Morgan has been re-wiring our old house for the past few days. We still have knob-and-tube in this 1924 structure, something he told me he needed to change when I first started dating him in 2000. “Probably should jack the house up first, though,” he said. Welp, we went and did that, and now he’s doing this. We get to choose where we want outlets, which is pretty fun. You have to try to imagine how the room could potentially be used, not just how we use it. We also have to pull our furniture out and toss everything out of his way, so it has been more cluttered than usual in our living spaces. Worth it.

The other big piece of concrete work we got done last month was this “curb” on the top of our lower rock wall, and the pad at the front door landing.

Front door landing. Way better than mud!

The top of the rock wall is a couple of feet lower than our patio needs to be, so this curb is our way of containing the gravel we want to put out there. Eventually, on the rock wall side of this structure, Morgan will build a steel band to essentially make a long planter box on top of the rock wall for kitchen herbs and flowers.

From this view you will someday see a steel band instead of concrete on top of the wall.

In the meantime, it was really satisfying for me to have that hard edge to define the garden/planting area as opposed to construction/driveway area, and I spent some time clearing out rocks and rubble and fluffing the garden beds in celebration.

Here’s a new fancy thing we got this week:

See that little button? Now we can push it before we use the hot water tap and it activates this:

That’s a recirculating pump, it flushes the hot water line of the cooled water that’s between the water heater and the tap. When we push that button and wait about 40 seconds and then open the hot water tap, it’s (almost) immediately hot!

Fancy pants! Also, saves water!

Here’s something else that’s happening- the water is working its way into walls and valves, weaving with wiring towards a new kitchen and bath.

Powder room shower valves

These valves feed an outdoor sink by the shop. Hot and cold outside!!!

What you see here is channels carved with a special hot knife into the Insulated Concrete Forms that make up the walls of our new ground floor.

It is a big ol’ mess down there as things start happening again, which is fine by me.

Oh, hi! It’s been a long time since I posted, but things are happening now. We are thrilled to have taken what you see above and turned it into what you see below:

When we picked up the house we decided to roll it South about four feet to make the driveway drivable for Morgan’s truck. When this beautiful concrete cures, he will be able to pull his truck all the way back to the doors of his shop. Where previously he did a LOT of schlepping of tools 20′ back and forth, he will (if the driveway stays clear enough, ahem) be right there to load and unload. Think of the efficiency!

Additionally, we now have a concrete pad by the back door where we have had gravel for about three years. The cats can hardly believe how nice that is under their little feet.

It’s been awhile since I have posted, and that’s because nothing much has changed here. Morgan is nearing the end of a big remodel job he’s been working on since June, so he’ll be back here soon, dialing in our rough plumbing and electrical. He’s really looking forward to it.

In the meantime we have been occupying our unfinished space, using it for occasional game nights, crafting, and escaping from the living room upstairs when Huck is playing video games.

We brought the laundry inside, not to its real home but temporarily located near the mechanical room so we can use that floor drain. The washing machine has really appreciated the move, and has stopped being finicky.

Morgan also completed his wheelchair collection, which in our big half-finished space is really fun.

On Friday it will have been three years since the big house lift. Today we find ourselves well into the project but far from finished. I think it is fair to say that we had hoped to be done a long time ago, and expected to be right where we are, looking at an unknown amount of time until project completion. 

Morgan’s experiment with working for someone else was fun, but ultimately a six-month time loss in terms of our project. Now he’s busting his butt on his own jobs, which will allow him to get ahead and take some chunks of time off to focus on ours again. Probably another six months of that though.

What’s next- plumbing and electrical. We are looking for a rock wall contractor to fix this mess. Painting the exterior. Grade work on the south side/patio. 

And, of course, enjoying our beautiful Seattle summer!

Family game night in the big new room

I am fairly certain that most of you do not have this contraption in your houses. Morgan spent a lot of hours on this sucker, a beautiful copper poem to all of the irritating plumbing jobs he has ever encountered. It allows us to control the water flow to the yard, to the house, to the spigots on the sides of the house, to the hot water heater. We can drain our system in various specific ways without going outside. There is a drain in the floor under the water heater that two pipes go right over, easy peasy. The valves all open in the same direction. It is a sculpture of right angles, symmetry, and flow.

Now, on to the powder room!