Phase One Complete

Almost two years to date, the garage and shop are finished and have passed the final building inspection. Had Kirk known how much hard work was involved he would have abandoned all ideas of building a home. Now....we can finally start on the house, but time-out first for well earned massages and a good soak in a hot tub.

Rear of building. Love that mural!

When we have time down the road, we will add river rock to the stem wall and paint the white door brown. We should also point out that many of the materials we used are reclaimed or re-cycled, including the doors, interior wall framing and the staircase, also the shakes above the board and batten exterior finish. Thank-you Dave Traut.

Great job Captain! You're the best!!!

Miscellaneous Stuff

During the garage construction there were many asides, like planting trees.
Two thousand to be precise, mostly native species, Douglas Fir, Grand Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Incense Cedar. Broadleaf natives will be in the next phase

Why so many trees? Our kids inheritance, these will not mature in our lifetime, but wehope with this many board feet of lumber we can die poor and the kids can be creative and make a few bucks.

Geomyidae or more commonly Pocket Gopher. Bloody nuisance. We were very concerned that our trees would be destroyed, but for whatever reason the rodents are more interested in other subterranean fodder, perhaps we have the first species of carnivorous gophers! We are accepting all gopher extermination remedies beyond, traps, gas, fire, terrier dogs, poison and shot guns because we have already tried these to no avail.

Kirk built a pump house

Pretty elaborate but at least it is only one story

Something to BARK about

If you guessed bark, keep reading.
We had the opportunity to bid on a tree that had spent it's life in the Middle Fork of the Willamette Forest. This tree was felled as part of the forest maintenance programme. Healthy trees make healthy forests.

The tree was felled in the Summer of 2009 so it was quite dry when we first saw it in Dec 09. 130' long and just beautiful cedar.

Base of tree

I convinced Kirk that we should hire a logging company to haul the tree out of the forest. There are so only many big boy toys that a man needs and fortunately this is one thing that you CANNOT buy at Jerrys

I'm still trying to imagine one of these logging trucks on the country roads in my home town in Sussex, England

A friend of Kirk's from the Forest Service has his own portable mill, so a couple of days were spent helping him convert the trunk to lumber.

More legs, less arms....

Plenty of mulch for the trees we planted.

Lots of lumber to be used for the decking and interior trim and finish work inside the house.

Definitely worth the hard work

...and lots of yule logs. Now that's something to sing about.

Painting Party

Blank Canvas
We decided it was time to add some color to a very white wall on the back of the building. Our neighbours were willing participants and very creative in adding pizazz and flair to the canvas. We love it so much the kids will be recruited for more painitng on the house.

Captain Blueprint

Three Misses and a Hit!

Developing Masterpieces.
Carol and Mateo showing off their brush strokes

Bucket Brigade.
Noah did a wonderful job on the sunflowers. Lower right of mural

Captain and First Mate.

Tom and Tim working on the war, Lexi on animal husbandry

Absolutely fabulous finished mural. Now taking custom orders!

Up on the Roof

Notice how steep the pitch of the roof is on the building. It was very tricky and very slick throughout the job with thankfully no mishaps. After a few sessions on the top with shaky legs, my role was modified from roofers assitant to chief holder of the ladder and passing of the tools. I prefer terra firma.

Kirk's son-on-law Kyle was very giving of his time to help with the roofing. They accomplished a huge amount in one day. THANK-YOU KYLE xoxoxo

The boys hard at it!

Large roof is complete. Note the accidental Beaver colors on the roof trim

Department of the Interior

Let there be light! Kirk did all of the electrical installation himself and passed the inspections

More insulation. We only insulated this side, not the garage.

Insulation on the shop side. Most of this material we bought from Craigs List.

At my request Kirk made an interior door to access the garage from the shop. Needless to say it was a simple request but not such a simple fix. It was aptly named "The Wife Door"

Staircase

Going down

Going up

Kirk had to do a little re-configuration t make sure that the headway was up to code. there has to be a 6'10" distance from the stair at the turn to the beam. Much of the wood used on the stairs was re-claimed.

Finishing touches to the staircase. Nice balusters and hand rail.

Clean-Up Crew

A man and his tractor

A boy and his tractor

Timothy and Thomas on bonfire patrol.

Garage and Shop Taking Shape

Garage on the right, shop on the left and yes it is two storys high.
It was great to get a cover of Tyvek on before the winter of 2008, knowing that the building would be waterproof until the following Spring for it's cedar siding. Unfortunately things did not go according to plan and the Tyvek was on display for an entire year. In the meantime Kirk continued to do many other things to the building and to the property.