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As you may know, in the fall of 1999 we left our home of 16 years in Southern Oregon to move to Mount Vernon, Washington. At first, we rented a cinder-block house on Big Lake, a small community east of town. In January of 2000, we began looking for property to build. Housing prices here are higher than we were used to in Oregon, so we felt it might be a better plan to build than to buy! It wasn't long before we found a piece of dirt we all loved! It's less than a mile from the house we rented, in a new development named after the salmon-bearing stream that runs through the valley, Nookachamp Hills. We have the best of both worlds there: half an acre with a view of the valley and the dairy below, as well as the advantages a development offers (city water, sewer, and utilities already in place).
The next step was to
find a builder to work with.
Ted's son, Craig Carney, is a plan designer. Randy and I spent a lot of time with Craig, working out the details on our houseplan. We finally realized that the plan we were looking at was TOO BIG, so Craig did some cutting and pasting and redesigning. He kept our favorite parts of the original plan,and redid the rest. We're very happy with the result!
We broke ground in mid-July. Randy and I kept busy making decisions and calling contractors, etc. We were blessed with great contractors, who did well on each part of the house! Kirk Gaspard and his helper Matt framed our house--later contractors said they'd never worked on a house that was so perfectly squared! When they were finished, Randy ,his brother Steve, and our friend John did the electrical wiring. We ordered our windows from Insulate, and doors from ThermaTru, and they were installed the end of October. The siders and drywallers were working on the house during most of November. Our painter was Jaime Stopinski, one of our new neighbors and a homeschool dad. The interior paint was done the first week of January. We used "white linen" for the walls, which is actually a very pale yellow. It brings the sunshine indoors even on the gray cloudy days we get so many of! One day in early December Randy and I rented a truck and drove to Canyon Creek Cabinets in Monroe to pick up our cabinets. While our friend Bill Critchlow (a carpenter and also homeschool dad) worked on installing the cabinets and countertops, Randy and friend John were installing our light fixtures and smoke detectors. That's a long process! Randy took the week between Christmas and New Year's Day off work to work on the house. He completed the back deck, finished the electrical work, installed the kitchen appliances, and many other jobs! While he was working on that, I thought I'd never see the last of the drywall dust that blanketed the house! We gaven our notice on our rent in January, in faith we'd be ready to move soon! There was still a lot to do, though--the final excavation done in preparation for the driveway (and moving our boulders to their permanent homes), getting the driveway done, and finally, the carpets installed. Other details included the tile backsplashes, installing the doorknobs, putting on cupboard door knobs and pulls, and the bathroom hardware! I've been astonished to see how much cupboard door knobs and towel racks cost in stores! So I got on ebay and won auctions on some there! They're beautiful, and we saved some bucks that way! We moved in the first of February! Not everything was done yet, there were still lots of smaller "honey-do" projects left! But first priority was to unpack and settle in! We had been advised last winter that we should wait until it was dry and warm enough for the paint to cure properly. We finally got the house exterior painted in June! What a nice thing that our house is no longer naked! It looks so much better now! In talking to our painter, we found that we had gone to college with his brother and sister! Randy had met him once when he and his music group (One Truth) did a concert in So. Calif! We spent most of the summer on odd jobs around the house--things like having a yard sale to clear out our garage. Randy's bro Steve came to visit, and helped Randy build his workbench in the garage. Randy also put pegboard on the walls so he can organize his tools. Finally the garage is getting in shape so he can find his tools when he needs them! We waited on landscaping because of the dry summer--this is the year many people's lawns have died or turned brown due to the limits on watering! In late summer we had a couple of guys build us a pond with a small waterfall, and then we finally got the lawn in, with the help of some of Randy's co-workers. The girls and I pitched in to plant the Etera perennials we got at the end of the season. To finish the landscaping, Randy built a retaining wall next to the driveway, as a border between us and the new houses next door. We even helped him, at least a little bit! During the winter we'll finish up a few indoor projects, as well. There are still a few closets without doorknobs, some wood surfaces to finish, some doors to trim shorter, and so on. It reminds me of a favorite song we learned from Shari Lewis' tv show: "This is the song that never ends. . . ." Boy, it's a lot of work to build a house!
Check out our photos:
December 11, 2001 |
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