Small House Living

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In our house, we describe certain circumstances as “luxury problems.” We are well aware that we are privileged to have the means to build a beautiful cottage from the ground up. It is fun, it is exciting, and we are fortunate to get it just right…except for one thing. Decisions must be made about what stays and what goes. Things must go, and yes, they are just things. And when the large things go because they are too large, small things must be purchased. This is an example of a luxury  problem. Marie Kondo we are not!

Meredith, Elyse, and new pup Alice shopping for plants to fill up our shared backyard. 

Meredith, Elyse, and new pup Alice shopping for plants to fill up our shared backyard. 

Here are some things that Meredith and Elyse discovered way back in the spring while moving from a 1300 square foot home with a garage to a 613 square foot home without one:

  1. There will be many arguments. If I have to give away a table, you have to give away a desk. 
  2. Things you thought you could never part with will suddenly find a new home.
  3. Downsizing is highly emotional and second guessing this whole plan will occur.
  4. No one makes recliners that are small enough to replace the ones you once loved.
  5. When you find a recliner you think is small enough, it just isn’t the same.
  6. Books take up a lot of space. You try to convince yourself, you no longer need to keep lots of books because you have a Kindle. This is sad. Very sad. 
  7. Family photographs make the cut but they still have to live in the crawlspace.
  8. You will forget where things are stored. Christmas ornaments will have to be found next year.
  9. Precious collections can be downsized. You discover which tablecloths are your favorites, which photos show up on the wall again, and how to re-think your wardrobe.
  10. When you break through denial, the downsizing does lose some of it’s sting. Benefits begin to show up. Cozy spaces can still be created once the boxes are out of the way. It is fun to see our stuff being used by people we love.
Maude and Alice patrol the backyard. 

Maude and Alice patrol the backyard. 

Summer has officially arrived in Seattle and we thought you might like an update on how our settling in process is going. It turns out we can gather with friends in the living room, there is ample counter space to cook family meals, and it truly feels like home. The garden is blooming, the pups are free to roam, and on any given evening we can be seen chatting between the two houses from our back windows.

Oh, and our new storage shed is just adorable, isn't it? 

Boxes Little Boxes

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Whoa, boy did we have boxes. 92 of them, to be exact. And they weren't filled with ticky tacky, either. Instead, they arrived full of all of the necessary components for our new kitchen cabinets. Now we know why Joe isn’t the biggest fan of Ikea! The puzzle has finally been completed and our kitchen officially looks like, well, a real kitchen. 

We've logged quite a few busy weeks since our last post. We're happy to report that we passed the sewer inspection, the houses are breathing together and the trenches are filled, giving us some sturdy ground to walk on (and landscaping to dream about). 

All the doors have arrived and most have been installed. The temporary front door has been replaced with its beautiful permanent cousin (soon to be painted). 

And speaking of painting! Kevin and his crew finished painting the cottage last week and will soon be headed over to Drew and Jacob's house to create a matching set. Bye, bye ugly purple porch! We just hope they'll be able to tackle the 100+ years of paint over at the big house (yikes). After that, the interior walls of the cottage will be painted a delicious shade of creamy butter. 

Have we mentioned the floors? And the stairs? Oh, friends, they're gorgeous. 

Joe put his tiling skills to good use and did a wonderful job on the upstairs bathroom. Toilet shopping isn't a glamorous job, but that's what we'll be tackling next. One throne for the tiny powder room downstairs and one for the full-size bath off the upstairs bedroom. 

Meanwhile back in West Seattle, Elyse and Meredith are trying to keep pace with the progress in Ballard. Downsizing is in full swing which means numerous trips to the Northwest Center truck in the Alaska Junction. Moving from a 1,700 square foot home to a 613 square foot cottage means lots of choices about what stays and what goes. Last week they officially put their home on the market and are hoping to find the perfect buyers soon. 

As always, you can see regular updates by following us on Instagram @abackyardcottage!

Month Three

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This past weekend marked our third month of construction. We celebrated by picking out cabinets and buying light fixtures. So much has happened since the crew arrived that May morning to knock down Drew and Jacob's fence! Since it's been a bit since we last updated you on our progress, here's a full rundown of where we are today. 

WRAPPED

Meredith and Elyse returned from a short vacation and immediately drove to visit Drew and Jacob, although we suspect that they simply couldn't keep themselves away from the cottage any longer. Much to their delight it was snug as a house in a TYVEK home wrap, which we understand to be a very scientific material that prevents our very damp Pacific Northwest climate from infiltrating the cottage thus warding off rot and mold. 

STEP BY STEP

The stairs are fully functioning, leading to the bedroom, sitting room, bathroom and closet complete with a peek-a-boo view of Puget Sound. Going into the project we had no idea that a tiny view of the water would be waiting for us on the second floor. 

NO PANE NO GAIN

What a difference the window installation makes! Seventeen in all plus a little skylight in the upstairs bathroom. The windows will create a glorious cross breeze in hotter months and provide lots of light year round. 

RAISING THE ROOF

The roof was completed on one of the hottest days of the summer, so kudos to the crew for their skills and sweat! A week later, it endured its very first rainstorm and is no worse for wear. 

SIDE BY SIDE

Siding makes us happy. The cottage has board and batten siding on its upper half for a bit of pizazz. The belly band near the upstairs windows also adds a bit of flair, and is a nod to the Ballard neighborhood's Scandinavian roots. 

A COOL DRINK of WATER

Plumbing is a three part process. Petr began his work before the foundation was poured. Prior to sheet rocking, he put pipes in the walls connected the water line from the main house to the cottage. The next step is digging towards Drew and Jacob's house to attach the cottage to the main century old sewer line. Installing the fixtures will be the last step.

IT'S ELECTRIC

We have a fuse box! Prior to commencing the wiring process, a meeting was held with Joe and Dan of Wright Electric to determine placement of lights upstairs and down.

REPORT CARD

All along the way the cottage has been inspected. These inspections have included evaluation of the concrete forms, foundation, plumbing, framing, electric, and insulation. We passed all inspections with flying colors, which is a testimony to Joe’s fine work. 

WARM AND COZY

Our insulation looks like some of the coziest around, if we do say so ourselves. It is the latest addition to the cottage and will keep Meredith and Elyse warm in the winter when they finally move in!

WRITING ON THE WALL

A fun perk to building a cottage from scratch is being able to write on the walls during the planning process. Joe has lovely fat pencils. Last week we spent nearly two hours figuring out the placement of the kitchen cabinets. At the same time we've been on the hunt for a 24 inch stove and refrigerator. We’ve had success with both. We're now entering the zone of choice, lots and lots of choice. Dry wall starts next week, followed by digging a trench to connect the plumbing. Updates to come! 

Let's Pause for a Tribute

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In 1956 Meredith’s father Richard built a playhouse for his children in the backyard of their Palo Alto home from a set of Sunset Magazine blueprints. It was painted in primary colors, had a ladder that led to the roof, and a chalk board wall to the left of the front door.

Meredith and her playhouse, 1956.

Meredith and her playhouse, 1956.

In 1988 Richard (otherwise known as Opa to his grandchildren) built the identical playhouse for his granddaughter Drew in her childhood backyard in Seattle. 

Drew and Meredith in front of the playhouse Opa built for Drew in 1988. 

Drew and Meredith in front of the playhouse Opa built for Drew in 1988. 

We mention this because Opa passed away peacefully on June 27th at the age of 90 in the midst of our backyard cottage project. It seems he was always a trend setter, always loved an adventure, and always loved a project. Building and transformation are in the gene pool. We carry on. We miss him.

Opa holding Drew, 1984.

Opa holding Drew, 1984.

One Family’s Trash is Another Family’s Treasure

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Hello, friends! We’ve been hard at work documenting the building process. If you’d like to follow along for daily updates, check out our brand new Instagram account.

Today we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with an important history lesson. 

Who knew that in the middle of all of this construction we’d unearth archeological wonders? Remember the second mysterious brick foundation Joe and his crew discovered during demolition? Well that wasn’t the only thing we found in the dirt. We’ve turned into veritable super sleuths these past few weeks and are here to tell you all about what lies beneath.

Away We Go!

Drew and Jacob’s house was built in 1910, just one year after the great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (also known as Seattle’s first world’s fair), which was responsible for much of the development of the University of Washington and the surrounding area. Back then Seattle’s population was an expansive 237,194 people. 17,000 of those residents lived in Ballard, the cozy neighborhood in which Drew and Jacob’s home still stands today (obviously, or else we wouldn’t be here writing about ourselves in the third person).

An early photo of Drew and Jacob's house from the 1930's, complete with dormer windows and a working chimney.  

An early photo of Drew and Jacob's house from the 1930's, complete with dormer windows and a working chimney.  

Drew did some digging (pun fully intended) at the King County Archives when they first bought the house and found a few pieces of interesting info, including original photos of the property from both the 30’s and the 70’s. While there aren’t many official records of renovation on file, it seems that every family that’s owned the house has done some serious work on it. Over the last hundred plus years, a sewer line was added, the porch was turned into a kitchen, the basement was finished and turned into bedrooms, and the dormer windows were removed, as was the fireplace and half of the chimney (sad). Most importantly to this story, the outbuilding located in the backyard was torn down and replaced with a garage.

Are you still with us? Good.

Back to the present, Joe and his crew from Viking Construction began the process of demolishing Drew and Jacob’s garage about a month ago. Everything was halted once the guys stumbled upon mysterious brick “walls” underneath the garage foundation. Drew arrived home that afternoon to the scene pictured below, complete with a question mark spray painted onto the brick structure. She quickly posted it to Instagram and Facebook, asking the people of the Internet to wildly speculate as to what it might be. Answers ranged from “an old septic tank” to “a root cellar” to “a bomb shelter”. One of her friends recommended breaking out the EMF reader and doing some ghost hunting, but she’s far too superstitious for that.

After some hand wringing and calling in the experts, it was determined that the bricks were simply another older foundation that hadn’t been removed when the newer garage structure was built sometime in the 50’s (property records show right around 1951 for a little under $100). But wait! That’s when things get interesting. Beneath the area inside of the brick walls, the crew discovered trash! And lots of it. There was charcoal from wood burning, parts of a wheel assembly from an old car, manufactured metal objects, and three glass bottles. All signs pointed to the area being a good old fashioned dump site. Our super sleuthing powers were activated.

Live From the Garbage Dump

In 1905, around five years before Drew and Jacob’s house was built, The Seattle Sunday Times ran an exposé of one of Seattle’s original landfills. Seattle had successfully and horrifyingly created a pile of garbage 120 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 60 feet deep on the city’s southern tide flats. Check out these headlines:

LIVE FROM GARBAGE DUMP
Scores of Men, Women and Children Daily Gang of Scavengers Exist Upon Decayed Food Carried Away by Human Beings Make Their Homes in Miserable Huts on the Tidelands in Places Unfit for Habitation of Animals

Yikes. It was no wonder, really, as Seattle’s population nearly tripled between 1900 and 1910. After the population boom, the city eventually made a major investment in sanitation, and garbage disposal was put under the direction of the health department. Still, there existed three types of dumps in Seattle well into the 1940’s: landfills, “sanitary” dumps (how sanitary these actually were is debatable), and finally, burning dumps. The Ballard neighborhood maintained a large landfill site near Market Street at 28th Avenue NW, but regular citizens with enough backyard space could easily burn garbage of their own. And that’s exactly what the former residents of Drew and Jacob’s house appear to have done. We have the bottles and assorted car parts to prove it.

Now About Those Bottles...

Just in case you ever stumble upon a garbage dump in your backyard full of bottles in need of archeological dating, don’t fret. The Internet has your back. Drew took a deep dive into the World Wide Web’s many glass collector sites to get to the bottom of this mystery. As previously mentioned, we happened upon three glass bottles: two that appear to be beer bottles and one vessel that looks almost medicinal in nature.

The base of the smaller, clear glass bottle with imprints indicating when and where it was manufactured.

The base of the smaller, clear glass bottle with imprints indicating when and where it was manufactured.

Through researching the imprints on the bottom of all three bottles, Drew was able to determine the manufacturer of each, as well as the years they were produced.

$15, A Borrowed Horse, and Four Types of Medicines: W.T. Rawliegh's Remedies

A Rawliegh's salesman in front of his wagon, circa 1909. 

A Rawliegh's salesman in front of his wagon, circa 1909. 

W.T. Rawliegh launched a humble door-to-door sales operation in 1889, traveling the rural Illinois countryside by horse selling a whole variety of medicines and extracts. Fun fact: Rawliegh even produced a popular colic cure for horses and cattle made of cannabis oil prior to the criminalization of marijuana in 1937. 

Perhaps our bottle was purchased at New Deal Fuel. This little grocery store was located at the corner of 65th & 8th Ave NW, a short walk from Drew and Jacob's house. This photo was snapped in 1935.Credit: Museum of History & Industry

Perhaps our bottle was purchased at New Deal Fuel. This little grocery store was located at the corner of 65th & 8th Ave NW, a short walk from Drew and Jacob's house. This photo was snapped in 1935.

Credit: Museum of History & Industry

By the time 1914 rolled around, the W.T. Rawleigh Co. was recognized as one of the largest manufacturers of household products in the United States. While the horse and buggy salesmen of yesteryear were long gone when the previous residents of Drew and Jacob’s house purchased what appears to be a vial of vanilla extract, W.T. Rawleigh’s business was still booming.

A scan of the back page of Rawleigh's 1935 Good Health Guide, picturing a variety of medicine and extract bottles similar to the one found in our backyard.

A scan of the back page of Rawleigh's 1935 Good Health Guide, picturing a variety of medicine and extract bottles similar to the one found in our backyard.

The little clear glass vessel unearthed from the backyard appears to be from 1935, an early machine made bottle that could have held a number of flavorings or medicines before being discarded in our unofficial burning dump. Drew managed to find an illustration of packaging from that time from Rawleigh’s annual Good Health Guide, Almanac and Cookbook. We promptly purchased it on Ebay, of course!

“Tested in the laboratories, proved in millions of homes…and tossed in our backyard” just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, wouldn’t you agree?

“Tested in the laboratories, proved in millions of homes…and tossed in our backyard” just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, wouldn’t you agree?

“Two Bottles of Beer in the Dirt” is much less catchy than “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”

The two beer bottles were found side by side, tossed together during what we hope was a lovely summer evening of garbage burning. Markings on the bottom of each amber bottle indicate that they were manufactured by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company in 1935 at the Alton, Illinois plant. While we’ve pinpointed the manufacturer, the brand of beer is nearly impossible to identify, with many local brews sporting the popular “steinie” bottle at the time, including Seattle’s own Rainier Beer.

Steinie style bottles from the 30's, including Rainier Special Export Beer. Steinie bottles were designed to mimic familiar import beer bottle shapes. 

Steinie style bottles from the 30's, including Rainier Special Export Beer. Steinie bottles were designed to mimic familiar import beer bottle shapes. 

So what does all of this mean, anyway?

It means that the Internet is a bountiful cornucopia of information! And also that the ground on which our backyard cottage will sit has a lived a life of its own. And also that there was originally an outbuilding with a brick foundation on the property that most likely was demolished sometime prior to the 1930’s. For the next 20 years, the site was probably used as an informal dump until a garage was built in its place in 1951.

Whew! If you’d like to nerd out on bottle dating of all kinds, Glass Bottle Marks is a great resource. Looking for even more dirt? You can read more about Seattle’s early garbage woes (complete with photos) here.

See you soon with lots of photos of our progress, including framing and a second floor. And remember to follow us on Instagram for daily updates!