This started out as an email to Cheryl who was asking about the house but quickly became a post. Forgive me if I seem to brag a bit.


Cheryl,

We named it Bear's Farm because our old place downtown was on a small lot and the boy had no place to play. A big factor in why we moved here. We bought the 'old' house about ten years ago. It was a 1908 fixer upper. We lived in it about 5 years and had fixed it up over those years. (it had been a rental for decades and was a real mess) With in a month of finally having completed it (we'd just gotten the last room done) this place came on the market - a 1918 house that again was a mess. so we started all over again.

This house was found by Jay's cousin Kaylor. It had been seized in a drug abatement action. The prior owners had been using it as a pot growing house and the city seized it when they got busted. It was ideal for the purpose as it is so isolated. The owners had let the laurel hedges and black berries grow up all around the house to obscure it even more.

Jay and Kaylor knew each other well as kids but grew distant over the years due to family divorces and such. Jay and I were at a party held by a work friend of mine from The Evil Coffee Empire when the got re acquainted. It took them about 1/2 an hour for Jay and Kaylor to recognize each other and realize they were related. About a month later Kaylor invited us over to a party here at the house. The first time I saw it I told Kaylor that if he ever wanted to sell it, I'd buy it. About 5 years later he called us and asked us if we still wanted to buy it. With out a moment hesitation we said yes.

That view on the header of my blog is the Olympic Mountains seen from the front of the house. (That pic is some what distorted and agrandised and well cropped) How could we not move here? Additionally it's about two miles from my Mom's house and it was getting to be a pain to drive all the way from downtown when ever she needed me, so that was another plus.

Kaylor had done a lot to fix up the place. He took a a dozer to the whole yard to clear out all the black berries and Laural hedges. The place had really been abused. The pot grower had installed a ton of halogen? - whatever, those pot growing lights all over the house. They must have been raking the money in cuz I'm telling you there are/were electrical out lets about every five feet all over the house. For what ever reason they also had a burn barrel that they used in the KITCHEN! - luckly Kaylor dealt with all the major issues before we took over the house. When we got it we took out a non-original wall between the living room and formal dining room that had been converted to a bedroom at some point. We pulled down the popcorn ceiling and pulled up the carpet and re-did the hardwood floors. If you look at some of the pet pics you can see some of the cool detail in the floor. It's a shame anyone ever covered it up. We're done with the first floor and are just now getting ready to remodel upstairs. Luckily it wasn't as badly damaged as downstairs and is ok/livable but needs work.

The land that we own is just shy of an acre but we're wedged in between the City of Seattle's City Light (power co) right of way in front of us and a greenbelt and Mapes Creek behind us, down the ravine. There are large power stanchions on either side of our land. It might bother some but we don't really even notice them. I'll post some pics to give you an idea.

That leaves about 4 acres in front that we take care of and mow, with the help of our nearest neighbor, elderly Mrs. Murphy and her son Tom. Tom and Jay spend about two hours a week each mowing it on riding mowers. The green belt behind us goes down the hill about 40 acres and ends at Kuboto Gardens.

Its a wonderful city park. It had been a Japanese families nursery before World War II. The family was interred in a concentration camp during the war and lost the property. The city later took it and it's become a park. I had already planned on going down there today with the new cam and taking some pics. It is very cool. I'll get on it after I get showered and going today. You can actually walk the trail from our drive all the way down to the park but it's a real hike. A hike that Bear loves. I'll drive down today cuz I'm lazy. Come back and see the pics later today.