I never quite got around to crowing about the siding being done on here. Morgan had a Facebook post he wanted to share and then I forgot about it. But it’s up! And now it needs to be painted and finessed, which we’ll do if it would just stop RAINING.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskQwZMtY

Click on the link to see some of my favorite images of our boy from 2016.

Life has been reminding me to cherish this kid even more than usual. My default is “busy”, so I have to remind myself that my relationship with him is more important than the list of things I have to get done. He’s a great kid, and I love him a lot, but even more importantly I really like him. I see in these images a compassionate person who loves cuddling, playing with toddlers, going on adventures.

Here’s to fostering our better selves in the coming year, to forgiving ourselves when we aren’t “better”, and to loving our loved ones with our whole being.

It occurs to me that since my posts are specific to this or that small thing, the larger picture of how we are currently living might not be clear. We are a long way from finished, but we are comfortable– especially now with heat! HEEEEAAAATTTT! This should give you a sense of what our home currently looks like. Our bedrooms and the shop are untouched thus far by construction, which has been very helpful, and so I left them out of the set. Vader was following me around as I did this– you might spot him in a few of these!



We got into a bit of a “hurry up and wait” situation with the power company there for a bit, but the wait is over! Our meter has moved to its new permanent home on the north side of our closet bump-out. This may seem like a small thing but it means WE CAN HAVE HEAT! 

Yes, among many other things this means heat, my friends, after two chilly winters with space heaters and electric blankets. We started testing the system last night. We are still un-insulated through a good portion of the new construction (though the walls that meet earth are double-insulated), so it remains to be seen how this particular winter goes for us. I can tell you that when I got home just now, I felt the need to immediately remove my hat and scarf and down vest, but I did keep on my cotton jacket. It is mid-day, the sun is streaming in, but it’s in the low 40’s out there… we’ll see what happens when I get home tonight after the sun goes down and the temperature drops again to freezing. And we’ll see what that power bill looks like!

Other things this meter move potentiates: Sealing up the last bit of decking where the old power came through! Siding around the old meter site! Wiring the house! That last one is a biggie. Morgan loves doing electrical work, so he is gleeful. 

We are also enjoying a strange and well-timed situation in which Morgan is getting paid by his employer to work on our house. It involves a crazy issue with the project he is supposed to be working on, but I think their client is on the hook for paying the crew while they figure out what is up. Small blessings!

Check out our heating system– it’s coming together! That little box with the American flag on it is the water heater for our closed-system hydronic radiant heat. Yesterday Morgan was installing conduit for the power to hook in.

Speaking of power, we have met the exterior grade requirements for moving the power to the new location and are waiting for the power company to make a date with us to actually move it, which should be within the next couple of weeks.

Siding is our other pressing goal. We got the Hardie plank finished on the lower level, but have quite a bit of cedar left to hang and paint.

We’re on the verge of a new level of comfort here at the Hammershack. After two winters with only space heaters for comfort, we are really looking forward to the steady warmth of a heated slab of concrete.

We returned from Burning Man last week to a note from Seattle City Light in our mailbox: “Hey guys, we’ve let you get away with this unreadable meter thing for two years, you have 30 days to make it readable or you’re cut off.”

In truth, it is kind of amazing how long they let us do this: 

For whatever reason, Puget Sound Energy, who will move our power drop for us and thus make the meter accessible, wants the exterior surface by that meter to be finished before they will move it. Morgan has spent the past several days doing drainage work on the North side of the house so that we can backfill the necessary ground to PSE’s satisfaction, a weird, seemingly disconnected but apparently crucial task that of course had to get done sooner or later anyway.

It’s hot as biscuits out there today. 

I just returned from a dump run (it’s what I’m good at) that I undertook when I could no longer stand the sweaty confines of the dust mask I had to wear while scraping and sanding strips of our 100-year-old cedar siding for re-use. We assume that at least one of the paint layers is lead-filled, and take appropriate precautions.

You might think we are crazy for trying to re-use this stuff, but here’s the deal: we had to have new stuff milled to match at $1.63/board foot (plus $200 setup fee), which got expensive fast. 

We failed to factor into our equations the stuff that had to be pulled off the South side of the house where the old tongue-and-groove sheathing underneath the siding had begun buckling and warping after 100 years of fierce weather exposure. The siding is brittle there, too, so not all of it survives removal.

So there is necessity. 

There is something cool about this old wood, too, though. It was likely cut and milled very nearby; at the time this house was built they were still harvesting lumber from nearby Skyway and Taylor’s Mill operated in Rainier Beach.

Having just returned from the dump, where we offloaded a bunch of plastic and Hardie plank scraps, it also feels good to do what we can to reduce waste where we are able. It’s a small thing, but it’s something.

So much prep has gone into siding (as with everything), but we finally got a chunk of it up! We bought the pre-painted Hardie plank, so we get instant satisfaction.

Thanks go to Gabe Stern who gave us a day of his skilled labor and excellent company to get this first corner done.

Apologies to Tricia Petersen, our color advisor, as we were forced to temporarily (read: for the next ten years) just leave the front door trim like everything else, which means our fir door just disappears into the trim. Someday that will become an art project, but for now we just need to cover up and keep going.

Check out that belly band, y’all. It’s special, but only a builder would know why. We’ve got trim on our windows and two layers of Tyvek. Siding next!