Boxing Day Tour of The Pilchuck

Women, they're always late. 

Women, they're worth the wait.

My wife arrived on a late flight Christmas Day, up from the West Pole, just outside of Dallas, Texas. I am so pleased to have her here at The Pilchuck; still a construction site, but far enough along for me to call it home.

The Christmas gift opening upon here arrival at the house had come to a halt as Sue expressed more interest in falling asleep after a long day of travel, it being 3 AM for her, so we retired to bed last night (or was it this morning?) with the promise of extending Christmas into the 26th. And beyond.

Big changes have transformed the house. I was delighted to show her around once we and the northern sun were up. I had secret hopes that if I could build a fancy, whimsical and beautiful house for her, maybe she would never leave and never go back to Texas. Maybe she would be enchanted and stay a spell with me on The Pilchuck.

Looking up through the octagonal kitchen skylight

The wife explores her options in the kitchen pantry cabinets

Sue finds the place where I hid the tea mugs. Must have that tea!

A tour of the luxury bathroom downstairs. Note the streambed pebbled tile on the floor.

Stone counter tops throughout the house, this is downstairs bedroom before mirrors installed.

Boxing Day - time to renew the gift opening that was called due to darkness last night.

Sue had packed in her luggage a Christmas gift from Grant and Kaileen. A custom welcome mat to announce the official unofficial name for this place. Well done Grant and Kaileen!

We put it at the back door to welcome Inga and Sean as they plan to be here for a few days over the New Year. Hoping Grant and Kaileen get to use their welcome mat before it wears out.

Come one, come all, all are welcome for the Pilchuck Tour!

Hope to see y'all in 2023!

Country Christmas on the Pilchuck

Sue and I take a perverse pleasure in characterizing ourselves as 'we are not planners.' At times, some degree of planning is forced upon us. Apparently one cannot just show up at the airport and take a seat and ask the pilot to take me Seattle. The airlines insist that we have planned a specific day, a specific time and a specific flight to a specific destination. 

Wanting to celebrate Christmas 2022 together requires some degree of planning. We talked over the phone as she scrolled through travel booking options on her computer. One option was Jet Blue; inexpensive, but to get the cheapest deal she would have to commit to become a member to benefit from their discounts. Jet Blue travel would also require a layover. I suggested that Jet Blue was not the best plan.

Another option was Southwest Airlines. Convenient departure point in Dallas, but again a layover was required and I thought any planned layover during holiday travel was akin to planning on trouble.

We agreed to plan on flying direct from Dallas to Seattle on Alaska Air. For a few dollars more one could pretty much plan on the fact that once in the air, you were going to make it to Seattle. No layover, no fuss, no muss. No brainer.

It was a good plan. Winter weather across the continent had snarled air traffic and brought consternation to the holiday traveling nation. Southwest had a horrific meltdown in their system, stranding tens of thousands and sending their luggage to parts unknown while people stewed in hostile lines waiting for a way out of purgatory.

The Spirit of Christmas -
a lit tree fits my bay window perfectly

Alaska Airlines delivered my wife with a 40 minute delay. We plucked her bag from carousel #14 in Seattle as we passed hell's half acre of lost/unclaimed baggage heaped in front of the SW Airlines' office. Good plan, great call - especially for 'non-planers.'

It was a late Christmas Day flight anyway, and it was already a quarter 'til midnight when I unlocked the gate in the rain to take my Texas girl up the curved driveway to the new house. I paused as we rounded the curve so she could take in the scene of the house lit from down below.

After a moment or two of wondering why I'd paused, "You got a Christmas Tree for me!" she squealed in surprise. Yes. Yes I did. I knew she had not gotten a tree to decorate the house in Texas. It seem only proper to start Christmas in the 'Evergreen State' together next to a live Christmas tree. The first of a few more surprises.

I carried her heliotrope bag into the house, complete with two functional beds. I directed her to the tree, and she was again surprised to see several wrapped gifts beneath the boughs. 'Ooh, you know I didn't bring you anything for Christmas," she offered apologetically. 

Welcome to the Pilchuck Christmas

I corrected her with a kiss, "Not so. I got got what I most wanted for Christmas. I can wait to unwrap it."

I suggested she go first. She picked a festive box from the floor and opened it. We talked as she yawned. It was approaching 1 AM - 3 AM Texas Time. "What say we leave the rest of these for tomorrow. I'm kind of exhausted."

Sue's stocking, stuffed with Christmas goodies - and she can wear it too.

Sue selects a surprise gift

Photo of Cook Family barn that once stood on the property

I agreed and we slid across the sparse room to find a nice bed in the next room with clean, fresh sheets for a long winter's nap.

I promised her a daylight tour of the place for Boxing Day. "But first, let's tuck you into bed and let you dream of sugar plums," I insisted.

White on the Outside, Warm on the Inside

 Inside looking out.

In a week comes Santa Clause. Now comes the Santa weather from the North Pole.

I have moved from the travel trailer parked under the grove of fir and cedar trees and into the house. Many details to yet to be installed to make this house a home, but the necessities of hot running water, a bed and most of a real kitchen are in place. And there was much rejoicing in my change of fortune.

Just in the Saint Nick of time, I settled in inside as the snow began to settle on the evergreen branches outside my window. It is better to be inside looking out than outside looking into the house, as was my fortune last year.

I have heat and air conditioning with an energy efficient heat pump, but also plenty of alder and proto-firewood all about my 50 acres that will feed my wood burning stove in the cozy chimney corner of my living room. 

The trailer under snow, a view of my erstwhile abode. Happy to be warm inside the new house.

Last winter brought several snowfalls from Christmas through February. Accumulations got to 14-inches and the house was yet to be dried-in, so my subflooring became an ice rink, unfit for habitation, fit only for dreaming of the day when I could be inside looking out. That day arrived December 14, 2022.

I sing, "Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow." I invite my wife in Texas to come on up, telling her, Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...

She promises I can pick her up on Christmas Day. I can't to wait to sit with her  by the fire as we conspire. It will be fun to unwrap her, my Christmas gift, as we play the Eskimo way. 

Day...

...and Night

A Visit form Ol' Saint Nick

 The stockings were hung with the greatest of care,

In hopes that Saint Nick soon would be there...

Looking for a bit of Holiday Good Cheer, if not a bit of Christmas magic; I put up a 6' Douglas Fir Christmas Tree in my otherwise vacant living room. I am making attempts to create some sense of normality and hominess after 14 months of a life filled full with disruptions. 

Living in isolation in a small travel trailer on our 50 acres sometimes wears me out and I lose track of the dream, even though it is just yards away in the form of a slowly rising to completion dream home. This season I like to look at the live tree I set inside my unfurnished house and dream of having my own stand of Christmas Trees to be harvested from our land and shared among kith and kin in Christmases to come. I believe at 65 it is still good to have Christmas dreams, just like ones I had years ago when I was 5.

It has been a difficult year in large part. However, with a change in season, I am striving to change the dismal attitude that descends upon me in these parts. What better way to improve one's demeanor than to assume the mantle of Kris Kringle, Dear ol' Saint Nick and become the embodiment of Father Christmas?

I've got the Santa vibe going, more by happenstance than by a purposeful channeling of the inner Jolly Old Elf. Since I've been otherwise engaged and have not seen fit to get out and get my hair cut for months, I have grown to look like a classic Santa if I don the conical red cap (otherwise, maybe I resemble the Norse god Odin). Some cynics may suggest I look more like the homeless drifters on the streets of Seattle. However, I do enjoy rocking the epic, natural and totally organic 'Santa beard'. 

The weather is doing its part to bring along the North pole vibe as well. Snow showers throughout the day today (Sunday, December 18, 2022) with snow in the forecast for several more days. I am expecting just normal rain by the time Christmas arrives in a week.

Let it also be known that I am not so concerned about hanging stockings with care; rather I am more concerned about getting the basement leak fixed, the flooring installed, the plumbing finished and some furniture moved inside the new house and assembled. It's always something, hobgoblins of building and maintenance know no holiday. 

Christmas is only a week away and we are much behind schedule. At the top of my Wish List is to have a real bed inside the house for Sue and me to sleep on when she arrives on Christmas Day. 

Second on the long Wish List is to have the indoor plumbing complete. I was hoping for an early Christmas, imploring Santa to bring me indoor plumbing when he came down the flue, instead it was the plumber who came down with the flu. Gratification delayed. Is Saint Nickolas really a Calvinist?

    ***    ***     ***

Dear Santa, 

I've been a very good boy all year living up here by myself. So please consider that I need a Master BR sinks and plumbing for my basement BR luxury bathtub, toilet and sinks. As you know they were supposed to be installed last Thursday.

                                                        Merry Christmas to you and the elves,

                                                                Mark

***

Third on the Wish List is for the shower and tub enclosures to be installed. The Christmas miracle for a complete bathroom is looking just like that - a miracle. 

Nothing is easy when it comes to building this house. The tankless water heater was installed and I was told, "You'll love this, you will never run out of hot water." However, soon after installation, when I tried to fill the guest bathtub with hot water to sooth my aching muscles, I got only ice cold water and the beeping alarm on the tankless water heater flashing "Code 12". Once the plumber returns, he will need to fix Code 12 and get me into hot water again. Interesting that I do have hot water coming out of the shower in the Master Bedroom [for that I am thankful]. Go figure. Nothing is easy or simple.

Troubles not withstanding, I am grateful for two flush toilets indoors, some hot water and now a working refrigerator. 

The Spirit of Christmas -
a lit tree fits my bay window perfectly

Of course, Santa Baby now living up here close to the North Pole, is most excited to welcome Mrs. Clause arriving via Alaska Airlines from Texas to Seattle on Christmas Day. She should make everything better.

I'll put her at the top of my Wish List and let the rough side drag for all of the other punch list items.

It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas 'round here!

Merry Christmas and to all a Good Night!

Outside looking in. My Christmas house.