April Checks Out the Fireplace & Kitchen

The fireplace surround is a solid piece of carbon steel plate, showing natural "bluing" from the hot rolling process. A floating mantle (a piece of beam stained dark brown) will be hung on the wall just above the steel.

New Custom Home on Cayuse Lot 21 Nearly Complete

Bruce the Mason Rocks the Columns

Chimney, paint, flooring finish

Chimney almost done. Masonry by Bruce Deitmeyer of D&W Masonry in Moses Lake, with a big assist from former partner Richard Ward of Ward & Sons LLC, Vashon Island. Nice job fellas. Real stonework is a disappearing art.

Chimney

The mason has started the chimney. It'll take something like 10 tons of fieldstone, hand-picked from the property. Artifical stone was not an option. Just doesn't look like real rock. Kind of cool to think that chimney could be there for centuries.

Cayuse Sunrise

View from Lot 28. That splash of color you see on the shop? Yes indeed, that will be the color for the body of the house. Countless hours were spent finding just the right shade of rust red. Credit Josh @ Sherwin Williams (Moses Lake) for splitting that final hair and delivering the perfect color. You know it when you see it.

Hearth Stones

These are slices of basalt fieldstone from the back yard, which the mason cut & polished for the hearth. Nothing fancy, but nicely "organic" in the Craftsman tradition

Flooring

First major screw-up of the process. We had chosen engineered hardwood floors, and when they were partially down we knew we didn't like them, mostly because many of the pieces were very short and also because it was too dark. So we tore it out and switched to white oak - timeless, elegant, classy.

Vineyard Update

The vineyard is really flourishing. This is the fourth season, or "leaf," for most of the plants. Getting them established has not been as easy as in other parts of the state. Mid-winter cold snaps and late-spring frosts are the main challenges. But much of the vineyard is now where it should be, only 1 year later than best-case scenario. The cab franc on the slope is furthest along; ironic, because just 2 years ago I had almost given up on it and was thinking of pulling that area up. Now the cordons are established and canes up on the top wire and loaded with good-looking fruit clusters. Always too much to do this time of year: pruning back vigorous growth & suckers, tying canes to the wires, spraying for powdery mildew, mowing the aisles, and always weeds weeds weeds. It's been a relatively cool spring so far. A good long hot stretch would be perfect. I doon't know if I'll try to market any grapes this year. Probably could have a decent first crop of cab franc, but I might wait until I have the time to put the proper work into it, things like cluster pruning, canopy management, tweaking soil nutrients, etc.

Drywall In

The Greatroom

Drywall going on this week.

Spent two days going through the vineyard, tying the new shoots up on the stakes & wires, and pruning off the suckers that always come up from below ground. This year I have a tractor-mounted mower to mow the aisles, so weed control has been a whole lot easier. Also, the past two years we've concentracted on getting all the broadleaf weeds out of the vineyard before they flower, and I think it's really paid off. Relatively few broadleafs this year, just the good grasses which I only have to mow once or twice before they brown out for the summer. The only real weeding challenge left is right around the plants where you can't spray roundup. Some growers spray pre-emergent before the growing season, but I'm a little leery of that stuff. So, it's about two full doys of bending over and pulling weeds, until the back says no more.

Denny & Bryce

Roofing Going On

Pabco Premier Professional, which is a step up from the basic Pabco everyone uses. This is a 40-year, 290lb product, vs. the basic 30-year 240lb. I like the idea of having a little heavier weight, and also like the additional shadowing the thicker shingles provide. Color is Antique Black. We obsessed a bit over the color, just because the roof is such a large surface of the house. In the end, though, it's hard to go wrong with dark. I think it will look sharp.

Legislature Allocates Money for Grant County Skills Center in Moses Lake

One of the largest allocations in the legislature's Capital Projects Budget, signed by Gov. Gregoire this week, was $19.41 million for a new 43,000 square foot "skills center" facility to be located in Moses Lake. The center will offer high school students the opportunity to earn industry certifications in programs such as advanced construction, manufacturing technology, advanced culinary, dental hygiene, pre-health care, and robotics/engineering. The facility will be staffed with a combination of certified teachers and industry professionals. "This project has been one of the top priorities for Grant County, and Grant County's employers are looking for well-trained talent that these skills centers produce," said Sen. Janéa Holmquist Newbry, R-Moses Lake, who helped secure the funding. Construction on the project may begin as early as September, and the facility could be open by January 2014.

Windows are in. Walked through with the electrician to decide location of lighting, outlets, etc.

Moses Lake on Census Top 10 Growth List

Ryan Lancaster/Columbia Basin Herald

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 9:05 am

MOSES LAKE - The U.S. Census Bureau recently rated Moses Lake as one of the top growing micro areas in the U.S.

The city added 2,145 residents between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2011, placing it 10th among micro areas with the largest numeric increase, according to the Census Bureau.

The bureau defines a micro area as having between 10,000 to 50,000 residents. Moses Lake's current population is 20,366.

"The industrialization and the creation of a lot of new family-wage jobs here probably has a lot to do with that," said Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski. He cited the area's relatively inexpensive hydropower and available land. "We've been really aggressive in our industrial growth."

In order to attract even more of that growth, Gavinski said the city has focused on making sure it's infrastructure and public services are the best they can be.

"We've made sure our water and sewer systems are in good shape and capable of handling industry as best we can, and are also doing what we can in order to create a desirable way of life here in terms of quality of life - meaning parks, good streets, fire and police protection, that sort of thing," he said.

But the region's recent growth isn't confined to Moses Lake proper, according to Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Council.

Smith said Moses Lake's "micropolitan" area, which includes the whole of Grant County, has seen a big growth spurt since 2007, when data centers came in to Quincy and companies like REC Silicon and SGL/BMW Automotive Carbon Fibers expanded and built new facilities near Moses Lake.

New industries have brought new jobs and a resultant population increase, but Smith said they're also bringing more and more interest from other companies interested in expansion.

"When a company like Microsoft or Yahoo! does something it gets known not just throughout the region, but throughout the country and the world," he said. "That sort of puts us on the map as a focus for attention from a lot of industries looking at projects, looking at new places to grow. We're on their radar because they know where some of these significant business names have gone and so they're interested in investigating why."

That "why," as Gavinski noted, is tied to the region's reliable hydropower and attainable land, both of which are offered at prices Smith said are competitive not just in the U.S., but in the world market.

"The SGL/BMW carbon fiber facility is on 60 acres of land," he said. "If you can find a piece of land that size in another area, combined with the lower cost of electricity, the playing field of places that are available for that gets narrow really fast. That's kind of been our competitive advantage."

The SGL/BMW plant, which was completed last April near the Port of Moses Lake, is the joint venture of SGL Automotive Group and BMW, and produces a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic used in BMW's new line of lighter, more energy efficient electric cars, called the BMWi.

Company representatives were unavailable for comment Monday.

But at a September grand opening event, BMW's CEO Norbert Reithofer confirmed the decision to build the plant here was based primarily on the availability of clean, renewable hydropower and competitive energy costs.

"Making sure the new BMWi is produced using renewable energy throughout the manufacturing process is very important to the company," Reithofer said at the time. "We are thinking about sustainability not just tomorrow, but the day after."

Alongside clean, cheap energy, SGL officials credited the Moses Lake area for having favorable infrastructure conditions, speedy permitting processes and an ever-growing skilled labor force.

Smith said this last point is one the Moses Lake community still needs to work on if it's going to continue attracting new industries.

Before the first data center arrived in 2007, high tech companies simply didn't exist in the Columbia Basin, Smith explained.

"We weren't training people for that unique skill set locally because it wasn't here," he said. "Since that time those types of programs are being developed and work is being done to put those in place, but as we have new industrial growth something we need to be aware of, especially in the education community, is how do we continue to meet the needs of the new and growing industry in our area? That's something we're always working on and it's harder to do that in reverse."

The outlook for continued growth in the Moses Lake area seems all but predestined. Last year brought Pacific Coast Canola to Warden and the Vantage Data Center, Sabey and Dell to Quincy. The economic development council and other groups are currently working to bring a software testing company, a data center and two food processors to Grant County, Smith said. He added the council is also working with the Port of Moses Lake to attract aerospace firms to the county.

"There has been some interest," Smith said. "We continue to receive inquiries that come in from the Department of Commerce or directly from businesses by virtue of having heard about some of these other projects."

Along with Moses Lake's growth report, the U.S. Census Bureau also released a statement that the nation's fastest-growing metro area between 2010 and 2011 was the Tri-Cities area, including Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, which grew by about 4.3 percent from April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2011.

Central Washington's Franklin County, which includes Pasco, was meanwhile cited as the nation's fifth-fastest-growing county from 2010 to 2011. It grew an estimated 6.8 percent, according to the census bureau.

Meanwhile, the Vineyard

Spent three days this week doing final pruning.

As happens, one day you're walking through the vineyard and suddenly you're seeing buds beginning to burst.

I did a rough prune six weeks ago, just taking out the canes I knew I wouldn't be using. Then I waited until bud swell/burst to do the final prune. When you do that, the cane sends a hormonal message to all the un-burst buds, telling them to hold off for a week or two. Thus, "double-pruning" is a way you can buy some time against the possibility of a late frost. It's more labor intensive, but I think necessary in this micro-climate.

Next week, beginning the spray program for powdery mildew (sulfer, mostly).

The vines and buds all look great, by the way. The Cab Franc plants on the slope are in particularly good shape. Twas a perfect winter; no drastic cold snaps, but stayed cool all the way til March. Now if we can avoid that late frost, we'll be off to the races.

Things seem to be accelerating now. Plumbers were in the crawl space this week doing rough plumbing. (Whichever crew gets there first in the morning gets dibs on the music for the day. Nirvana's Greatest Hits - nice change of pace after a steady diet of Classic Rock. No offense Shane.)

HVAC guys dropped off their first materials; ducting, insulation, etc.

Windows are on their way and will go in next week.

Marked out the kitchen cabinet layout on the floor. Made some minor tweaks. The barstools at the island will be the center of the universe in the house.

Been challenged by the guest bath/powder room. It's not a large space, has two doors, and is oddly shaped. Getting the tub & toilet to co-exist gracefully is the problem.

Lighting & electrical outlet walk-thru next week.

Choosing metal roofing for exterior accents. I like the rusted metal look, but maybe too bold a choice.

And plenty more...

Progress Photos

Landscaping Spruce-Up

Did some spring clean-up in the entry landscaping. Picked up trash & tumbleweeds, trimmed off last-season's dead wood, sprayed for weeds, and put down a fresh blanket of dark mulch. When the leaves & flowers pop out in a few weeks it'll look sharp.

Front Entry

Tractor Tim

Alright, for everyone who's been asking for a photo of the tractor...

You Rock!

My friend and neighbor Denny came out with me to spend the day picking rocks for the chimney & columns. Denny & Jen own Lot 27 and are looking forward to building a home there. Here Denny surveys the view from his lot.

The mason says a ton of stone covers approx. 35 sq. ft, and we'll need around 20 ton total. I'd say Denny & I collected about half that.

There are several ancient rockslides lying exposed on the slope of the ridge. Over the centuries these gray fieldstones have acquired a dusty rose patina and a colorful smattering of lichens.

We were able to get the pickup fairly close to the rockslides. We had to pitch some of the higher rocks down the hill first. Sort of like bowling or bocci with 20 lb stones, congratulating each other on a particularly well-placed pitch or finding the perfectly-shaped stone.

We made it through the day with no herniated discs or smashed toes, and we left the hillside looking pretty much as it did before, having removed just a tiny fraction of the stones out there.

Thanks Denny. A good friend indeed, and a good day.

2nd Floor Views

If you build a 2-story home on a ridgefront lot, these are some of the views you get. The bottom photo is looking east, the middle looks south, the top (taken in the summer, obviously) looks west. The view is truly panoramic, stretching 50 miles to the Saddle Mountains in the south and 50 miles to the Stuart Range in the west. At your feet are alfalfa fields, the lake is across the road. Can't beat it, I don't think.