Well, we finished. But, in our rush to winterize the house, pack and leave Bellingham, I neglected to take photos of the completed house yesterday and last night a storm rolled through, spraying the yard and driveway with leaves and needles from the firs. However, I did get a chance to walk around the property … Continue reading →

With the house now on its foundation, it was time to get to work finishing the 1/3 of the basement that will house Dale’s ceramic studio and my workshop; the other 2/3 of the basement will remain unfinished storage space, technically a “crawl-space,” although it could easily be finished living space someday. Here’s a photo … Continue reading →

After learning that the two big modules had been transported to Mount Vernon for the final move and set the following day, we decided to drive down to visit. It was a little odd seeing the house in pieces on trailers in a field: We had scheduled everything to start at 9:00 a.m., July 30, … Continue reading →

With all the concrete work now finished and the road side of the property back-filled to the retaining walls, it was time for Rob’s crew to start framing the rest of the basement and foundation. While Rob’s carpenters were busy getting their saws and work areas set up, Jesse placed the big stones on our … Continue reading →

Anxious to get to work on the house, we stopped at what has to be one of the world’s premier hardware stores (appropriately named “Hardware Sales”) to look for tools. Now, that’s a wrench! But we didn’t need a wrench to put in the drainage system around the foundation – it’s all PVC. All of … Continue reading →

While the foundation was being built, there wasn’t much for us to do so we took time to go to the Bellingham Roller Betties Roller Derby Championship Match at Whatcom Community College: …and then the Bellingham Scottish Highland Games in nearby Ferndale: …then down to Seattle as guests of our friends Rich and Susan (they’re … Continue reading →

With the excavation complete, it was time to get started building. We had originally intended to put the house on a low stem-wall foundation with a 2 foot crawl space underneath the house and a separate garage/studio/workshop building, but the land didn’t lend itself to that configuration. So, we decided to put the house on … Continue reading →

The first step in building our foundation was to survey the property. This was more of a challenge than I had anticipated because the plat our land was in had never been properly monumented, so I joined the survey crew looking for the government corners to start the process. The surveyors had to run bearings … Continue reading →

The day before our real estate closing, I stopped by the city building department to take a look at the plans and permits for the house and to find out what the permitting requirements might be to raise part of the carport roof to accommodate our motorhome. In response to my request for the permit … Continue reading →