Wednesday, March 18, 2009

ERN March, 2009 Update

Ahhhhh, the Shop is looking much more like a building. It looks a lot like what I designed :-)
We're still scrambling since the economic downturn affected our building plans considerably. The current plan is to slow construction way down, and put ourselves in a position to live in our trailer while finishing the shop. Most likely this means converting the shop into a residence, complete with complying to all residential codes. There are two "hot" items on our list - getting the electrical box installed inside the shop and the state inspection complete, (See the temporary power pole in the middle of the "carport"?), and getting a woven wire and electric perimeter fence up. The ground is HARD and ROCKY, and we need about 3/4 mile of fence. I think we'll pony up to have someone put that in.

Next is a series of photos of the Second Floor. This will be a good part of our living space, and the future studio space for fiber crafts, model making, stained glass, etc., etc. The first photo is looking SE; Clifford is about ready to run down the stairs ... for the eleventy hundreth time.


This view looks South. I tried to design in plenty of southern exposure for passive solar gain. You can see the slight cathedral ceiling formed by the scissors trusses. It is essentially the same cost to use scissors trusses as straight trusses. It will make drywall more complex, though.

Here's the view to the SW corner. There are 8 feet between the stairs and the South wall - enough for a small room, if we ever decide to put up walls. ... and Villa getting ready to follow Clifford down the stairs yet another time. The railing on the lower right is...

...surrounding the high bay opening from below. This is the (future) shop area for tall things - like tractors and trailers. If we make this a "residence", all of this high bay will have to be drywall separated from the living space. (Photo looks West.)

Also looking West, from Floor 2, the Olympics are visible!!! This day, there was a roil of clouds coming over, and, indeed, it was wet and stormy the next day.



Continuing on around, this view is looking NW. Out the window on the right will be our new agility arena (and equipment shed) ... someday. Villa says "hey, whatcha doin' Mom? Come run up and down the stairs with us!"

And my favorite viewpoint, looking NE. It's my favorite because of...

... Mt Baker! I'll never get tired of this view!

- Franna

P.S. ERN = EverRanch North - our future home on Whidbey Island.

6 comments:

Michelle said...

Very cool! I'm glad we don't have plans to move; our place is probably worth much less than it would have been a year ago. Are you going to put your Enumclaw property up for sale anytime soon, or wait to see when will you have ERN ready to occupy?

Did you mention stained glass? Which of you does stained glass??? I do stained glass - or did in a previous lifetime (ha)! Still have all the equipment, and an unopend 200# crate of mixed glass I bought in that other lifetime....

Mim said...

What a great place! I would be going crazy to get in soon.

Dave said...

Ummm, I do stained glass, or will when I get room to set up all my stuff again... I have only done 4 or 5 projects, the largest being an 11 X 17 castle on a cliff... It hangs in the front window of our house now... I also did a cobalt blue 3-D dragon jewelry box for Franna... The wings open up to show the mirrored inside of the box... I get almost as much enjoyment working glass as I get working on my models...

Michelle said...

Cool, Dave! I did a lot of projects in college during the stained glass course I took, and some smaller pieces on commission after that, but it has been many years since I've turned my glass grinder on. I want to find a commercial stainless steel sink/counter/backsplash to put in our basement; I think it would make the perfect workplace!

Donna said...

Your place looks great- how fun it must be to design your place and then see it be built! Looking forward to more progress reports as well as having you guys closer.

Kathy said...

I think your plans for "living" in the workshop space are spot-on for getting up to EVN sooner. And what a wise plan to have someone else do the fencing. I have found that somethings I still do cheerfully, but as I have gotten older (with more surgeries racked up) I have to plan and choose what I do "wisely".

Go for it! :)