Glad to meet you. I look forward to hitting the road, meet all the Elio owners.
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- Thread starter goofyone
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Folks
Elio Addict
Lots of down to earth nice people here. Was It Abraham Lincoln who said, "The good Lord must have loved the common folks because he made so many of them"? Welcome aboard, AZ
Who are we?
So this thread is about sharing ourselves, partly through story telling. Some of us show the timeline of our lives. Some the sensitive parts of our experiences. The highs and the lows all laid out in friendship. Even just the basic stats have a bit of wonderful personality in it. It's all beautiful to see.
But the stories, these seem to really take you there. Each story is just a slice of someone's life. Even when very simple, there is something intrinsic of self truth in an honest true story. So let me tell you about my parents house.
It's the 50's. Based on his high school education my dad taught himself chemical tech to the level that he became a lab tech in the oil industry. He worked near of Salt Lake City. Money was very tight for them so dad converted a chicken coup into a 3 bedroom home(or finished what was started, not sure which). This was up in Emigration Canyon Utah. I was 1 or 2, the youngest of 3 boys. Then they upgraded a few times to new rental houses in the lower valley area. But I think my parents got the 'bug' from that chicken coup.
But by the 60's with three boys, my parents needed better living for us all. Eventually he got lab tech work in Shelton Washington in the paper pulp industry, but Olympia 30 miles away, had the viable property prices. And that's where they found their dream home.
After an expansion into new barracks at Ft Lewis, there was some building material and a heating system left over, enough to build a two story pill-box of a home just above a canyon, now the Water Shed Park in Olympia. Slate sided and almost totally square, with two bedrooms and a single car garage in the basement, and upper carport with a large cement porch area. The house was on a slope surrounded by glorious (4' trunk diameter) Hemlocks, with a modest yard. At only $10,109 in 1963 dollars, my parents saw possibilities. They bought it.
In the next few years my dad taught himself electronics, and converted various spaces inside the house, remaking the basement into a staircase and three rooms(more like 3 partitions) of space, a new utility room out of the carport. They resized and moved the kitchen, remade the pantry and reorganized the dinning, living room and master bedroom. Nothing was exactly where it was before. Walls moved, pluming and electrical re-routed, fences built, roofing revamped, windows covered over or new ones put in. All with 'in-house' labor. The younger you were the more likely your job was to find that tool or hold this thing.
Even so, all my mom needed to was say, "I think we need to do this here and that there". Then everyone would skate all over the area like ants remaking into the new vision.
That all seemed to work OK for boys ranging from 3nd grade to 7th. So "House phase one" was done. Well, having just one bath was still a bit hazardous. Us boys were growing, we were all feeling a bit tight. My parents had dreams so more plans were conceptualized.
But more money was needed. So my dad using his new found electronics skills, got a job with the state of Washington installing and maintaining traffic counters all over the state. With this higher income money,"House phase two" could begin . .
(An aside; Yes, my parents bought me a Daisy BB gun, more on the affect on the house later! )
House at edge of the canyon, as it now looks in 2015; (Do you want to hear about phase 2, how did it end up looking like this?)
So this thread is about sharing ourselves, partly through story telling. Some of us show the timeline of our lives. Some the sensitive parts of our experiences. The highs and the lows all laid out in friendship. Even just the basic stats have a bit of wonderful personality in it. It's all beautiful to see.
But the stories, these seem to really take you there. Each story is just a slice of someone's life. Even when very simple, there is something intrinsic of self truth in an honest true story. So let me tell you about my parents house.
It's the 50's. Based on his high school education my dad taught himself chemical tech to the level that he became a lab tech in the oil industry. He worked near of Salt Lake City. Money was very tight for them so dad converted a chicken coup into a 3 bedroom home(or finished what was started, not sure which). This was up in Emigration Canyon Utah. I was 1 or 2, the youngest of 3 boys. Then they upgraded a few times to new rental houses in the lower valley area. But I think my parents got the 'bug' from that chicken coup.
But by the 60's with three boys, my parents needed better living for us all. Eventually he got lab tech work in Shelton Washington in the paper pulp industry, but Olympia 30 miles away, had the viable property prices. And that's where they found their dream home.
After an expansion into new barracks at Ft Lewis, there was some building material and a heating system left over, enough to build a two story pill-box of a home just above a canyon, now the Water Shed Park in Olympia. Slate sided and almost totally square, with two bedrooms and a single car garage in the basement, and upper carport with a large cement porch area. The house was on a slope surrounded by glorious (4' trunk diameter) Hemlocks, with a modest yard. At only $10,109 in 1963 dollars, my parents saw possibilities. They bought it.
In the next few years my dad taught himself electronics, and converted various spaces inside the house, remaking the basement into a staircase and three rooms(more like 3 partitions) of space, a new utility room out of the carport. They resized and moved the kitchen, remade the pantry and reorganized the dinning, living room and master bedroom. Nothing was exactly where it was before. Walls moved, pluming and electrical re-routed, fences built, roofing revamped, windows covered over or new ones put in. All with 'in-house' labor. The younger you were the more likely your job was to find that tool or hold this thing.
Even so, all my mom needed to was say, "I think we need to do this here and that there". Then everyone would skate all over the area like ants remaking into the new vision.
That all seemed to work OK for boys ranging from 3nd grade to 7th. So "House phase one" was done. Well, having just one bath was still a bit hazardous. Us boys were growing, we were all feeling a bit tight. My parents had dreams so more plans were conceptualized.
But more money was needed. So my dad using his new found electronics skills, got a job with the state of Washington installing and maintaining traffic counters all over the state. With this higher income money,"House phase two" could begin . .
(An aside; Yes, my parents bought me a Daisy BB gun, more on the affect on the house later! )
House at edge of the canyon, as it now looks in 2015; (Do you want to hear about phase 2, how did it end up looking like this?)
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NSTG8R
Elio Addict
It may take a few hours for me to prep for the finish, it does deserve a diagram or two. But see that large tree in the middle of the front yard? That's a Deodar Cedar that we planted in the late 60's. It was 12ft high back then.Ari, you can't stop now! I need to know the rest of the story! The house looks so picturesque, nestled in the the tall trees.
Very odd! you just answered a question, why they planted that! Looking it up for the spelling, I found this,
My parents were reasonably 'spiritual' about life, and this definition may be a hint as to why they put it there. It's the oddest tree too, it had two trunks, one for each of my parents?
BTW, this is the location, click on the map and then go to satellite view. That wooded area was definitely nice.
Link: Oly house
I don't know who owns the property now, but it's a good spot to live. Especially for a kid with a BB gun. p.s. after my first bird, eek! I never shot anything live again, except some slugs. Oh and my brother once, oops!
So just to finish the background on this..
Did I say 3 brothers? well K, a year more or less before we moved there, was a birth 5 years after mine.
My red headed brother! So 3 brothers AND a baby.
To this day, my youngest brother still claims he was adopted. Frankly, my parents couldn't afford to adopt!
K, he has a case, he's taller than anyone else in the family by 2inches, nobody else is fair haired, and only he has freckles. But in black and white photos you can see the DNA match up, yes my 'little' Viking brother IS my natural brother.
So how would you stuff a family of 6 in the floor plan below? If nothing else my parents were creative! You try it, figure out what you would do, given a hammer, 2x4 technology, only a little money but lots of tenacity? My mind blanks out how we moved in before all the initial changes. Go figure. ( I suspect the pantry was a bedroom for a short time )
Did I say 3 brothers? well K, a year more or less before we moved there, was a birth 5 years after mine.
My red headed brother! So 3 brothers AND a baby.
To this day, my youngest brother still claims he was adopted. Frankly, my parents couldn't afford to adopt!
K, he has a case, he's taller than anyone else in the family by 2inches, nobody else is fair haired, and only he has freckles. But in black and white photos you can see the DNA match up, yes my 'little' Viking brother IS my natural brother.
So how would you stuff a family of 6 in the floor plan below? If nothing else my parents were creative! You try it, figure out what you would do, given a hammer, 2x4 technology, only a little money but lots of tenacity? My mind blanks out how we moved in before all the initial changes. Go figure. ( I suspect the pantry was a bedroom for a short time )
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So here is how my parents solved the problem and updated a 30's style bungalow into a 60's style house (more or less).
Note: Sliding glass doors had just come into play and were considered cool! ( or rather. "Neat man!" )
I'll have to post phase 2 tonight or tomorrow depending on the drawing that goes with it. ( you asked! )
Note: Sliding glass doors had just come into play and were considered cool! ( or rather. "Neat man!" )
I'll have to post phase 2 tonight or tomorrow depending on the drawing that goes with it. ( you asked! )
One thing about 60's style homes, outside utility and sitting porches have gone, but rooms and spaces are just a few inches bigger than the 50's. And our family home was converted 40's style living. Everything was tight. The one bathroom was totally over used.
My parents desided they wanted some of the things they saw in home style magazines and definately more and better bathrooms. By the late 60's they had kids in high school and my parents wanted to be able to entertain friends and other 'company'. My mom started working as an accountant in the early 60's, and us children became 'latch-key' kids. With the extra money they later qualified for a remodeling loan. So while the older kids finished growing, things got remade.
For this phase 2 they had a contractor do the structure, pushing 10ft out the front with lofted celings, and 14 out the side for bigger and better private areas. Then all of us completed the interior and also constructed the outside private area and fully rebuilt the sun deck. We had tiled bathrooms( wow ) with picture windows into private garden views, more sliding doors and the best view over the back hill you could ever want.
Just standing at the rail you looked down about an 80ft slope into the forest. Very nice!
The front was very interesting with tall cathedral windows going all the way up into the vaulted celling. Remeber that BB gun? There was a very small hole at the peak of one of those windows. Just alittle miscalulation, I was actually aiming at the hanging lamp over the front door entry. oops! no excuses, kids are simply nuts! What can I say? Think twice about arming your kids!
Below is the floor plan by around 1969. Still it was not up to it's final form. Want to see what happened next, Phase 3?
My parents desided they wanted some of the things they saw in home style magazines and definately more and better bathrooms. By the late 60's they had kids in high school and my parents wanted to be able to entertain friends and other 'company'. My mom started working as an accountant in the early 60's, and us children became 'latch-key' kids. With the extra money they later qualified for a remodeling loan. So while the older kids finished growing, things got remade.
For this phase 2 they had a contractor do the structure, pushing 10ft out the front with lofted celings, and 14 out the side for bigger and better private areas. Then all of us completed the interior and also constructed the outside private area and fully rebuilt the sun deck. We had tiled bathrooms( wow ) with picture windows into private garden views, more sliding doors and the best view over the back hill you could ever want.
Just standing at the rail you looked down about an 80ft slope into the forest. Very nice!
The front was very interesting with tall cathedral windows going all the way up into the vaulted celling. Remeber that BB gun? There was a very small hole at the peak of one of those windows. Just alittle miscalulation, I was actually aiming at the hanging lamp over the front door entry. oops! no excuses, kids are simply nuts! What can I say? Think twice about arming your kids!
Below is the floor plan by around 1969. Still it was not up to it's final form. Want to see what happened next, Phase 3?