Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics General Stuff The journey of the cabin to a real house

I pulled-up a digital map of the peninsula on my home laptop and began reviewing the cities: Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, Bremerton, and Silverdale.

If I lived there, I thought, the area was so far from work at the Corporate offices. Gig Harbor is easily 55 miles from the corporate offices - one way. Then I remembered hearing about "fast ferries" and about ferries in general in the news. I never paid much attention to those new stories as there was no need. I went to the Washington State Ferry website to review the ferry terminal locations.

There was a terminal in Port Orchard, and a terminal in Bremerton, and a terminal on Bainbridge Island. The Port Orchard one looked cumbersome with a stop or two before getting to Seattle. The Bremerton ferry was direct to Seattle. The Bainbridge Island ferry was direct to Seattle.

Bainbridge Island was out of the question however, because I knew it was expensive to live there and I didn't even need Zillow.com to know that. Homes are $1M+ there.

I next looked at the Bremerton ferry schedule. On June 8, 2021, there were two ferries operating - one in each direction. The times looked doable. I figured I could start a vanpool in Seattle. Lots of Corp employees live in Seattle. I also figured I would take the "fast ferry" (passenger only - no cars), then start the vanpool once I go to Seattle. I'm sure there were places to park the van for free as there were in Tacoma.

I reviewed the listings on Zillow.com. The prices were a wide range: $290K to $600K. There seemed to be a lot of options in my price range of under $350K. Encouraged, I called Joe and told him that I wanted to start looking in Bremerton. He asked, what about work, and I told him I would take the fast ferry and vanpool. We agreed to go up to Bremerton on Saturday, June 12, 2021.

On Saturday, June 12, 2021, I gave Joe a list of four houses that I wanted to see. The plan was that I would go to Joe's open house in Tacoma and we'd leave from there after the open house hours ended at 1:00 pm.

No one came to Joe's open house while I was there. So Joe and I just talked. I checked-out Joe's open house, it was a condo with an HOA (read: converted apartment). The condo's kitchen was small, had a fenced patio for Rocksus, and washer and drying space. It was nice and it was in North Tacoma which is the nicer part of Tacoma.

While Joe and I were talking, he took my list and made appointments to view each location. At that time, becuase of COVID, an appointment needed to be made in case contact tracing needed to be done. He entered all of the addresses in the real estate software that he uses and set appointments for each house and it generated a ranking and directions to each location.

I told Joe about this one house that I saw. It was for $325K. It was recently built, but extremely small. I didn't quite "get" what the house was about. I scoffed at the listing and Joe seemed intrigued. "Let's see this one too," said Joe. "I don't want to see that," I said. "Well I do, and I'm driving," said Joe. "Fine, whatever" was my retort.

It took us about 35 minutes to get to Bremerton from Tacoma. I had never been to Bremerton before. Bremerton is a Navy town with a Navy ship yard there. The houses are definitely middle-class. The area seemed 1940ish when the area grew due to World War II.

The first house we looked at was a horrible. Just everything about it was just awful. I was over it immediately. The seller's agent was there and talking to Joe while I was looking the house over. I knew it was an immidate pass.

The second home we looked at was in a HOA. It was a very nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath for $329K, newly built around 2007 - no abestos, no lead, no foundation issues. While Joe and I were at this house, the seller's agent for the $325K small house called Joe, and said that the seller was lowering the price $75K, from $325K to $250K because it was listed two days prior, and there were no offers. (Gee! I wonder why?!?)

We reviewed a third house. It was nice, and it was a contender, but the house was on a slope and ther entire front porch and stair was on wooden stilts, which would need work soon The stairs seemed wobbly. The house was a bit dated as well, built in the 1990s and had never been updated.

The fourth house we looked at it from the outside and did not go in. It was time to go look at the small house that Joe wanted to see.

We drove over to the area where it was located. As we drove down the main street, the Olympic mountains were in view. It was a sunny day, and the mountains, in June, still had snow on them. The view was really pretty. I had never seen the Olympic mountains before. We passed a park on the left and I could see the water from the street. Then we came upon the small house. It's eastern property line of the property was the western property line of the park I just saw.

Joe parked his car and we went inside. It wasn't bad...for $250K. It is new...only 6 months old. The location was good because it was so close to the water. The lot was large enough where it could be expanded. But the house itself was so small. A studio apartment was probably bigger and at least had storage. This house didn't even had a place to hang clothes. It was more a weekend cabin than a full-time live-in house.

I walked down to the water which took about 45 seconds from the house.



To be continued...

On the way up to Bremerton, I made a comment to Joe, that the neighborhood that was to be built was so far from the water. My entire life, I'd lived near water, I grew up in Redondo Beach, CA and was only a mile from the Pacific Ocean. At the apartment in Tacoma, I was a block away from the Foss Waterway. The neighborhood that was to be built, was at 72nd street, and the last house I put an offer in on was at 82nd street - even further from the water.

Joe found me down at the beach. He said this cabin/house checked all of my boxes: Newer, no abestos, no lead, good foundation, and close to water.

He was right and the idea of purchasing a "home" in 2021 for $250K was exciting. I figured since I was pre-approved for $350K, I could add a room here or there for $100K.


(The house as seen from the street. The front door is on the side of the building not seen in the picture. Let's be honest, this picture does not "sell" the house, yet the seller's agent thought it was perfectly fine to offer this picture of the house as the main picture.)


(there is no bedroom, the "bedroom" is a loft)


(Nice enough kitchen.)

Basically, from the street, the house looks like a utility shed that a utility company owns. It even has those yellow poles sticking out of the ground. For whatever reason, the guy who built the house included them. I guess he was going for the utility shack vibe.

The house itself is 28' x 14' or 392 sq ft, with loft, the livable space is 512 sq feet.

The lot itself is 4,600 sq feet and and the house can be 60% of the square footage of the lot.




To be continued...

You are, basically, buying a lot with kindofa house on it. Perhaps you should go shopping for a lot instead. You can buy a pre-built pretty much for the right price.

Wait...there's more.

To develop a lot (water, sewer, electicity, gas, cable) is $150K. I looked into that option before purchasing this house AND that does not include the price of the lot which is $90K on the low-end.

Looking at that site plan, your main limitation would be the setback requirements. If it's 15 feet from the lot edges, then you can only build on the North and West sides. Not really enough room on the East or South. You could double the house floorplan by building on the West side. But it would be a good idea to read the city building code setback rules. Most governments have those online now.

The site plan does show setback lines, but you should check the current rules. Sometimes they change, and not being able to get your plans approved can wreck a project. We actually have 50 foot setbacks, but that's for a 10 acre plot. Lumber prices suck right now, but they may be better near where the trees are!

I told Joe to write an offer.

Joe called me at 6:00 pm on 06/12/22, 2.5 hours after seeing the house. Joe said that he called the seller's agent to tell him that an offer is coming in. The seller's agent said that he has received an offer. I was not amused. I told Joe to write my offer with a $30K escalation. I don't know why I chose $30K...I just did.

The next day, Sunday, June 13, 2021, Joe called me about 11am and told me my offer was accepted, but that $26K of the escalaton was used. Apparently the other offer had a $25K escalation.

Prior to buying this house, my dream house was a Craftsman-style home. I just like that style. Having a modern home with an angled roof never ever entered my mind.

The following Saturday, I went up to Bremerton to have a look around. I noticed that there was a lot of buildings and homes of the angled-roof, modern architecture style. As I was driving around, I noticed one particular house under a remodel contruction. It I could tell the house was the angle-roof, modern style. There was a sign on the side of the building of the person who designed the remodel. I took a picture of the sign, and reach-out to the architect to determine if he'd be interested in helping me expand my home. I sent current pictures and sent the lot map to give the architect an idea of what he'd be working with. My only criteria was the main house's roof had to stay intact. I wanted this for two reasons: (1) I needed a place to live while the house is being worked on (2) reworking a metal roof was going to be expensive.

I received an email back from the architect saying that he'd help me.

Larry the architect came to the house the first weekend after I closed escrow to have a look around. I told him I wanted a simple house, I wanted a garage which the house did not currently have, and I wanted to built a studio unit over the garage for income for when I retire. I had an idea where I would tear-up the driveway, go into the dirt, start the garage and built the rental unit on top. Larry liked that idea. The house currenlty is higher than the sidewalk and Larry guessitmated that the house was 6' above the sidewalk.

Within in a week, Larry sent the following drawing:



In the middle of the drawing is a "tower." The tower is a entry way and transitions from the original part of the house to the garage/newer part of the house. And, it's tall simply to put non-opening windows above the roofline to allow light in the transition room.

Because the house is 6' off the ground from the sidewalk, and if we go sraight into the slope where the house is, that is only 6' feet. The garage has a 9' ceiling, therefore, the "tower" is a 3' transition from the old part of the house, to the garage/new part of the house.

I really liked that and thought it was cool.

On the back of the house is the kitchen. I lamented that the rental unit would not be realized. Then I hit upon an idea. What if the rental unit was under the kitchen as a studio. Larry made it happen.


(The door on the bottom floor at the back of the lot is the studio/rental unit.)

Here is the font of the house with the garage and front door facing the street.


Now, this part is really cool.

If you look at the lower left window of the front of the house, this is where the next part comes in...

Over the Christmas holidays 2021, I saw a story on celebrity houses and I clicked to have a look. One thing lead to the next, and I went down a rabbit hole. I ended-up on a Sotheby's Real Estate website and was viewing differnent properties when I happened upon a condominium in Miami with this bathroom:



The light from the shower is a window. I told Larry I wanted that bathroom. That exact bathroom from that condominum in Miami, is now in the drawings for the house. The lower-left window is part of the shower and it will look like this:



Currently, the project is in engineering. Engineering takes Larry's drawings and converts them to blue prints. I should have the blue prints back any day now. The next step is to send the plans to the city planning department.

I hope to break ground this summer.

...and now you know the journey of the cabin to a real house.

The setbacks are:
Back yard and front yard is 15', but if there is a garage door facing the street the set back is 20'.
The side yard is 5'.



Larry brought the building right up to the set backs. The building kisses the set back at five points.

I've been in contact with the city building department all thoughout this project.

In my opinion, I will never find a lot close the water as I did that is fully developed. I truly believe house is a lucky find.

It is often said, that things happen for a reason. I am convinced that this is true.

Welp, Larry and I got carried away.

There is almost nothing as fun and exciting as building a house. Congratulations on a long search coming to fruition and contacting the right people to make your dream come true!