Why did we build

Building a home in Sitka

More than one person has asked me why did you build a house in Sitka. Well here is the story.

As some of you know Connie and I lived the last 20 some years on a 45’ sailboat that we built. We raised Zach aboard the boat and frankly Connie and I were very content to continue living in the boat. In fact if you had asked me 3 years ago I would have told you that we would live on the boat until we died or became too frail to live aboard. That was all before we knew that Connie’s mother would soon be moving from Denver to Sitka to live with us.

While on a vacation to visit family in Colorado a couple of years ago Connie’s father George asked us, and more importantly me if Connie and I would be sure to take care of Millie when he died. George had been fighting prostrate cancer for some years and he knew he only had a short time left when he asked me if we would consider purchasing house and move Millie in with us after he was gone. Connie’s double cousin Kay (George’s brother married Millie’s sister) had already moved Connie’s Aunt Ruth into her home and George saw that this arraignment was working well. Since Connie and her mother had always been so close it was logical that Millie would live with us after George was gone. Since George had asked me and since I had tons of respect for George and thought the world of him I knew I’d have to be part of his wish.

So, shortly after that visit Connie and I started looking to purchase a house in Sitka. At the time what we found on the market was frankly what I would call junk. Keep in mind I was working as the head of the maintenance department for Sheldon Jackson College trying to maintain 45 mostly old and poorly maintained buildings. And, not only was I not interested in coming home to fix yet another leaking sink, roof, window or whatever, I had been around construction to recognize cheep building practices. Since neither Connie nor I had any interest living in a cheaply built home it soon become apparent that we would have to build. So the next thing was to fins a piece of land.

Connie’s Mother had lived the last 40 some years in a house in Colorado with a nearly 360 degree magnificent view so we knew we would have to find a lot with a good view, or at least an interesting one. After looking at lots that were either not readily available, up too steep of a road for winter snow, too small, etc we found the lot on the shores of Sitka’s historic and beautiful Swan Lake.

When we fist looked at the lot it was apparent it would not be an easy lot to build on and it was also obvious that it was going to take “just the right house” to do the lot justice. Keep in mind other than an apartment over a garage a few doors down from us there had not been any new construction on the lake in around 20 to 25 years. Also keep in mind the lot was one of the last if not the last buildable lots on the lake. Being the crazy folks that we are and liking a challenge we made an offer on the property and the sellers accepted. So now we had to find the right design.

I can’t remember when I saw my 1st Pan Abode House, but it must have been well over 30 years ago when we lived in Seattle. I do remember that I was impressed with not only the design but the fact it was built from western red cedar. I also had recently been reintroduced to Pan Abode Homes while working at SJC because there as 9 Pan Abode buildings on the SJ campus. All of them were built in the lat 50’s or early 60’s and with little to no maintenance over the years they had held up very well. So it was obvious that we would look into a Pan Abode design.

When we went on line to check out Pan Abode we fell in love with many of their designs but could easily see that their Cutter style design would not only work well for our lot, but I had known for sometime if I was to ever build a house it would have to be a Post and Beam constructed home. We quickly ordered Pan Abode’s “Idea Book” and it arrived in the mail shortly before we left on vacation to Italy for a 3 week trip.

While on the flight to Europe I started making sketches of what we wanted and it soon become apparent that the Cutter design with some modifications would not only meet our needs but fit the rather skinny 75’ wide lot with the required 8’ setbacks from the side property lines.

Within a month from returning from Europe I mad a trip down to Seattle to meet with Pan Abode to figure out how we could modify the plans and build our home within a reasonable budget. I soon found it was a real pleasure working with Pan Abode and after a tour of their factory and meeting Tom in the main office and Pat at the factory I knew would HAD to build a Pan Abode. (And I’m glad we did!)

I’ll post more about the construction later but meanwhile here are a couple more photos.



I took these photos tonight becasue I think the house looks farily cool with all the lights on.