A Day In The Life of Absentee Builders

"Hi Vince. This is Andy at Fogel Pump out here in Colville Washington. Yah we're at 380 feet and it's silty sand. No water yet. I'll call you on Monday." Guess that sort of makes up for the well at the shop in Plainfield when we hit water at 40 feet. 380 feet. I don't know much about wells but I think that's pretty deep. And I'm pretty sure they charge by the foot. What do you do when that happens? Do you say. "Here, let me just pay you for what you've done and we'll call it a day"?? We need a well so I suppose we have to keep going. Of course I'd never let myself think....."He says 380 feet. I know the well business is slow. We're in Massachusetts. He's in Washington....hmmmm.

The building permit for the cabin in Washington needs
1. The electrical permit for which we needed a street address. 242 Perkins Road. We finally got it yesterday.
2. An approved septic design. We have it. Pend Oreille County requires land-owners to install 1 of their 2 designs based on soil type...one expensive and one not as expensive...guess which one we had to get?
3. Building plans. We're pulling them together. Now that's a long story and the topic for my next entry.
4. A potable water source for which we need a well and based on the message from Andy...which I got on my birthday....we don't have yet.

Once we have the above four line items we can apply for the permit which they approve (or not) in 2 days. Then we buy our plane tickets to Spokane. Looks like the beginning of June depending on that well. I wonder if there is such a thing as digging a well and never hitting water?

Vince just finished drawing up the foundation plans and sent a few sets out yesterday (on my birthday) for prices. Lots of concrete for a 900 sf cabin. There are a couple areas of exposed concrete that will be 'board formed' which looks really cool. We have to be out on the site for the excavation just in case the digger decides it's easier to dig the hole somewhere besides where we want it dug. And then we have to be out there for the foundation pour just in case the foundation guy decides it would be a hassle to do the 'board formed' areas. It could happen. We figure we'll be out there a week. A week to line up some subcontractors and materials. Hke, ride our bikes, and visit friends.

Meanwhile. We continue to plug away at our 'to do' list here in Plainfield. My new birthday resolution is to do one big thing everday (and make sure that Vince does too) until we're done which has to be May 26 since our friend Eric from Montana is visiting us in Vermont.

I think there is some cliche' about anything worthwhile is a lot of work or is not easy or something which I've found is never not the case.

BTW. My birthday weather was perfect.

ps. captions to the photos are at the very bottom of my blog. I haven't figured out how to add text to those top images yet.

It's Complicated

It's not even 6 yet and I'm up. My right knee was hurting and I wanted to get a hot water bottle on it before Vince gets up and tells me I should be icing it instead. The canadian dollar is .1218 and It's 23 degrees and sunny. Other than a thread of wispy smoke snaking from my neighbor Linda's chimney, with a puddle of sun spreading across the hill behind it, my view is a sepia toned photograph.

I started this blog to answer the question, "What are you guys up to?" I don't want you to think that I think I'm so important and interesting that everyone needs to know what I do everyday but people do ask and generally my answer gets a glazed look. I've started just saying "Its complicated," which, in case they're just making conversation, gives them the option of either pursuing the subject or not.

"What are you guys up to?" stops me like my bike's front brake. I try to answer but when I don't really know myself, it's tough. Here is what I know. "Vince and I are moving to Nelson BC to go to film school." (the city photo at which you're looking is Nelson)

Which most likely is followed by either a confused look or one of several questions that can usually partly be answered with "We're building a tiny sustainable house in Metaline Falls Washington. School starts in September."

Then another blank look or question.

"We have a 58 acre field on the Pend Oreille River in Metaline Falls"

Question.

"Metaline Falls is in northeast Washington, has 200 people and is surrounded by 6000 foot mountains. It has a movie theater called The Clark, even though the marquee still says "Nu-Vue," that shows current-ish movies and smells like latex paint, popcorn and mildew. There is 200 seat performing arts theater, it's a hundred miles north of Spokane and the first town south of the Canadian border."

Then I'll get either, "I really have to get going" or "Why there?"

"I worked for the forest service there for five years about 30 years ago. Vince and I have a ton of friends (actually probably more like 2 tons) still there from that era so we get to hang out with them for a year. They're all really psyched but I'm sure that won't last long. (just in case...I always say that)

Here is where they may change the subject or walk away, but sometimes they ask another question.

"Nelson is a quirky town of 9,000 52 miles north of Metaline Falls. It's the number 1 small arts town in Canada. There are lots of really cool coffee shops and restaurants, a food co-op and a cross country ski area with a lit loop. It's in the mountains, on a lake and has a couple art schools. The school is no NYU and sounds like we may be learning with students that are way less than half our age and want to make snowboard videos."

If they haven't changed the subject or made up an excuse to leave by this time, I'll keep talking.

"In Nelson we're going to rent a place...or maybe buy something so Max can live with us during the week in Nelson. We'll be in Nelson Sunday or Monday night through Wednesday night and in Metaline Falls the rest of the time."

Now we know that when you go through Canadian customs on the way to Nelson you don't say you're going to school if you look like you're in your 50's because it raises all sorts of red flags and it could take 2 hours to get through. Mentioning 'fun' and 'school' in the same sentence gets the same reaction. Meanwhile, it will start to get dark and the 3 hour daylight ski becomes 45 minutes....most of it on that flat lit 1 km loop I was just bragging about.

When someone asks "When are you leaving?, it starts to get tricky and they really have to be interested to keep listening.

"Between now and September is mucky. We haven't started building the house in Metaline Falls yet. In fact, we don't have final plans or someone to build it. We have to clean up our Plainfield house and shop (that is now also a house...a BIG house) which will take about 3 weeks. We have to open the cape house where, last we heard, the pipes in the outdoor shower froze so we don't know what to expect. We want to finish the kitchen and staircase in Vermont which we haven't started partly because, Lars, the 'staircase specialist' needed to borrow a standard jig that I would think you'd have if you were a 'staircase specialist'. We want to go to the Cape for a couple weeks. We're trying to sell some stuff. We sold a chair and some lumber. The plane. An old creamery building that we had in Lake Benton, Minnesota and Kathy's Family but the unsold list is still really long. If WE build the Metaline Falls house, which is one of our options, we would have to be in there in a month or so but may have to come back a time or two while Plainfield is on the market IF we sell it because then we would have to move stuff out, but to where, we don't actually know. Even if WE don't build Metaline Falls ourselves we feel like we'd have to be out there a bunch because we've gotten fussy. If we do build it, we need to figure out subs. And where would we live? See? Complicated."

This is where someone who is just being polite starts to fidget and it's time to give them an out, like, "I'm sure you have a ton of stuff to do." or, if I really feel like they're being nice, excuse myself, "I have to get to the Post Office," or something like that.

Why do I feel like I'm talking to myself?

Visit Nelson:
http://everesttoday.info/kootphotos.htm

Visit Metaline Falls:
http://www.co.pend-oreille.wa.us/metaline.html

WANTED: One Routine. for daily use.

The clock on my computer says 5:09 am.

I'll bet you think I'm a real go-getter since I'm up so early and that's what I want you to think. I know that's what I think when someone gets such an early start. Truth is I hate getting up while it's still dark but I was awake anyway, having a hot flash. I can get up while it's still dark if I have a race or a plane to catch but I don't like it then either. But I want to like it. I want to feel like I have to get up this early in order to get everything done. I'm envious of people that have to get up this early to get everything done and they'd probably like to be able to get up whenever they wanted, like me.

In order to be fulfilled I think my life needs to be more harried. I want weekends to be different than weekdays.

It's starting to get light. The sun has a routine that a lot of people count on. That must feel good. I want to be like the sun.

Right now I burst into everyday with a pretty pathetic routine.
1. Get up (a lot later than 5:09 am).
2. Wash one window.
3. Make a cup of chamomile tea.
4. Check the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar and the local weather online.
After that I start to lose focus.

The reason my life is so wacky right now is that my husband Vince and I sold our business of 20 years almost 4 years ago just after I'd turned 49. It was a great business but we'd been working 80 hour weeks for years and thought we should want to do other things. We manufactured....yes, US manufacturing is possible, athletic apparel for clubs and teams nationally. Mostly for cyclists and cross-country skiers. Vince was the visionary who could make and fix anything and I managed day to day operations. We made a good team. We had around 20 employees. We walked 400 yards to work through the woods, had a groomed cross-country ski trail at our shop, our employees had health insurance and a 401K. Every year we had our Christmas party at a cozy local cross-country ski area where we ate vegetarian lasagna and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and had an annual drawing for employee of the year while a couple folk musicians played their guitar and banjo. Our sewers had expensive ergonomic chairs and quiet machines. It was after we sold the business that I realized how much I loved doing it. Oops. I still miss it. I miss our vendors, I miss our employees, I miss our customers. I miss making a lot of money. I miss being a boss. I miss having more to do than I could possibly get done.

BUT IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON.

Follow Vince and me as we charge into a new phase of our lives with a to-do list bigger than Obama's. Talk to you soon.