The Poet's House
November 2013
It was a logistic dilemma from the start,
"The Poet's House", that is. How to move a 1912 farmhand bunk
house with a rotted out floor a 100 miles to Seattle in one piece. Tricky
business and not for the faint of heart. The owner had listed the 12
ft. x 16ft. structure on Craigslist for the purchase price of $1000.
A good deal but with the requirement, of course, that the new owner
remove the little house at his or her expense. Many people were interested, but soon
found the cost to move the structure prohibitive. As would anyone working
on a tight budget. It was a deal breaker for many. Anne Hagen saw the ad on Craigslist
and called the homeowner and Nickel Brothers and another house moving
company immediately to get prices. Nickel Brothers said they had received
several calls on the little bunk house out in Snohomish, Washington
and were quite interested. Nickel Brothers gave an estimate of around
$15,000 to move the house and on inspection said Anne's back fence would
have to be taken down to allow a 50ft. trailer to maneuver a tight alley
to get the small house into her backyard. Definitely not a workable
solution. Helicopter or crane maybe, to lift the little house over the
fence and onto a foundation? Well, probably not. Anne got online again looking for an
affordable house mover. She scoured Craigslist for hours until she ran
across an ad for "Ty of Tacoma". After talking to Ty she knew
she had found the right guy for the job. Ty had a small, low to the
ground trailer and a forklift. And lots of experience moving large objects
of all kinds. Perfect. With a bid of $4000 Ty Taylor (PAC Rentals
LLC.) headed out to Snohomish to secure and strap down the little house
for transport. Not really a problem for a professional who made it all
seem very doable all of a sudden. And the price was right too. Two pilot cars escorted the little house
along a round about way to South Seattle. On arrival Ty quickly switched
his truck out for a forklift and gently guided the tiny dwelling safely
down the tight alley and made a sharp right hand turn into Anne's backyard.
Sweet. About four weeks later the yard was
excavated by Mike Swope & Co. and a small foundation was poured
by the father and son team at JLW Construction out of Lynwood. Ty showed
up with his rollers and tackle and rolled the little house gently onto
her foundation, as she sits to this day. Solid as a rock and pretty
as a peach. Getting the small bunk house from Snohomish
to South Seattle and on a foundation was just the first step in what
turned out to be a three year project. With Anne Hagen's vision and
the expertise of contractor Jason Leschinger "The Poet's House"
became a reality. A combination of the best of the old and the new. Salvaged materials used to restore the
interior include fir flooring, fir v-board, a 4 ft. Claw foot tub and
Victorian corner sink, a Putnam Library ladder, antique Chaise lounge,
antique door hardware and lighting fixtures and much more. Reclaimed materials were sourced through
Craigslist, eBay, Second Use and Earthwise in Seattle. "The Poet's House" has all
new electrical and plumbing throughout including radiant floor heat.
Also the little house is fully equipped with wi-fi, security system
and iPhone/iPad compatible devices such as a flat screen HD TV streaming
Netflix and YouTube with Apple TV. "The Poet's House" is a unique
artist live/work space, 250 square feet with a sleeping loft and nestled
in the heart of Seattle's southern urban farm region.
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Don Barrie's Museum Tour 9/22/2012
PBF President Anne Hagen and PB Artists' Co-Op Founder Don Barrie
"Passion unites businesses on 19th Avenue East" Capitol Hill Times 2012/06 by Kris Parfitt
"Hippies, artists and prostitutes - Oh My!" Capitol Hill Times 2012/05 by Kris Parfitt
and
"Seattle's Smallest P-Patch" Capitol Hill Times 2012/05 by Kris Parfitt
*****
Responses to "Pea-O'd" in the Seattle Weekly 1/3/07;
an article about the Pelican Tea Garden P-Patch.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
No
Free Ride I'm
sure he's been inundated with e-mails disabusing him of the notion that
the city's P-Patches don't pay their own way. I doubt that I have to
tell him that we pay fees, hold fund-raising events, provide 99.9 percent
of the labor (Parks does mow the lawn at Bradner!), and donate an enormous
amount of fresh produce to local food banks. And I suppose that more
than a few people have pointed out to him that using his garage to store
a car in a city is considered a colossal waste of real estate in these
parts. What
I want to know is thiswhen Metcalfe was speaking to Sandy Pernitz
of the P-Patch office, did he not think to ask her how the program actually
works? Or did he ask but decide that the truth was not as entertaining
as a rant about his disappointment in finding his (his landlord's?)
garage inaccessible? We have more than enough so-called journalists
in this city who use their columns to whine about Seattle's failure
to live up to their preconceived fantasies. Why amble down that hackneyed
path? The fact that this article appeared under the title "News"
is astounding. May
I suggest that after purchasing an umbrella, Metcalfe head on over to
Metzger Maps in the Pike Place Market, just a short bus ride from Capitol
Hill. He can pick up a map of Seattle and make the amazing discovery
that Capitol Hill can easily be "cruised," by foot, in less
than a day. That should leave him with plenty of time to devote to the
practice of his craft. Perhaps we can look forward to a well-researched
article on a subject that actually matters. Elizabeth
Cross Ditch
the Car Victory
Garden Despite
the assertion in "Pea-O'd," there was no "clandestine
growing." I contacted the Department of Design, Construction and
Land Use before the garden was created to ascertain if there would be
any problem in having the garden at that location. I also contacted
the Transportation Department. In both cases, I was told it was not
an issue. For
two years, gardening was difficult, as a neighboring business kept dumping
debris on the garden. In an attempt to protect it, I contacted the community
garden coordinator in the Department of Neighborhoods, in the hope that
the garden could become a P-Patch, but my request was declined. After
11 years of repeated requests on my part, Sandy Pernitz expressed interest.
I then had to obtain signatures, in support of creating the P-Patch,
from every property owner whose property borders the garden. And
that was only the beginning. . . . The foundation had to obtain volunteers
to work on the garden, including hand digging a long and deep trough
for the waterline, in return for a matching grant to pay for the various
expenses including the water supply. Far
from being a "rogue," "renegade" plot with "squatter's
rights," "guerrilla gardening," and "clandestine
growing," creation of this P-Patch took adherence to a multitude
of legal and bureaucratic requirements, and, yes, sometimes dealing
with a neighboring "anarchist" along the way. Anne
Hagen |
*****
A Long Strange Trip;
Pelican Bay Foundation's 30 Year Odyssey
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