D-I-Y Quality Construction

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on putting together a new blog called D-I-Y Quality Construction .  It's a collection of articles that I've put together to help home builders and designers learn about the building permit process.

The best way to use the website:

You will find there a series of checklists-- see the Table of Contents-- similar to what a building permit plan reviewer will use when reviewing house plans submitted for a proposed building project. Submitted plans should provide all of the applicable construction details and information described in the checklists. These checklists are actually written as plan corrections that a permit applicant might get from a building official in response to a permit application.

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Seattle - Bremerton - Ilahee State Park Bike Ride

It's starting to feel like the end of summer is near here in Seattle so on Thursday afternoon I left for a fast overnight bike ride to Illahee State Park north of Bremerton. I didn't leave home until a little after 1pm for the ride downtown to catch the Bremerton ferry. Assuming that there would be a ferry leaving at least every hour I hadn't check the ferry schedule ahead of time-- big mistake. The last ferry left downtown at 12:30 pm so I had to wait until 3pm for the next one-- rats foiled again.

A classic view of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle upon leaving the ferry dock.

Somehow this view from the ferry window looked almost tropical to me even though it's mid-September and in Puget Sound.

And here are all of the dirty bikers-- both motorized and pedal variety-- congregating to blast off of the ferry when it gets to the Bremerton ferry dock.

In the evening just before sunset I headed down to the dock to hang out for awhile. While I was there a fisherman on the dock caught a small shark and a boatload of drunks tied up long enough to go take a pee-- things were jumping at Illahee State Park.

So am I looking maybe a little grumpy here? I guess it's because I'd just gotten up. Anyhow it was a great place to camp and seemed a little expensive at $19. But I kind of brow-beat the ranger into letting me stay at one of the "fancy" table campsites for $12 which is the price for the hike-biker campsites. Right... you come in here on a bike or hiking and they give you a campsite with no table or fire ring for $12 instead of one of the "bigboy" sites with a table for $19.

On the ride from the state park back to Bremerton to catch the ferry I rode over the Port Washington Narrows Manette Bridge shown here. It's a pretty old bridge-- constructed using rivets which haven't been used for many decades.

So I made it home in one piece and ready to think about the bike trips I'll take next year.

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