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Choosing contractors

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We had an unusual approach to finding contractors to work on our house. Our architect is someone we'd talked to before at a sustainable fair.  We'd talked about shipping containers as housing but Nathan had discovered that once you start ripping the sides out of shipping containers, they stop being so functional and start bending instead.  Slightly sub-optimal for housing one might say.  Still he's a good bloke and we had some interesting chats. Then it turns out the bloke down the street is a builder, aka general contractor as it is known in the US.  Pretty handy.  I looked around online and his rates seemed okay and his work looked good, and Nathan really wanted him to work on the place so that was done and dusted. We've been talking to one mob who do house lifts for about a year.  They were interested, they are local, they have a good rep, what's not to like? Then we got the quote and just for the lift, excavations and footings/foundation work, it was uhh
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Our house is sorta squeezy

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When we moved to Seattle in January 2012, we didn't expect to still be here in 2019.   We certainly did not expect to be proud possessors of one of the smallest houses in our suburb. We have a habit of buying small, cheap houses. So our pride and joy is a 780 sq ft two bedroom, one bathroom house that has one big thing going for it - location location location!  But that doesn't make up for our house being so small that when we put a couch and a dining table with four (five) chairs in the living room, then added a dresser (aka sideboard and necessary junk holder) and a filing cabinet and a couple of odds and sods... well suddenly there was hardly room to scratch yourself, though it was plenty easy enough to scratch any visitors.  Four people in the room is a crowd.  We once managed to get ten or so people in for a Christmas dinner - OMG, do not recommend. We've also had njh's parents stay with us - they are lucky ducks and get the study, which isn't big enough
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A new blog, a new home

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G'day all! For the last nearly five years, we've been living in our tiny house in Ballard.  Okay, it isn't tiny enough to be mobile but it is certainly on the small side. Well now it is time for a change.  Our house is going up in the world! Literally. Back soon with more.
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