Property Story:
We were able to pre-qualify for a small loan I think it was for 100K. (1997) Here in Seattle area it is difficult to find a house in that price range. Most of them started at 160K and went up from there.
We were pretty dejected after several months of looking, searching, and driving around with real estate folks. One evening over a Mexican dinner we found an FSBO AD in the little Nickel paper and called on it right away. The place was located in a little strip of land between cities historically known as Thrashers Corner. The price was 120K for a 3 bedroom mobile on a shy acre. After dinner we went to take a look. Driving past million dollar homes we turned a corner and entered an area commonly called a "utility corridor". The road turned to gravel, and then we were in the midst of the huge power lines and ground markers for a gas pipeline.
Hiding further down and around the corner to an unmarked road and a right turn at the 3rd fir tree on the right we found the long S'ss - serpentine curved driveway. The mobile home had been lived in hard since '69. At first glance you could see the extensive makeshift repairs, additions, and lots of wear and tear. The adult aged children of the owner were living there amongst the dozen roaming cats with a huge electric fenced dog pen in the back caging in 9 groveling, growling dogs. There was a good deal of "junk" strewn throughout the property and the landscaping hadn't seen a caring hand for many years. It was a massive Tangle in the Woods.
Hence we began calling it "The TangleWoods" .
On the plus side were the "trees", lots of huge beautiful Douglas Fir trees, Cedar trees, Pine trees, Holly trees, several varieties of Firs and Spruce and other unique trees. Huge ole Rhododendrons roamed the walkways from front to rear. Just lots and lots of plants & trees & shrubs. They were all in desperate need of care. But they were alive and we could feel the spirit of the grounds. It was a comfortable space, only it was yelling for some caretakers.
We thought that "for the price" we were getting Property, and seclusion, and proximity to our livelihood needs.
We thought that it would be easy to live there for a few years, save some money and then build a real house. Ooops, our pre-approved loan wouldn't cover an mobile home older than 1974. We eventually found only 1 source for a loan at 9 3/4% (normal loans of the day for "new construction" was running about 7 1/2% ), if we could swing the a high down payment. We couldn't, but worked out a second loan from the owner for $20K.
6/98 We soon became owners and caretakers of "The Tanglewoods" shy acre in Thrashers Corner of Bothell Washington.
Once
everything was said and done we still had to force the oldest son of the old
owner off the property and convince him to take the dogs.
We couldn't
sleep in the house the first few nights due to the cat smell and dung.
Pretty nasty, but it eventually cleaned up. Over the next few months we
had to enforce the contract to get them to remove many truckloads of garbage and
junk. At that, it didn't all get done, but we were able to force them to do most of
what they agreed to.
Now, our simple "live there a few years then build" idea is the reality and not just the idea. But, could we do it? When done, we want call it "Spiderhollow" instead of Tanglewoods. (Picture of happy owners.)
Welcome to the Spiderhollow
The name Spiderhollow came into being from
several analogies. In the beginning we called the place the TangleWoods -
because, well, it was.
Both Dulane and I were Internet Web developers and software instructors -
commonly referred to as Webmasters and Web Weavers. Our Internet environment and
the language of the world wide web shared many synonyms and terms. We both
worked at home most of the time on the World Wide Web and being a WebMaster was
the basis of my business.
The TangleWoods was also a real source of Spider species. There was about every
kind you could think of here - in abundance.
We soon started describing spots around the property by the type of spiders found there and soon we were referring to where we lived as Spiderhollow.
We were Internet Web Spiders and lived in a natural forested area with
uncountable spiders and webs We were a tangle of synonymous terminology. As we
carved out our "people place" and evicted the spiders around our living space it
started to be called Spiderhollow in earnest.
Today the living quarters are pretty much spider free. The spiders have not left, they just moved farther out to the perimeters where they continue to flourish and do a good job of keeping the other insect populations from attacking our sanctuary.
Spiderhollow, it is 2 legged Web Workers within & 8 legged predators on the outside. Either way it is Dee and Roy's Web of a World .
Back to previous page or Read how we made the dream of "Building" into a reality Building dream to reality Story
