Moving Carol’s House

Our friend Carol has been plotting for years to have a barge in Lake Union. I don’t know how else to describe her determination to make this happen, as there are very few actual live-aboard spots on the Lake, particularly, if what you want is one with a view. Her boat has been in construction for over a year. I am spotty on the many details. I know the hull was made in the Midwest and trucked here in two pieces. Most of the major work was done at the South Park marina on land. Sooner than they wanted, they had to lift it into the water as it was getting too heavy for the crane there. This meant much of the interior, for example, the drywall and cabinets, had to either taken down the long skinny dock or lifted over with the crane. The whole process would have made me a complete nervous nelly, helicopter mother, and probably an evil bitch that the contractors would loathe. Thus far, it appears to me that Carol’s kept her cool or no one’s talking.

So the day finally came when the construction was complete enough and the weather calm enough, that the boat could be towed to its permanent home. As I’m in “training” for Japan, I told Carol I’d follow it around on my bicycle and try to get some cool land-based shots, it and the Space Needle for example, because if all goes well, it will be years and years before it ever needs pulled out or moved from its slip.

It was towed approximately seventeen miles down the Duwamish Waterway, across busy Elliot Bay, around Magnolia, through the Ballard Locks and to its new home on the far side of Gasworks Park. This took about six hours and, depending on where I was on my bike, felt incredibly fast or painfully (and coldly) slow. I got very few shots of it in the Duwamish as it moved too fast, and then spent too much time up in Hamilton View Point, when perhaps I could have dashed around to get some shots from Myrtle Edwards Park—or not, as it disappeared around Magnolia quickly and I had to ride like hell to get to the Locks in time! Ah well! A crazy challenge indeed, with over forty miles of biking, and exactly the type of day I love to have out on my bicycle.

Carol came to our house last December to look through all the remodeling magazines we’ve been hoarding for ideas for our own home and to get ideas for hers. I have yet to convince Carol how awesome some of the nautical-themed touches I’ve dreamed up for her house would be, including a provocative bathrobe done like a sailor suit to give the tourist boats an eyeful. However, I do know that she’s planning on a Japanese soaking tub out on the deck (bathrobe would be handy, no?). I can’t wait to get home from Japan to try it out. What a lovely new home!