Barrister Style Cabinets

From...wait for it...Ikea. Yes, Ikea.

Removing the Lint Trap

I mean, the garden tool shed that doubles as an outlet for the dryer vent. Pulling that down was fun, including running into a small spider with a shiny black bulb, like this:

I killed it since it looked mean, and now it seems that it was a black widow. Since reading about spiders, I can feel them crawling in my hair and up my pant legs, but that's probably just the dust and lint combination :-).

The Great Deck Rip-Off

I don't know what the structure under the breezeway floor is. I think it is a concrete slab, poured on a wood form that was then dismantled and removed from under the concrete. Or it may be a wood floor on concrete stem walls. There is an access hatch, but I don't feel like crawling in.

Crawl space under the existing desk--I want to see inside that access door, and also, I want to figure out the plumbing at BR 3 (left). The mystery valve (right front) and the extension cord to nowhere need figurin' out as well.

So, I took off the railing. Pieces of it were squishy with moisture, and it hasn't rained in a couple of days.

I opened up the dryer vent cabinet, too (they had screwed half of the pair of doors in place. We can see that the cabinet was not original, because the siding and the soffitt continue inside.

Update 4/9/15--I removed the "garden shed" yesterday. Kevin came over this afternoon with his circular saw, his sawzall and his construction acumen, and together we opened the deck up so that I could check under the breezeway.

Kevin had the brilliant idea of just removing part of the deck, so that the backyard is still accessible. He also suggested we put up a guardrail of sorts rather than just leave the drop off unprotected. I'm smart, too--I put the square white louvers on the dryer vent.

Green Stormwater Infrastructure

This has been a tricky design. I think that if I install two rain barrels on the sideyards and route the downspouts to them, I'll have kept nearly 100% of the stormwater hitting the roof from impacting the storm sewer, Carkeek, or the neighbors. These rain barrels can fill jugs for landscape watering, or can be pumped to provide hose pressure. Each rain barrel has an overflow pipe that I can direct toward one of two rain gardens in the front yard or, for the middle downspout, to the driveway.

I'm showing concrete bulkheads to strengthen the drainage swale pipe, then gravel from the street on either side of the driveway. The City of Seattle has a form for requesting approval to build in the street right of way--I think this is the sort of thing they'll accept. With two cars in the garage, two in front of the garage and four head-in from the street, we've got an 8-car party.

Need to come up with an approved "semi-permeable" driveway material.

I worked out that the new entry path is a gentle ramp. So is the path from driveway to west side deck to BR3. I show stepping stones at the entrance to BR4 (the former living room) because we need steps at the brick planter if the brick planter is to remain.

How Big is a Car?

Remodeling the driveway. Guest parking spot(s) would be nice. So, how big is a car? I picked three models and found the manufacturer's dimensions for their 2015 models.

Model	Length	Width	Height
Toyota Camry	15' 10-7/8"	5' 11-11/16"	4' 9-7/8"
Nissan Leaf	14' 7"	5' 9-11/16"	5' 1"
Ford Escape	14' 10-1/8"	6' 9-13/16"	5' 6-5/16"

NW 118th Street is 20' wide, and the neighbors across the way often parallel park, leaving a single 12- 14' lane, so parallel parking on my side is unlikely to work.

Oh, Hail No!

It was dry here at 5:30 a.m., teeming at 7 a.m., so loudly that you could hear it inside. We could hear it because it was actually hail.

Hail piles up on the back window of the car

Hail reveals the deck structure

Planning for rainwater, we talk about a storm surge dropping 3" per hour. I'd guess we saw almost an inch in about fifteen minutes.

Environmental Impact, no fooling

Dave Williams of Zipper Geo is out this morning, putting stakes in the ground where his soil boring people should drill as soon as April 6. He wants to do this in person to minimize the chance that the drillers hit some underground utilities. I showed him where the sewer and water lines leave the north wall of the basement and where the oil tank is.

Between now and drilling, I'm told that utility locating people (USA) might come by and spray paint the street.

This is quick work--I only signed a contract with Zipper yesterday at 5pm. He said they should have the report in four weeks--about April 28--but hopefully a week or two sooner. The geotech report is the critical path until they deliver it, at which time my architectural drawings become the critical path. After that, Seattle DPD is the critical path, followed by my foundation contractor.

I still don't have a final design, but I have to start thinking about when to brief the neighbors. Preferably, I'd show them a rendering before I submit plans to the city. Also, the folks to the east (the Swierz's) have a drain pipe emptying into Carkeek--Mr. Williams said he would have to mention that in his report.

Update 4/3/15: Joseph from USIC (not USA) came by looking for buried gas and Comcast lines. I showed him the overhead Comcast and confirm no gas, so he spray painted "No gas, no Comcast" on the street and took off. Nice guy.

Update 4/3/15: Soil boring is scheduled for Friday, 4/10, before noon.