demolition

Lindsey here! We don’t have too many new pictures to put up, as we are deep in the process of paperwork – many visits to county offices and phone calls to insurance companies and city services. My mom and dad came up to visit for a few days this week and spent hours working at the farm while I was at work at school! We appreciate them.

Some of the ongoing projects while we get all of the permits we need include sorting through the piles and piles of old things on the property. We are quickly learning that the family who lived there kept EVERYTHING! We’re up to a count of about 18 broken-down lawnmowers now, and in every cupboard and corner, we find new “treasures.” There is a landfill about three miles from the farm that takes most materials and doesn’t charge for recycling, so we are trying to sort old and unusable things into piles of metal, plastic, rubber, etc. We have a new (to us) trailer to haul things back and forth, which is helpful.

While walking around the property a few days ago, we came across five different LARGE piles of bear scat! We are obviously not in downtown Tacoma anymore! The fruit trees are dropping loads of dead-ripe summer/fall fruit, so I’m sure the bears are gorging themselves at night. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Fen as she roams around the property! One of the best parts of being at the farm is watching her barrel race around, full-speed, going as fast as her chubby puppy-body can take her. She loves it there.

There are few things that bring more excitement than demolition day. The start of a new project and the cleansing of the old trappings of a house long past its prime. For us, demo day started with tearing back a bit of the wall and ceiling shortly after getting keys to the house. To our surprise, the 1960’s pink sheetrock and old ceiling panels hid beautiful original cedar planks. This was on top of the fact that the ugly linoleum was covering gorgeous old fir flooring. A great find for a short day.

A longer full demo day was planned and we were overjoyed when several family members made the trek to Buckley to see our budding farm and help us tear down the mid-century façade. We tore off the rest of the downstairs sheetrock to expose the cedar siding, and made quick work of the dusty ceiling panels. We started the process of removing the old bathroom wall and a kitchen wall that will eventually add much needed square footage to an open concept kitchen, dining room, and living room. And finally we took down the old cabinets in the kitchen, making sure to salvage the antique Crane Kitchen Pride sink.

The demo exposed some potential new problems and challenges for the project, but also gave us tremendous hope and excitement for the beautiful old woodwork we hope to restore and feature in the final renovation. After filling 35 contractor bags and cleaning up the debris we called it a day and headed back to Tacoma. Demo day wouldn’t have been possible (or as fun) without the great support from our family and we look forward to the next step in this farm restoration project.