Onward and upwards

It is time to get off the pot and get’er done!  It was a productive weekend on several fronts.

My wife used the move as an opportunity to significantly purge her wardrobe which basically entailed her taking what she wanted to the basement suite and leaving the rest behind for me to figure out 🙁

So after posting on Freecycle.org, I got in touch with an individual who is helping a burn victim relocate to safer housing.  Susan and her support worker came by Saturday and I believe had a wonderful time going through all the clothes and shoes I had put aside.  They were there for 2 hours and took away a full car of stuff.  The rest of the clothes and shoes will go to one of the North Vancouver charities working with women needing a new start.  I also have some higher end business wear that I will take to a consignment store unless I can find a charity that provides tax receipts for donated items.

We also left all of the house wares in the house that we did not want to take to the suite with us and I have been working with Craigslist – For Sale by Owner – Free Stuff and Freecycle.org to pass on much of this.   I will take the balance to a local thrift store by the end of the week.

I used the time Susan was over and a couple more hours Saturday afternoon to go through the last of my stuff in the office closet and also the linen closet.  Pretty much everything in the house is now sorted except for my ‘junk’, as my wife calls, it in the garage, utility room, attic,  and shed.  This is mainly construction supplies, hardware, and tools.  The plan is that all of the tools and items not related to construction will go into the shed out back (Cootery) and all of the construction supplies will go into the shipping container I bought last year.  We also have about 240 cubic ft of densely packed boxes to go to a storage locker until the house is far enough along to allow moving back to the basement.

Sunday afternoon was spent in the ‘Cootery’ (shed out back who’s original planned usage was to build a plane with my neighbour called the Coot – http://www.coot-builders.com).  Lately it has been acting as my unused exercise studio.  After drawing up the space in AutoCAD and all the stuff I want to get into the space, I took my drawing and worked all afternoon starting to organize and clean out the space.  This will allow for the transfer of all the salvaged cabinets from the shipping container, allowing the container to be my main storage of construction supplies.

But the biggest progress was our decision to continue with the build ‘no matter what!’  My wife and I discussed the options.  Based on the money we have invested and what we would get for the current house, we could probably survive for 30+ years if we relocated and rented a place say in Tofino and accepted we would not be right on the beach.  But if we go ahead and build, hang on to the house for 10-15 years, we could then probably afford to buy a place right on the beach in Tofino.  I have also put too much time into this process to give up now.  I would estimate I have over 1500 hours since last summer and probably another 3000+ previous to last summer. I also do not want to disappoint my sponsors and scientific community who are looking forward to the building lab that will be included in the dwelling.  And of course I have two excellent neighbours and do not want to subject them to the ‘monster’ home that would be built on the site if we sold (their words).

So it looks like I am going to get up, dust myself off and get on with it.  A couple of you asked about how I can keep doing this.  Let me say unequivocally, if you are gong to build your own house (and have never done so before), you are going to need the following character traits, as you are going to have serious setbacks throughout the process:

• Patience (accept that things will not go as planned, but have faith they will work out)
• Perseverance (ability to stick with the task no matter how exhausted you are)
• A generally positive/upbeat attitude (allows you to bounce back from defeats so that you can still win the war)
• Stubbornness (most important trait that allows you to push through to a solution even when none seem available)

As always, thanks for visiting.

S.