The SunnySide: Sunnyside House Project Wrap Up

After much delay, we feel we can make "the final" posting on the Sunnyside house project (though, are house projects ever "really" done?).

Between now and the last post in November 2018, a lot has happened. We've done a lot of trim work and landscaping, and getting things organized inside. It's safe to say the house is really feeling like a home now.

Here's a summary of what we've been up to. Note: click any photo to see the larger version.

In November 2018 we took delivery of some top soil and worked to make the yard presentable for the final inspection. We also grabbed some sod and laid it in the front parking strip.

We also had the front railings finished up and I glued the gaps down on the top of the wall.

Proper steps and entry to our new house!

If you try, it almost looks like the entry to the old house.

The top soil in the front beds behind the wall was much nicer to look at than the gravel. You can see down in the street the excavator. It made prepping the parking strip for sod (installed) so much easier. It was also a huge help in lifting the top soil up and over the wall.

With the wall and railing done, and top soil in, the house was starting to look real nice and "done".

We had some extra sod so we laid it around the small back deck. 48 hours later is was dead (re: kids!). Take note of the stone and brick piles in the back of the photo. That'll come up below as we tackled the back yard.

This is a rain garden. We applied for this design in February 2017. It was approved April 2019. It is a box of dirt and plants with a drain pipe at the bottom. As simple as that is, the city made the design process similar to that of the Death Star. If you'd like to know more about how to build a rain garden in Seattle, please read Seattle Municipal Code 22, Subsection 8, and the Storm Water Manual Volumes 1-5, plus the appendices, as well as SCDI Directors' Rules 17-2017 and SPU DWW 200. In addition, you should read the 2016 Storm Water Manual Clarification Sheet (real shocker that they need this!) and Appendix F: Hydrologic Analysis and Design. All of these documents can also be found at your local library by picking up a copy of Dante's Inferno.

With the landscaping done (enough) for inspection, we got to installing needed interior hardware, like this shelving system in the main storage closet.

Bam. Nailed it. This space has since become filled with games and seasonal stuff. HUGE asset to have this storage.

We also got some simple desks from Ikea and got the office set up. It's been so nice to have a dedicated space for working.

As December arrived, work on the fireplace built-ins began. They were a little delayed, but finished just in time for Christmas (sans the actual mantel).

Michele and Laura were getting in the Christmas spirit by taking clippings from our tree to (literally) string them together and make another Christmas tree for Laura's apartment. It actually turned out really nice.

The tree is in and the mantel hung with stockings. December 25, 2018: the first Christmas in our new home. So very grateful to God and to all our friends and family for this incredible blessing.

When time allowed, some decorations even started to go up. We hung an old Sunnyside Ave N street sign a friend got for us above the office/craftroom door. Great spot.

You may notice our mailbox in this photo. It was put there after having our mail held for weeks (without our knowledge), and two months of arguing with the post office about proper mailbox placement. At the risk of saying something uncharitable about the USPS, I'll simply say we are grateful to have mail arriving again. BTW: regardless of what the code/rules for box placement say, the USPS reserves the right to make you do whatever they want in any situation. I feel like quoting William Wallace here....

One of the fun projects Michele and I did together was reclaim this old piece of wood from her family farm. After some cleanup and sizing, we got it hung on the wall as a coat and backpack rack. Makes the space even more functional.

February brought Snowmageddon. I love the snow. Everything becomes quiet and clean, and the world is forced to slow down. It was also a great test of the gas fireplace (works!) and HVAC systems (also works!).

Sunnyside in the snow.

The more pressing work slowly became the MIL space. Wanting to rent it soon, and with friends arriving in April, we got the final trim work and cleaning done over the course of a month. This is the kitchen space and front door. To the left is the hall to the two bedrooms, bath and laundry space.

The wall to the left is what separates the MIL space and our half of the downstairs. Thankfully, we had the foresight to frame a door frame in the wall so that in the future, if we want, we can install a doorway between our half and the MIL.

As Easter arrived, we can say that most of the interior work was done, aside from a little trim upstairs...oh, and painting our interior doors.

With the project coming to a close, our architect wanted to take some interior photos of the various completed spaces. The next few photos are how the house looks now (but not as clean!).

The entry way. Photos on the wall are of the Sunnyside house over the years since about 1936.

Main floor powder room.

Kitchen looking East.

Kitchen looking West, towards the front door.

Living room. Still need to add blinds and the wood top to the mantel.

Panorama of the main floor looking West. Click to see the larger version.

Panorama of the dining and kitchen spaces looking West. Click to see the larger version.

One of Michele's joys is having a dedicated craft space. With some help from Ikea, we finally got it set up for her. She had been really patient about this room since it had functioned as our work room/tool storage for much of the project.

The downstairs bonus space, which is basically just a place space for the kids. Garage access is around the corner to the left. Also, the window to the left is that egress window we had to put in AFTER the fact. Note: cutting a concrete foundation for a window is not fun.

The laundry room. Michele was a champ in organizing this space. It was narrower than we had hoped, but with some shelving, a laundry chute, and strategic basket management, it's worked out well.

This is the TV room, which is next to the laundry room. That back door is the mechanical room, which houses the water heater and networking gear.

Downstairs looking East.

Master bathroom. The free standing tub is the kids' new favorite thing in the house.

Daniel and Peter's bedroom.

Aaron and Matthew's bedroom.

Coming to Seattle? Need a place to stay? Book your reservation for the Salmon Suite (aka our guestroom)!

This is the guestroom bathroom. We hadn't intended to finish it, and thought we'd tackle that in the future. But the cost to wrap it up was so little compared to the rest of the project that we decided to go for it - and we're glad we did. It's been a great space for friends.

Upstairs hall looking towards the guest room.

One of the bigger stories of the house has been the back yard, and what to do with all the stone we saved from the old house foundation. We had originally intended to use it to rebuild the front retaining wall, but we quickly realized that was insane. This photo is actually from the fall of 2018. And as you can see, rock is everywhere, and the yard a mess.

Over the course of construction, we removed the old raised bed to the left of the play structure.

This is the cornerstone of the old house. If you notice in the first backyard photo, the stone was on the right side of the yard. We rolled it to the left of the yard and it became the anchor for what eventually became an epic stone wall system. How we got the stone over there is a story for another day.

With the stone in place, I started to lay out stones for the raised bed under the hedge.

The basics of it came together OK, but later, Michele made it much better.

After working on it here and there for a month or two, the stone layout on one side of the backyard was in place. In the center of the photo is the beginnings of the grotto we hoped to build.

From the beginning we had entrusted the construction project to our Blessed Mother, and had always intended to do something in the house project to honor Her. With the backyard stone work underway, we realized quickly she wanted us to build a grotto. And we did!

After a couple days of work, the basics of the grotto were complete.

This is a view from the second story looking into the backyard. You can still see a large pile of rock behind the play structure. Those rocks were used in phase 2. I was convinced we still had too many rocks left, but Michele thought otherwise. Not surprisingly, she turned out to be right.

Phase 2 was using the remaining stone to finish raising the garden beds and building up the back retaining wall. Here, the start of the wall can be seen.

Michele went crazy one weekend and built two bump-out garden beds on either side of the grotto. It was brilliant.

The wall was hard work, but progress was made. Putting it in really cleaned up the back property line nicely.

What seemed impossible was finally done: all the rock had been used for garden beds and walls.

After hunting around for a bit, we finally found a proper Marian statue to place in our grotto. Praise God for watching over us, and for Our Lady's intercession throughout this project! We'll now be petitioning the Vatican to recognize Our Lady of Greenlake as an official devotion:)

Another panoramic shot of the back yard, but now with some plants in the beds.

In just the past few weeks we upgraded the front garden beds with some raised beds of their own.

In each of the beds the kids have planted some seeds and made them their little gardens.

May 2019: with gardening started, and just a few projects left inside and out, the house is basically "done". It is really hard to believe we're here after more than a year of work. We lived out of our house for 495 days, and put in more hours of work than we can count. We are incredibly blessed to have this home, and pray its a blessing for many generations to come after us. To all our amazing friends and family: thank you for making this dream possible! And to the great teams at Karlstrom Associates and Ten Directions Design: you're amazing! Thanks for sticking with us through thick and thin.

Memory Lane: A Trip Through Some Project Milestones