July 17, 2004

the kit arrives / disaster! / solution

Today the kit arrived - the whole glorious 19 feet of it! But that 19' wasn't sounding so glorious when, shortly before it was to be delivered, I discovered I had neglected to measure one of the dimensions involved in getting a stiff, 19-foot-long object out of the basement. My previous plan wasn't going to fly and now the kit was coming and I had no place to build it..... !

But i have options. 1, there's a window in the top of the basement that's large enough to "birth" a kayak. But the angles weren't quite right to slide it out (nineteen feet is REALLY long!). 2, we have a large, high-ceiling attic with a window. Rather not have to turn to this option... 3, friends who have garages???   ...and who are willing to have me coming and going at random, probably odd hours, making noise and spreading woodshavings and epoxy drool all over the place? hmm. 4. rent a storage unit and build it in there! Problem: most of these places don't like people doing *anything* but storing stuff in the storage units. Especially messy stuff which involves toxic, flammable materials (epoxy). Another problem (after I figured out not to immediately say I was planning to build a kayak in there): none of them tend to be long and skinny; to get 19' of length I was going to need one of the Huge units! Which tend to run, oh, about the same as I pay in rent every month! Scratch that idea. 5: build it outside -- an option that I'm not at all fond of, but it would be possible, with lots of tarps and plastic sheeting, etc. 6: that one dimension I failed to measure is largely restricted by a "guard rail" built in to the floor next to the hole which is the stairs leading down to the basement (see my virtual tour of our house). We could.... take out the guard rail! Um.... bad idea. Almost as bad an idea as taking apart the floor in that room (which is also the ceiling to the basement in this area).

New plan: I just have to find a place to get it built; abandon the idea of storing it at home (oh well). There are places I can store a kayak for $20-50/mo. I can deal with that. So, wherever it gets built, it only has to go in once, and come out once. Therefore, inconvenient, "one time only" measures may be taken into consideration! Such as..... (no, not taking out the floor) removing a section of the fence which separates our backyard from our neighbor's. Now the neighbor's house is right up against this fence; however, the extreme Seattle topology is such that their roof is ~4' above the ground level where the kayak will be coming out. We made preliminary measurements and think that this will be possible! Hooray! Relief. We got the long pieces of wood inside, off the wet ground at least - they are now halfway into the kitchen and wrapped in some bedsheets. Now, I need to ask the landlords if this fence thing is okay...

(by the way, credit for the winning fence idea goes to Michiko! Bob and Michiko were visiting Seattle this weekend, and they, with Andrew and Sarah, arrived for a visit to my house just as despair was setting in. Thanks to them, by the end of today I am feeling hopeful and excited about the kayak again.)

Posted by mel at July 17, 2004 09:34 PM
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?