Vivian and I have finally finished our obsessive home project and now we need to furnish it. As you know Hoquiam house was and is a labor of love and in many ways a luxury in Life. The real estate market has tanked in Gray’s Harbor County and we find ourselves owning a second home.

We are seeking to be green and help repurpose and reuse things for the second home. I want it understood that we are not asking for gifts. Please do not go out and buy something new to give us. We realize that people in general have lots of stuff often extra stuff that they will never use and we are looking for these things. Have something that we did not have listed and think we may want, give us a call. We have already garnered a lot of stuff, but there is still more needed. We will pick stuff up, even help move things around in your home. Thanks.

The following is a list of the things we are looking for our house in Hoquiam.

Mirror - about 42" x 20"
6 Table lamps - 2 for the Living room, Great room. 4 suitable for each bedroom/ bedside
Board games - Vivian may be picky on these, let us know which ones
DVDs any and all
VHS Tapes
Beds - 2 twin and 1 queen or king - including mattresses and box springs preferably gently used to new
Car!! -We are willing to pay for this. It should be bigger and safer ideally all wheel drive. We want Grandpa’s Lexus Crossover only driven weekly for under $5,000 but will settle for a Ford if it is a bargain
Freezer (standalone)
Small Kitchen Rug
2 Non skid Rubber mat to put under area rugs - about 4' x 6'
Coffee grinder
Comfortable chair with arms Nicer chair for the Living room Great Room, Maybe a wing chair
Serving bowls assorted sizes preferably glass, China Porcelain
Flatware, especially spoons
Wine glasses
Nintendo Wii :)
Small Stone wear Crock or something to hold kitchen utensils
Yard tools
Big Pots for plants
2 Clock radios
Motor Boat with Trailer Suitable for the Harbor!!
Towels and Bath sheets
Queen and twin Sheets
Pillow Cases
Old Mountain Bikes/ Street Bicycles
ATV
Small real wood bookshelf 36 inches high no wider that 32 inches

More Pictures!!!

There are more pictures here:

Pictures from January 2008

Pictures from the spring of 2007

Old Pictures from the summer and fall of '06

Painting Pictures

More New Pictures!

Here are some more pictures -----

Pictures

Here are pictures of the stairs we built and this is what the front of the house looks like now (new front porch and foundation from last summer).

Deck

I haven't posted in awhile, mostly because the project has taken a lot longer than I thought and it's frustrating. However, we made good progress this weekend - we built the framing for a large deck. Here's a picture of Steve painting the siding -- the deck goes over his head (it wasn't there when I took the picture). The concrete and bricks that you see on the ground are the remnants of the chimney that we took out last week.

ho hum

Beams went in over the kitchen; the bathroom subfloor has been redone as has the laundry-room's subfloor ---

Did you catch that Hoquiam/Aberdeen have become the new hotspot for biodiesel and
scientology?

More pics from last weekend

Pictures from Last Weekend

A Musical Interlude

To celebrate our purchases and dump runs, Steve has sung a little song! You can listen to it here. Isn't the house just the cutest thing you've seen?

Tools

I must say that one of the frustrating things about this project is the tools. I'm trying to save money on these tools but getting Steve to tell me what tools we need is like pulling teeth. I can't tell which tools we reaaally need and which ones he just likes to have around to bond with and boost his bear image. I mean, really, how many different saws and drills do we need? We already have a couple of drills, but no, that's not good enough, now we need to get a cordless drill and not just any cordless drill but it had to be an extra special brand of drill and then since we were already buying the drill at Home Depot, then it makes more sense to buy the whole set of tools, which comes with an electric saw or two. And then I find out that even with the saws in the set and the saw we're borrowing from a friend, Steve wants more saws that have some extra special sawing techniques that aren't included in these other saws. I don't see why someone can't make a stupid power saw that does everything you need it to, like one of those all-in-one kitchen appliances.

Possibilies for Humptulips

If we decide to get the lot in Humptulips, after we clean up all the trash, what will we ever do with it? Here are some ideas ---

* a retreat for people with alternative lifestyles
* a "green" vacation home that we sell and make lots of ca$h
* we seed the trees with chantrelle spores and have a mushroom farm
* plant a lot of trees
* we decide to keep it for ourselves

Then there is the whole creating the house out of shipping containers idea. Believe it or not, there are companies already doing this ---

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/shipping_contai.php
http://www.archpaper.com/feature_articles/shipping_news.html

Hooray!

Hooray! The lawyer has returned from Mexico and everything is in order for us to buy the house in Hoquiam! And the Humptulips offer is confirmed and we are just waiting on the fax!

Kurt Cobain

One of the celebrities to come out of Hoquiam was Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobain#Early_life)

Kurt was born to Don and Wendy Cobain in the Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington, and spent his first six months living in Hoquiam, Washington before the family moved to Aberdeen.

Water issues

One of the frustrating things about this area is that it is so wet. We were thinking about putting in a basement apartment in the house, but Steve called the city and it turns out we're not allowed to have living space there; all the living space has to be 6 feet off the water line. This is not a big problem, but the water has been an issue with our other ventures. We are also looking into a 5 acre raw land parcel up in Humptulips, Washington, just north of Hoquiam. The lot we are looking at is selling for very cheap and is full of trash. We figure that it was the owner's private junkyard and now he is tired of it. Nevertheless, we may have the chance to buy this for very little, and the area is quite nice. There are plots of 1 acre and 5 acres surrounded by forest. Anyway, back to the water, when we looked at the lot on Sunday, there was a lot of water on the dirt road. We met a gentleman who was looking for car parts and he told us that there is so much clay under the soil, that the water doesn't drain well. According to him, Humptulips is a good place to build a "mother earth, off the grid" house, and no one will come to bother us. Anyhow, more on this later, I suppose, depending on what happens with this plot.

The Addition

Someone decided to build an addition to the back of the house, behind the kitchen. Unfortunately, they didn't do a very good job and there are some issues with rot.

There is a second bathroom (toilet) in the addition, that might work once the water gets hooked up.

We're thinking about just ripping this off and starting over, we haven't decided yet.

Steve going down the creaky stairway

Upstairs Bedding

Entertainment System

There is a TV upstairs, which serves as the house's entertainment system. Batteries not included.

Upstairs Back Bedroom

And then here is the back bedroom in the upstairs.

Front Upstairs Bedroom

There are three small bedrooms upstairs. This is the one in the front, overlooking the roof and a small part of the front yard.

Bathroom

There is a lovely clawfoot tub in the bathroom.

Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the few rooms that still has things in it. There are some cabinets that may or may not be kept during the remodel, and some general tables and trash.

Then there is the fridge, and we haven't had the courage to open that yet.

Window

Here is a picture of the window in one of the first floor bedrooms.

First Floor Bedrooms

There are two rooms on the first floor that could be used for bedrooms. The yellow window looks out to the front lawn.

Living and Dining Room

This is the living and dining room, looking in from the front of the house.

Behind the second door is the kitchen.

Garage

We're thinking of just tearing the garage down. It has some rot and is pretty old.

Front Porch

This is the front porch. It's pretty sturdy, not too bad!!

Side of house

Back of House

House Pictures

Steve and I decided we wanted to invest in some property. We were looking at a number of possibilities, and eventually settled on a fixer-upper located in Hoquiam, Washington, just about 20 miles from the coast, and 45 miles from Olympia.

When investing, I've heard it said that the key is to invest in an arena in which you have an edge. We decided that our edge was finding places that no one else wanted to deal with, because of their many issues. When we talked to our real estate agent, Nancy, she told us about this house in Hoquiam, and how it was under abatement from the city and had been on the market for several months. Steve's ears perked up, and he immediately wanted to see it. We went to take a look and we liked what we saw. It does need a ton of work. For one, there is no water or sewer or electric hooked up. The house has been gutted of most everything. We'll need to put in a lot of sweat equity, as they say.

Last weekend, Steve and I went down to Hoquiam to take another look at the place. I took some pictures ---