Introducing the Shed

This is such an exciting addition to our property. I’m just going to blast away with photos first:

If you read the last post, you know that we needed storage. We also needed some covered outdoor space that could flex between hangout and work zone. Hangout is obvious, work zone is maybe obvious when you see how small the Shop is, even when it is clean. Big railing jobs have historically been built in the driveway, and protected with tarps and pop-up canopies, which is not ideal. So check out our amazing new outdoor room! We love it!

Below, a video showing the custom locking mechanism that Morgan designed and created for the big sliding doors:

Shed as workspace with very bright work lights in full effect:

Some details:

You don’t see the brackets here, that’s on purpose.

Here are some process shots, including our main helper Jeremy Calvert and occasional helper Mark Tomkiewicz:

And finally a few images to remind us what this area used to look like, plus a previous blog post for context:

We have one more big disruptive piece to do, but that’s for another post. In the meantime, we will enjoy this great new addition to our day to day lives.

under the counter

You may recall that last winter we had our peninsula finished in a lovely big slab of granite. We have been enjoying that quite a bit, but the wall below it remained unfinished plywood.

We had several ideas for the wall finish- tile? Wallpaper? Paint? And then Morgan did a cool job for someone using repurposed copper roofing tiles they had picked up at Second Use Building Materials. There were enough left over that he was able to buy some for our little job, and voila!

Once installed it kind of disappeared, which is what would normally happen with a space like that. Morgan pulled a bit of LED lighting out of the cabinets (pretty sure we got it from a white elephant exchange a few years ago), installed that, and now we have this fun, fancy, under-the-counter once-somebody’s-roof situation going on.

Stepping it up

The big house project of the summer finally got underway last month. You know how it goes. At any rate, Morgan is building a sort of shop addition, a covered deck with a shed/closet on the east side where we can put our sports and camping gear, big tools, off-season gear, and gardening equipment.

Hot tub move thanks to friends! Thank you so much, friends!

Right now that stuff is either in the old kitchen (which will someday be a bathroom and laundry room), in a cramped attic space above the shop, taking up precious floor space in the shop, or tucked into a corner of the yard. This is what happens when you turn your old basement into a living space.

Throughout this project there have been many glorious moments when things find their forever homes, as with our craft and office cabinets. This structure will likely potentiate several of those moments, and I will do my best to share them with you as they arrive.

❤️ Morgan’s notes in the landing pad. ❤️

In the meantime, one concrete piece of the structure has been completed, and we can now run up and down stairs on the east side of the house instead of slipping and sliding on the muddy slope we had there. Check out the step lights in the side of the house, finally united with their true purpose.

Morgan showing off the alternative to a slippery slope.

Demolition Man

Morgan has been busy working on other people’s projects since the completion of our new bathroom, but having that new bathroom done makes it possible for us to get rid of the remnants of the old bathroom (which has also been our hallway for lo, these many years) and kitchen (which has our other toilet in it, because it’s about to become a bathroom).

There was a mishap involving a cabinet falling on Morgan’s hand, which put the brakes on any extracurricular destruction for awhile. It’s very fortunate that one of the jobs he was working on at the time was for our friend Marcus, an ER doctor who helped him out with some stitches in his back yard.

Now that’s healed up and the guys got back to tearing it apart a bit more. I forgot to take photos of the mess when it was inside, so you will have to enjoy the piles in the driveway instead, along with some photos of the missing wall.

We aren’t in a big rush to move on this part, but it’s fun to have something to pick away at. I think we are ready for a big ol’ dump run now.

Floor

Over the past couple of weeks, Morgan took some time to recondition our slab floor. He figured it would be easier to do this before cabinets went in, and it had certainly lost whatever luster it had after four years of construction-site treatment.

The slab was kind of a nightmare for Morgan, and I will admit that it is not a beautiful floor, but it is perfectly functional and I like it just fine. Now it’s freshly sealed and shiny clean, ready for cabinets to go in!

Layers

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.

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!

Brrrrr!

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.

Hammershack Report

this is what happened to writing letters and sending mail

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