Beach House Pt 4: Defining the Lot

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For the past few notes, tres_arboles has been prattling on about the semi-chaotic intellectual process of dreaming a big dream and converting it into wood, stone, and hearth. Like most dreams, it seems mostly vivid while sleeping, but can be easily forgotten within moments of waking up. And the whole while we tried to clarify our vision for the house, there was the small matter of actually identifying the corners of our property.

In the beginning, we were show the lot and couldn't exactly discern where the lot lie. My realtor slash surfer buddy, showed us a patch of raw beach with mature vegetation and probably showed us the lot within 20 or 30 feet or so of each corner. To us precision did not matter. We could already envision a road, a driveway, a home, and a view.

Now, some smartypants reading this blog might be thinking to him or herself, "What kind of dumbshit buys a piece of land and doesn't know exactly what he's getting, up front?" Smirk. Well, I'll tell you who does...

A dumbshit who likes this:

And would be excited to build, a better looking, more sustainable and livable home than these:

And perceives the potential in a blank slate like this: 

The bottom line at the time was that buying raw land in this context was a no-brainer, no matter the precise location along this stretch of the Washington Coast. A few feet here or there were inconsequential. The dunes are dynamic and beautiful. The coastal vegetation is well established and worth preserving to the greatest extent possible. These lots, if thoughfully developed, will all provide an environment that is expansive yet embracing. And in the end, what exactly is the value of a Pacific Ocean view? No mere rhetorical question; such is one of tres_arboles' lifetime goals.

Not to mention the economics of the situation! We were shown a series of lots in different locations in this region of Washington, all of which priced in the very low five figures. This year, our tax assessment was in the early six figures. Five hundred percent growth in four years? You gotta be kidding me! To the credit of wife of tres_arboles, we sensed the area was on the come, and we snagged the lot we liked best and started filling the gaps in our dreams.

Of course the dream cannot begin to be fully lived until you know where you're going to sleep, so tres_arboles set out to define the lot once and for all. To locate the corners of the lot and identify the city right of way across which we would eventually access our lot, I hired Pat. Pat's a guy with a really high tech metal detector and load of really expensive German-made surveying gear. To complement the high tech gear, he keeps a van load of really sharp machetes and axes!

We set out on a typical January Saturday morning, with machetes and axes, and tied-tight rain gear, and tromped around the place looking for our prize:

I learned that when the raw land is originally platted, the corners of lots within the plat are marked with lengths of rebar simply pounded into the ground. I would have thought that as dynamic as the dune environment can be, these things would be easily lost in time, rusted to oblivion or buried by shifting sand. Sometimes they are. Hence Pat used one of the most simple-looking yet intense metal detectors I've ever seen: 

Using this yellow wand, we located all but one of the corners in less than an hour. But the fourth pin was a hidden bugger (see the fourth picture, above) that teased the shit out of us. We narrowed the search to a four square foot area. Not seeing a pin, we agreed the shifting sand must have buried it over time. In 35 mile per hour wind and sideways rain that hurt when it hit his face, tres_arboles pulled off his raingear and broke out a spade. The metal detector gave tres_arboles it's delighted chirp as I dug first two, then three, and eventually four feet into the sand and soil. My hole widened and I clambered in, digging by hand and uncovering several buried steel objects.... None of which were a piece of rebar.

My surveyor wasn't willing to miss an opportunity to break out his GPS and computer equipped Leica survey gear, and he began to shoot lines from the edge of the subdivision:

While Pat was justifying his fee, I was at wit's end trying to figure out why I was getting such a strong signal from the wand, but couldn't locate the pin. I was just about ready to tear off my carharts and run naked into the ocean, when in a fit of frustrated rage I bent 90 degrees and slammed my open palms and face into the ground. Picture a grown man screaming and forcefully making the "We're not worthy" pose from inside a four foot deep hole in the sand. With sand sticking to the my sweat drenched forehead, I opended my eyes, head on ground, and was staring right at the pin. As pictured above, it was just a few inches north of a small tree, perfectly disguised.

Having located the last corner, tres_arboles took the opportunity to shoot a few more digital pictures along the property lines.  Southwest to Northwest corner (front property line):

Northwest corner to Northeast corner (North side property line): 

Southeast corner straight west (South side property line):

The double track in the foreground is in the right-of-way on my side of the property line:  As depicted in the last shot, the weather broke during our last hour of work. The wind calmed to a light 10 knots, the rain stopped, and the sun shown. Pat and tres_arboles retired to a local cafe for a salmon salad sandwich and a cuppa. I was warmed inside and out, glowing with the knowledge that the idea of the beach house had now been converted into an authentic project.