Who Are Our Members?

[Bert]

Of course we do!

 

[AriLea]

Of course we do!

OK, onward and upward! I'm not sure about all the time lines of events so this may not be in perfect order.

After 1969 a whole number of changes happened. My oldest brother decided to become a 'counter culture' person ( 70's updated names for a hippy with weed ) and moved away with his fiancé to the Seattle area, to make artistic leather goods for a living. He got kind of famous for that in limited circles.

My next brother went off to University to study Biochemistry and later develop his mushrooms ( seriously? yep ). I went off to the Air Force for the tail-end of the Vietnam era but ended up servicing electronics for ballistic missiles in Tucson AZ( the missile museum there was one of those locations ). So you might expect my younger brother would have become a priest or something. lol, well nope! A few years later he became a programmer for Microsoft, so technology got him too.

So my parents decided taking on a renter would be nice, so an apartment was hogged out of the spaces in the basement. When I visited back on leave I helped with various things. I fully took the task of building the red-brick staircase on the west of the property for the apartment.

Then a big change came about, my grandpaw and grandmaw! Grandpa grew up as a 'western' man in Utah. He used to say he was there at the Golden Spike Cerimony. Hunting with Mr Browning (yes, THE Mr Browning), fishing and ridding as a deputy in the local posse, gambling at the Elks Club were all started in his early years. In fact that Elks club started out as a Gambling Saloon with rooms upstairs where the 'working' women lived and one didn't open doors with out invitation and never questioned what went on inside.

Anyway, when Grandpaw was 92, and visiting that same Elks club (now modernized and respectable ), he picked up a couple beers to take up stairs and put his cane on his arm. Well, things didn't workout so well and he fell, breaking his hip. He was in the hospital for two years, then my parents decided both grandparents could no longer make it on their own. So they moved to Olympia to live with with my parents.

That move forced the next changes. My youngest brother moved to the basement bedroom, Grandma took the one directly upstairs and 'Granpaw's room' was built on the upper floor with a shop for my dad on the basement level. The design placed a breezeway between the shop and the apartment downstairs to reduce noise. In coordination the deck was rebuilt and extended to match.

So as part of that, I had a very interesting time putting the first nails in the vertical post for the first support at the SW corner of the deck extension. It was grounded about 6ft down the canyon hill, and rose about 20ft to hand rail level, but someone had to crawl out there and put the first nail in at the top. Guess who? The hill was so steep, if the post fell outward, it would have been about a 100ft drop to the hillside at some a lower point. At least it looked that way from the position I was at. (location at the green X)

I had to add this (edit) there were another two fireplaces added on, one at the west end of the dinning area next to the door for 'Grandpaw's Room' and one at the east wall next to the sunken living room pit. ( 3 fireplaces in total ) The one couch removed and replaced with a hearth. (not shown on the images below)

Just a few years later and both Grandparents passed within just two weeks of each other. So the 'Grandpaw room' became a private study, sewing room and library complete with a new book-nook alcove. They also added a fireplace to the room. At the last count I can remember, we removed 18 walls, some of which we had ourselves built!. That's the end of it as I knew it while my parents lived there. Floorplans below.

I haven't even addressed any of the outside fences and landscaping changes. ( the story is long enough already! )

The final changes I can only guess at seeing the google maps images. Apparently the Greenhouse and pool are gone, some fences removed, the front windows replaced with more serviceable and up-to-spec units. ( evidence of my BBgun crime lost to prosperity! )The private area expanded to include some kind of out building, possibly enclosing a large garden or pool. It's very hard to tell because the huge trees hide so much.

The house was first built in 1939. The 31 years my parents owned it cover the biggest changes. They paid just over 10K for it in 62. The last time it sold was for only $169K in 2003 to the second(?) owner since my parents. (Zestimate value 249k in 2015) Maybe it would be interesting to mail this story to them and ask for a few updates? ( follow-up; mailed June 19th )

 

[Bill Anderson]

Arilea

What a coincidence I too lived my earliest years in a converted chicken coop in southern California.

 

[Evarance]

I just joined the forum, but I've been following it for about a year now. Figured I may as well introduce myself. I'm a wife and mother of five children. I work full-time and commute 36 miles each way every day (totaling 72 miles per day). The long commute is one of the many reasons I'm so excited about the Elio. It seems like it will be the perfect commuter car for me. I'm also a soon-to-be author currently working on finishing up book one of a young adult fantasy trilogy called "Evarance". Book one is titled "Evarance - Rise of the Shadows".

I went all in June of 2014 for $100 reservation because that's what could afford at the time and I just recently moved to the $1,000 all in level. I'm excited about the progress Elio Motors is making and can't wait to have a Eilo of my very own. Hope to get one that's orange since foxes are my favorite animal and the orange color looks pretty foxy to me. Nice meeting everyone.

 

[Jim H]

I just joined the forum, but I've been following it for about a year now. Figured I may as well introduce myself. I'm a wife and mother of five children. I work full-time and commute 36 miles each way every day (totaling 72 miles per day). The long commute is one of the many reasons I'm so excited about the Elio. It seems like it will be the perfect commuter car for me. I'm also a soon-to-be author currently working on finishing up book one of a young adult fantasy trilogy called "Evarance". Book one is titled "Evarance - Rise of the Shadows".

I went all in June of 2014 for $100 reservation because that's what could afford at the time and I just recently moved to the $1,000 all in level. I'm excited about the progress Elio Motors is making and can't wait to have a Eilo of my very own. Hope to get one that's orange since foxes are my favorite animal and the orange color looks pretty foxy to me. Nice meeting everyone.

Evarance, congratulations on going all in. Many of us started small too.

 

[AriLea]

. . . currently working on finishing up book one of a young adult fantasy trilogy called "Evarance". Book one is titled "Evarance - Rise of the Shadows".. . .

Nice title. Cool, thanks for telling us that! Are you going to be the american version of Ms. Rowling?

 

[Evarance]

Nice title. Cool, thanks for telling us that! Are you going to be the american version of Ms. Rowling?

I wish...LOL But in all honesty, I'll just be happy when I finish. Writing a novel in and of itself will be a major accomplishment for me.

 

[Dustman]

I just joined the forum, but I've been following it for about a year now. Figured I may as well introduce myself. I'm a wife and mother of five children. I work full-time and commute 36 miles each way every day (totaling 72 miles per day). The long commute is one of the many reasons I'm so excited about the Elio. It seems like it will be the perfect commuter car for me. I'm also a soon-to-be author currently working on finishing up book one of a young adult fantasy trilogy called "Evarance". Book one is titled "Evarance - Rise of the Shadows".

I went all in June of 2014 for $100 reservation because that's what could afford at the time and I just recently moved to the $1,000 all in level. I'm excited about the progress Elio Motors is making and can't wait to have a Eilo of my very own. Hope to get one that's orange since foxes are my favorite animal and the orange color looks pretty foxy to me. Nice meeting everyone.

Welcome from the San Francisco Bay Area! My commute is 45 miles each way, so I very much relate to your excitement about the Elio's potential.

I have fond memories of the novels I read as a young teen - As a horse fancier, I was enthralled with the Black Stalion series of books. I also enjoyed some of the teen mystery novels & science fiction writers. I would volunteer as a guinea pig reader for your book

 

[Norahsbed]

I wish...LOL But in all honesty, I'll just be happy when I finish. Writing a novel in and of itself will be a major accomplishment for me.

Hey Foxy Mom (sorry couldn't resist but you did set yourself up ) I think you're our first novelist. With 5 kids and a job, where do you find the time to write? One of my nieces is working on her first novel as well and until recently (she's now a stay at home Mom) finding time to write was difficult for her and she only has 1 child. There's nothing like hearing about a new writer and waiting for their book to hit the market. Good luck!

 

[AriLea]

PS, my round trip is 84miles each commute. So I expect to use exactly 1gal on an average day. Since I can get my PriusC up to 60mpg+ on a 'good' day, I expect to have 'very' good days in the Elio.

And YES I must take my Elio on a trip to go visit my parents old home. See if the current owners liked my story or not? It's about 1200miles from San Tan Valley AZ to Olympia WA, so about 14gal or $38 in gas at current prices. In theory I only fill up once or twice along the way.

So what are your stories? I'm willing to bet your stores are more interesting than you think!