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Joe Hoffman came to work with me in the fall of 2006 and we started by building the deck and finishing up the exterior work before winter set in.
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We then moved inside to tackle interior trim. Over the next few months, in between hiring ourselves out as carpenters, we got the house livable. In the fall of 2007, Kathy and I moved in.
One of the reasons I consider this house a dream project is the opportunity to do things that are meaningful to Kathy and me, without regard for what they might cost, or how long they take. Such is the case with the log and twig stair rail.
When Kathy and I moved into the house we built in the early 80’s Kathy took a slip from a cherry tree from her Mom and Dad’s place on Hick’s Lake and planted it behind our shop. It has since grown into a beautiful tree, maybe 50 feet tall, and blossoms every spring. When I first talked about weaving a twig handrail at the top of the stairs Kathy suggested using limbs from that cherry tree to represent not only our old house, but to also remind us of her parents.
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So that’s what we did. The vertical posts at the top of the stairs are douglas fir, from our Roy property. The handrail going up the stairs as well as the horizontal log and all the twigs are from that cherry tree.
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The bookcase in the stairwell wall was an afterthought, but again, that’s one of the things I like best about remodeling, the opportunities that present themselves.
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We actually do have a furnace in this house, but there’s something comforting about the heat from a woodstove. This little guy doesn’t throw off heat like the behemoth in our old house, but it is way more efficient and keeps this little house toasty.
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A few months after we moved in Todd and Lydia were scheduled to visit and we still didn’t have a vanity in the downstairs bath. I got the idea for the plank vanity from Brenden and Jerry Kehoe, whose house we worked on early in 2008. The $8.99 stainless mixing bowl from Sears made a dandy hand sink and I had the faucet lying around. All in all a fun project, and visitors don’t have to wash their hands in the kitchen sink anymore!
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