Final Credits

Finally a huge thank-you to everyone who helped us in building our house. We could never have made it without you!

Sue Rutherford our fearless home designer who made a masterpiece out of a sketch on a napkin during our first meeting over coffee. Sue worked with us throughout the entire process and her creativity incorporated all of our crazy ideas. A huge thank you Sue. http://www.suerutherford.com

Tom Van Denend of Shelterworks who supplied the Faswall blocks that we built the house with. Tom and his company are a prime example why working locally is worth it's weight in gold. Tom kept us going and supported our efforts even when we were more than Royal Pains in your derriere! Shleterworks http://faswall.com/

Jim the cabinet maker who held fast for two years while we plodded along. I know he thought we had either perished or gone south. He accommodated all of our special requests, including everything being higher than "normal" No more bad backs from leaning over. JB Woodworks
http://jbwoodworks.com

Ben Swartzendruber our mason who helped Stan build the masonry wood stove and skinned it with natural rock. Another master craftsman who can make the drabbest of rocks look gorgeous. Ben also laid the quarzite hearth and floor in front of the stove. Ben managed to complete this job while his wife was in labour and impressed us with his baritone vocals. Ben Swartzendruber Harrisburg, OR

Trevor Storch who laid all of the reclaimed floor downstairs. We bought salvaged wood from a High School that was torn down and at that time it had plenty of green paint and chewing gum on it. His fastidious work attention to detail totally transformed the house. http://www.storchconstruction.com/

Ryland Thompson for building a magnificent staricase and working with Sarah who was practically clueless in the beginning of this project. Incorporating metal with wood was a good choice and your efforts to come up with a design to fit our house worked all the way to the top floor and beyond. http://rylandethompson.com/

The CRAFTful dodgers Natanya Sabel and Joshua Klyber of Living Walls who were responsible for getting us plastered inside and out! Your expertise working with clay and plaster was monumental and we loved having you on site. http://livingwallspdx.com

Stan Homola of MasterCraft Masonry who custom built the core unit for our main heat source. Wonderful mature gentleman and so sweet to work with. Stan Homola http://www.mastercraftmasonry.net/

James Reismiller of Abundant Solar who waited and waited for us to finish so that he could install solar panels. James made his job look like child's work and saved us a bundle in tax credits and rebates. We like living with our net metering system. http://www.abundantsolar.com/

Alan Butts. Butts Electric. Not only a terrific electrician but really knows how to throw a party. We loved the band! Alan Butts http://www.buttselectric.com/

Jeff the Plumber, Corvallis Plumbing. You made it look so easy, even when you had to work with new products and suffer the leaking toilet. Jeff Callis. www.corvallisplumbinginc.com

Joshua Towne. Who made one of the toughest parts of construction look too easy. Another amazing construction acrobat who worked efficiently and carefully 30 feet high setting the trusses and roof sheathing. Joshua Towne. Blodgett, OR

Jim Crumley and Wayne Hammond who were the brains and brawn in getting the exterior walls up as well as the floor systems. Jim did all the concrete work on the garage and also built the footings for the house. Jim knows his concrete!
Wayne helped us with several projects inside the house too, including laying tile in the bathrooms and much of the sub floors. Wayne Hammond Construction, Corvallis, OR

To all of our friends, neighbours, local suppliers who were quick and willing to help when we had work parties. Sarah's tennis support group who suffered the moans and groans of trailer life and who kept her on the bright side of life.

Finally to Kirk Lunstrum who did not bargain for beginning his retirement in this fashion. For his endless patience, ridiculously hard work, for trashing his body, suspending his golf career and for building Sarah a house.

This Blog was written by Sarah Roome who is not a writer. She lives happily in her new home in Corvallis OR with her husband Kirk and son Tim.

Making it a Home

We are now in and stalling. All the piddly jobs that need to be completed and thus ensure we pass our final inspection are moving V-E-R-Y slowly. It may take another thirty years to finish off, but we (especially Kirk) are enjoying the down time.

First view through front door. We LOVE the masonry wood stove which lives up to its reputation and heats the entire house once the thermal mass and stones are hot.

Upstairs landing.

Master bedroom.

Upstairs bathroom, complete with sunshine in January.

Blog on the wall. Four years of hard labour from the moment we broke ground on the garage to present.

View from the upstairs hall, looking down to the living room.

Final floor in the study, upstairs. We chose cork panels for this floor, not only because it is an attractive green product but also because it acts as a good sound barrier to the first floor.

It is a "floating" system, whereby the panels lock into each other and no nails were needed. Looks nice and feels really good on bare feet.

Moving In

We officially moved in just before Thanksgiving and celebrated a festive holiday dinner meal with friends around OUR table.

Kirk bringing home a Craigs List purchase.

Tim and Kirk hauling in the beds.

Several girlfriends came over and helped me clean two years worth of grime and concrete from the windows. Their help was invaluable, it would have taken me weeks to accomplish what we got done in a day. Sally shines through.

Judy goes at it.

Jeannie and Judy working in tandem.

Donna and Barb, first diners.

Donna attacks the staircase with Linseed finish and rag.

Another champagne day. The trailer vanishes. Fortunately this piece of real estate sold much faster than out house in Junction City.

Walk-In closet in the master bedroom. We had no trouble filling it even after several Goodwill runs.

All the Trimmings

In December we were blessed with the most beautiful weather and moved the sunglasses tools and materials outside.

Kirk planing trim.

Sarah finishing doors

View from the top looking across to neighbours fields.

View of our young trees. The long poles are for hops.

Kirk nailing in door trims.

Outside the bedroom deck. What a gorgeous day!

Tiling kitchen back splashes. We managed to use left over bathroom tile and liked the results.

Above the dish washer.

Window trim, close up.

Kirk made and hung all the window frames, Sarah sanded and finished them.

Master bathroom.

Baseboards and a beverage.

More Floor

Once we ran out of reclaimed fir we purchased pre-finished oak boards and Kirk went to work in all three of the bedrooms.

He painstakingly marked out all the tracks of the radiant floor heat first to avoid hitting the water coils with the pneumatic nailer.

Laying floors is very hard on the knees. Complaining helped!

Working ourselves into a corner.

Fine form.

Tim actually moved into his room at the beginning of Sept 2011. It was pretty spartan with sub floors and only roughed in windows, but he was very happy to have his own space.

A month later he moved into the kitchen so that we could lay the floor.

Tim's room with finished floor.

Tim moves back in to his finished bedroom together with new bedroom furniture.

Master bedroom ready for occupancy on Nov. 10th. Wa-hoo. Worth the wait and loving it!!!

Joining Two Storeys (Eng.)

At last it was time to take out the temporary stairs and build one that meets code. We were very fortunate to find Ryland Thompson who worked a miracle, especially as he had to meet Sarah's needs who in the beginning was clueless about what she wanted other than her emphatic "I don't want a bloody great post at the bottom". His patience paid dividends and he designed a work of art incorporating wood and metal.

Beginning stairs and risers in oak with cherry inlaid randomly into the risers

Break time!

Ryland setting the post at the top to attach to the handrail.

Bottom newel set on second step.

Ryland was practically our room mate for a few weeks. His sense of humour helped our sanity more than once. We were still roughing it in the trailer. Did I mention frayed tempers:)

Balusters in metal and oak.

Beginning structure of handrail on the landing of the second storey.

.

Finished staircase and handrail. We used Tried and True natural Danish finish on all of the oak

View from second storey.

Thank-you Ryland!