New Construction:
In April 2019 we purchased the undeveloped lot.
I already had sketches of floor plans for the new house, so I began working in earnest on the plans. From the very beginning, our intention was to share this house with the public as a vacation rental, so I designed the house for that purpose. By March of 2020 the preliminary plans were done, the final working drawings were complete in June, and we got a building permit in July of 2020.
With financial help from my sisters Susan and Kim, our daughters Samantha and Farrah and personal savings we were able to pay for the construction. The final cost was considerably higher than originally projected due to increases in the cost of materials because of the pandemic.
There was one other “piece to the puzzle” that was also fitting it nicely. In 2008 we completed the construction of the Olympic Foothills Lodge near Port Angeles, WA. We began renting that house on VRBO in 2009. About 2 years ago, the office manager for my construction company, Felicia Johnson, took over the booking duties for the Lodge and because she does this job so well, she was our first choice to do the bookings for this new beach property.
With all the pieces in order, our initial plans were to start construction in April of 2021, but the Covid-19 Pandemic slowed down my construction business in Bellevue, so we moved up the starting date for the Beach House. We poured the foundation in September of 2020. The house was substantially complete early August 2021 after 11 months and 58 trips from Bellevue to the Beach. Alice and I stayed in a travel trailer we parked on the lot for 10 months during the construction each time we came down from Bellevue from September to July 2021.
We had an Open House for the family, Mom, sisters, daughters, and their families on August 7, 2021, to officially commemorate the completion of the Copalis Beach House.