Car2Go

Although a subway/light rail network is basically non-existent in Seattle, the bus service is pretty good, and we can walk or bike to most places we need to go. But there are times when we both could benefit from a car. After selling my deteriorating money-pit of a vehicle, I thought it would be interesting to try out Car2Go as a supplement to our transportation needs.

It’s a car-sharing service, part of a growing collaborative consumption movement, reshaping the attitude of how consumers own and use things: Where people share things that they use on occasion, as opposed to owning them outright. Paying for access to a product, not ownership of the product.

Car2Go is also a growing part of city transportation, made possible by the internet and cheap modern technology: key-card access, on-board GPS, online integration, and a Smartphone app. It is currently in a bunch of cities.

The Smart Cars feel a bit like driving a clown car. They apparently have the same accelerators as bumper-cars: the first 45 degrees of the pedal is non-responsive, and the next 5 degrees is 0 to 60! But you can park in the smallest of spaces. And since they have a deal with Seattle, all parking is FREE!

The perks are the simplicity.  You just find one, hop in, and go! Then ditch it.

Free: Gas, Parking, Insurance, maintenance, cleaning, etc, including all those hidden-costs of car-ownership. “Free” meaning they are already included, so you never have to worry about it.

One-way trips! It’s like having a fleet of disposable one-time-use cars. Just bus-it home! No more retrieving your car.

The downsides are freedom. Of course having the freedom to go wherever, whenever, on a whim is the very reason people own cars. Car2Go is not ideal for some trips, but it’s not a bad alternative for most trips. There is an "in-bounds", and a few rules.

Seattle's current boundaries.

The cost is 41 cents a minute (capped at $15 an hour), which seems steep, but when actually add up the full cost of owning and operating a car, it is apparently cheaper! [AAA report: “How much are you really paying to drive?”]. And of course we don't use it that often, so its working out pretty good so far.

Finalizing the trip on our 1st Car2Go.

Here is a TED Talk on Collaborative Consumption for more information on the idea. (it’s a little dated, but it conveys the idea).

oh, and a  bike-share is coming to Seattle in 2014!

Museum of Glass

Long time, no post. That’ll happen.

We took a half-day trip down to Tacoma to check out the city.

Tacoma is the birthplace of the renown glassblower Dale Chihuly and is therefore home to the the Museum of Glass.  I've wanted to check it out for a while now. Glassblowing is kinda big out here. 

This is my favorite piece from inside the museum.

Attached to the museum is the Bridge of Glass, which I actually enjoyed more than the museum. The bridge is free to the public! It kind of looks like the world's fanciest collection of bongs. It isn't. But I'm fairly certain that the creator and owner of the worlds most impressive collection of bongs is likely Chihuly himself. Anyway, he makes some really beautiful work. 

   

 

 

Inside the museum is an area where you can watch and learn about glassblowing in person. It was a cool thing to see.

Seattle has also tried to get in on the glass hullabaloo with the very recent installation (in May 2012), Chihuly Garden and Glass, at the base of the Space Needle which we have yet to go to, (and may not now that we have gone to the other one).

Anyway, it was pretty cool. Tacoma seems cool too, although we didn’t actually see a whole lot more, since it gets dark at freakin’ 5 o’clock (stupid winter). We'll hafta make another trip down to see what else is going on in Tacoma.

The Renovated House

It is very interesting how everything needs water to survive, yet water destroys everything! If just about anything gets wet, you have to take immediate drastic measures to attempt to salvage it… and even then most things are beyond repair. That is what we had to do following that time a pipe burst in our rented house. We literally washed every single thing we own.

I meticulously cleaned, dried, and gave excruciating individual attention to the books and records. Although most were salvaged, many no longer possess any real value. They only have the value that I personally assign to them, which itself has been greatly eroded. This whole ordeal has really driven-home just how ephemeral everything is.

The renovation

Although my landlord managed to find and employ the most inept contractors of every trade, the end-product is far better than it was before the flood. The house has been stripped down to a shell and fully renovated and restored.

Everything to do with the interior is brand new: walls, ceiling, flooring, cabinets, wiring, plumbing, lights, fixtures, and so on. The best part was that got to give a lot of input on how it was improved, optimized, and customized for what we want. So it was kind of like renovating our first house, [except it’s not our house].

Anyway, things have been back to normal for a little while now, and this post is long overdue. Sorry to keep you all on the edge of your seat. Here is what the place looks like now. Honestly, the place is way better than it was.

The kitchen was an overall improvement. 
You can read more about our thrift-store counter-tops here!

Tess and I built a Murphy bed to save precious space in our tiny house. We ordered a kit from Create-A-Bed which came with good instructions, hardware, and the essential mechanisms. We then cut the lumber and assembled, built, painted, and installed it. It turned out perfect, and we are quite proud of it.

Murphy bed down.

Murphy bed up.

Tess and I also built in a custom desk, clothes-rack, and gear closet, and incorporated shelving into the bedroom which is a huge improvement in the use of the space.

The built-in desk, that we built.

One good thing to come from all of this is we got a washer/dryer in the house now.

The Bathroom is pretty much the same.

The kitchen was rearranged a bit.

The stove was re-positioned, and the counter extended to the wall. 

Now that things are in good shape, and we are back in a livable house, I fully expect it to burn down for no good reason other than Murphy's Law. I only ask that if that happens, I am inside when it all goes down in flames. 

Hiking Independence Lake with Carolyn

We met up with our good friend Carolyn to go explore the Mt. Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest of the Cascades, which apparently is one of the most visited forests in the country (although I certainly did not get that feeling). More specifically we were adventuring along the beautiful Mountain Loop Highway, which is practically an outdoorsman’s playground, jam-packed with outdoor adventures. 

Why did the Pheasants cross the road?

I was very impressed with how nicely maintained the roads, trails, and facilities are in this National Forest, and I completely understand what my Northwest Forest Pass fee goes to: Take my money and keep up the good work!

The Mountain Loop Highway is located along the route of an old railroad which was built around the (relatively unsuccessful) gold rush of 1889, which was partially backed by John D. Rockefeller. I would like to thank Rockefeller, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt for their hand in making this awesome part of America accessible for an easy weekend adventure.

Carolyn taking in the view during lunch. 

We ended up hiking the Independence and North Lakes Trail. It was full of beautiful lakes, snow fields, and amazing views. We failed to reach the actual North Lake, (we couldn't find the trail down to it), but we saw it from a beautiful vantage point where we ate lunch, as well as seeing many other snowmelt-fed lakes. Some of the trails in this back-country aren't all that clear sometimes, especially when you meet up with a snowfield, and are thinking…”I don’t see any footprints…?”

We camped at one of the many random campsites off of Mountain Loop. The next day we did the quick hike to the Big Four Ice Caves, which weren't really that impressive at this time, (maybe we are too late in the year…?). Speaking of cool, the coolest thing was walking in front of the ice caves on a hot day and feeling the air rushing out of them. It was like being in a walk in freezer.

I assume these trees are like this due to avalanches.

The Ice Caves are only about 4 feet high in this picture, however, they are much larger at other times.

This is a random sign that was in the parking lot. I like it b/c it makes no sense in ANY context!  

Recycled Kitchen Cabinets

Here is a post that I meant to post months ago... ....

After the flooding incident, the entire house was remodeled, including the kitchen. We later realized the cabinets were done with almost 100% recycled materials! This is mainly because we (and our landlord) are cheap, but if you prefer to think of it as being green, that's cool too.

Materials and their sources:

Cabinets and Sink       ->     Craigslist

Countertop Laminate  ->      Thrift Store

Drawer Handles         ->      The Re-Store

  

Our landlord had found the replacement cabinets on Craigslist and I swear they looked like were taken from a meth lab that was being renovated. I can only imagine the deal he got on this heap (likely free). But after a good cleaning, some paint, and a lot of TLC, the cabinets themselves actually turned out better than the previous ones.

Cabinets that we fixed up from total crap to pretty nice.
The counter-top needed some work.

The counter-tops however, were a different story. In the rush to get the house livable, the particleboard surface of the counter-top was not nailed down by our landlord's chosen handyman. It was actually placed on upside-down and completely backwards! The laminate counter-top was total crap: thin, cracked, chipped, not glued down, and gross. So it was a bit sub-par to prepare food upon.

Lucky for us, a good friend of ours, Matt Behring, is currently pulling a 4.0 in the Cabinetmaking and Fine Woodworking Program at The Wood Technology Center at Seattle Central Community College. It is prestigious woodworking school and he will without a doubt go on do great things. In fact he already has, with our counter-tops! 

Tess made an awesome find when she found this brand-new roll of nice counter-top laminate at the Ballard Goodwill for $12.  One man’s trash is another man’s kitchen.

Counter-top laminate from the Ballard Goodwill for $12 !

It was easy to convince Matt to help us fix and laminate the counter-tops as it is the perfect opportunity to test out his new-found skills in a real-world setting, and we couldn't be happier with the results! I was very impressed with his work, from the second he showed up looking all professional with his toolbox and shop apron, to when he put the finishing touches on the laminate and we went out for a celebratory beer.

He has the necessary tools of the trade, knows the tricks of trade, and has honed his skillset to a point where this could have easily have been his 100^th  real-world install (instead of his 1^st)! I enjoyed helping him help us with this project, and I learned quite a lot of useful skills in the process.

Matt fixing the particle board.

J-rolling the laminate to help the cement bond.

Rough cutting the hole for the sink.

Routing away the excess laminate. 
Note how good the final routed hole for the sink looks after being routed!

He briefly used a really awesome Japanese saw called a Dōzuki, which is a type of backsaw. 
It has a very thin kerf, only cuts on the back-stroke, and therefore is used for fine cuts. 
It is awesome and I really want one!

To finish up the kitchen cabinets, we got new drawer handles from the Re-Store. The Re-Store is a concept that I absolutely love. It is what you would have if you combined a thrift-store and a Home Depot. It’s a store that sells recycled and re-purposed hardware, fixtures, and building materials! Brilliant.

Cabinet and Drawer handles from the Re-Store.

I wish I had a good before picture to really drive home how much of an improvement this laminate counter-top is. But you'll just have to take my word for it; it is night and day! 

If anyone in the Seattle area needs any carpentry and/or laminate work done, I know a guy! He is professionally trained, top of his class, and is highly recommended! Thank you Matt!

The final counter-top. We love our professionally installed thrift-store find!