In the corner of the guesthouse stands a plastic fold-out table that is the closest we’ve had to a dining room table in two years. At the Yurt, it hosted crab feasts, laptop work, building plans, and puzzles. Most recently, it was the only table in the guesthouse and...
About a year ago, I wrote “Trees, Wood, and Fire” in the Ready for Rain newsletter and mentioned how our perspective on the fireplace had changed after living on Orcas for a while: We had a natural gas fireplace in the city which ignited with the push of a button, and...
The race is on. A couple of weeks ago, Drew, our contractor, set a date for our house to be insulated. We’re using spray foam insulation, which creates a hardened shell in the spaces in the walls. It also locks into place years of decisions and the work of...
It's a familiar story. Two friends decide to build a cabin in the woods where they can get away from desk jobs and spend time away from the city. These stories often cover the same territory: the dream runs headlong into reality. The story below is no different, but...
You've probably seen metal roofs on houses. They usually have "standing seams" like this: The roof on our house will be no different. In fact, it's one of our only options because the slope of the roof is so flat. For us, it's exactly what we need. A metal roof can...
Today our house is sporting an exterior look that reminds me of dazzle camouflage, which was used in WW1 (and to a smaller extend in WWII) to it difficult to estimate the range of other ships. We're not hoping to fool the enemy, but mother nature. The stripes on our...
If you picture a Japanese village in your mind, you’re likely to imagine buildings with a dark brown or black appearance, with a lot of character. This appearance, comes, in part, from an ancient Japanese method of charring wood to make it more resilient. The final product is called “yakisugi” or “shou sugi ban”. The Japanese found that charring the wood gave a unique character made it last longer.