Adventures in living in an old house surrounded by water.

Welcome to our Bay Tower Home in Bay Center, Washington on the Willapa Bay.

Arthur, Lietta and Jake

We're the homesteaders in what some residents consider to be "God's Valium" (cause it's so quiet most of the time.)
After years of renting beach houses on weekends and vacations, we finally bought our own beach house as our permanent residence.
Bay Center is an old fishing village on a finger of land that juts out into the center of Willapa Bay on the Washington Coast. We're 45 miles north of the mouth of the Columbia River and about the same distance due south on Hwy 101 from Aberdeen, Washington.
Cities?
Well, if you drive south east 125 miles you'll be in Portland and to the northeast some 150 miles is Seattle.
Bay Center ain't no city. From our house if you go 4 blocks east or west you'll be in the Willapa Bay. If you head north you'll be in the woods on the tip of Goose Point. If you head due south 4 blocks from our house you'll be at the only dining facility within 15 miles.

Bay Center (the house is inside the small elipse in the center of the foto)

on Goose Point

Entry by Arthur Ruger, I'm half as old as my house.

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Recommending; Pictorial Essay Says 'I've Had Enough'

The photo outlay at this DailyKos diary today provides a narrative beyond words. It really gets to you and serves as a historical reminder of how Administration has pretty much written us all off....

Recommending, and will likely place a permanent recommend on my blogs right hand column.

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Beyond Stop Loss; Army Using Policy to Deny Reserve Officer Resignations

Army Using Policy to Deny Reserve Officer Resignations

The reserve has used the unpublicized policy, first adopted in 2004 and strengthened in a May 2005 memo signed by Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, its commander, to disapprove the resignations of at least 400 reserve officers, according to Army figures.

"I don't think during a time of war you would want to let people go when you have a shortage of people," Army Reserve spokesman Steve Stromvall said when asked to comment on the memo, which surfaced during litigation over the policy. At least 10 reserve officers have sued the Army, saying they should be allowed to get out because they have finished their mandatory eight years of service.

Blocking reserve officers' resignations is one of several steps the Army has undertaken in recent years to keep soldiers beyond their original terms of service, as today's wars place unprecedented demands on the all-volunteer force. Under another practice, known as "stop-loss," thousands of active-duty Army and reserve soldiers have been temporarily prevented from leaving the military, either because their skills were needed or because their units were going overseas. As of January, more than 13,000 soldiers were being kept in the service under stop-loss, a policy criticized by some as a "backdoor draft," which the Army says it seeks to end.

read more at Washington Post article May 11, 2006; Army Using Policy To Deny Reserve Officer Resignations;

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Sending in Sailors and Airmen ground combat in Iraq; overly strained military

USATODAY.com - Sailors, airmen land new role:

"WASHINGTON — The Navy and Air Force are training their sailors and airmen for war duty far from the seas or skies: jobs typically performed by a strained Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Navy and Air Force personnel are replacing Army soldiers to carry out such duties as guarding convoys, patrolling bases and watching for homemade bombs, the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Navy also is running a prison in Iraq, patrolling rivers and helping to clear and search buildings.

About 8,000 sailors are on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Rear Adm. David Gove, head of the Navy Personnel Command. By the end of the year, that number is expected to grow to as many as 12,000, he says.

Gove says it makes sense to tap into a broader pool of talent. 'There is a realization of capability in other parts of the services that we need to leverage,' he says.

The Air Force has not said how many airmen are doing Army jobs.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Ey says the training gives commanders more flexibility and doesn't signal a shortage of soldiers.

Andrew Krepinevich, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, counters: 'If the Army wasn't having recruiting challenges and exceeding rotation rates, we wouldn't be having this discussion.'

Krepinevich authored a Pentagon-sponsored report earlier this year that found extended deployments were straining the military.

Frederick Kagan, a military historian at the American Enterprise Institute, says training sailors and airmen to do the jobs of seasoned soldiers is 'what you do only when you're desperate.'

The Navy's crash course on combat at the Army's Fort Jackson in South Carolina is staffed by Army instructors and trains about 200 sailors every two weeks. It stresses rifle skills, troop movements, first aid, convoy security and identifying roadside bombs.

Master Chief Doug Boswell, 46, who recently completed the course, says he'll rely on the skills to keep him and his sailors safe during their one-year tour in Iraq. "They're trying to get sailors ready for rigors of shore duty in potentially hostile overseas ports," he says.

The Air Force this year extended its basic training course to eight weeks from six. "I see our future as an expeditionary force in this long war on terrorism," Air Force chief of staff Michael Moseley says.

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Waiting till Nov elections = 350 or more U.S. troops will die in Iraq

If Congress waits until November to act, it is likely that 350 or more U.S. servicemen and women will die along with countless Iraqi children, women and men.


Since March, 2003, on average, over two service men and women have died each day as a result of the war in Iraq; that fatality rate continues in May, 2006. Discussions in Congress about the war in Iraq and exit strategies include many proposals for bringing troops home after the mid-term election in November, 2006. If Congress waits until November to act, it is likely that 350 or more U.S. servicemen and women will die along with countless Iraqi children, women and men.


from May 10 press release Military Families Speak Out

New Addition to Eyes Wide Open Exhibit Highlights Those Currently in Harm's Way Who Will Perish if Iraq War Continues


Contact: Jen Bergman, 206-447-1801, Janis D. Shields, 215-241-7060, 302-545-6596 (cell) - for event info or Katya Kruglak, 703-304-5075, Nancy Lessin, 617-320-5301 - for interviews

News Advisory:

-- New Addition to Eyes Wide Open Exhibit Highlights Those Currently in Harm's Way Who Will Perish if Iraq War Continues

-- Military Families travel to D.C.; tell Congress "No More Deaths in an Unnecessary War!"

Military Families will travel from across the country to Washington, D.C. and help unveil a new section of the American Friends Service Committee's Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War exhibit highlighting lives that will be lost if Congress does not take action to end the war in Iraq. Eyes Wide Open has been a memorial to the fallen, with combat boots and shoes representing U.S. troops and Iraqis who have lost their lives in this war. The new prospective boots display will focus attention on those who are currently in harm's way, who will fall if the war in Iraq continues.

Since March, 2003, on average, over two service men and women have died each day as a result of the war in Iraq; that fatality rate continues in May, 2006. Discussions in Congress about the war in Iraq and exit strategies include many proposals for bringing troops home after the mid-term election in November, 2006. If Congress waits until November to act, it is likely that 350 or more U.S. servicemen and women will die along with countless Iraqi children, women and men.

"This is a poignant and painful addition to the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, but one that all decision-makers should see," stated Larry Syverson of Richmond, Virginia, whose son in the Army is currently serving a second tour of duty in the Persian Gulf. "I hope every member of Congress and Senator visits this exhibit and reflects on the urgency of ending this war. Their failure to act could mean that the next pair of boots that is moved from this section to the section devoted to the boots of the fallen could be my son's."

"The Eyes Wide Open exhibit on the National Mall May 11-14 will pay tribute to those who have fallen," commented Anne Roesler of Saratoga, California, whose son in the 82nd Airborne Division faces a fourth deployment to Iraq, "and the new prospective boots display highlights the need for an immediate end to the war in Iraq so that no more lives are lost in a war that should never have been."

WHAT: Prospective boots display added to EYES WIDE OPEN: THE HUMAN COST OF WAR, the American Friends Service Committees' widely acclaimed memorial exhibit that has traditionally featured a pair of combat boots for every U.S. military casualty, and civilian shoes representing a fraction of Iraqi civilian casualties. The prospective boots display features boots for service men and women currently serving in Iraq, whose lives WILL BE lost if the war continues through November, 2006.

WHEN: Thursday to Sunday, May 11 -14. Families will be gathering onsite at 10:30 AM on Saturday, May 13.

WHERE: National Mall, Washington, D.C. (at the gravel path at 13th Street and Jefferson Drive.)

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW:

Members of Military Families Speak Out -- http://www.mfso.org -- with relatives/loved ones currently serving in Iraq or facing deployment/re-deployment will be participating in a silent march and rally on Saturday, May 13 on the National Mall and are available for interview before or at that event. To schedule an interview with a military family, contact Katya Kruglak, 703-304- 5075, or Nancy Lessin, 617-320-5301. Interviews with Iraq veterans and Gold Star Families who lost loved ones in the Iraq war are also available. For details, contact 215-241-7060.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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Old houses are rumored to retain their residents for a very long time ... I'm told

About a year after we bought the house, we made both upstairs rooms into bedrooms. My sister came on a visit from Utah and slept upstairs in the bedroom where in the photo below shows a red circle around the window to that room.

About a year after that visit she was out here again and we were talking about the Tokeland Hotel which - as the seagull flies - is less than 5 miles across Willapa Bay from our house. However, we have always driven there which is almost 40 miles one way going out to Hwy 101, up the coast thru South Bend and Raymond and West on State Route 105 to Tokeland. The Tokeland Hotel has some rooms that are haunted. As we talked about that, Sis looked at me and told me the following ...

"Arthur, one morning after getting up, I came in from the bathroom and sat at the chair there to put my shoes on. Something drew my attention to the bed (she'd just slept in) and I looked up. I saw a woman sitting there on the bed and somehow knew that she used to live here."

Yeah, yeah yeah ..... and I soon forgot about it.

Yesterday at work I was interviewing a woman - I'll call her Dot - who was a pre-teen in the late 1960's and knew the elderly lady, June Bochau, who'd lived most of her life in this house. Born in 1877, June Bochau died in 1970 at the age of 93 and was still living in the house with her son.
Dot remembered for me how she used to brush the old lady's hair, telling me that she remembered mostly how long it was.

Dot then told me that later on, when she was older, she was back in the house helping another owner do some clean up. She said that June's presence was still in the home even though she had died a few years earlier and that June's presence was most strongly felt in the bedroom where the window is circled below.

I then remembered my sister's story. I'm sitting in that room as I write this since it is now the room where Lietta and I spend probably half of every day while on our computers.

I came home last night thinking about June Bochau, a character about whom I've heard many stories in the 3 1/2 years we've lived here.

Lietta is not here right now but down the road some 40 miles this week in Long Beach with her mother so I'm home alone. I moved Lietta's computer chair with it's arm rests and high back out from her desk and turned it to face me last night.

Every so often I'd turn and look at that chair which is the only place left in her former bedroom where June Bochau could sit down right now.
No, the chair did not move and although the window is open, the curtains did not rustle.

Nevertheless, I think about Dot who told me that she got chills up and down her spine when I told her what house we had purchased and were now living in.

I think about my sister who is not prone to telling ghost stories ....

I look at that empty chair, look out the door to the upper tower room where I can see above the houses in the immediate nearbye streets ... and think some more about June Bochau.



This is the room behind that window in the other picture. That's me at my computer and immediately to my left is my clothes closet.
Lietta's computer is separated from mine by that waist-high cabinet to my immediate right.
Her computer module is in the corner and the window looking out would be to her right if this were a panoramic view.
In the bottom right corner, Lietta's desk chair with a red sweater draped over the back sits empty.
I turn and look at it and just smile.

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Haunted? Old houses are rumored to retain their residents for a very long time ... I'm told

About a year after we bought the house, we made both upstairs rooms into bedrooms. My sister came on a visit from Utah and slept upstairs in the bedroom where in the photo below shows a red circle around the window to that room.

About a year after that visit she was out here again and we were talking about the Tokeland Hotel which - as the seagull flies - is less than 5 miles across Willapa Bay from our house. However, we have always driven there which is almost 40 miles one way going out to Hwy 101, up the coast thru South Bend and Raymond and West on State Route 105 to Tokeland. The Tokeland Hotel has some rooms that are haunted. As we talked about that, Sis looked at me and told me the following ...

"Arthur, one morning after getting up, I came in from the bathroom and sat at the chair there to put my shoes on. Something drew my attention to the bed (she'd just slept in) and I looked up. I saw a woman sitting there on the bed and somehow knew that she used to live here."

Yeah, yeah yeah ..... and I soon forgot about it.

Yesterday at work I was interviewing a woman - I'll call her Dot - who was a pre-teen in the late 1960's and knew the elderly lady, June Bochau, who'd lived most of her life in this house. Born in 1877, June Bochau died in 1970 at the age of 93 and was still living in the house with her son.
Dot remembered for me how she used to brush the old lady's hair, telling me that she remembered mostly how long it was.

Dot then told me that later on, when she was older, she was back in the house helping another owner do some clean up. She said that June's presence was still in the home even though she had died a few years earlier and that June's presence was most strongly felt in the bedroom where the window is circled below.

I then remembered my sister's story. I'm sitting in that room as I write this since it is now the room where Lietta and I spend probably half of every day while on our computers.

I came home last night thinking about June Bochau, a character about whom I've heard many stories in the 3 1/2 years we've lived here.

Lietta is not here right now but down the road some 40 miles this week in Long Beach with her mother so I'm home alone. I moved Lietta's computer chair with it's arm rests and high back out from her desk and turned it to face me last night.

Every so often I'd turn and look at that chair which is the only place left in her former bedroom where June Bochau could sit down right now.
No, the chair did not move and although the window is open, the curtains did not rustle.

Nevertheless, I think about Dot who told me that she got chills up and down her spine when I told her what house we had purchased and were now living in.

I think about my sister who is not prone to telling ghost stories ....

I look at that empty chair, look out the door to the upper tower room where I can see above the houses in the immediate nearbye streets ... and think some more about June Bochau.



This is the room behind that window in the other picture. That's me at my computer and immediately to my left is my clothes closet.
Lietta's computer is separated from mine by that waist-high cabinet to my immediate right.
Her computer module is in the corner and the window looking out would be to her right if this were a panoramic view.
In the bottom right corner, Lietta's desk chair with a red sweater draped over the back sits empty.
I turn and look at it and just smile.

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Wow, a store opened in our village!

I told you we had no stores in our little fishing village community, just the one tavern and a KOA campground, the oyster farms and 2 processing plants, and a county campground park. Welllllll ... three days ago the one and only store opened and we, of course, went to the grand opening..lol.

Actually, I'm tickled at what the 'store' has to offer and it will make daily living in our village a bit more convenient. The new owner is from Long Beach area (highly tourist draw on the WA coastline) so she brought with her a bit of the flavor of Long Beach in conceptualizing our store in Bay Center. The store offers a pizza, deli and dessert bar; necessary grocery items, the beginnings of a gift line (oh we do get the ocassional tourists here) and a cozy relax sitting area with new polished wood burning stove, couch and chairs, newspapers and magazines, and this nifty reproduction record player that actual plays LPs (I want one!).

So now, instead of going the 12 miles into the nearest 'town' for the daily needs like milk, bread, eggs, cheese and such, we can go the 1/2 block to our own little store in Bay Center. Woo hoo!
Oh, and she even introduced a new line of coffee blend = Bay Center blend. My, my aren't we upscale now? No espresso though, not yet anyway. (Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are known to drink a lot of espresso .. you know, the latte although I prefer a vanilla breve.) Me and the dog, Jake, can take a stroll down to the store and have a morning coffee and cinnamon roll while listening to some great vintage music LP playing on the record player. And yes, my dog can go into the store with me, cause it's that kind of laid back community here.

Next - those developers trying to cultivate a high-end housing development around the 'lake'. The plan is for 70 lots, selling at about $400,000 for the lot alone. So it's not hard to imagine what kind of houses will eventually go up on those lots. I worry some, cause we moved here to get away from those insta-grow developments and the cookie cutter shop malls that go with them. I wanted to find a place that didn't yet have a McDonalds or Super grocery store or Super any store and not likely to get such in near future. We're not in jeorpardy yet.....but, still I worry some that our sleepy little paradise village, not more than a road sign on the state highway, will be 'found' and transformed. I like the identity this community already has and has had for the past century. Developers - stay away from here - and people, don't come to Bay Center except as a drive through tourist.

The locals aren't as concerned as I am, cause they've seen high hope developers come into this community before and try to develop a not quite gated community, but one of those development 'estates' with a fancy name like Rialto Beach or Meadow Woods or some such similar type name. But, I'm still concerned and time will tell.

photo of the 'lake' area which developers hope to turn into McMega House estates.




awww....don't mow it down. photo of the first swatch of lake area being mowed down, next comes the sale of the lots, then comes the mega-mansions dotted all around the lake.



posted by Lietta Ruger

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More ugly - we're floored! Suggest something..

Dear Previous Owners:

We so appreciate the earnest remodelling you did to update this house and it's understandable that as you remodelled it was, in fact, in the 1970s so you were 'cutting edge' at the time BUT ---

did you have to use brown shag on the wood staircase?

tearing off the brown shag carpet reveals beadboard - what were they thinking! Admit it, we've probably got close to the worse staircase project restoration, right?

peeking under the brown shag reveals wood stairs and a jillion nails holding all that brown shag in place. Arghh, groan, huge project just ahead.

Now to the floors in the two rooms on main level (living and dining room).
Dear Previous Owner,

We think your use of expensive wall to wall berber carpeting was probably a good idea, but when you let other family live in the house in your absence, they must have repaired motorcycles or some such kind of thing in the two main rooms. I never could quite understand how such great carpeting could get so badly soiled and stained, that it was beyond salvage. So we finally took up all the carpeting and now I understand why you chose to do carpet overlay to the unfinished wood floor project we found beneath ..... why did you leave the wood floors in the living and dining room unfinished? Now what do we do once we took up the spoiled carpeting and have this patchwork project confronting us?

two rooms, two particle board unfinished floor areas where large persian carpets were once upon a time...

taking up the wall to wall carpet reveals the unfinished wood floor project beneath -- that's right, just cover the whole thing up with carpet - guess it's our project now

Okay, we're taking suggestions. Essentially, once upon a time, very large persian carpets adorned the two rooms, and someone came along later, we guess, to lay wood flooring 'around the persian carpet area rugs' -- ??? Why go to the trouble of laying out a beautiful wood floor and not do it completely? Sigh, okay so we've thought of a few ideas and would love to take more suggestions. We'd prefer to keep the existing wood flooring cause we like the look of what's already down, so what do we do to compliment the existing flooring to fill up two very, very large nailed down particle board rectangles in the middle of each room where persian carpets once laid?

Oh yes, please do comment, we'd love to hear about it .... believe me, my Sweetie and I have had more than a few comments between us, and now we have to 'move on' to more constructive ideas .. ha!


entry by Lietta Ruger - the woman of the house

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Let's Get Ugly

Overcoming the ugly - blech. Mind you, we live in a fishing village with homes that range from deserted passed down thru the generations grandparents homesteads to high-end 'million dollar view of the bay' homes. Our century old house is located in the 'town' part of this peninsula while the newer, designer homes dot the bay in developer's dreams of closed gate communities. They continue to dream for now, but as our little paradise gets itself found, could be we would lose the unique identity of this 'back in time' village.

Our house then is located amongst other homes on our streets with a mix of 'how sweet' to too bad they don't tear that place down to abandoned and overgrown and lost to the blackberry growth which almost covers the house.

homestead in our community engulfed by blackberry bush overgrowth



So having set the stage, now can begin to show the 'ugly' of our house. Starting with the propane tank. PO converted the hot water and kitchen stove to propane - good idea! However, setting up the propane tank and pipes gives the side of the house a full on view of the propane tank - guess it's our permanent ornament.

Mind you, it's located right on the street side of the house, not at all hidden away in some less visible corner of the property, so it's the first thing you see turning the corner at the intersection, and most folks visiting us park alongside that side of the street - Hello Propane Tank! But hey, at least we upgraded from the old, ugly propane tank that was here when we bought the house to a shiny new propane tank!

New propane tank!


Oh, hmmm, there's a story to my Sweetie's plans to sell the old propane tank and offset costs. For a while there we had two yard ornaments; the old tank and the new tank, while my Sweetie tried to figure out how he was going to transport the old tank even if he did find someone who wanted to buy it. NOT! I'm a patient wife, and amusingly wait for some of Sweetie's ideas to reach fruition until the amusing aspect wears off and with this idea of his, the amusement wore off fairly quickly. 2003 and we were having family come for Thanksgiving and I was hostessing his office Christmas party that year so I was really - Really not wanting family and guests to have the delightful first view of the two propane tanks, the old one and the new one, while parking their cars. Much as I was lauging off the 'yard ornament', it just flat out makes a 'statement' that I just wasn't quite ready of willing to identify with .... Sweetie finally agreed to have the propane company take the old tank off our hands ... safely ... much to my relief.

Bye bye to old propane tank!




entry by Lietta Ruger - the woman of the house

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Back of the house and what about the yard?

Before; what the back looked like when we bought the house, Nov 2002.



We did take photos of the house when we first bought it, on digital camera, stored in our computer, which crashed and since we didn't 'save' or back up, regrettably lost those pics. There are a hand few left from online activities. This pic is one my mother took of the back side of our house, shortly after we moved into it. I place it here to show the add-on structures that have altered the original salt box structure.

Since I've found housebloggers.net and begun this blog, I've been seeing our house through slightly new eyes. It occurs to me then, that when Mr. Bochau made the first modifications, perhaps he added three bay windows; two on side of the house and one in the back where kitchen area exists. Perhaps not. Perhaps the later owners added the bay window area to the kitchen. We do know that the previous owner, John Joseph, who did much of the improvements and upgrades to this house, added onto the kitchen. He met with us and gave us a run-down of the work he'd done to the house over the 26 yrs his family lived in the house.

The added on kitchen sports an unusual style 'bay window' which is literally panes of glass glued together in some kind of super duper window glue. Scary, huh? Well I thought so, knowing to expect Pacific maritime wind and rain storms. But in this area where we live, this same glass glueing project to create bay window effect has been used in one of the historic buildings in nearby town (small town but it actually has a grocery store and some other stores that qualify it as more than a village or a hamlet, I guess). We've been in the house now since Nov 2002, weathered 4 winters of rain and windstorms and that kitchen window is virtually im-moveable so it must be some great glue holding the panes together.

Asthetically, it's not attractive as it is, in fact, a bead of glue running vertically along the panes, which bugs me when I'm looking out the window at the kitchen sink. An interim solution is to cover the two seams with two fabric curtains so that it looks like I'm right there on the cutting edge of designer use of curtains and fabric. I don't want traditional curtains at the window as it detracts from the idea of the all glass bay window Mr Jospeh installed. I tried a couple of different curtained ideas at that window and decided it was counter productive to why those windows were there in the first place.

Outside, you can see the over-mature shrubs and lilac tree. We didn't do much with cutting anything back the first year, and were cautious in the second year, and last year we took the plunge and generously pruned back all the mature shrubs and trees.

More pics coming of the back side of the house, primarily in the changing yard. Structurally, we are unlikely to be changing anything about the house except to add front porch and re-work the back enclosed porch. I'm not sure about the original property lines for this house, but the lot now has a small front yard, a larger back yard, no side yards on either side. Since the 'back yard' runs parallel to the street, it really seems more like a side yard, than a back yard to me.


Notice the mature lilac tree; fullness of the camelia bush and wild fushia bush. They pretty much dominate this upper section of the yard.


Before


After

Seriously cutting back the camelia opened up the yard. It also revealed the bay window in the basement level of the house. Gave me area for flower bed and I plan to continue to work that into a showpiece flower bed. I cut back the wild fushia bush somewhat but not knowing the nature of how it grows, and it is the primary home to hummingbirds who lived here before we did, I pruned cautiously to perserve the numerous fuschia blooms for the hummingbirds.



We did light pruning to the Lilac bush (now tree size), which had four mature trunks. Two of the trunks leaned so far to the ground in the 2005 winter storms, we pulled them out, and actually preferred how much that opened up the yard. A new shoot is coming up between the two trunks, and has hardened now to become the newest trunk of the lilac. I'm relieved because if we lose the last two mature trunks, we would have lost the lilac tree.



entry by Lietta Ruger - the woman of the house

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Poor terrain behind the house caused drainage and runoff problems from the start

You're looking at a rhododendron "tree" two stories high.
But that's a story for another time.

Our lot has the house more or less in the southwest corner of the property with the "back" of the house a mere 4-5 feet wide before encountering the hurricane fence of our neighbor and their huge treeless grassy yard. Some time in the future perhaps we'll attempt a purchase of a little more room, but I'm not optimistic.

That narrow 4-5 foot corridor that consitutes the back of the house was a problem. The house next door with its huge grass lawn sits on what is the summit of a small but wide ridge which leaves our lot slightly downhill with a gentle slope toward the street which would be off to the right in the photo below.

Consequently, that "back yard" was not really attended to over what looks like the past ten years and when purchased, that back yard was nothing more than a dirt incline that left the house about a foot and a half lower than the ground at the fence line ... basically a dirt "ditch behind the house."



Whenever it rains, that ditch filled got very wet and drained slowly into a late basement addition directly below the kitchen which was apparently added sometime in the last 30 years. The basement room has a concrete floor, concrete-block walls and one small window. Would presumably make a good wine cellar or cool storage area of some kind - even a root cellar since the only floor-level door accessing that part of this tri-level house is the "basement" door from the carport.

However, the drainage seeps through the walls when rain is heavy leaving anything in there subject to both mold and rust. I had to put a ply-board floor on 2-inch decorative bricks to allow the water to flow on the floor and out the other side (remember, the ground into which that basement room was built reflects a slightly downward slope which causes the water to flow  toward the house.) The neighbor's lawn is vast and does absorb the majority part of the rain uphill from the house. But the little dirt path on the other hand, couldn't handle hardly any downflowing drainage and  merely acted like a leaky canal, collecting the water at the foundation of the house and forcing it to drain down at that spot directly opposite the basement cold room.


My solution was not something we plotted or planned. Once we started new landscaping, digging up a garden, expanding the rock garden, building a red-rock walkway ... any project that caused us to dig up the lawn, we dug out turf squares which we then carried to the back of the house. We eventually over the course of working and reworking our landscaping, laid out enough turf squares to first level the dirt path  and then raise it over two-three layers to get it to the same even height of the neighbor's lawn. We're still not there yet (even with neighbor's lawn) but we're getting there.


Decorative "trellises" made from sidebars from a
wrought iron bed frame that we stuck in the ground to
"train" the vegetables in how to grow up.

We're after a "leveled look" that makes the transition from neighbor's lawn to our "back yard" seamless. In addition, 2-3 layers of turf squares created a greatly enhanced absorption capability and now we've just passed thru our second winter without any significant flooding through that basement room. This allows us now to look at some sort of concrete sealing of the walls and floors that would allow us the use of that room which is ... oh ... maybe a 25-36 square foot space. Would also make a wonderful place to store dry and canned food and get it  food off the shelving elsewhere in the basement.

You can see the first layer of sod we're now starting at the base of the tower. We're pleased with our back yard because each year the sod settles and the grass grows. I used to could only mow that sod after raising the blade to maximum height.

I can now mow it at the same height as the rest of the lawn which means that when mowing and I get to the back of the house, I just keep going without stopping to adjust the blades. That's meaningful to an impatient old lawnmower. Oh ... and I don't have or like a riding mower which would be too big for mowing the yard in this lot anyway. Mine is a front wheel pulling mower that also mulches and only if I've negelected the mowing will I bag or rake when cutting. I'll be 60 this summer and I like the exercise mowing gives me

Entry by Arthur Ruger, I'm half as old as my house.

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Thanks to Houseblogs.net for adding our blog to the webring

Yippeee, our Bay Tower House blog has been added to HouseBlogs Webring. We're in good company now with other owners of old houses blogging their show and tell experiences and renovations with their great old houses. I'm so glad we found houseblogs.net and the 240 other housebloggers blogs that are there sharing their experiences.

Also thank you to all who are visiting our blog, now that it has been added to houseblogs.net

We hope to learn from many of you who are putting in the labor of love in your own great old houses. When we travelled through this area on our way to somewhere else, I was so struck by all the 'cool ol' houses' that it prompted us to make a decision to move away from the city, and after being here a while and renting other people's cool ol' houses, we bought this one.


entry by Lietta Ruger - the woman of the house

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Plus and Minus Concerns in buying the house

Identifying plus elements and problem issues when considering buying this house. We began our house-hunting in Aug 2002.

Plus

-- quiet neighborhood, quiet community, not even one store in the whole village!
-- attractive tiled tin roof (pacific nw rains = cost saver for roofing woes!)
-- upgrades give house old and new decor mix without compromising historical context
-- repetitious bay windows give light and let the outdoors inside
-- structurally sound, initial cost outlay for structurally improvements minimal
-- built on additions in kitchen and master bedroom provide spacious rooms for those areas
-- upstairs rooms haven't been upgraded much, historical feel to the rooms, throwback to early 1900's
-- yard is manageable with some mature focus specimen plantings
-- architecture of house w/ additions gives it unique look
-- wiring updated and up to code
-- plumbing is satisfactory
-- basement = spooky but Arthur finds it fascinating
-- price is right for our budget


Concerns

-- berber carpet on main floor rooms is beyond salvaging, so badly stained, unlikely can get cleaned = deal w/ flooring.
-- renovations seem structurally sound, little attention to finishing details however, gives it gerry-rigged appearance
-- renovations done in 1970's give seriously dated and tired look = stairs, upstairs flooring like glue down carpeting - 70's restaraunt era; brown shag on stairs -yuck!
-- heating; primary heat is a newly installed wood-burning furnace under the house w/ chimney that screams at me'unsafe'. secondary heating; registers installed in each room, inadequate in some rooms to heat the space.
-- decking on which addition has been builtwill need immediate attention, peeling rubber cement exposes wood to Pacific NW rains.
-- front of house; not welcome, functional, or practical entry. Needs a porch and front door re-do
-- back porch - enclosed and rusticly 'finished' also unwelcome and serves as main entrance to the house due to the impractical front entrance planning.
-- unclear once carpets pulled up, what lies beneath = prepare for cost outlay
-- kitchen could use an update, was updated to 1970's cosmetics, but is more than adequate for years until we have cost outlay $$


Generally speaking, there are about even number of drawbacks as there are positives that make this house worth considering. Biggest drawback is that house would benefit from renovations and improvements w/ cost outlay - not likely in our budget.

Thus, after carefully considering if I could live in the house 'as is' for perhaps years until we could get to renovations/improvements, I honestly wasn't sure and thought we should continue to keep looking. My dear husband is more of a handyman than he is into renovations or improvements, so unlikely we could knowledgeably take on too many diy projects. My husband became instantly enchanted with the house, and while I was also 'enchanted' by what I could see in my mind as what the house might look like 'someday', I was concerned about what it looks like present day and our capability w/ diy improvements. The diy upgrades and improvements made to the house look like diy .. sometimes gone wrong or unfinished.

We discussed, and discussed, while I fed my fears and Arthur tried to reassure my every concern. We decided to buy the house, inspections came back approved for wiring, plumbing, septic, structure and whatever else gets inspected in mortgage arrangements. Nov 2002 is when we moved into the house. If we had the resources to take care of some of the improvement projects before moving in, might have been a better way to go, but that is why it is an adventure and now in 2006, we both love living in this house!

entry by Lietta Ruger - the woman of the house!

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Adventures living in an old house surrounded by water.

Welcome to our Bay Tower Home in Bay Center, Washington on the Willapa Bay.

Arthur, Lietta and Jake

We're the homesteaders in what some residents consider to be "God's Valium" (cause it's so quiet most of the time.)
After years of renting beach houses on weekends and vacations, we finally bought our own beach house as our permanent residence.
Bay Center is an old fishing village on a finger of land that juts out into the center of Willapa Bay on the Washington Coast. We're 45 miles north of the mouth of the Columbia River and about the same distance due south on Hwy 101 from Aberdeen, Washington.
Cities?
Well, if you drive south east 125 miles you'll be in Portland and to the northeast some 150 miles is Seattle.
Bay Center ain't no city. From our house if you go 4 blocks east or west you'll be in the Willapa Bay. If you head north you'll be in the woods on the tip of Goose Point. If you head due south 4 blocks from our house you'll be at the only dining facility within 15 miles.

Bay Center (the house is inside the small elipse in the center of the foto)

on Goose Point

Entry by Arthur Ruger, I'm half as old as my house.

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