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Todd
graduated from college in 2003 and that summer he and Amy and
I sided the house with stained fiber cement - lap siding on
the bottom, simulated sidewall shingles on the gable ends and
across the back of the big dormer. I have thought for years
that fiber cement siding is one of the best innovations I've
seen in my 30 years in the trade. But when I stumbled onto this
stain that makes it hard to distinguish from wood, I was sold.
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Oh,
and by the way, not only has Todd graduated from college, Lindy
is enrolled at The Evergreen State College and Amy is headed
to Western Washington University in the fall. We are still managing
to stay within our means on this project (albeit barely)
About
this time Steve Smith, of Yelm Pump, designed and installed
our water system. We only get about 4 gallons per minute out
of the well and the last thing we wanted was to settle for low
water pressure. We could have drilled deeper but there are a
lot of dry holes in the surrounding hills and it was cheaper
to design a system that included a 1500 gallon resevoir than
drill another 200 feet. |
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The
following summer, 2004, Todd and I managed to find time to hang
all the drywall in the house and start taping before he headed
back to Austria. I finished taping and Kathy and I painted the
walls and ceilings in October. After a few discussions (and
barely audible cusses) we settled on painting everything off-white.
Imagine that? |
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In
April 2005 Johann Cass and I took apart an old bowling lane,
cleaned the maple boards up the best we could and glued
them back together to create the kitchen countertops. Lots
of folks advised against doing this, said it was too much
work and that we wouldn’t be happy with the results. But
it’s something I have always wanted to try and Kathy and
I are tickled pink with how they came out. |
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Amy
came home to work with me that summer and am I ever glad
she did. We spent a couple weeks sanding and spraying
the finish on the interior doors. We
then tackled installing and finishing the fir flooring
we made for the living room.
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| One
of the great things that happened in our lives the summer
of 2005 was that Todd brought his sweetheart here from Austria
and they got married. Of course, I felt obligated to welcome
her to our country by putting her to work on our little
house and she responded by designing and installing, with
some help from Todd, the tile mural which graces the upstairs
bathroom. |
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| Holy
smokes! That girl’s a keeper, huh? Later
that summer, Todd and Lydia returned to Austria, Amy went
back to college, and I found time to install the interior
doors and start on the stairs. I also managed to cut the
piece of soapstone that will surround the kitchen sink
and machine the maple countertop so that the top surfaces
of the soapstone and the surrounding countertops are flush.
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It
was a very busy year for that little house. But as you can
see in that last photo, the inspector is happy with the
progress.
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