This is the story of Cooper's Folly.  Specifically how we're doing in the creation of it.   So here goes with my first post.

Five years ago we bought this gorgeous plot of land in an old "Viking" town called Poulsbo. Poulsbo is a ferry ride from downtown Seattle waterfront and a twenty minute ride from there.
Poulsbo has an amazing grocery store and our lot is only ten minutes away.  So I'll be ok for shopping!
It has the best array of fruits and veggies that I have ever seen in one place and that does include fancy stores like Whole Foods!  (For those of you in the UK think Harrods!)

Here are two photos of the lot as we first saw it.  All nicely mown, green and shady.

The lot has a big old cedar tree towards the front of it, which we will have to cut down! (TIMBuuuuuuuR!)

Currently the only entrance to the lot is through that little lane you see on the right hand side of this photo. We'll be making a new entrance to the property just about where I was standing to take this photo.

That little "Shed" was probably meant for a water tank originally.  Paul is going to pull it down and build a new one!

At this point I'd like to post a drawing of the floor plan but -- shucks-- it will be so small you won't see any details!

Oh and there is the other small point that it's a funny file format .. oh well!  I'll get the techno-genius to work on that.

Since we sold the house two, or is it three weeks ago, we've found a house to live in for a year that is close to the building site and gone through the rigmarole of getting approved to live in it.  We pick up the keys to the house on Thursday  August 1st, and trundle off to check the power points and just how much we can get into it.  Our first load, (the composters!) will be going with us in the back of Paul's truck.  

The current house is 3200 square feet with 3 garage spots.  The temporary house is 1900 square feet with two garage spaces. ULP - will we fit is the big question?

Since then we've pestered the life out of the bakery at Costco and brought home close to 100 boxes, and the wine store for  boxes for our bottles and glasses.  Most of our bottles are flavored syrups --we don't actually drink that much!

Today we went and saw our builder, and gave him a BIG hunk of money to get him going.  

So currently a nice man/architect is drawing up our official plans.

Another dude came out to the site this week and dug some of it up to see how it "percs."  

• I haven't stopped to think about what that means but I bet it's short for percolates.   As the lot is not attached to main sewer system, I get to connect my toilets to a private one of my own, commonly known as a septic tank which is going to be hiding on the lot somewhere.  These are de rigeur around here- everybody has one and I'm no longer scared of it.  
• These dudes will now go off and make drawings of our lot and where they want to put said tank in relationship to the house.  (As you can guess there are LOTS of regulations about that.!)  Those jolly drawings, the architects pictures, engineering specs and a whole BUNCH of money get handed over the local planning types in the process of requesting PERMISSION to build the house we've been scheming over for five long years!

My next task is to talk to a bunch of dudes who dig wells.  I HAVE a well but it has to be tested again. 

• it's been five years; pay the nice man to do that again!

In the meantime we pack, pack and pack some more.  The process is complicated by the fact that we're not just packing to move-- oh no!  We have to pack two ways, long term and survival gear, food, clothes etc for about a year. The rest will stay in boxes for a year to emerge all pale and sickly after that time.  How well can we get through this without breaking the crystal and vases? Only time will tell!

More after we visit the new house!