From The Begining

Ok, so the original plan was to set up internet on the property as soon as we moved up here. Then create a blog so that we could post pictures as we went along during the building process of the log home, of the good, the bad, the muddy and whatever else we're doing. Well that was months and several hundred pictures ago. Here we are in December, just got internet hooked up officially on the property and if the microwave isn't going at the same time as the little electric heater we won't flip the RV breaker and I (Breezy, writing and picture poster) can continue to upload pictures to try and fill everyone in. So here we go! Reader’s digest version…

A brief history: Dad (Bruce, “Sparky”) has been intrigued with log homes for as long as I can remember. After taking a log home building class with Skip Ellsworth and becoming a member of the Log Home Builders Association, he was hooked. During one of the Log Home Association BBQ’s Dad met Dave Ross, husband, father of 6 (at the time) now 7 with one due to arrive any day now, who was in the process of building a log home up on Whidbey Island, WA.

So then the plan became, buy property somewhere in Bend, Oregon (where we were living at the time) to build the log home. Right about the time we started looking for property, the housing market went crazy and property sky rocketed in Bend and it became over populated over night. Suddenly finding property with any amount of land without being able to reach out and touch your neighbor’s house and without paying an arm and a leg became impossible. Then I was in a fluke car accident July 2006 that put everything on hold while I started my long road to recovery.

During my recovery Dad would travel up to Whidbey Island from time to time to help Dave Ross work on his house. Then the housing/property market took another sudden turn and there was a drop in prices, which turned the market into a buyer’s bonanza, both properties with and without houses.

Back in January of this year, 2009 while still occasionally traveling up to the island to visit the Ross family and help with the building of their house, Dad started looking at property around the island. After several trips over the next few months looking at 46 different properties Dad found a 5 acre piece off of Goss Lake Road in between the towns of Langley and Freeland, so the new plan began. Buy property up on Whidbey Island, Washington, relocate and finally start building a log home. Papers were signed and everything was official, end of April 2009. We are now owners of 5 acres of beautiful land on wonderful Whidbey Island.

Since the property did not have enough trees of the right size or kind to build the log home with, next was the mission of tracking down and purchasing the logs. Once the logs were located and set for delivery things started to come together.

We started looking for rental property on the island to relocate to until the house was done. It needed to be close to the property to cut down on daily commuting to the job site for Dad, be pet friendly for Bailey (our dog), and also easily accessible for me. After looking and not having much luck we were trying to decide what to-do.

Then someone suggested, “what about living in an RV? It’ll only be for 6 months give or take; we can do anything for 6 months right?” So mom and dad purchased a travel trailer from some friends who had been living in it and just moved into their log home. Perfect!

It has a pretty decent sized slide out which makes the living room/kitchen area roomier. It has a bedroom with door, couch that can be made into a bed, two bunk beds, bathroom with shower sink and toilet, propane stove and oven, small refrigerator, dinette that seats four, and storage all over. Shortly after moving in and starting to set-up house, we turned the bunks into a storage area with Rubbermaid drawers to store clothes, food, and anything else we needed to have access to but not have out all the time.

While Dad stayed up in Whidbey in the RV, Mom and I were still down in Bend packing up our three bedroom house and getting everything ready to put in a 40 foot shipping, storage container. Dad made several trips down from the Island to Bend to start bringing his tools and any boxes we had packed. Once we were packed Dad came down for one last trip to Bend and we (and I say “we” lightly because well let’s face it, I’m more like a supervisor) loaded the U-haul’s. So two large U-hauls, two cars in tow, one cat and one dog, we headed to Whidbey.

Once we got to Whidbey, Mom and Dad started unloading the U-hauls into the 40 ft. storage container we already had on the property. It suddenly became very apparent that we had more crap and odd large shaped stuff (canoe, elliptical machine, custom built parallel bars, gas fireplace, tools, craft supplies, you get the picture) then, #1 we realized, #2 that was going to fit into the 40 ft. container! So Dad made some calls and another 40ft container was delivered. Because we didn’t have enough stuff to fill the new container, Dad turned part of it into his shop to store all his tools.

After the U-hauls were emptied and we drove them up north to Oak Harbor to return them, Dad was able to get back to the logs. He had been spending his time while mom and I were in Bend packing, peeling the logs and getting them measured and categorized to prepare them for stacking. Took him 6-7 weeks to peel and clean the logs via power washer and log spud and spray them all down with a mixture of boric acid, borax, and ethylene glycol to preserve them from the elements, bugs and mold. Then he painted the ends of the logs to seal and number them with an assortment of bright and neutral old paint colors I had left over from different projects and from working at Home Depot. After the logs were laid out in the meadow on log decks to keep them up off the ground to keep them clean and make them easier to pick up with the fork lift it was time to decide where the house was going.

Ron, the man we bought the property from and his son Mark helped Dad start the process of clearing the land. Then Dad and Dave (the previously mentioned log home friend) started laying the 2x8 boards for the concrete footers. Once the concrete was poured and set, they put the panels up for the concrete stem walls. Once that was poured and set, they filled the foundation in with sand and packed it down. Then they laid the pretty pink foam insulation. My Uncle Dennis, (the on call family plumber), drove up from Bend for the weekend to lay out the plumbing for the first floor. Dad and Mom placed the radiant floor tubing in the first floor. Once the radiant flooring was set Dad had a professional contractor come in and laid the cement slab. Once the slab cured it was finally time…. (Drum roll….with much anticipation) to stack the first log!!!!!

Log after log went up and then came the rain-I know you’re all thinking “well duh, you moved to Washington. What did you expect?!” Actually Whidbey Island only gets a few more inches a year then Bend…except this year. This year everyone on the Island has been blown away by the amount of rain we got within a weeks time, and to this I would just like to say, “well of course, have you met us-we are Murphy’s law!”

So, with the rain came the mud, and being a new construction sight and no grass to soak up the rain the mud got muddier, and muddier, and muddier (yes muddier is a real word). With the mud becoming muddier every day Dad started having gravel delivered to lie over the mud so they could still work and maneuver heavy equipment around to continue stacking logs.

Then the rain let up for a few days, so more gravel was delivered. Then came the rain, again. Needless to say the battle of mud started to win, and the gravel started to disappear and equipment started to sink dangerously low enough to where getting stuck now became an issue. It got so muddy that we couldn’t drive the cars down without getting stuck in the mud.

Dad and Dave had to stop stacking logs and switch gears. The priority became re-grading and trenching the ground, now mud, to redirect the water to attempt to dry things out. Then Dad tracked down bigger gravel that helped a little but not as much as he’d hoped. Back to the drawing bored.

In the town of Freeland there had been a bowling alley that was being torn down this summer. They were down to chipping away the old cement blocks and foundation. Dad contacted the owner to see what they were going to do with the broken pieces once that had torn them up. Long story short, and several truck loads later dad and Dave were taking the big concrete pieces and creating a mosaic road. After taking quite a bit of time to mosaic the road and create drain fields for the water, they were back to stacking logs.

So I forgot to add that after living up here, the three of us, one dog, one cat in the RV I decided I needed some space. That’s right, O.M.G. I bought an RV! Nothing too big, no slide out, just a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and open living room without a couch. It allowed me to set up a table for my art stuff. It does however have more storage then you can imagine which Mom has casually taken over.
We started spending Sunday’s over at Dave’s house with his wife Molly learning to can any and everything, while he was working with dad on our house. Molly taught us to can home made salsa at first, then it was Jalapeno Jelly, Nectarine Jelly, homemade tomato sauce, nectarines, applesauce, Hungarian Hoo Ha peppers, Pepper relish, Pesto, nectarine liquor, and the list goes on. So all of my free storage became canned good storage and my refrigerator became the other fridge, which is totally fine but really funny.

Something else I forgot to mention is that the property that we bought is part of a 50 acre parcel of 5 acre lots. Most of the properties have sold but to people that don’t live here or aren’t planning on building for quite some time. The owner, Ron and his son Mark both have a 5 acre lot, and have been gracious enough to let us park our RV’s up on their property and hook up to the neighborhood pump house for electricity and water. It was going to be only until Dad cleared the land for the house, picked out a place for the RV’s and got the electricity and water down on our property. But then the rain and mud came and messed everything up so we are still up here on Ron’s property parked and it looks like we might stay up here through winter.

Over the last few weeks it has gone from rainy weather to winter in one swoop. Which has been great because the ground has frozen, which means no more mud, which means dad and Dave have been able to keep a consistent flow and have been able to stack 3-4 logs a day! That now puts them on row 13! Since the logs are bigger then Dad thought, they may only have to stack one more row before they put on the cap logs (which are the top set of logs that go from the front of the house to the back and will support the roof overhangs and the back porch). Then the ridgepole support logs (which are vertical members that support the ridgepole) and then up goes the ridgepole (which supports the roof). After all that Dad and Dave will start building the roof and shed dormers (third level). At this point you are up to speed and even have a little insight to what the future holds, so without further ado here are the pictures from day one!!!!!