Smugglers Cove Whidbey Island

Patience is a virtue.  Whatever.  I am ready for this to get to the next step.

I feel like we are in a state of suspension.  Oil drifting slowing through ice cold water.  Droplets left to idly float down.  Snail speed.  Abandoned to drift through the fluid.  Plodding.

Spring has probably begun on the island.  We’ll find out eventually.  Has the winter drowned all prospects of an early clearing?  Will there be inches of gooey wet mud through which to slog?  Of course there will be; especially after a few chosen trees hit the earth.

I need spring.  I need motion and sprouting and activity.  February has an extra day this year…of course it does!

..so we look for a new/old temporary home. We left Southern California in a 15-foot travel trailer and it was quite comfortable.  Now we need something that will hold us and 2 70+pound dogs and 2 cats.  Really?

We didn’t have any sort of bathroom in the TravelEze 15 footer.  Trailers now come with everything a person could ever need.  I don’t think they call them trailers.

We keep looking for temporary homes.  We are vigorously discussing what we need.  Can the dogs live outside in a kennel?  Oh..then we need a kennel.  How will the cats do in a small environment?

When we moved to Kent, Washington in 19-something or other… we lived in that 15 footer, on the beach, for several weeks.  No wait….long departed cats lived in the trailer.  Our children lived in one tent and we lived in another tent.  Yes we did.  We had a television in one of the tents.  We had houseplants lining our campsite.  The cats eventually wandered out into the forest, we sat with baited breath and they came back.  They were let into the trailer and we went back to our tents.

We were the Joads.

We might be the Joads again.

Change is good.

The other day, while grading papers, I had some old music playing in the background.  It was good music, but not all the songs were my choice.  It dawned on me that in our new home we MUST get a new turntable and break out all of our albums.  Yes, vinyl.  They have been boxed since we left Alaska.  Seriously.  I want to pull out an album and be my own personal DJ.  Line that needle up to the exact tune I want to hear.  When my favorite Neil Young album slipped from my fingers and a chunk broke off, I could not throw it away.  I simply dropped the need past the breakage and dealt with it; beautifully.

And dancing to the music.  I love to dance, especially in the privacy of my own home.  Rocking and rolling to the music and shouting and being bodacious!

When I was a youngster, we had a marvelous Magnavox hi fi.  My father ran the Dance Club where he taught.  I think all of us girls went along, rather than have a sitter.  I loved every minute of it.  We’d bring the 45’s home for safekeeping and I’d play them all the time.  My mother loved Sinatra and I did, too.  Then there was Jack Jones, classical music, and show tunes.  My folks would leave the house and I’d have that Magnavox loaded up in a flat second.  I’d dance and sing and just love life.  I get to do it again.  I still have some of those 45’s…yes, I do!

All of that lush green forest is currently covered with snow.  I want to be there and see what a layer of white looks like along Smugglers Cove.  If the house was done, I would do nothing more than throw a log on the fire and break open a book.  We could bake bread, cook up some soup and look out the windows.

There would be bird-feeders to fill and logs to carry into the house.  Why else would we leave?  Think of the silence of falling snow in that forest.  A walk might be a necessity.  The dogs would insist!  The cats will be content to sit in a window sill and chatter at the birds.

Things are moving along and I am anxious to push forward.  The rental is on its way off our list of burdens.  Soon, soon.

Tonight, I looked out the window and caught the final colors of the sunset and I was reminded of my time in Durango when our grandson came and told me to come look at the colors in the sky.  He was right…it was quietly spectacular.  The fact that he noticed that at 4 years of age reminds me that he is a gentle soul and a beautiful boy.  He will love the island and now, we will have a loft with a ladder for him to turn into a pirate castle or a dragon’s lair.  There will be a trunk with costumes and regalia and his imagination will blossom. Hold that thought little man!

Buckle up and hang on, the roller coaster has left the gate….

Here is the latest house plan we are going with (about 1900 square feet) and the current site plan.  The East side and 1/2 of the South side will have a wrap around covered porch (~8 feet wide) and the other portion of the South side by the kitchen/dining/great room will have a “patio area” of a slab or pavers of some sort about 10 feet wide. That side will also be 9 or 10 feet high rather than 8 to pick up additional solar through the windows.

The site plan has iterated from a road and 1/2 acre cleared to a road and 2++ acres cleared. We also will probably log an area of ~1/2 acre or so of mature alder trees and replant with alder, douglas fir or some other more desirable tree species than the predominate hemlocks.  The extra clearing will hopefully allow enough sun in to make a PV array workable on the roof, getting us to a zero energy house that can produce more energy than it uses over a 12 month period.

We also plan to put the remaining +-9 acres into either open space or timber management to ensure it stays the same in the future, a house surrounded by natural NW coastal forest.

Remember last summer?  Cleaning, sorting and tossing?  All those loads taken to thrift stores, sold or trashed?  Here’s the funny thing.  We are now in the process of selling one house and getting ready to sell our own home.  We need to “stage” both homes.  So…I am now perusing the Craigslist ads in hopes of finding suitable, inexpensive items.

I am also a big fan of buying from the thrift stores, not just giving to them.  Above is the most recent purchase.  A love seat that in now in the soon-to-be-sold rental and then brought to our home for further duty.  It sits quietly in the corner, at an angle thank you very much, luring in prospective home owners.  An inviting seat with a simple throw on its arm.  This little gem of a love seat cost me twelve dollars and fifty cents.  I love it.  I think it might go to the island.  Why not?

This morning was extraordinary.  Got up around 5 and got some coffee brewing.  Went out to the deck and lit up the chimenea.  Dragged out the dog beds, as the temperature was around 23.  Pulled up a chair next to the fire; coffee, mittens and hat on and all was well.  There in the pitch black sky was a brilliant full moon…and a lunar eclipse was about to begin.

As I sat there with the dogs in the quit of the forest, I thought about the new house.  I need to have a deck that can accommodate a chimenea, so that we can sit outside and listen to the forest waking up.  That early morning solitude is a rejuvenating force.  I wanted to share this experience with someone, but no one seemed to be up, so the dogs and I shared the experience.

About 3/4 of the way into the eclipse., the moon began to fall behind the trees.  I sat there, warm and cozy, debating if I should jump in the car and become a lunar eclipse chaser.  The moon won.  Still in pj’s, I shot out to the car and drove up the road to higher ground.  I sat and watched.

Again, the moon fell out of sight.  I jumped back on the road and chased the moon again.  I found a slightly higher bit of land and pulled off the road.  That’s when I noticed the upper edge of the mountains come into view.  Who would win the race?  Would I get to see the entire eclipse or would the mountains steal it away.  Again, the moon won.

Wish I had a photo to share with you.  My mind is full of beautiful images.  I hope some of you woke early and shared this show with me.

The property holds many of these old growth tree stumps beauties.  Supposedly, there is a term for them, but I have yet to unearth it.  I did find the term “nurse log” and it refers to fallen trees that have nurtured new growth.  We also have a lot of that going on.  But, these stumps that are delicately fostering ferns and berries and vines are gorgeous.  We are hoping that we lose none of these beauties when we log for the home site.

…and whiskers on kittens…

Answering a questionnaire about what we want in the new house.  It all seems rather straightforward.  How many sinks in the kitchen; what type of oven, tub or shower, formal dining room, etc.  After initial responses, my mind took off with the nuances and reality of these decisions.  Seemingly simple questions and answers that will impact the rest of my life.

How do I convey the home I want?  Rusted metal and driftwood need to be an integral part of my new home.  Small treasures found on walks through the woods need an important spot.  Revolving art on the walls, along with weavings and found objects.  A place to read and sew and write. A nook for knitting.  A kitchen built for a master chef and a kitchen that will be comfortable to an aspiring bread baker.  Warm colors.  Soothing textures.  Calmness.  Warmth.

The whirlwind of summer tossing, cleaning and painting has faded away. Fall settled in. We have talked endlessly about our wants and needs in our new home.  Builders and architects and plans were viewed.   Ups and downs and questions and concerns.  Another trip to the island ensued.  That trip, recently completed, has proven to be very fruitful.

One of our first stops was a home in Seattle built using SIPS.  This is the path we seem to be headed down.  The home was tight, conservative and wonderful.  Stained concrete heated floor, recycled timber floors upstairs, the most amazing toilets we had ever seen, windows, and quietude.  Good things to see and touch and ponder.

The above photo is from the ferry, later that afternoon, headed towards the island.  How can that not be inspiring?  Beautiful.

We spent several days traipsing around the property marking off wetlands and the home site and a possible driveway.  We met with several people and finally found someone who seems to share our vision.  This is tough stuff.

I am unable to be on the property and “see” my future home.  Haven’t a clue.  I wish I had the ability to imagine what it could be.  We met someone who has that ability.  I wanted to be in his head.  The wheels were turning.  When he proposed a simple change in the driveway, it just seemed so sensible.  The more we walked, the better sense it made.

While we seemed to be headed in the right direction, we were still consumed with doubts and questions and the reality of building a home from scratch.  We started to think staying in Colorado might be the way to go.  Maybe we should find an already existing home in Whidbey and save ourselves money and angst.  Like I said, this is tough stuff.

We got back to our hotel exhausted, cold and discouraged.  Then we received an e-mail from the builder.  It was one of the most beautifully written pieces we’d ever read.  His vision had even made it into words.

So, off we go to the next step and the next and the next and the next…