Closing the door

Well, we can close the door on one project around here: The Nest and attached two-car garage passed its final inspection with the city building department this week. Hooray!

Sort of apropos, here's Soren playing in a kitchen cabinet at the family reunion rental house at Fort Worden in December. (Honestly, none of our kitchen cabinets are that uncluttered!)




Spoken language is arriving in dribs and drabs. Soren's newest phrase is a very cute and clear "Uh-oh!" He continues to sign a whole bunch, with a recent addition being the word "dirty" (waggling fingers under chin). I find this useful for pointing out dirty dishes (NOT to be unloaded from the dishwasher), dirty shoes (NOT to be worn into the house), and dirty trash (no, that cigarette butt on the ground is NOT to be touched).

OK, this anecdote is rambling along, but the other day Soren stepped in duck poop at our neighbor's house and I used the sign "dirty" as well as the same sign for "poop" that we use for his potty training. This made a big impression on him. Now when I sign "dirty," he worriedly signs "poop?" I can't explain how he signs a question, but he does. No, the dirty dishes are not poopy!

To all of you in houses where potty talk is not a daily occurrence, count your blessings.

The Nest takes shape

I haven't posted an update on The Nest/garage construction since Nov. 10 and I'm sorry to report the project is not wrapped up yet. But soon, we hope -- soon!

You can see that The Nest is looking more friendly, with lights, heater and carpet installed, and a few pieces of furniture moved into the space. No bed yet.
The Nest was supposed to be ready to host guests for Christmas, but in early December we hit a roadblock with a mis-ordered toilet part. This sounds silly, but when we ordered a low-flush Caroma toilet like the ones we have in our house, one of the parts that arrived was for a different model and not usable. This was not noticed until the plumber came to install the toilet. A new part was ordered, but by then the holidays were approaching and we were told all shipments would be delayed. Apparently our part was being shipped from Australia by barge.

Christmas came and went with no toilet.

A replacement part arrived the first week of January, and dang it if it was still not the right one! We sent it back and it was not until today that the correct part was delivered. We can't schedule a building inspector to come and sign off on our project until the toilet is installed, so it may be a couple of weeks more.
The paved driveway is working out really well. Jeff is slowly building a retaining wall on the left-hand/uphill side using small interlocking concrete blocks. And he's built a wooden gate (and painted it bright yellow!) that will replace the metal gate at left that got ripped off its hinges by the excavator during the earth-moving phase. Hopefully the new gate will be installed this coming weekend.
Everything else is pretty much done, and we've been slowly working on the furnishings and decor. To date:
--Cabinets installed, sink hooked up and working. Need to purchase under-counter fridge.
--Corner bench seats built in. Cushions yet to be made (need to select fabric).
--Carpet installed -- a nice neutral gray.
--Pedestal table for corner nook purchased from restaurant supply store. Jeff is in the process of stripping the finish off the heavy oak top and installing a swivel so it can be rotated to allow easier passage past it on the cabinet end.
--Curtains and rods purchased but not hemmed or hung.
--Desk moved to Nest, but modem for Internet still needs to be hooked up before I'm going to go to the effort of moving my operations out there.

Jeff is sure glad to have Soren as a helper as he builds the retaining wall!

Lights on in The Nest

Two weeks ago (or so), a trench was dug across our backyard and lined with conduit for electrical cables connecting The Nest/Garage to our house. Going around our existing concrete patio was deemed the most direct route. Oh, well, the grass needed reseeding anyway. We're in for a major re-landscaping project after the building is finished.

Soren was fascinated for the whole day it took to dig the trench with this machine that looked like a chainsaw attached to a rototiller!
The end result is that the new building has power and thus lights. The garage has some utilitarian fluorescent tubes, but we put more care into the lighting in The Nest. We are using some of the "leftovers" from the construction of our house, such as the two exterior round lights that match four others already installed on The Roost. Our street is very dark at night, so these will come in handy as guests make their way to bed.
The weekend of Halloween, we parked our car in the garage for the first time! My parents are caretaking Matilda (our 1989 VW van) at the moment, but when she's with us, she'll live in the garage, too.
Here is a picture of Christopher, our friendly electrician, who has installed all the lighting...
...and the ceiling fan. We are big fans of fans. And can you see that the walls are painted a warm, pale yellow? The bathroom is pale blue.
Soren likes it; how about you?

Concrete up, garage door poured (!)

No, of course it's the other way around! As of this week, the concrete is poured and the garage door is up at The Nest. The interior walls also went from yellow (insulation) to white (drywall, taped and mudded, yet to be textured).
Soren missed the excitement of the cement truck because we were in Colorado, but I must say it was nice to return from that trip and find the driveway and pathways all finished. Above, a view of the dirt we've been dealing with for two months now.
Here's the tinted concrete being poured. We matched the color to the existing patio and the garage floor. That's Duke, our contractor, at right, supervising every move.
Viola! New pavement AND a garage door. The door turned out to be a color that matches the window frames, so for now we're not going to paint it.
A test opening by the guys who installed the door.
And here are two photos shot today. The top one shows all the new concrete, connecting our existing under-deck patio to the road. Soren already loves to run around and bounce balls on it. We will replace the fence and gate as soon as we're ready for another project!

And this last one shows Our Little Helper Soren. "He can't wait to grow up," Jeff says, and when he earnestly copies the adults around him, it shows.

September progress on The Nest

Didn't mean not to post any photos of the construction in September, but it appears I didn't. So here's a compressed record of the past month's progress on our two-car garage and The Nest (office/guest room).

Before the roofing material went on, the first color was applied with the spraying of the underside of the overhang. Blue, just like on The Roost. As you'll see, we planned to have the exterior of this new building closely match our existing house. So the trim is red and the doors will be yellow or blue.
All in one day the roof went on, a nice reddish composite shingle. Soren and Jeff admire it from our deck.
The siding is Hardipanel, which also sheathes the lower floor of our house. The eaves are shingled.
Our windows had been back-ordered, but eventually they arrived. Our contractor figured out a way to start siding before they were here.
Don't the shingles match nicely? Well, they should. We had one pallet of these lovely reddish cedar shingles left over from the construction of The Roost, and for six years now it's been taking up floor space in our tool shed. Finally the pallet is out of there! And there are just enough shingles left over to adorn a future playhouse for Soren (!). Our contractor has been saving bits of other construction materials for this project, too.
The driveway pour has yet to happen, but we are eagerly awaiting it, because we've been living with dust for so long. Our street has quite a slope to it, and our contractor determined that the driveway apron we were required to pour for the main house was also too sloped for him to work with. So eight feet of existing asphalt got torn up by this excavator, and the grade has been further leveled.
Then, alas, the same excavator (well, its operator, really) hit a water line. In this photo, the water is spraying high in the air because the excavator bucket is positioned in the shooting water stream.

I was in the bathroom at the time, as Soren had just pooped on the rug during a brief period of diaperlessness (ah, joy) and I was wetting a cloth for clean-up. Suddenly the water pressure dropped, and I knew just what had happened. Our water was only shut off for the afternoon while the pipe was repaired, and Soren napped most of that time, so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience.
The electrician and plumber have been busy in The Nest, and this photo (with my dad in the frame) was shot just before the insulation went in. Dad is leaning on the corner of the framed-in bathroom. The floor-to-ceiling black pipe to the left of him is where the kitchenette sink will go.

We're still waiting on drywall and that driveway pour. When they happen, you'll read about it here!

Roof is up

The Nest has walls and a roof, as of last Friday. The above photo (taken Aug. 24) shows the framed-up walls. You can now see the dimensions of the two-car garage at right compared to the office/guestroom at left.
Soren was very interested in the truck with a crane that arrived on Aug. 25 to deliver the roof trusses.
I think he was particularly intrigued by the carpenters walking the walls. That evening, when the workers had departed and we went down to the site to explore, he wanted to climb the ladder they'd left behind!
It took only one day for all the trusses to be installed. This was later in the day on the 25th. It's the view of the new building from our upper lawn at the level of Roosevelt Street (we have a very sloping, terraced lot). We didn't want the garage to block the view of the bay from the street, and as you can see, it doesn't.
View from Adams Street, looking back at our house. The barn gate will eventually be replaced by a different fence/gate arrangement, once we figure out how the two buildings tie together.
The greatest change in view is that coming up Adams Street, although you don't see our garage until you pass a huge bush in our neighbor's yard. (This is the little house we rented while we were building The Roost. It will actually have more privacy once this project is completed, and we get some nice siding and landscaping up.
View from our third floor.
Soren checking out The Nest on his first birthday, wearing Daddy's baseball cap.
The plywood sheathing was up by the end of the day Aug. 27. The garage is going to have a huge double door.
We'll close with a shot of Carpenter Wade on the roof on a lovely, sunny Port Townsend day.

Walls are going up

The Nest is going vertical with the framing of the walls. These photos were taken yesterday (Friday), and by the end of the day, all the walls were up except the one that will contain the double-wide garage door. We haven't ordered that yet. Yes, we plan to paint it yellow, like all the other doors on our house!
You can see from this perspective (I'm standing in the farthest corner of the garage away from the house) how The Nest will relate to The Roost.

Be sure to check out Soren's birthday party pix on his blog!

We're building a garage/office, aka The Nest

Where our cars once parked on the slope below The Roost, The Nest is taking shape.
In the site plan for our house construction (six years ago!), we planned a two-car garage in this spot. The photo above shows the two extra feet into the lot-line setback that we were allowed to build after we applied for a "variance" to our city's building code. The white line is our property line; the parallel yellow lines endpointed with white rocks show the required 10' setback (at left) and the adjusted 8' setback (at right), where the wall of the garage will be aligned. Our application received no comments and was approved. (Yes, some of our landscaping is in the right-of-way; this is very common around town, on streets like ours with no sidewalks.)
Two weeks ago, on Aug. 5, we broke ground.
In an hour, all the bamboo had been ripped up. We repotted some for ourselves and gave a lot away. It had been a gift to us originally, and provided a great visual screen for a number of years.
Looking down from the third-floor window of The Roost, the footprint starts to take shape with the first footing frames.
Here the frames for the footings are largely in place, ready for the concrete pour.
Soren tries to join in the fun with his beach shovel and rake. Duke, our contractor (shown here), said he'd hire Soren if he got himself a pair of Carhartts. Do they make them in baby sizes??
Soren was in heaven running the backhoe...
...with supervision, of course! And after the crew had knocked off for the day.
Footings have been poured, pea gravel is filling the garage footprint in preparation for the slab pour.
Yesterday the slab was poured. We used a terracotta tint in the concrete, like we did in building The Roost. The basement floor and an outdoor patio are both this color. It's cheery!

And here's an opportune time to point out the additional structure on the left (east) side of the two-car garage. We went back and forth on this, and finally decided to include a 320-s.f. office/guest bedroom (aka The Nest) as part of the construction project. It will be about the size of a standard 2-bed hotel room, with a shower and kitchenette. When I more fully return to writing, it will be a place for me to retreat and work in peace. In between times, it will serve as guest quarters for our family and others. In fact, both our families are contributing financially to make this project happen.
So there's the slab, getting hand-polished. The Nest will have a wood truss floor over a crawl space.
Watching from our deck, Soren thinks this is all very interesting!