Emily on Work-Trading

For the past couple years, I have repeatedly been drawn back to the House on Holgate.  It is an effect of the people, the projects, the passion, and the feeling of home.  This house is not filled with your typical cluster of roommates living in Seattle.  It represents a movement towards a DIY way of thinking and an alternative lifestyle that favors exploration and growth over stagnancy.  Being a part of this crew really does make a person feel that they can do anything.

While living in various character-filled rooms in this house I have found myself engaging in some of the most interesting and seemingly impossible repair tasks.  Still to this day the moment that tops them all is standing atop a 30 foot ladder at the highest peak of the 2nd story roof line while juggling a can of paint and a caulk gun to get the trim finally painted white.  A close second in the line of tricky tasks was salvaging rotten porch beams and wooden columns to build a new temporary (but good looking) porch that doesn’t fall over!!

And then there are the fond memories of scavenging building materials and furniture from the side of the road and finagling them into a car and again into a unbelievably full basement.  And my favorite times of all the good times working on House on Holgate consist of the dynamic duo (Evan and I) loading up a truck of debris, rushing to the dump to arrive before closing, and then wildly flinging chunks of building materials into mounds of other peoples flung-out chunks.  There’s just no other work-trade job quite like it.  So, from now on, every time I get bored doing the tasks I’m doing elsewhere, or I get lost out in the world feeling like there is no home, the House on Holgate will draw me back to the calm and fresh Pacific Northwest for more adventures in renovating a fantastic beast built in 1925.