Building season 2 has come to an end

The beauty of the snowfall conflicted with our desire to finish the siding on the house and shop, but cold weather descending and our need to get the RV back to Anacortes tore us away too soon from that final task.

By 1:30 yesterday we had the winterizing of water lines done on the house and to the RV site, the utility trailer packed with tools and both trailers hooked up and ready to head out. The county inspector finally showed up at 2:00 and signed off our mechanical and insulation sections of our permit; the Final inspection is all that remains. By 2:16 we were on the road via Wenatchee and Hiway 2, as 20 was temporarily closed due to avalanche danger.

The snow had continued to fall overnight until it turned to rain around noon. Rain, at times hard accompanied with stiff wind, continued all the way to Anacortes, with the worst part of the drive at nightfall dealing with a continuous barrage of headlights from eastbound traffic over Stevens Pass that all seemed to have high beams on, and with the downpour and wind, made it hard to see the white line on the right side of the road. At one point we stopped so I could retrieve my driving glasses from the Chevy pickup as I was driving the Dodge. Even with the vision improvement, the strain of night driving on these ageing eyes convinced me that we need only travel these distances in daylight hours in the future.

No complaints on our progress this year though. From building stairs from RV site to house site when we first arrived in late March to framing, roofing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, soffitting, trim, and siding, we had a exceptional season.