

As the nights and mornings get cooler and our rainy weather returns, the race to get “weathered in” gets more serious. 

Gabe came over for a couple of days over the weekend and helped with the waterproofing and roofing on our more vulnerable addition around the stairs, which is a big relief. 

Gabe helps with the transition from old to new.

 
The remaining vulnerability is around the new lower space where the footprint is larger than the existing house. It rains onto concrete, which is less of a problem, but it wets the wood decking and framing on the way down. Not great.

The obstacle between us and that protection right now is the electrical drop, which currently (ha!) feeds through a place where roofing needs to be. 

Our electrical panel floats and sun streams in where there ought to be a roof.

 The new meter is on its way and might even be installed this week, though wiring it up and getting hooked into power will take a bit longer.
We did get a bit more privacy for our potty at the end of last week when Morgan built and kindly sheathed the wall between toilet and entry. The walls between toilet and stairwell are still open, but it’s a good start.

Little Nimrod peeks out of the open wall by the toilet. This space is now waterproof!


This leaves only one way in to our actual living space right now:  

Come on in!


Both Jeff and Juicebox were over this morning and watching them deal with the confusion of this odd arrangement was validating in a weird way. Juicebox said goodbye and made two false attempts to leave before he found the way out, even though that was how he got in. We are living in a construction funhouse! Please exit through the bathroom!

  

Layers

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Lots of layers between us and the elements. Our foundation walls, in particular, are insanely wrapped up. We used insulated concrete forms, which means that the concrete is surrounded by styrofoam on both sides, then we coated the exterior with a black, sticky waterproofing layer, and that waterproofing layer with an expensive red plastic, and the red plastic with fancy bumpy black plastic to keep water from wicking up. This week, a parge coat went on some portions of the exterior, and there was caulking, and today, the ubiquitous Tyvek house wrap.

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It will likely be a while before the siding goes up, because it’s not the top of the current priorities list. Windows and doors are next!

Getting it Together

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Work has been on hold for other money-earning jobs and the like. This weekend we are hosting a Barn-Raising to try to push the exterior framing through to completion, something that goes a whole lot faster with helpers on hand.
On Monday we will have a contractor come through to grind the concrete down and make it pretty, if not perfectly level, thus concluding the drama of the bad concrete pour from December.
Our windows and sliding glass doors should arrive in early May. Things are happening!

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Waterproof

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This past weekend was that rare December combination of dry and above freezing–time to slap on the tarry muck that will keep our new space dry.
Ideally, this would have been a job for those very dry and warm summer and fall days we enjoyed so much, but that is just not how things went down. This meant that we spent a lot of time drying off the styrofoam insulation with compressed air before we could begin with the application, and to some degree we are hoping we got it “dry enough”.

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The waterproofing material is sticky and rubbery and quite difficult to get off of your skin, even with paint thinner. We were working in very tight and awkward spaces at certain points, taping up the larger gaps and the seam around the bottom off the wall. We were only able to get 2.5 coats on over the weekend with three of us working (thanks, Monica!) Morgan got the rest of the third coat on today.
Alas, though our brief warm/dry spell threatens to come to an end, three coats is not enough. Hopefully we can score another three day stretch in the next month or so to properly finish the job.

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As I was slathering black goo on the outsides of our foundation walls, I was marveling at all of the little steps that go into this huge project. I don’t get that many opportunities to participate in the work, other than occasionally shoveling gravel or cleaning the work site. It was good to be able to do something useful– one small, tedious, and entirely crucial piece of the big project that is our new home.

Brrrrr!

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My friends, the chill has finally arrived in Seattle! We have been enjoying a singularly warm fall, but our first cold snap has commenced, and we here at the Hammershack are feeling it a bit more than most.
We are not “weathered in” as they say, with incomplete walls and plastic roofs and zero insulation under the floor of our existing living space. The photo above shows a hole in our living room floor that was once a vent for a long-defunct heating system, the grate now covered only by a mat.
We have been keeping the heat off and making due with other measures– a massage table warmer on the couch, heating pads in bed, sweaters and slippers and this heat disc to huddle next to. Morgan installed a heat mat in the bathroom and a towel warmer this week. I try to use the oven a lot.
Morgan has been studying and planning a lot this week, looking at electrical components and making decisions. He is doing a quick money-making job for our friend Greg for the next couple of days, at Greg’s factory in Idaho.
I might, upon his return, prevail upon him to consider filling the big vent-hole and maybe just insulating under the living room?
Meanwhile, I had him show me again how to shut off the water at the street before he left, because of course the pipes are just hanging out down there with no protection. They are plastic, and it’s only 30 degrees, but just in case!
Enjoy your cozy homes, people, I am dreaming of my radiant floors.

Pipes!

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The all-important business of plumbing drains is the current focus around here. Water leaving the house– a luxury I will never take for granted again!
On the right in this photo you can see the bin that catches our kitchen sink drain, as well as the hose that goes to our side sewer clean out, with a sump pump assist. We do the same thing for our shower drain.
At the beginning of the summer we would pump the grey water to our ornamental garden beds, but that became quite tedious. It’s rainy season here again anyway, so off to the sewer it goes.
It occurs to me that the most disgusting part of the house is that which makes it most “civilized”. Looking forward to rejoining you all in that civility.

Taking shape

Morgan works by our new front door.

Morgan works by our new front door.

Lots of vertical here.

Lots of vertical here.

buphalo measures twice.

buphalo measures twice.

Notching it out.

Notching it out.

Looking down at our future entry area.

Looking down at our future entry area.

The timber framed walls are going up to complement our vertical concrete. This part is fun– you can really begin to see where the doors and windows will be, and the plan is starting to take on three-dimensional reality. It’s hard to believe that the timber posts and beams that will be supporting our house are up to the job, but the engineer was paid well and it’s probably just because the concrete seems so fortress-like in comparison.

We have a date to set the house back down on October 20– One week from today! I don’t think I get a toilet immediately following that, but the chances are much better that a temporary sewer situation will be granted to me once the house is no longer shifting around in space. My wildest dreams!

And just to reassure all who read my post about some of the more challenging aspects of this process, we are doing great. We are not all that stressed or bummed out. We are getting a sweet new home situation out of this eventually, and we have had the most amazing, longest, warmest, driest summer in Seattle history to help us out. We are thrilled to finally be doing this instead of talking about it. It’s actually happening! That’s almost better than indoor plumbing… but ultimately, I get both!