Harry has arrived!
Well, let's be honest! We are very happy with our new charming greeter, Harry! He soon will be moved to the front corner of our house, a bit hiding in the trees to not be so obvious. He has the most welcoming face, but the size can be a bit intimidating. Why the heck Harry? Besides the fact, that he is one of the coolest characters and takes part in the movie “Harry and the Hendersons”, we just feel like he belongs to this island life. Right? We are officially the biggest fans of our very talented friend Scott Johnson with Scottys Carvings and have owned several of his wood carving pieces. More photos of Harry and the process, look in Here.
We also have been diligently working to install all of the systems in the house. Plumbing, mechanical and electrical.
The siding is close to complete.
The Mechanical system is an Zehnder HRV (heat recovery ventilator), which continuously moves air throughout the home. The unit takes the heat from the exhaust air and uses it to warm up the new fresh air, all while filtering the air with a HEPA filter. This continues 24/7 making the interior living condidtions more comfortable and fresh. With so many ventilation lines to run, it has been a struggle to get all the pipes in the ceiling and walls. We have had to fit things, drop areas of the ceiling and some squeezing through tight places!
The plumbing systems here includes the radiant floor tubing. We have continuous runs of plumbing tubing running throughout our concrete slab floors. Hot water will be pumped through these lines to warm the floors and radiat heat up into the living spaces, this is one of the most efficient and comfortable heating systems.
The kitchen, here our crew is laying out and framing the hood vent structure. Always thinking of the next step, we need to route the actual vent line for the air to flow out to the exterior, so this framing not only houses the vent hood, but also has to line up with the roof structure to allow for a 10” vent line up thru the roof. This will be particularly handy, when the wife burns dinner and smokes out the kitchen. (ha, very funny, Evan). The hood vent will suck up the air and keep the kitchen fresh with clean air.
The windows are installed.
The electrical systems in the home were done as a design build process, meaning, we walk through the framing and layout the lights and outlets they way we want them in the space. Also, of course, we have to wire to meet the electrical codes. With all of the wifi appliances these days, the low voltage wiring is mainly critical for getting full wifi coverage throughout the home and exterior spaces. Wifi does the rest!
The great benefit of living on the San Juan Islands, is boating. There are so many natures surprises, blooming algae on the Stuart Island, Sea Lions on Spieden Island and of course, Orca whales jumping not too far from us, is simply magical.
Shrimping season was open and Charlie managed to get us quite a feast!
Island life has been really great to us. Days are full of exciting things, meeting new friends and really embracing all it has to offer. We find that, time spent here, is more quality than it has ever been. TIME is the real gold in this world, right? We are out and about in nature, gardening, farming… our farm and farming is another great story for another day. Above all, we are very grateful for this new lifestyle and this Island.
Westcotts